Christmas comes early this year

I've had quite an adventurous couple of days here so far, a bunch of small events been going on keeping me occupied.

One of which was my little hike to the local lighthouse, which was just amazing! Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me on this one (and I don't plan to make the same mistake twice mind you) and so this is how it all started:

I was sitting in my room studying, when all of a sudden I was greeted by getting a new room mate called Helen from Germany (she was here for 3 weeks visiting her sister and brother in law who were also at the camp) and after the formalities, we all went to bed because it was pretty late. In the middle of the night, I wake up to a loud howling, I couldn't really figure out which direction it was coming from, but I thought it was the heater that we had our room which Helen had put on. I decided it was the heater that was running and thought nothing more of it. Upon waking up in the morning, I hear the same howling, but this time at a different and varying pitch, and that's when I realized that it was the heater, I get out of my sleeping bag and look outside and almost had to change my undies. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but we were basically in a small storm. I haven't seen rain like this for quite some time, it was just crazy! Winds which were just totally out of control, and the first thing I thought about were the people that were on their way out to do some diving at the Poor Knights, and wondering if Helen would be able to cope (she was on a trip prior to her arrival at Tuts where she got sick). Anyway, I go and eat some breaky, and thought it would be a good opportunity to do some studying, and return to my dorm after doing my dishes.

After hanging out for a while, I see Helen come out from behind the curtains covering her side of the room, and realize that she had been lying there the whole morning. Obviously, Dive! Tuts canceled the diving for the day because of 40knot winds and 3-4 meter out at sea. She goes out and gets some breakfast, and when she returns we start playing some card games. This goes on for the next couple of hours, and by the time it was around 15ish, she comes up with a great idea that we go on a walk, because we had been stuck in doors the whole time and the storm had calmed down a lot as well. I recommended that we try to get to the lighthouse off the coast, because I thought it offer a good view from there. So, we both get out stuff together and head out towards the lighthouse. This walk would of have taken us about 1hr 30min, starting from the trail head, and the walk to the trail head took about 15min, so a total of around 1hr 45min. Sweet as, no problem. Once we get the trail head and start making out way towards the water crossing (the lighthouse is on its own separate island), I begin to think about the tides, when they come in and go out, but decide not to mention it to Helen because I was afraid she would chicken out and we would have to turn around.

We finally get to the water crossing after walking down some pretty steep steps, and I judged that it was going to be too much of a trouble. There was water covering the crossing, and could easily discern where the water was shallow, and where it wasn't. There was one part that was a bit of a concern, because I could tell the water wasn't breaking over it, so I concluded that it was a deep area. I guesstimated it was about calf deep, and once I got to it, I decided it was best if I just took off my shorts, and cross in my boxers. Helen thought this was pretty amusing obviously. A crazy sweet in red boxer shorts, holding a pair of shoes in one hand, the his sweater up with the other. And then I jump in and realize it was WAIST deep! Awesome! Helen kept her pants on and crossed over without any real problems (I did have to convince her it was worth it though - while in my boxer shorts). When we started making our way up the hill, the rain had stopped, and it felt like were in the rain forest or something, I swear! It was just incredible how it shifted from beach to tropical rain forest over a distance of 3 meters! (going to get photos of it). Once we got up to the top of the hill, we could see the Poor Knights Islands which was pretty cool. However, this particular day, it was f*ckin' awesome! Why? Because, the second we got up there, the clouds parted over one area, so the sun light ONLY hit the islands, which have light cliffs faces, and were just lit up! So with the Knights lit up like that against a gray background, the view was just stunning! We were up there for maybe 20 minutes just soaking it all up, and when we decided to turn around, the clouds covered up the sun again to hide the Knights. Was that sign maybe? Who knows?

While we were walking back down to the crossing, I was thinking about which tide was active, and if so, how quickly it went. As expected, it was the high tide that was coming in, yay. I could tell the water had come up a bit, and decided that I should cross first, this time fully clothed, and with my shoes on to increase my grip and free my hands. When I got it, it was chest high! I got pretty wet. For some strange reason, Helen took off her pants to see what I went through, and crossed over with only that. Interesting. No problems with that either.

When we back on the road, the sun was setting, and Oh-My-A-Godah! The lighting was absolutely incredible! The sun was low and behind the hills, giving the hills a red orange outline, like it was burning on the other side of them. Then the clouds were kind of low, so it looked like there was small gap between the hills and the clouds, giving it a really wicked background. Also, clouds were rolling up over the hills, and flying upwards, dissipating into the air like it was smoke. Surreal man, surreal.

Now you know why I don't plan on leaving my camera behind again, eh?

When we got back to the camp, I started talking to Helen's brother in law, JP, who was a pastor. One of the coolest looking pastors ever! It was like a shorter, chubbier version of Fred Durst (meant as a compliment in every way!) who's really into snow boarding, and living an alternative life style. And he was so calm, so chill, really cool guy! We talked about everything: life, philosophy, religion, his job, his vacation, my trip here, everything, it was excellent!

So, after they did their diving during the day, we hung out in the kitchen during the night, and played some poker using macaroni as chips, and he tells me that he and the girls have gotten me a Christmas present. How cool isn't that, eh?!

They were leaving the next day, and I got it in the morning when they were leaving, which was really kind of them. They gave me their email and told me to contact them if I'm ever in Japan (yeah, forgot about that, their going to Japan to start sort of youth program) or Germany. Wicked man!

Those are the main activi - No, I forgot something else aswell! Haha! Cam, another DMT (Dive Master Trainee) took me out to hunt muscles. It was totally off the hook! We went to a surf beach, and the waves were pretty good that day, which spiced things up a bit. So we snorkled out to where we told we could find them, and it was intense man! When the wave was pulling back, I was standing on hundreds of them, waist deep. And that's when I tried going for them, which was harder than I thought. You have to use your best kung-fu grip on them to get any of them, and time in the waves, which was part of the trick. I got a hold of maybe 10, and Cam got about 30 after going at for about 20 minutes. He prepared them, and they are an acquired taste mind you. But good with some garlic and butter.

Man, my hands are tired now, ok, last 'story'.

I had a day at the swimming pool today for my DM course, it was to teach us how to teach others skills in the water. Basically, how to mime things out. Funny as hell. After going through all that, we had a stress test. This stress test was pretty crazy, he was what we had to do. Cam and I had to switch over gear, under water while buddy breathing (buddy breathing is when you share one regulator between the two of you). No problem, or so I thought. I knew that my instructor would be doing something to us under the water, but I didn't know what. The test begins (our plan was to switch over mask, BCD, and then fins): all hell breaks lose, the instructor is removing our gear, unclipping our BCDs, turning off the air, ripping off our masks, everything she could think of to make it harder on us, she did it. Ended up with me "cheating" twice by using my reserve regulator to breath (I challenged her call on this one by say it was resourceful, and that I was solving my problem the way I was taught). Oh, I also got really pissed at her, so I gave her a really hard push so she would bugger off for at least a second for me to fix my gear. It was all good fun! I passed all the tests that day, so it was all good.

Aight guys, I've written all I can write now, here are some photos, enjoy!

Swimmers Digest

The week so far has gone super fast, and it's been just absolutely great! What can I say? I guess McDonalds got it right: "I'm loving it!"

Two days after diving I had some problems with my ears when I was coming back to the surface, it was as if I couldn't equalize up on the surface. Extreme pressure was on my right ear especially, which was super painful, and discomforting. And after a brief visit to the doctor, she told me that it was some water that was trapped behind my ear drum that was causing the problems. I've been given some medication that should take care of the problem, hopefully it will. But we'll see about that. So yesterday I was on board one of the boats helping out instead, and that was a lot of fun. Just helping a bunch of new kids with their gear, and then helping out on board the ship like changing the gas cans and what not. Did some sea kayaking too which was a, as everything else here, really chill. And after doing that for maybe 20 minutes, I was sweating through my t-shirt and thought it would feel great if I got in the water to cool down (it's about 17 degrees Celcius). I jump in without getting my head wet, and while I was in the water, Michelle, my DM instructor thought it would be a good chance for me to do one of the tests, and me being the dumb ass I am, I said, sure, why not!

The test was to thread water for 15mins, no problem I thought. I start, and then I realize I'm treading in salt water! Haha! Super easy man, no problem! That meant I could easily switch between my arms and legs and not get tired for a really long time! However, the only problem was that the water was only 17 degrees. Why is that bad? Because water is 21x as conductive as air (translates to you'll get colder in water 21x as fast than if you were in the open air), my plan was then to thread with both arms and legs to get my heat up, but at a very calm pace. After 12 minutes, Michelle decides to spice it up a bit by giving me two 1KG lead weights for me to hold on to. Yay. To spice it up even more, she tells me that I had to hold the lead weights above me head with my elbows not allowed to go underwater. That was tough. The first minutes felt like it had been 5 minutes, and then I ask how much time is left, while my head was bobbing up and down, gasping for air (trying to time my exhales and inhales) I hear the worst answer ever: "Uh...about 1 or 2 minutes?" I replied: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 1 OR 2 MINUTES?! MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!" She decides to give me 1 more minute, and I saw Ben another instructor close by and ask him to come by my side to grab me because I was about to collapse. Michelle begins to count down 15 seconds....10 seconds....5 seconds....3 and half seconds....DONE! I turn to Ben and drop my hands under the water, tread towards him and give him my weights, swim to boat, jump up onto the back and look like a dying seal on the back deck. But I did it, which was really good. And it felt good having done it on the spot. That was my near drowning experience for the week.

Oh, and I almost crashed into another car while driving over here! That was the 2nd most terrifying close encounter I've had while in a car. So I come around a corner, and then I see two cars in both lanes - both coming towards me! This winding road is a 100km/hr road (in Sweden it would of been a 50 road) so every car is going fast. Anyway, I come around the corner, see the cars, sh*t a brick, and slam on the brakes. I don't lock the brakes, but I gave it a nice hard push, start honking, and mentally start preparing my self for the impact and everything that would eventually follow. The car that was in the proper lane, slowed down too, and allowed the car doing the over taking to squeeze in a bit faster so disaster was avoided. And man, I was panting for dear life after that one. I was really pissed at the driver wondering what the hell she was thinking (yes it was a woman...no comment) and started to think that she was just a complete nutter. And while I was driving down a road, I almost put myself into a similar situation. It was a straight road, the car infront of me was doing 75 on a 100 road, so that was a bit annoying. I pop TM into 3rd gear, and start to accellerate, and then I start to over take the car. I know that there was turn up a head, which I had planned for, and I was expecting a car to come out of it how I would react to it. Bam! A car comes out, but I had planned it all pretty well, so there was nothing to worry about but I was thinking what would of have happened if I waited only 1 more second, then there would of have been a serious accident. Point of this story: If you're driving a '92 Toyota Corrolla with a butt load of miles on it, don't expect to be able to do any good over takings on a two laned road. I've learnt my lesson, I'm not going to do unless I can see for a very a long way a head.

Sweet as guys!

What else is new? Oh yeah, met a really cool girl from Kuwait who is doing a fellowship where she's given a bunch of money to travel the world for a year while doing some research. So she's bene traveling for quite a bit, swimming with sharks all over the world (her research was how different cultures view sharks, or something like that). I taught her some good card games that would help her along her travels (breaking the ice and what not), hopefully they'll be as useful for her as they have been for me.

Aight guys, that's it for now, and yeah, don't use the following ingrediants at the same time: garlic, onions, red bell pepper, carrot, beans in tomato sauce, and fresh tortillini. Most revolting things I've ever concocked. Ewwwwww!!!

Here are some pics your way!

Report from Whangarei

Hey guys! So much has happened since I last posted. I've met a bunch of people, and I'm now a qualified PADI Rescue Diver! Sweet!

I don't even know where to begin! Okay, how about my drive up here to start with.

Before I left Auckland, I got my backpack returned to me, fully repaired (excellent!) along with a nice 40L duffle bag as compensation for my troubles. When I left the drive way of my host there was a slight drizzle going on, and it just kept raining on and off for the next couple of hours, and got heavier too. But when I started getting closer to Tutukaka, and driving through the most winding roads ever (I felt like a rally driver in TM). And before I was at the apex of the hill over looking Tutukaka, it stops raining, and my eyes are met with one of the greatest views ever man! Seriously, you see a bit of the bay and all the surroundings, and wow, it was just heart warming guys, seriously. You have to come and check this place out!

The second I got down the harbour, I started to look for the dive shop and found it in a jiffy. Went in, introduced myself, and got everything sorted. Next stop: to find where I was going to crash. Found it without any bigger problems, and I was greeted by another diver who I was going to share the dorm with. He's a Kiwi who's pretty laid back (like all the other Kiwi's down here). After having settled in and took a small hike around the area, I thought it was time for some food. I ended up going to the most expensive place here! So for a 100 SEK, I got a steak burger (like a normal burger, but a real steak instead) and a beer. Not worth it in the long run to tell you the truth.

The next day I got to go and do some diving to get my dives up, which was a lot of fun. The visibility wasn't the greatest, but it was nice either which way. We entered Rico cave aswell, which is the world's largest bubble cave (with amazing acoustics, apparently there have been concerts in there!)

Anyway, there was a woman there who was also in my dorm whom I had been sharing the dorm with, and she had a small panic attack, and I talked to her later on the boat to see what happened. Anyway, she thought that I was so nice, and that I reminded her of her son, so she gave me 20 NZD (about 100 SEK). Weirdest thing!

The next couple of days I got started my Rescue Diver course, which I finished today. The course was pretty tough I must admit, but a lot of fun! Like how to handle people who are panicing under water, above water, how to retrieve unconscious divers underwater, and a bunch of other skills.

Also during those couple of days I got to meet a really nice couple who treated me to dinner! It was awesome! I got to taste some NZ crayfish (looks like a lobster just minus the pinchers). It`s an aquired taste, but I`m sure I can get used to it :D They gave me their phone number and told me to call them when I was done with my Dive Master course. I`m pretty sure I will, they were really cool, and really nice.

Today is my day off, and tomorrow I`m going to start with my Dive Master course. Really excited!

I don`t really know what to write guys, there`s a lot happening, but things that you have to be here to fully understand and appreciate.

Oh yeah, and Tutukaka in itself is a bloody ghost town at night. There`s nothing here but tourists. All the locals live in surrounds bays, so the only people I get to hang out with are people at the camp or at the local pub (too expensive). And most people are only here for a day or two only, so it kind of feels like my life at high speed. What I mean by that is that I meet all these great people, and then they have to leave! I expected that, but still, a bit tough (don`t worry dad, I`ll manage!)

But here are some more photos and words/phrases that I`ve learned down here:

Words & Phrases
dear - to be expsenive (Fruits and veggies are pretty dear)
sweet as - cool (you caught that, sweet as!)
dairy - convience store (you can buy some milk at the dairy, but it`s a bit dear)
done as a dogs dinner - all sorted or all done

Photos

Beautiful Days...

The past two days have been absolutely amazing to say the least. Nothing spectacular has happened, it's just that they've been so chill.

Yesterday, we went to a beach pretty far off called Muriwai Bay which was just amazing. The beach is probably the longest one I've ever been on, and it was really wide too. Black sand, making it nice and toasty to walk on, and then a nice wind to keep you a bit cool, and the water was ice cold. Sure there were people bathing, but the viking inside me was on holiday (lying on the beach) and couldn't be bothered to take a dip.

It had a cliff which had excellent vistas, where you could see the local bird life and they would just soar right in front of you, giving you some excellent photo oppurtunities.

This is one of the views availalbe...horrible, I know.

On our way home we stopped for some fresh fruit ice cream. All it is is some vanilla ice cream with fresh berries mixed into it, super delicious!

Towards the evening, I was invited to a BBQ by a fellow CouchSurfer that I've gotten to know, Greg, which was on the other side of town. Three of us jumped into The Miracle (I think I'll call it TM from now on) and we hauled ass to a new adventure. Upon arrival we were greeted by a bunch of friendly Kiwi's heating up the BBQ, getting ready for some serious grilling, which got my heart racing! As some of you may remember, I've gotten a large appreciatation for food recently. There was a sallad, grilled sweet potatoe, and a bunch of meat! It was great night, took some amazing photos using Gregs D40, involving me and him along with assistance from my Nokia Flashlight. Going to try to post those later on, need to get a hold of them first. During the night, I collapsed on the couch (read: power nap) while Greg was playing a guitar, that he had gotten a hold of, the entire night. It was perfect. Ends up with us leaving at around 03.00 in the morning and going to bed at around 04.30

Following day (we woke up between 11 and 12), we, the same people that went to the party the other night, got to a beach close by to enjoy the sun a bit more and have a small picnick at the same time. After doing so old skool cruising in TM, we found a parking space, and bought ourselves some burgers from a big burger chain here in NZ that would put McDonalds, BK, and even MAX to shame: Burger Fuel!


Visa större karta

Their burgers were just amazing, what can I say, a bit dear (Kiwi English for expensive) I must admit, but well worth it!
Here's Jen and Greg, my current partners in crime.

And here's Greg after our burgers from Burger Fuel

To the right of Greg's knee, you can see an active volcanoe (Rangitito) in the middle of Auckland's harbour that can be reached by a ferry.

On our way back, I took a wrong turn and ended up driving down town, and coincidently ended up where I bought my car, where coincidently my favourite bakery was located: Dunkin' Donuts! Oh, yeah...sweet memories of that :)

Ok guys, it's pretty late for me now, I'm going to crash, talk to you later! Have good one, and don't forget to write!

Update...from Auckland this time!

Hi all, as some of you know, I'm finally in Auckland, and everything hasn't exactly being going as smoothly as I thought it would of. Let me start from the beginning.

Auckland International Airport
I land 30 minutes ealier than expected due to tail winds, which was pretty sweet, give me 30 more minutes to enjoy NZ. But as usual, every country has borders that need to be crossed, so that was the first obstacle. No sweat, I've done it all before. I get to where the ques start, and I almost faint. Usually there's only 1 plane worth of people standing in line. This was about 3 fully packed, jumbo jets worth of people. And I was in the back. Yay. So after about 20 minutes of standing in line, walking past the same people God knows how many times, it was like deja vu to the extreme (esp. when you're tired and horribly jet lagged). And the moment of truth, I get to talk to the Customs Officer. As I said before, I've done all this before, so I'm just polite, and straight forward with answering his questions, and when I mentioned that I was going to be here with a Working Holiday Visa, he starts looking around, asking his collegues what protocols to bipass and follow in order to let me in. He finally calls after another officer to come and pick me up from his station, something that got my heart racing straight away (I know I have nothing to hide, but I was still worried). After having walked about 5 m, the officer tells me to go and pick up my luggage, and meet him in one of the corners. Follow his instructions by going to the conveyer belt where my bag should arrive, and I wait for about 10-15min. No bag. I crap my pants. I then inform the officer about my problem, and just tell me to wait.

After a couple of minutes waiting for the customs to clear my papers, I start trudging towards the baggage service station, where I make a report and ask them to search for my bag, to see if they could find it somewhere. The system turns out blank, no results. I begin to weep inside, seriously. So, I do what every sensible person does, sucks it up and keeps on moving. I then clear all the other security check points and start looking for my ride. I can't find her. I thought that maybe she had waited a really long time and just left. I start thinking about Plan B, which is getting into Auckland and finding my hostesses. Instead I turn around and scan the room, looking for my ride. After 1 minutes searching I find her and we start our socialising process. It all went really smoothly! She was really cool! Really helpful and starts rambling on all these facts about NZ which really caught me off guard. Like what exactly? Well, in her opinion, she sees NZ being about 20years behind England in certain areas (mainly IT) which is something that I have to agree with. Maybe 10 years behind at least. Anyway, we have lunch, and she's a dear and hooked me up with a SIM card for my phone (which was loaded with cash too). Great gal through and through!

After all that was sorted, she took me to where I was going to crash for the remainder of me time in Auckland before I head up north. And when we pulled into the drive way, I check out to make sure that someone is in to recieve me, and when Tamz opens the door, the first things, quite literally, asks if I want a glass of wine. First reaction: cool chick! I say good-bye to Trudy, my ride (don't know if I mentioned her name before) and then go inside to mingle with one of my two hostesses. Without a lot of hesitation, I take a glass of wine with her, which is quite a big mistake. Why? Because I almost collapsed on her keyboard to her computer. End result: me being woken up by the my other hostess and then being put to bed with some nice home made garlic bread.

The next couple of days were pretty much one way. Getting a car. But along the way I walked past an attraction that Jimmay's boss recommended to me, indirectly. What am I referring to? The White House. Apparently one of the best strip clubs on the southern hemisphere (don't worry dad, I haven't verified it...yet :P)

After a bunch of thinking and consulting, I decided to buy a white '92 Toyota Corolla. It's pretty decent, it didn't have a lot of problems with it, but it's going to take me from point A to point B...and hopefully C, D, and E. But we'll see about that in a while. Sadly I had to buy new tires for the car, however it has it's perks. I won't have to worry about them poppping in the middle of no where and also I didn't get a locking nut for the rims, so they got rid of them and fixed the wheels for a pretty decent price.

To add some more good news to this, i) It was sunny today, and ii) I found Dunkin' Doughnuts today. My day was completed. AND, drum roll please - my luggage has been found! Schweet! So I should be getting it in about two days, so I'm pretty stoked now. The pieces are falling into place. However, pieces can look like they're in place, yet they're a bit off center.

Also, the passenger buckle doesn't really work, so another couch surfer that's here has sacrificed one of his caribeaners for it, so now it's a seriously hardcore improvisation for keeping the passenger from flying out the front window. I have faith in it. Photo's of it will come up.

Aight guys, I'm pretty tired now, but here are some photos for you guys to enjoy. Cheers!

Hong Kong Airport
The White House

The Miracle

The Previous Mileage

Hong Kong Boredom...

Yup, only I could get bored in Hong Kong, right? Wrong. I'm at the airport, and I've been here for...hold on...approximately 5 hours so far, and well, damn, my ass hurts. I've been sitting in the same spot for quite some time trying to recharge my iPod. I finally got it charged, and what not, but i fell asleep a couple of times while doing it. Not very good, I know, but what can you do, right?

The plan right now is trying to stay awake, and then crash when I get on the plane to Auckland. I think that way I'll be a little bit more adjusted to the time difference (aka. jet lag). However, that's just a theory, and in about...20 hours we'll see if it really holds water or not. OMG, 20 more hours until I'm finally at my destination: Auckland. One thing that I realized I forgot now is that I don't have a bank statement for the customs/border control. I do however have my little dongle to confirm my statements if they really need/want me to. So basically with my luck, they'll be pulling out the rubber gloves (minus the lube) and be more than happy to give me a full cavity search because on this one particular day, with my camo cap, baggy pants, and trimmed goat tee, the guards see me as a fashion threat to the greater good of New Zealand...or something like that. Wow, I am tired. Anyway, here's part of my plan while waiting to get on my NZ flight, and avoiding attracting suspicion to me (too late for that I think, but no Chinese guards have started to harrass me yet [break some wood/wind] so I think I'm in the clear so far). I'm also going to try to eat something. I could be a good idea to make sure I don't go totally insane, because so far I've been munching down the corn nuts that Maggie got me as a going away present. Very much appreciated I must admit!

Aight, I'm going to bounce now, and try to figure out the exchange rate, and then get some grub. L8ers!

The Almost Departed

Wow! All I can say is wow!

I had a going away party last night and it was absolutely fantastic! The amount of people that turned up was just way beyond belief, everybody was having a great time, it was spectacular! All in all we were 33 people! I've never held party that big, and it turned out exactly the way I had hoped. Well, almost to tell you the truth. I did get pretty drunk, but I kept it real cool. However Jimmy, my partner in crime, didn't do all to great. Sadly. He got pretty trashed and started to throw up everywhere. And another girl started to vomit, but ce'la vi, right?

I'm currently hung over a tiny tiny bit, but it's all good! I just need to clean up and pack up where we partied, and eat some breakfast. Pretty vital that I do that before I do anything else, yeah?

Aight, but I need to get started with the packing/cleaning up, so I'll do that now, and try to post up some photos from the party!

*POOF* - slowly trudges away from keyboard

PS - Much love to Jimmy & Ruffus (aka. Sebbe, aka. Darling) for helping me out with setting up the party room and helping me move my computer too!

Where would I be?

I've moved out of my apartment now, finally. It was a lengthy stressful experience. I have to give a lot of thanks to DJ CBC, Pops, and Jimmay for the all the support that they provided. Especially Pops for helping me and putting up with my crap, and allowing me to put my stuff in his storage unit. Thanks again guys!

Feels weird now that I'm homeless. I know that I'm not really homeless. I can always crash at my friends/family until I find something of my own, but still, very weird. And also being unemployed by choice. What do I mean by that you ask? Well, I resigned from my job willingly. I didn't get fired, I resigned. My job there wasn't at all bad, it had it's down sides, but every job does, that's why it's called a job. If there were bad sides to a job, then it would be called super-happy-time-event, or something like that :P But it felt like I had graduated again when I left there. I had the biggest smile on my face when I had walked through the door, I was super all the way home again. My collegues got me some flowers, two cakes, a nice card that they had all signed and laminated (a picture from Google Earth), and some New Zealand Dollars (NZD) for when I arrive. Very nice of them!

I can't believe it, it's only 5 days left until I leave! OMG! And I've also got a place to crash the first couple of nights, which is great. I'm going to be sleeping on someone's couch/bed that they've announced on the internet about (check out the Couch Surfers link for more info), so that's going to be a new experience. I'm sure it'll go smoothly. Usually does.

Oh, and speaking of sleeping! Uh...no wait, I meant, uh...nevermind, just check this out:
Visa större karta

This is a satellite photo of Tutukaka. This is where I'm going to be the first two months, isn't it beautiful?! It's small village, it's perfect! From the birds eye view at least. But it'll be a nice change from the whole big city life style. This place looks like I can really kick my feet up and just relax. The surrounding country side looks very hiker friendly which is even better for me. I'm sure I'll be a bit restless at times, so it'll be good for me to walk around a bit. Awe, I can hardly wait! I think I'll be crying a bit at times becuase everything is so amazing down there. We'll see though, now won't we.

Anyway, I've got to find some breakfast (Jimmay is pretty bad when it comes to having food at home.) So toodles, and until next time!