So im currently in Raglan...Its a small little town known for its surfing..real laid back people...annoying kids.....Peter and I camped at a local place last night and are headed out today to see some local sites.....The last week we have spent exploring the Coromandel peninsula....We started off in a little town called Thames (which is pronounced tames...complte crap in my opinion...i get hell from peter about my pronunciation all the time) which is basically at the bottom of the pen....We did some grocery shopping at the pak n save then tried to find a camping site...we drove miles to this DOC campsite and found out they were closed...we ended up sleeping on the porch of the visitor center.....Slept decently.free!...woke up the next morning and drove some local hot springs...cant remember the name of them but they are the largest ones in the southern hemisphere....so we did that and moved on north..all the days are running together but I am pretty sure at this point we drove all the way to the tip of the peninsula to a place called port jackson....what a insane place...pretty much a cove on a beach with camping spots...super secluded...so we stayed there the night....good stuff....next we headed back south to the town of Coromandel....we ended up camping at this hostel there for a couple nights...we watched the rugby match between The All Black's and the Wallabies....In my opinion American Football is way more entertaining....Its been good being out in the country...every corner is something new....From the town of Coromandel we left and drove all day to Raglan.....There is a whole lot more to tell than I can write on here....Internet is a pain in the butt in this country....it looks like I have a job lined up in Auckland so im heading back the first of next month....havent seen much wildlife...lots of birds...tons of cows and sheep...pretty sweet in general...geeze i cant believe the steelers lost to the redskins....anyways....

Red Rocket!

So a good bit has happened in the last week or so...I left Opononi and began hitching...I was picked up not far from there by a older Maori man named Jason..He drove me around for an hour or so and showed me some sites....he trashed the europeans alot for destroying the native land and trying to change the Maori culture..interesting stuff for sure...I can see where he is coming from on alot of stuff but the sitution is complicated....I hitched two more rides and ultimately ended up in a town called Kerikeri...Its a fairly small town with alot of history. I got picked up by a guy named Mark. He took me back to his place, fed, and put me up for the night. Quality guy...He had alot of cool stories to tell...He has been all around the world as a skipper and commercial fisherman...His house sits right on the Kerikeri inlet, a stones throw from the water...I took a kayak out and kayaked around the bay for a couple hours....saw the first stone and wooden house built in NZ....overall good stuff....Left early friday moring and was dropped off in a little beach side town called Pahia in the Bay of Islands....ended up staying four nights at this hostel...Met some quality people...a bunch of Brits, Germans, and two Americans from San Fran (trevor and jared)....over a couple days we went to a nearby town called Russel and saw some old crap that wasnt worth seeing...besides that we just lounged around...I took a bus tour to Cape Reinga on sunday I believe (the days run together madly) which was cool...saw the lighthouse and stuff, it was a long day to say the least....I ran into a English chap at the hoster a couple nights in...turns out he had a car and was traveling solo...I offered to split the petrol price and so we are traveling around together for the moment in the 1988 toyota corolla aka "the red rocket"...Saw some insanely postcard picture perfect beaches couple days ago.....insane.....So peter and I arrived in Whangarei yesterday...stayed the night in an extremely homely hostile and are sitting in an internet cafe getting caught up on stuff.....the plan now is to travel around, see some local sites and begin to camp some....saving money is the greatest thing ever....I bought some fresh veges yesterday and made a killer salad....im ticked that im going to be missing the steelers whoop up on the redskins...oh well I guess we have many more years of dominace eh.....

Long days hitch

So I set out today to cape Reinga....I caught a bus out of the city to a small town called Hellensville which is about an hour and a half north by bus...It took me about ten mins to walk thru H'ville and I began holding my thumb up....about five or six miles in I got picked up by a couple guys in a pickup, I hopped in back and got about ten mins up the road with them....Finally I started seeing a bit of the country side....about an hour later I got picked up by LC and his gf Shiane (and there baby lucy)....Turns out they were on the way to see The Game in concert..Also turns out that LC is a NZ rapper....They asked me all about stuff in the US like ghettos, and the texas chainsaw massacre.....real cool people...I got there numbers and we said we would say hey later....at this point it was about two in the afternooon and I was planning on staying at teh next town which was Wellsford, that was untill I got picked up by Sharron Marsh....Sharron is one sibling of 13, a mother of two, and a grandmother of four... She picked me up and offered to ride with her all the way to her house in Opononi which is well over 200k's....So then the country side turned green....Rolling hills of green dotted with sheep, cows, and fences that never seem to end....Insane stuff....rolling hills just like i thought, and this is during winter!......Along the ride she gave me her complete history pretty much...She can trace her Maori roots all the way back...She was real handy when it came to driving corners insanely fast and rolling ciggaretes...She lives just outside of the Waipoua Kauri Forrest....The Kauri is a massive native NZ tree....She told me about the "toot" plant and how if you touched it and put your hands in your mouth or ate it you would go crazy in the head and die....nice to know right...its a roadside plant and its everywhere....On the drive I got my first look at NZ sheep and the Tasman Sea....I tried taking some pictures as we drove but they didnt do the place justice so i deleted them, Ill get some others eventually.....SHe lives in a small cottage by herself but surrounded by family...Its situated right in a valley and the winds off of the Tasman shake thru like crazy...The land her house is on has been in the family for a long time....She told me that her and her husband but a couple acres and a house that needed to be rebuilt in 95 for about 50,000 bucks!!! insane right....but it was from family....Sharron is making me steak and potato's as I write....Overall Im over halfway to Cape Reinga.....Im making insanely good time...tom I am going to head to a local backpackers and try to meet up with some local travelers....Things are good....Geez there is heeps more that I could write about ......But im tired as all...Sharron just handed me a book to read and foods about ready...oh and I have crap coverage here so no phone calls for a bit....Peace

the naked ride home

Currently sitting in an internet cafe listening to "the naked ride home" by Jackson Browne...good stuff...So ive been in NZ for a week now and am about to leave Auckland and begin hitching north....It takes about 8 hours or so to get to Cape Reinga by car so im thinking within a week or so I should be there (stopping places along the way)....It's pretty easy to hitch rides so I hear so im confident I wont be walking the whole time....Im going to hit up this local asian food store later and get massive amounts of noodles....Hopefully protein shakes, noodles, and granola bars wont give me indigestion too bad....I went to church with Jason on sunday, good stuff....the people at his church are quality people..they seem to be super motivated and driven to do what they feel are called to do, something I can't say ive seen in church back home in a while...they are brutally honest about what they beleive but are driven by complete love....they arent scared to offend and they don't seem to sugarcoat the issues....good stuff to say the least....overall to sum up my first week....the people are genuine and good...the city is big and new, and the roads are open for my chosing....

So the last couple of days I have litterally walked around the city and watched movies from ages ago....Im still staying with my new "mate" Jason Bartle...Hes a real good guy, super generous and funny as hell...We went for a run up the side of Mt. Eden yesterday, im flat out of shape....Mt Eden is a volcano thats been inactive for a bit...at the top there is a three sixty view of the entire city of auckland...super crazy...I bought a hamburger and fries yesterday for litterally ten dollars....or dollar is stronger so I felt good about it....The people here are super friendly....Im sitting in this little internet cafe on Queen st. right now, it cost three dollars an hour to plug in the laptop....Im thinking sometime next week ill head north to Cape Reinga....I dunno alots riding on how long I can bunk with Jason..His roomate is out and Im stealing his bed....Its there winter hear and everyone is bundled up...they stare at me like im crazy for wearing sandals (or Jandals as they call them) but the weather is like our fall...completely prime....also it is completely true that farts are the universal sign of friendship and humour....i mean if everyone just understood that all our farts smell the same then i think world peace might just work out....oh and there toilets are way better, there like tidal waves....Im never scared of clogging....its great....Id be lying if I said I was super homesick...do i miss home, sure...I miss my friends and family but the thought of seeing something completely new everyday is the greatest thought ever

Lost in Auckland and just saying yes

So I'm sitting in a little internet cafe on the super busy Queen St. in downtown auckland. I just finished up the worst white choclate mocha I have ever tasted in my life...I got in at 6:30 or so this morning after 18 hours in the air...Im super awake which is weird...Waiting in the airport in Charlotte I met Debbie and Shelby (mother daughter duo) and talked with them for a bit...they concluded that I am a bit crazy but wished me the best....On the plane I sat next to a recent dental school grad and we talked for a good hour about her family history and the complexity of her religion (Hinduism)..It was interesting...I eventually made it to LA where met up with my uncle jason for a bite to eat....On the plane from LA to Auckland I sat next to this lady from Pittsburgh who was coming to see her son and daughter-in law in Auckland...She cursed a ton about how long the flight was and kept complaining about how she couldnt pop her ears....it was entertaining to say the least....after going thru customs and getting my bags I met up with Jason B....yes the guy that my sister met on facebook...he turned out not to be a serial killer or anything haha...I got a ride back to his flat, he gave me the 411 on stuff and headed off to school....then i wondered around the streets near Mt Eden until the bank opened...once I got some cash in hand I hopped on a completely random bus and luckily landed in downtown Auckland....I drank a real bad coffee, tried not to die crossing the street, and now am sitting in this little cafe....oh and pay phones here are the more confusing than algebra.....overall im stoked about finally getting here