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Quite a bit has been happening the past couple of days, all of which are positive.

First off, my latest hiking adventure, one that took me about to the part of NZ that I've been dreaming about. It first started off a couple weeks ago when I was helping Cam out on his boat with a pick up, and then while we were driving along, I saw a mountain that I wanted to hike, and he told me that there's a hike going the whole way. So, I just kept on waiting until I found the opportunity to get my ass out there. A couple of days ago, I met a guy in the kitchen, and we started talking, and then we started to talk about the hike, and how I wanted to do it. He was super keen on it, so I then told him I would do it with him. The next day we got our stuff together, and went over to Russel to sort out our D.O.C. (Department of Conservation) fees to walk the trek. It cost us 42 NZD which included the right to sleep in the hut, which was quite a surprise, but we were hoping it was going to be worth it. The starting point was over at Rawhiti (pronounced Rafiti), track was 29km long, and expected time to walk the whole thing was about 8hrs. I hadn't done this kind of hike for quite some time, so I was pretty stoked about it. We set off towards the starting point, and start talking about random things, like guys do, and when we finally find the spot, we find a parking spot, and start our trek. We were parked about 1km away from the starting point, so we would have 30km to walk in total. Not a problem, we were hard asses! It was pretty tough at first because we didn't stretch, but we warmed up pretty quickly (it was about 25 degrees outside) and when we got to our first resting spot, we were absolutely speachless! The view was amazing! It's one of those moments in your life that your happy to be alive. I tried to the best of my abilities to take a good photo of the moment, but it just doesn't cut it. From that point on, things only got tougher, and better. The heat was grueling, along with the quad killing up and down hills that we had to conquer. I was worried about my left knee, but it held out, and we were kicking major ass. We kept a schedule of hiking for a hour, and then resting 5 minutes, which helped out a lot, and made sure we weren't resting too much for too long. And on one of our stops, we found a creek with tree hanging over, something that I had to climb! I did and got a photo of it, but the Auto-Focus wasn't on, so it's a bit blurry :( But I saw a fresh water eel in the creek which was pretty cool mind you. All of this work this doesn't sound all too great, but the views we got as a reward were so worth the effort and trouble that we put in. It's just one of those things you have to be there for. On the final hill we had to trek up, I was dead tired, and collapsed while going up it, but I sucked it in, and pull through. On our final descent, we were greeted with yet another amazing view: our hut. It took us 5hours 30minutes to walk 30km: Sweet! Once we got down there, we dropped off our gear, said hi to the other guests, we got in our swim gear and headed down to the water for a nice cool down. And wow! It was perfect! I felt super refreshed when I got out, and felt like I could do it all over again. Except for one thing: my left knee crapped out. I don't know why, I think it was due to the extreme temperature change, but my left knee all of a sudden just died on me. It wasn't too painful, but it wasn't comfortable. End up limping my way back up the hill to start making some dinner. At that point we realize we didn't bring enough food, but we rationed all our food to make sure we had some tomorrow aswell. One of the other guests there also busted her knee, so she wanted to know how much it would cost to taxi them back to Rawhiti. I tell her about Cam, and she asks me to contact him. I then find out that Cam is coming out anyway, so I organize it so he brings some food with him for Andy and I. Boo-yah! We were really happy at that point, and ate a bit more of our food to make sure we were properly fed and rested. Before we went to bed we got to see a moon rise, and we then decided to wake up for a sun rise. I volunteered to be the alarm clock for the occassion, so I set my alarm clock, crawled into my little silk liner for my sleeping bag, went to bed on mattress (for the first time in over a month).

The alarm clock wakes me up, and then I get up and start slapping Andy around to get him out of bed. Once he was up, we start kitting up to get ready to see an amazing sun rise. And mind you, it was better than we expected. The night before we were scouting spots were to watch it from, and we found the perfect one! Right on the cliff, only miles and miles of sea infront of us. It was absolutely beautiful! After taking several photos, and eating some breakfast, meeting Cam for our food pick-up, we start making our way back to the car. At first it was pretty grueling because we didn't stretch, but after making it over the first half of the up hill, we do a nice stretch on a platform over looking the ocean and cabin. Yet again, fooking-amazing!

While we were walking, we decided to make a pit stop over at Deep Water Cove, which was so nice. We got down there, ate our lunch, and took a nice cool dip in the ocean to lower our core temperature and just hang out. Ended up me hiding under my serong, and falling asleep, and Andy also took a quick power nap. Noice!

This time the hike wasn't so hard, but a bit hard with my gimpy knee. Ended up pulling off the hike (minus the nap at DWC) in the same amount of time: 5hrs 30min. We reckoned it was because the up hills weren't as steep and that we ate most of our food.

When we got back to the car, we took another dip in the ocean, and started driving into Paihia. Make a pit stop at the local ice cream shop, and head on over to Woolworths to stock up on our feast for the night: homemade burger paddy's. Without going into all the details, the feast was superb, and hit the spot!

We then went out that night just for a quick beer, and check out the scene in town. Nothing too intense. I just had one beer, and then we went back at around 23.30 because Cam and I had some boat work to do early in the morning.

Andy and I parted ways, and we both said we'd meet up for a road trip down to the south island. Something I hope will happen. I mean that we two can road trip together, cause he's a really cool guy.

Anyway, that was about a week ago, and since then I've been hanging out on the boat, caught my first crey, and also dived on the Cantebury (a naval ship that was sunk about 15 weeks ago). And now I'm working at the hostel, which is pretty sweet. I get to do some work that gives me some cash. Nothing too significant, but it will allow me to keep my expenses down to maybe zero. It's not too bad when you think about it. And my room mate here is the weirdest guy ever! In really cool weird way. He's just so spaced out all the time (and he doesn't do drugs, from what I can tell), I'm seriously looking forward to doing this work :D

That's all I really have to say right now guys, I know I suck at keeping this page up dated, will try a bit harder, now that I have free internet, I'll try and keep it more up-to-date.

But here are some pictures, enjoy!

sorry guys

Sorry for the delay guys, I haven't had the ability to use the internet in a while, so going to try to bring you guys up to speed.

Wow, where to begin.

Just the other day I went to check out Cam's patch of land where he's going to start building a house with his parents, and at the same time, they thought it would be a good time to slaughter a sheep. So I got to view another one of those, pretty sloppy this time though, Cam hasn't done it for a while, but he had some supervision of the farmer to guide him along the way. I didn't get involved in this slaughter, but it was still interesting to see. They want me to take part in the next one though. We'll see about that one though, eh?

Two days ago, Cam took me out hunting - for scollops! Ends up me wearing the most simple setup ever: a backpack to hold the tank, and that's it. Something that PADI wouldn't really approve of, but apparently that's the Kiwi Diver way. And if you're wondering about my boyancy, it wasn't a problem. I was perfectly weighted, so I was neutrally bouyant the whole time, which was freaking amazing! I was swimming through the water with no problems what so ever! The viz was pretty bad, like 4 meters, and we lost each other a couple of times, but it worked out and we found our selves a couple of scallops, which turned into a good appetizer for the night. Ended up doing two dives, one 40 minute, and the other about 15 minute, quite memorable.

A couple of days ago, an guy I met in Tuts came up to Paihia to visit, and ended up introducing me to two girls he met at the bar, and I've been hanging out with them just about every single day since I met them. Which has to led to going out just about every night, but not getting absolutely out of control (you guys know it never does with me around :D). However, yesterday was the best of all the days, because we three took a road trip up to Matauri Bay and had a picnic on the beach, and the weather was AMAZING! Not to hot, nice cool breeze coming in from the sea, and some good waves breaking on the shore for some body surfing. So we were on the beach for most of the day, just sun bathing, playing in the ocean. And the Japanese girl was so out of it. When I came to pick them up, she was sleeping on the bench, we got into TM, she crashed in the back seat, when we reached the beach, she got into her swim gear, lay out the towel and crashed, after being in the water, she crashed. She wasn't fully consciencous until we left the beach, 5.30hrs later. Silly girl. And then I took them to Rainbow falls in Kerikeri, which was pretty awesome. I deciede to wade into the falls, so I could look over the edge, and in return I 1) got a cool picture of a rainbow; 2) felt some adrenaline; 3) got my phone wet. It's okay now, but I was pretty worried for a while. Got back to Paihia and ended up taking a nice long power nap after dropping the girls off.

And today I had some breakfast with them, and ended up dropping them off not to far away from the camp site so they could hitch back down south to Warkworth and start working. I sad to see them go :( But but, that's the way the cookie crumbles in my life I've come to realize. But, I'm still in NZ, and I can walk around in shorts and flip flops without freezing :D So I'm pretty happy anyway.

Oh, and I got a job! I'm going to be an On-Site Manager at the Bay Adventurer Hostel. My shitf is from 8pm-8am. I would mainly be checking people in who come in around that time, and I would also be the one walking around, keeping the noise level down, and making sure people aren't making a ruckus or causing problems. In exchange I get free accomodation, free internet, free laundry, and access to all the facilities for free. But I'm going to see if I can't get some cash out of it. I don't have to be awake during that whole time, it's more of like being on stand-by, ready to help whenever needed.


Well, that's mainly it guys, I can't really think of anything else to say except that I miss you, and hope to seeing you guys soon!

Ciao!

PHOTOS!

location, location, location.

I did it! I'm finally done with my Dive Master course, woo-hoo!!! After some controversy though. Sadly. It was about my payment. What happened was that they said I would have to pay 2000 NZD for my course, and then 490 NZD for the material. Now that was semi-ok, but I still felt that something was wrong. So I went through my emails, and saw that the manager of the store had said that 2000 NZD would cover everything in the course, from the material to the gear to everything basically. So, I talked to the manager about it, and said explained my case, and so she said that I would only have to pay the 2000 NZD. But when my course director came and talked to me about it again, she got pretty pissed (without showing it of course) and just shook my hand and congratulated me. I was thinking about asking for a fun dive that day, but after pulling that 'stunt', I bet I would of have had to pay for it. So, I just thanked everyone, and left onto my next adventure. Which was a real bummer that it turned out that way, but 2000 bucks just for the practical bit, WITHOUT the material is a fair bit of money, so I just had to do what I did. Don't really regret it, but yeah, you know what I'm talking about - hopefully.

Back in Paihia now, hanging out with Cam. Pretty chill, nothing special happening. I went looking for a job yesterday, but no real luck. I could work for a scooter rental company, but it's strictly provisional. Which is pretty lame, so I don't think I'll do go for that. But I'll keep on looking, eh? Don't get me wrong though, I really want to start working as a DM somewhere, but I've heard from several people that DM's aren't really hired here in NZ, and I would get a easier time of getting a job in Asia or Australia.

Went to an open air cinema yesterday which was really cool! The screen was massive, and the quality was great! Oh, going back down to Tutukaka to meet an old friend of mine from Budapest. Or I guess we're acquaintances now, but yeah, you get the picture. So I haven't seen him for like...10 years I guess. Pretty excited about that.

Other than all that, not a whole lot else has been happening that I can think of. Oh, travelling by myself is the best! You get heaps of attention, and free food! Yeah, I'm serious! It's just crazy how many times I've been fed by other travellers who have extra food. And the donations I've receiving so far is pretty sweet! Received food, chili bin (cooler), and gas for stoves. Heaps of stuff! It's great!

Here are some photo's for you guys! See ya later!

Super Duper Uber Quick

Hey guys, I'm doing great.

This is going to be a really brief post, because I'm a bit short on time at the moment.

Just wanted to tell you guys that I'm 99.9% with my DM course. I just have to hand in two pieces of paper, and pay for my course, and then I'll have my ticket (more Kiwi lingo, ticket = license). Once all that is done I'm going back up north to Paihia to hang out with Cam and maybe get a job up there (hopefully with my DM ticket of course).

Aight guys, love you, and I'll talk to you later!

Welcoming the New Year

Well, I'm back in Tuts now, after one hell of hard ride back up. Man, I was up at sparrow's fart, and about to collapse due to sleep deprevation. I got on the road with a sad heart, because, as usual, I met two really cool chicks, both of whom were from England, who I had to say good bye to. Both of them were nurses, and both of'em loved the water. One of them was 29, and she looked like she was 24, and she gave me some short surf lessons and I've never seen someone so happy in the water. We went to a beach a bit down the road, and when she was jumping into the waves, she jumped into them spread eagle with a huge grin on her face, like a little girl who just got a huge ice cream. It was the cutest thing ever! And the beach was amazing too! It was long, pretty empty, and just amazing surf. The other girl had a body board with her, which I got to try as well, which was okay, but I've become pretty good at body surfing (basically you surf in the wave like a board, but you use your body instead, it's awesome!).

Oh, wow! I almost forgot what happened in Gisborne! The one of the biggest annual festival in NZ - The Rhythm & Vines Festival! It was totally amazing. It was a 24hr festival with a bunch of stages, and large variety of music. I went there with two Canadians that I got to know at the camp site, and met another girl at the internet cafe who had stayed at the camp site too. So it ended up being me, the two Canadians, the girl and her friend. We were a happy bunch! Oh, I got to be a smuggler for the festival! We were getting on these party buses, and they were patting people down before they got on board to make sure they weren't bringing their own booze, and the the girl who I met at the cafe had 4 Red Bulls in backpack which we were skeptical as to whether or not we'd get them into the festival. So I took action, knicked the drinks, and popped them down my pants! Haha! Most of you guys have seen me with my pants tied up at my calfs giving it a 3/4 pants look, yeah, that's what I had going on. A perfect hiding spot! The guards pat my sweater, and let me pass, the others surrounded me a bit to hide the fact that you could easily see the cans in the pants swinging around while I was walking. We get on the bus, and we're surrounded by a military personel on leave. They start to sing these marching songs which were pretty funny, can't remember any of it, but I know they weren't all that proper if you catch my drift :P

Once we arrived to the site, we had to get our wrist bands, and walk past the 2nd security check, not a problem! Or so I thought. They do a proper pat down on me, and when they come down to the bottom of my pants, they grab the cans! I was thinking "Oh shit, oh shit!" And then the woman reaches into my pocket and grabs my granolla bars that I had stuffed in there! Boo ya! She starts going for the otherone to make sure it was the same, but I quickly intervene and pull them out myself just to make sure she doesn't grab the cans this time. And she said I was smart to bring those with me and let me go on in. Hell yeah! Breaking the law! Or something like that. But we were all pretty stoked that I got them in.

We start heading up the hill for the big event, and there's just so many people it's ridiculous! There were supossed to be around 20,000 people there, and I guess there was. So first thing on our agenda was to get some drinks sorted, but my Canadian friends inform me that they use a RFID card there for payments instead of cash. So I had to get a debit card filled up before I could buy any booze. Get that sorted, and then we go to the bar. The drink we wanted wasn't in stock, so we went over to another bar, and after 40 minutes to our arrival, we finally got our drinks. It was a just havok over there. The two girls had disapeard from us along with one of the Canadians, so all of a sudden, some Irish girls start talking to us (who were just totally trashed, it wasn't even funny). The two girls who were with us text me, asking where we had gone off to, we hook up with them again, and start socialising with them. The two Canadians were gone now, so now I'm left with the two girls to hang out with, no problem.

We move over to another stage and buy another bottle of wine to share between ourselves. Something that turned to tragedy. While I was drinking from the bottle of wine, one of the girls who was completely out of it (I was pretty tipsy, but not drunk as she was) stubbled backwards and hit the bottle against my right front tooth and chipped the bottom left of it off. Awesome! Or not. It sucked quite a lot. I heard the crack and was just waiting for the pain to come. Luckily it was a small chip, nothing too serious, but something that I want to be fixed ASAP. She started to cry about it, but I reassured he it was okay, and that I was fine. Typical drunk women, eh? :P

Well, after getting over that, I start drinking with an eye of where people were relative to me, along with using my lips and teeth guards. Anyway, the girls started to get friendly with me later towards the end of the night, and well, when the clock struck twelve, I was making out with two girls :D And then they started to play Sandstorm by Da Rude which really fit the moment. So I started dancing and feeling absolutley amazing. One of the girls runs off to buy another bottle of wine, and that was the last we saw of her until we started to head of the buses in the morning.

Krystal and I were just hanging out walking around, looking for Katie (her friend), and stumble on a girl who was lying down on the ground with two people around her while others were walking by. I quickly start seeing if they were ok, and they thought their friend was dead. After slapping her a bit, she says she's okay, and I basically order her friends to take her to the ambulance straight away. This is why I try not to drink too much. Well, after changing my underwear, we continue walking around, and after getting dead tired, we both head over to a calm spot under a tree and collapse (nothing happened, I swear). And I had set my alarm clock to 0530 so we would catch the sun rise. Which proved pointless, because it was pretty cloudy that morning, so we went back to sleep for another 2hrs, woke up, and decided to head over to the buses. While we were walking there, we wondered where Katie had gone off to. And low and behold, we basically walk over her. She hooked up with some bloke there, and they just lay there in the middle of the path cuddling each other. It was cute. We seperate them two, and take her with us, get on the bus, and depart from there. Oh, Katie wasn't all too far away from the Port-A-Potties, and we all figured it would be a great moment to do our morning business. OMG, it was a like a scene from a horror movie or something! I've never seen shit piled up like that! It literally went up to the rim! EEEEEWWWW!!!!!! Seven toilets - in a row - were exactly like this. It was disgusting!

Bla! Anyway, I took the remainder that day off, and decided to hang with the two English chicks. The older one of the two was way too tired, so me and the other one went into town for a walk and lunch. It was really nice, really relaxed.

And now, I'm back up north, working with my DM course, which is going really well. I should be done on the 9th if all goes smoothly. Having some problems with my ears again, but I'm sure it's going to be sorted by tomorrow.

Aight guys, I'm gonna bounce now, I'll talk to you later, my fingers are pretty tired!

NYE 07-08

Aight guys, in Gisi now, and it's hot as!

The weather is great, and I'm feeling pretty good. Not as psyched as X-Mas, but still feeling the vibe, sort of. Don't know why, but yeah, odd feeling. Nothing to worry about though.

I drove from Tuts yesterday, and that took me a good two hours. I had to take a power nap....wait, yeah, I met some people on my boat, and I told them that I would be sleeping in my car for the night, because i was going to pack my tent down while it was dry, and then they invited me to stay at their motel room with them. So I snuck in late at night, pretending to be a visitor, and then ending up crashing there. We all woke up at 05 in the morning, and then left at 05.30, and so I was pretty tired, but I got to see the sun rise along the coast and mountains which was amazing! Around 8-9 hours into the drive, I was just way too tired, and decided to stop at rest stop under a tree and take a power nap, and wow did it feel great. Popped in my ear plugs, dropped the drivers seat back, rolled down my window, and fell asleep. It was nice. Kind of worried that somebody would try reaching in and knicking something, but I set my legs and body up so it would make things a bit harder. It's all good. But yeah, 12 hours later, and some of the best scenery ever, I was in Gisbourne, looking for a place to crash. I found one, a bit dear, but well worth it. Got to hang out with some Kiwis and a Swede, which was entertaining.

Aight guys, this place is pretty expensive, and doesn't support USB ports, so I'll have to update my photos a bit later,ok? Choice!

Happy New Year Guys!!!

Best yet..

This Christmas was probably the best one I've had ever! Seriously! I'll tell you guys why.



On the 23rd I was getting kind of worried about how to fill up my time on the 24th considering the circumstances (by myself and my day off), and so I got a great idea, go on a fun dive! I called the shop and checked out if I could take go out on a fun dive the next day and they gave me the all go. Sweet as! I wake up the next day, nice and early, and the weather is amazing! A bit cloudy, but nothing too dramatic. Get down to the shop and find out that I would be able to dive with one of the staff that day who was also going out for a fun dive, which was perfect, because that gave me my buddy for the day. Get on the boat, and the customers on board a happy bunch, and the ride out proved to be pretty calm compared to the other days where it's been an average of 1-2m swells. During this time the weather is still holding, and I do two dives that day which were both really great! Saw a bunch of stuff, and I got a good deep dive in there as well (27.6m). And the boat ride home was even better since we were surfing the waves back, it made the ride even smoother.



So far, so awesome!



I get back on land and get my new schedule sorted from the dive shop, and head back to camp to prepare for the evening to come (the temperature now is about 25 degrees and full on sun!) I go to the communal room and find Rob sitting there with someone else. So I join them and watch some TV after a "hard days" dive for about 30 minutes and felt I needed a small lie down. Go back to my tent, lie down, read a book, remembered I need some desert, so I went and bought some ice cream at the dairy, and finally have a small nap. Like I said, the temperature was just amazing, and the sun is on my tent full blast (read: hot as hell or sauna) and after waking up in a pool or my own sweat, I figure it best that I go and take a shower, and clean up for my big meal.



After trimming my goat tee, shaving, and taking a nice 7 minute shower (yup, that's all I get for 2.50 SEK) I head back over to my tent and put on my nice clothes which consists of my khaki cargos, black shirt, and shoes (decided against wearing jandels this evening). And finish it all off with some deo and some wax in my hair. I felt like I was on top of the world, and I was super excited about the feed waiting for me.



The night before I did a small food run down in Whangarei and bought me 3 steaks, some spuds (potatoes) and some delicious chili/walnut dip for the meat. And when I got back to camp, I put the meat in a marinade consisting of ground chili, salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil. That got to marinade over night and while I was out diving the following day. So, I got out all of the ingredients and started to make my dinner and while I was cooking, a Canadian girl invited me to her table for some drinks when I was done cooking. Before she approached me, I was really happy, and after the invite, I was super stoked! The night seemed to be getting better and better as the minutes ticked by.



Once I was done cooking, I make my way over to the Canadian girls (she was with a friend) table just outside of the kitchen. After making the quick small talk, I dig into my meal, and wow guys! It was...orgasmic? No, I probably wouldn't go that far, but it was probably one of my best meals I've made so far! And when I was done eating the steak, I quickly ditch my plates and dig into my little ice cream that I had bought my self (cookies and cream in a cone). It was a perfect ending to my dinner!



Once all the food was dispensed, the liquids were brought into the picture. Now, do you remember me talking about how I got a present from the German couple a while back, yeah, well I opened it, and it was German Xmas drink. Yeah, well, we didn't really touch that, it was too much like Jagermeister, which just brings shivers down my spine. But it's a funny bottle (damn, I didn't take a photo of it, next time) either which way, and a very kind gesture of them. Anyway, we started talking and drinking, talking about how I was celebrating Xmas on the 24th and not 25th, how different cultures celebrate Xmas differently. It was great. After a while, the girls tell me that they have some fireworks to get rid of, so I recommended that we go to the local beach and fire them off, and they thought it to be an excellent idea! I grab each of us a beer for the walk down, and we make our way to the beach like the Froddo was heading off to Mt. Doom.



When we get the beach, the girls regret that they didn't bring their swim gear, and I innocently suggest that clothes aren't required. And boo yah, we go for a good ole night swim with the full moon lighting the ocean (and three more moons in the water, think about that one). We're swimming around for a good 15 minutes and decided it was time for some fireworks.



Get out of the water, pop on our clothes and start preparing for the big beach finale. Which proved to be not so spectacular after all, but fun either way.



We head back to the camp, and half way there, we have a massive group hug in the middle of the road because we were in NZ, it was my Xmas, and it was Jessie's Birthday in Canada (oops, yeah, the girls names were Jessie and Kristin). We plopp ourselves back on the bench and continue drinking (champange was opened for Jessie's bday) and start playing some cards, and talk even more about God knows what. This goes on until about 04.30 in the morning when we were just finally all way tired after everything.



Head back to my tent, with a huge smile on my face and fall into a beautiful sleep (followed with a small hang over in the morning).



So let's round all of this up, eh?

• Great weather


• Great dives


• Great food


• Great company


• Skinny dipping under a full moon


• Fireworks

Seriously guys, how can you beat that? Oh, and I got my Christmas came true too! I wished for company during the evening, and I got it, and then some!

Now you know why this Christmas so great this year! I have now proven that you can still celebrate Christmas by yourself and have an awesome time!____________________________________

The next day wasn't as great weather wise mind you, it was raining all day, and just all around grey. So I felt kind of sorry for the rest of people celebrating on the 25th. And I was invited to the home of the camp manager, and had a couple beers with him and his wife, which was really nice. And they treated me to some nice ham, home made chou chou, and hot mustard. Yum is the only way I can describe it :D

So as you can tell, I'm still having a blast, and today I'm going on a small road trip along the coast by myself just to get out and about and try to get some good photos too.

Here are some photos guys, enjoy!