south islands

i met some kids last week, we've now rented a car together for both a mode of transportation and a place to sleep. currently sitting in a hostel to pick up a friend in greymouth new zealands, on werds to the fox glacier i believe. internet times are short, so i can't write much

left is the new right

i just rented muh first carz ever. 5 of us are headin out to marahua, pickin up kayaks, headin up the coast of abel tasman, campin, headin up further, gettin picked up then drivin back. cars with a few people is cheaper than the buses. w00p mutha fuckin w00p

b00t suicide

shoe man said my boot was designed to fail, so, it is literally committing suicide. not sure how well ducttape will work either, its eating its soul. which is lames. currently in nelson with 4 other kids. we more or less got kicked out of the last hostel we were in, which, was a freakin good time. but, in was fate. there were 7 of us, a fridged pool, a hottub and lots of beer. im not sure why they have the pool open during the winter because they don't heat it at all. controlling your breathing while swimming in ice cubes (not really) is freakin difficult. we're sorting out our ventures to able tasman today i think, and also going to go eat things from the beach

wellingtons

sooooo, wellington is sweeeet. its on the water, nice harbor, houses and things on hills and good weather. if this is winter, than thats a freakin joke. its nice to be out of the center of the north island. spent a few nights in random towns on the interior and it pretty much sucked.

the hostel ive just been as was awesome. there were a lot of people, everyone was really friendly, and they were all motivated to hang out together. so, saturday night, i put on a tie (over regular clothes), put on some facepaint (why not?) and went out to the bars. i then got kicked out of the first bar ive ever been kicked out of by a very large and scary maori guy. im almost positive i got kicked out simply by association, i was not that drunk and calm (ive verified this for the sake of sanity). a few of the other kids were a bit insane and i think the bouncer just saw face paint and wanted those of us painted individuals to leaves.

fat cat

i really really really really just wanted to put this picture up. i got a new camera that i dont like and will sell as soon as possible when i get back to the states

camera suicide

i hitchhiked from whitianga to thames a few days ago, it was about 80km but took only 3 rides in total and made it fairly fast. it was nasty weather out. i met a kid at the hostel who was on his way out that day, but we got to talking and subsequently to drinking whiskey and further subsequently to getting up at 630am and hitchhiking on a sunday down to whangamata. my camera committed suicide somewhere in that process, it slightly works. very slightly. i might have to buy another one. whangamata is a pretty town on the coast. two people hitchhiking on a sunday usually would take a while, but we got picked up by a priest who tried to convince us to go to his sermon. we said no. we then got picked up by a maori pig hunter with scary prison tattoos. he was nice and drove us to town. the total distance was around 100km i imagine. sam, while hitchhiking previously, was picked up by a 70yearold woman and she invited him to stay at her house in whangamata for 5 days. we met up with her yesterday, halarious old woman. she showed me around and gave us a place to camp, which is a weird situation. we're staying at her friends house in the backyard without permission but its "okay". heather called her friend and left a message. so we drank whiskey last night in a random persons backyard that we've never met and ate curry rice made from my camp stove.

hot water beaches

sooo... last night we went to hot water beach and made hot tubs. the process is simple, first, freeze on the beach as it is winter currently and the south pacific is very cold. next, grab a shovel and dig. then, attempt to not burn your feet while building a wall of sand sufficient to keep out the cold demons of the ocean waves. finally, you can relax in a hot tub built for as many people helped on this adventure, on the beach, in the cold, with boiling water seeping out from the sands. good times :)

currently it is raining approximately horizontally. i just finished a game of monopoly with a few kids from the hostel, we shall be drinking wine shortly and perhaps eating crepes. im hoping to leave town tomorrow for a new one. whitianga is beautiful and fun, but there are to many other places to go. i was going to leave this morning, but the prospect of hitchhiking in hellish conditions didn't seem quite as enjoyable as reading a book on a comforatable couch

i would put up some pictures but im on a crappy expensive internetz connectionz at the moments, so no, that will not happen. but, went internet is cheap/free again, there will be more of pictures

i ate a kiwi this morning

it was a golden kiwi, i didn't know they existeds. it tasted like a cross between your typical green on the inside type kiwi, but with a pearish initial taste and skinz like a pear.

was in sydney for a few days a few days ago. it was fun, but don't feel much of a need to go back except for the food, which was very good. bit much of a city for vacation. i stayed in kings cross and got offered sex by strangers on the street many times and had drunken/druggeded people throwing their shit all over my shit every night. perhaps it was just the location of the hostel

im currently at the lantana hostel in auckland. auckland is awesome. ive been more or less aimlessly wanderingz around and having an actual vacation: eat, sleep, walk, read. besides attempting to get lost while walking, i haven't done much else other than hang out with the kids at the hostel. tomorrow morning i head off to coromandel penisula, which should provide much easier access to hikes/trails. i wanted to get out to rangitoto island, but its closed until the middle of augusts.

i hiked to the top of mt eden yesterday, its an old dormant volcano within auckland. the lightz made it difficult to get a good picture of the crater + the city, but heres a picture aimed a bit west of downtown: