Not dead just yet...

Hey guys, how you doing? All good I hope. I know it's been a while, but I've been up to quite a bit as you can imagine.

First off my mom and sister were here (as I've mentioned several times) which was great. We did a lot of things together, which got me exhausted really fast, since I wasn't used to that pace any more. That meaning I was so used to just hanging out at the hostel, maybe going to the beach, eating ice cream and what not. But then they came, and the pace became a lot more intense. We did several activities in Paihia which I've never done before, like: Dolphin cruises, day sailing, and eating-out-at-expensive-restaurants-while-dressed-like-a-beach-bum. The best was probably doing the day sailing because it was just so cruisey (no pun intended). We also headed up to Cape Reinga, and mom and the Troll had spent a day on a small island in the bay (Roberton Island) while I went on one final dive with Cam, which was just AMAZING!!! Caught another crey, which we ate that same day, which was also pretty yummy :D


We then headed down to Thames to meet up with Ms. D and do some small activities down there. Well, it ended up being a waste of time. Ms. D was there, and that was great, but there's not a whole to do in Thames, so the next day we drove to Hahei over the mountains, which was pretty much suicide for TM, but she made it through it. This is with all my stuff, my Fam's and Ms. D's gear. I was pretty impressed! Once we get to Hahei, we start looking for a place to stay, and we find a pretty nice place quickly, which was decently priced too. Get settled in and start figuring out what to do next. Well, Hahei didn't have a whole lot to offer either. We took a stroll along the beach which was near by to take some photos and so Rebecka could play in the water for a bit.

After Hahei, we start making our way to Rotorua after having dropped off Ms. D at Turonga so she could climb a Mt. Monganui. But ended up with her arriving to Rotorua the same day because some butt hole was going through her stuff when she got back from her hike. But Rotorua was a bit more exciting. We did the Zorb that I told you guys about! It was fun, but not worth the money you have to pay for it. Mom found an Asian Supermarket and bought some long sought after black noodles that she loves! So we had Asian night at our hostel (X-Base, which was crap, don't go there!). On the 2nd day, we went to the Tamaki Maori Village show, which was pretty fun. But the best part of the whole evening was probably the bus ride there and back. Our driver was called Tata, and he was just hilarious! He got the whole bus involved when were driving there. So, he got us to pretend we were in a waka (Maori canoe), and he was leading us, and we had to scream 'Hi!' after everything he said. He got us to sing songs from our nations. We drove in a round about several times while singing "She'll be coming around the mountain". And then we got to the round about by the police station, so he says "Okay, my cousies are working in there, so we have to do this quietly", so we sing softly the same song while in the round about. Man, there's so much more! He taught us how to say McDonald's in Maori, and wow, I really recommend it! Just for the bus ride alone it was worth it! Also, while we were driving we chose a Chief to represent us when we enter the village, and you can see in the photo how the chiefs are all lined up, and how they are challenged by the village warriors. And interestingly enough, Maori is the only culture where aggression is used to welcome a new tribe or challenge their peace. When they were done with that show, they let us walk through a Maori village, and gave us a show of a Haka. All of which was pretty impressive. I tried to get some good shots, but they were too far away.

After the show, they had prepared a bunch of food in a Hangi (Maori way of cooking food in the ground). It was an excellent feed!

We then had, as I mentioned, a very entertaining ride back home :D

The next morning, we all (Fam, Ms D and I) head out to the Luge. It's basically a small motor free go cart which has a small brake on it. It was a lot of fun, and damn is Ms. D good at it! I tried to beat her, but nope, no go at all, she's disturbingly fast in one of those!

At the end of that, it was time for my mom and sis to get on the bus to Auckland. Now I had volunteered to drive them to there, but my mom insisted that they take a bus, and hang out in Auckland for the remainder of the time while Ms. D and I head southwards. After saying good bye to them (which was awkward now that I think about it, they're on the other side of the globe now!) Ms. D and I sit in the car and start figuring out how to take ourselves south. We decided to stop at Waiotapu thermal springs, and check it out (interesting, good shots, not really worth the money). We drive through Taupo, and go into Pak'n Save, and low and behold, and I meet two guys I had met in Paihia who were pretty cool.

We then start heading further south, and decide to crash in the Tongariro National Park for one night, and then keep on moving the next day. And boy, the drive out there was just amazing! We saw Mt. Doom for LoTR (Lord of The Rings) and just amazing landscape! It makes me want to weep when I think about it.

Upon waking up, we get our stuff ready for the long drive down to Wellington, and along the way Ms. D kept on pointing out places where she hitch hiked from and other random things like that, it was pretty neat.

We finally get to Welli, and find a hostel where we could crash at, Wellywood Backpackers. We went to the movies there, and watched 10,000 BC. Save the money and rent it, that's all I'm going to say about that. Also had a falafel kebab that night: choice!

Wake up, get on the ferry, and make our way to Picton. After 1 movie (Hairspray) and a lot of cards, we finally arrive and start driving towards Hokitika. While we're driving, Ms. D is trying to find us a place to stay, and we ended up with no good results. So she starts looking on the map and starts to read it like I've never done before: looking at all the small icons on the pages. She sees a little spot where we could camp, I was a bit skeptical to it at first, but once we got there and checked it out, I was totally stoked! It was right next to a beautiful lake, with a mountain on the other side. You couldn't ask for more! And it only cost us 12NZD a night for the both of us! Sweet as! Next day we go to the iSite to pick up our Wildfoods Festival Tickets and get ready to eat some crazy foods.

We see the festival, and the vibe was just off the hook! People were dressed up in crazy customs, everyone was happy, and all was good! I don't really have a lot to say, because I'm too lazy (and because I'm losing feeling in my fingers from all this typing), but I'll tell you what I ate: Huuhuu grubs (tastes like peanut butter), mutton bird w/fried bread and golden syrup (salty and fatty, but good), Kangaroo (yummy), Crocodile (not too bad), cricket satay (crunchy), smoked eel (fatty and grainy), venison sausage (delicious), and finally a bunny burger (very tasty). On top of that we had some waffles and a Dutch doughnut! Yummy!!!

Oh yeah, on the 3rd night in Hoki, we crashed at a lodge to do some laundry and take a shower, and we had the whole place to ourselves! It was pretty wild man!

3 nights later, we start heading towards Christchurch via Arthur's Pass. Again, amazing scenery! Ms. D found another camping spot we could stay at, and it turned out to be just amazing! We set up camp, and I made a camp fire for us (only with one match bro!) and we had a nice dinner of pasta and tuna. The skies were super clear, and Ms. D and I found our own star, and we just hung out by the camp fire talking all night long. It was so nice man! I slept outside on my mattress and Ms. D stayed in the tent. I slept like a baby, except my face kept on freezing like no other, and so I woke up at around 5, fresh as rain, and decided to remake the fire again. This time I didn't use any matches! I just used two small coals from the previous fire and started a new fire with those. Man, I felt like such a bad ass. Who wouldn't, right?

In the morning I found out that Ms. D had been freezing the whole night, along with being awake the whole time while I had been awake. Ends up with me watching a beautiful sunrise and taking photos for the two of us.

Not a whole lot to say after that. We drove to another camp site which was pretty crap, but free, and ended up driving up half of a mountain, and putting TM to it's limits! We got a good view out of it, but waste of time and fuel.

We got to Christchurch yesterday, and found that all the hostels were fully booked, and finally found a place outside of ChCh in a small town called Sumner. It's so nice! Really fresh and homey feel to it. Going to take some photos of it so you can see what I'm talking about. And now I'm at the internet cafe destroying my fingers for you guys. And I've got some photos for you guys. But you're going to have to go to my web album to see them all: Ollie Doing NZ

In the mean time guys, I'm going to be hanging out with Ms. D and enjoying our time together and taking some great photos at the same time :D

Take care guys, I'll try and keep you posted...via smoke signals.