Mike D. in NZ

Monday, Apr. 28, 2008

2008-04-28T01:40:00.000-07:00

Took a trip over to SkyTower this afternoon, it's just a few blocks down the street. I was right about being a little afraid of heights, my knees were a little wobbly at the top, while two little girls were running around on the glass floor. How embarrassing.

Looking East, Mission Bay is in the Distance.

Stepping off the elevator. Wobble-wobble.

Looking down, I think that's Woolworth's roof.

Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Auckland Town Hall on the left of the green park.

Glass floor of death, it's 30cm thick and supposedly as strong as concrete.

Harbour boats.

Little Barrier Island in the Pacific Ocean.

Looking West, my building is in this shot.

Pretty cool line of sight from the SkyTower observation deck to my back deck!

Monday, Apr. 25, 2008

2008-04-21T00:45:00.000-07:00

Made a little trip to the Auckland Museum yesterday. Along the way, 3 people asked me for directions somewhere. Despite my efforts to the contrary, I guess I have that friendly, approachable look.

Museum entrance.

Old sailboat the polynesians used on the open ocean. No thanks!

Totems (probably not what the Maori's call them!).

"Terrible Lizards..."

Mmm... Octo-pie.

The elusive Kiwi bird of New Zealand. Their national symbol.

WWII Spitfire plane.

WWII memorial statue and stained glass.

Tuesday, Apr. 8, 2008

2008-04-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just don't get the Kiwi sense of humour.

Busy street in the afternoon.

Thursday, Apr. 3, 2008

2008-04-03T01:27:00.001-07:00

I've been feeling a little cooped up lately, constantly checking my email for temp job assignments and such, so I decided to do a little hike I've been planning. I say "little" because it looked little on the map. It was also classified as easy. But my definition of easy didn't match the map's definition. Ten minutes into the hike (which began as a 45º incline, and stayed that way for 30 minutes) I was drenched. Drenched in "fitness" I suppose!

First rest stop along the way. I needed it.

It was good to get out there though. This trail began on the beach Karekare, which was the filming location for the movie "The Piano". I never saw it, but I'll have to now.

This is looking back down the hill to Karekare beach.

I didn't take enough photos, by the time I got halfway to my intended destination, it began to get dark. So I staked a spot on the beach an set up camp. I was using a new 'bivy sac' I got for free, it's kind of a glorified sleeping bag which zips up over your face, and has a bug net for air. So setting up camp just meant rolling this thing out. It was a pretty clear night and the stars were on full-blast. I slept intermittently through the night, and never came across another person.

Da Rays! Da Rays!

I got up this morning and walked back to the car along the beach, took about half the time of going through the forest trail. As soon as I could see the car, the rain started to fall, so I think I timed that just about right.

Had a much needed shower and a little nap when I got home. Then went to Aikido after supper. I'm gonna end up in good shape whether I like it or not!

Thursday, Mar. 27, 2008

2008-03-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

I get up and get on the road to "SnowPlanet" today. Finally get back on the snowboard after about 6 months.

I get a call from the computer repair guys and he tells me the logic board is fried in the laptop. To repair and install the logic board would cost over $2000, to buy a new laptop will cost $1600.

So I sit here typing this on my new MacBook. Oh the debts! Oh well, we only live once, besides I need a computer to do my job - right? Right?

Anyway, I made it up to SnowPlanet and it was pretty sweet. Short and narrow, with one hill but the snow conditions were good and there were a bunch of jumps and rails.

Wednesday, Mar. 26, 2008

2008-03-27T03:18:00.000-07:00

Whoa boy. So I wake up this morning to find my laptop frozen. "No biggie" I think, it's happened before. Well, after 3 hours of trying to fix it, I know a problem when I see it. I actually break down and take it to a Mac repair shop, but the first one I go to wants to put me on a 3 week waiting list before they even look at it!

I don't have words to explain my feelings at this moment. So I just get them to put me on their damn list and I leave.

I head over to another shop in town, and these guys say it will be 24 hours, plus they're nice. So I leave it with them. I'm going snowboarding tomorrow at an indoor hill facility, that should calm the frayed nerves.

Tuesday, Mar. 25, 2008

2008-03-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

A little update on the "waiting list":

1. Waiting for the plumbers to come back and fix my leaky toilet right this time
2. Waiting for the phone guy to come install intetnet (between 12 and 5???)
3. Waiting for the insurance company to give me my money (been waiting for 2 months for that one!)
4. Waiting for the NZ tax department to send me an IRD number so I can work
5. Waiting for the freelance agency to hook me up with some work (see #4)

Not too bad - good week!

Saturday, Mar. 15, 2008

2008-03-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Here's some miscellaneous photos I had floating around on the camera.

Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World and Antarctic Encounter, Auckland, NZ:

An underwater tunnel where you stand on a converyor belt as all the fishies and sharks swim overhead.

Mr. Turtle (or Tortoise?).

Blurry fish in a tank.

Sea Horse. Craig will get that joke.

Manta Ray laying on the bottom of the tank.

Gang of mean-looking Pirahnna.

Some kind of fish.

Bright aquarium.

Some kind of blue corral.

Mr. Eel. Gross.

Lyall Bay, Wellington, NZ:

Surfer dood.

Some old man takes a long walk off a short pier, and jumps in head-first with his bodyboard!

Busy spot?

Home, Sweet Temporary Home, Auckland, NZ:

3 phone books. Yikes.

The washing machine does the laundry, then magically transforms into the dryer.

The microwave is in Chinese. I think the picture of the dragonfly means "popcorn's ready"...

Huge master bedroom and spare bedroom, I can almost fit in there.

Diningroom/Livingroom. Note high-end canvas furniture.

Livingroom.

View of SkyTower from deck, Auckland's answer to the CN Tower.

View of awesome parking lot from deck.

Miscellaneous

A waterfall. Duh.

Traffic in front of me.

Traffic behind. Oh god.

Tuesday, Mar. 11, 2008

2008-03-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

Waiting. I hate waiting. For anything. Always have, just ask my parents. Everything always had to be right now with me. “Why wait?” I always asked. Here’s what I’m waiting for right now:

1. Waiting for the plumbers to come back and fix my leaky toilet right this time
2. Waiting for the phone guy to come install intetnet (between 12 and 5???)
3. Waiting for the insurance company to give me my money (been waiting for 2 months for that one!)
4. Waiting for the NZ tax department to send me an IRD number so I can work
5. Waiting for the freelance agency to hook me up with some work (see #4)
6. Waiting to fall asleep (it’s 1:30am right now…)

Did I mention I hate waiting?

Wednesday, Mar. 5, 2008

2008-03-10T22:56:00.002-07:00

Been working on my new website all week at the apartment. Should be ready by Friday. My old one’s been hurting my job prospects apparently, so it’s time for a new one. I met with the Portfolio People on Monday, they’re a freelance placement agency. I like the sound of their set up, short term commitments and bigger money. I have to get a IDR number (tax number) and then they’ll be able to set me up with freelance contracts. I went to the Post Shop to set that up today, so I should have a number mailed to me in about 10 days. It’s nice to have a mailing address again.

I also got some expensive parking lined up too. The closest and cheapest in town is a 15 min. walk from my place, and costs $200/month. Yikes. Hopefully the credit card holds.

Looks like I’ll just be working on my website for the next couple of days. I’ll have to go surfing this weekend.

Saturday, Mar. 1, 2008

2008-03-10T22:56:00.001-07:00

The rain started.

My tent only seems to be waterproof for a few hours, then the condensation starts to drip in. Plus the wind is so strong, it’s blowing the rain in from the side windows. So I took the tent down in the rain. Miserable.

Headed back down to Auckland to get my keys. Of course they weren’t waiting for me as they were supposed to be. But when I walked out the door, the guy who leased it to me was sitting right next door at the café, so I was able to get him off his ass and get me my damn keys!

Friday, Feb. 29, 2008

2008-03-10T22:55:00.001-07:00

Happy leap-year day! I wonder if this is supposed to be good luck, we’ll see.

Oh – the phone’s ringing already. Looks like the insurance company has agreed to my request for the money for my car accident. Should be in my bank account early next week. Sweet.

I went and saw the apartment, it was close to the good one I saw yesterday, the only thing better was that it had some furniture – couch, tv, and a couple of chairs. Too bad it’s not available for another two weeks. Pass.

I called the guy back about the one from yesterday and got a second look at it. Looks good to me, so I told him I’d take it. The one on the 11th floor was taken already (1 day later…), but there was an identical one on the fourth floor so that’s my new home. You can even see the Sky Tower from the deck.

I can get the keys and move in tomorrow since it’s March 1st, so I’m pretty pumped. I decided to go find a camp ground outside the city for the night, and ended up close to where I had the car accident. It’s a really a scenic area, when you not being involved in a three car pile-up!

There was a thermal pool area right next to the campground full of hot tubs and pools, and one of them had a big movie screen right in front of it, so I soaked and relaxed in there for a while. Then went back to the tent for a sleep.

The rain hasn’t started yet…

Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008

2008-03-10T22:53:00.003-07:00

After taking down the tent I called around about some of the apartments. Lots were already gone, and some others wouldn’t be available for a couple of weeks. One guy said we could meet tomorrow morning to look at one. And I’ve got an appointment this afternoon to look at 3.

The first one I checked out was so small I could barely stand up. Plus it looked like some frat boys and their pet rats were living there. All this could be mine for only $920 a month! Wowee.

So I passed on that, the next two were in the same building and the first one we looked at was on the 11th floor. Nice views of the city, a bigger place and nice and clean and modern. This one was $1100. These places would go for $500-600 max back home. Oh well, you pay to live in the city I guess. I told him I had one more to look at tomorrow morning and would get back to him.

I also got a call from one of the job recruiters that’s circulating my name around town about a nice sounding possible contract for 3-6 months for the Department of Culture and Heritage with the government. It would be re-designing their website I think. The only hitch is they’ll probably need someone with ActionScript programming too. We’ll see.

Now to find a place to stay tonight! I found another hostel, this one was more like a B&B just outside the downtown. Nice and quiet and I had a little cabin thing to myself, so no snorers…

Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008

2008-03-10T22:53:00.001-07:00

Got up and out early, looking at another 8 hours on the road. I went a different route, past Tongariro national park. This is past the opposite side of Mt. Doom than I went on my way down to Wellington. Lots of nice scenery, and plenty of twisty mountain roads to add some fun.

Hostels were booked again when I arrived as usual in Auckland, but I did find one who said they had a “tent site” so I took it. When I got there, the tent site was a tiny patch of grass in the back yard under the clothesline. I wasn’t sure if there was enough room for my tent, but there was. I just had people’s laundry hanging all over my roof. Nice. They did have free wi-fi though, so I was able to look up some apartment listings and send Andy a happy birthday email. He’s the big 3-5.

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008

2008-03-10T22:52:00.003-07:00

I’ve decided to forget about finding work here in Wellington. The jobs are much more plentiful in Auckland according to all the job websites, and I can’t be bothered traveling back and forth. It’s too far. I’ve got this room booked for tonight, then I’m leaving this town and not looking back. I’ll get an apartment in Auckland and base the job search from there.

For the rest of the day I just walked around, and took in the sights. Checked out Lyall Bay for the last time, but it was flat as glass. D’oh.

Monday, Feb. 25, 2008

2008-03-10T22:52:00.001-07:00

I made my way back down to Wellington today, about 5 hours or so from Mt. Maunganui. I got a room at Downtown Backpackers on Bunny St. Where do they get these names…

I came all the way back here so I would be ready to jump back into an interview for that contract position which I really wanted, but I ended up hearing from the recruiter that they changed what they were looking for. I’m convinced now my out-of-date portfolio website is really hurting my chances, these people are taking it at face value, even after I tell them it is four years old. If it looks OK, can’t they surmise that with an additional 4 years of experience under my belt, my work is that much better? I’m losing faith in the Kiwi’s ability to have vision…

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008

2008-03-10T22:51:00.003-07:00

I thought I’d tent tonight, so I drove down the street to the Holiday Park at the foot of Mt. Maunganui, it’s kind of a small mountain, but pretty cool nonetheless. The rain was still going strong, I had hoped it’d let up, but after a long, cold, soggy night I was ready to move on. Never did get into the water to try the waves, even though they looked pretty good. I was just too cold an miserable.

Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008

2008-03-10T22:51:00.001-07:00

I decided to head back to Wellington on Monday, so I’m gonna start out now and stop along the way. I’ve been wanting to check out the east coast, so I took off for Mt. Maunganui 2.5 hrs south east of Auckland. It was kind of cold and drizzling out all day, and continued into the night. When I arrived there was a surfing competition going on, I think it was the Island Masters or something like that. I sat on the rocks and checked that out for an hour or so. Always good to watch the pros and try to pick up some tips.

That night I got a bed in a hostel dorm on the main road. Nine bed dorm, cozy. It wasn’t too bad though, and there were a couple of friendly folks there. We ended up going out and I got a little Mikey-drunk, woke up with just one shoe. I have vague memories of it getting lost in a busy bar, but I’m not sure. I stopped over to a surf shop next door and picked up a cheap pair of thong-sandals. These things hurt a lot, maybe I have to build up callous between my toes…

Friday, Feb. 22, 2008

2008-02-22T00:58:00.000-08:00

Today’s interview is at 1pm, 5min from downtown Auckland in a neighbourhood called Ponsonby. I found the place fine, and met with Andrew the creative director and Jeff, one of the other partners. The office was a pretty cool open concept place, probably about 15 or so folks working away in there. The interview went good again, they do mostly email marketing campaigns and design, old hat for me.

The only sticking point was Jeff kept asking me if I was planning on staying in NZ for at least two years. He was worried I might skip town after six months. I said I wasn’t sure yet and it depended on the position and blah blah, but the truth is I’m not sure if I’m up for staying that long. I was hoping for a 3-6 month contract, I’m just not sure. One of these days I was hoping to get in with Ryan and Wetty back in SJ.

I know the owners…

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

2008-02-22T00:56:00.002-08:00

Interview is today at 11am so I spent the morning walking around and applied for some more jobs online. Can never apply too often. The meeting will be with the creative director, but I will still have to meet the account director next week, so I’ll be driving back down here to Wellington from Auckland, which is where I’m heading this afternoon for my other interview tomorrow, 650km north.

I was worried this would happen if applied at Auckland and Wellington, but they’re the two biggest centres and have the best paying jobs. It’s kind of like applying to Saint John and Quebec city, and driving back and forth to go to interviews. Oh well, gotta do whatcha gotta do.

The first interview went really good I thought. I showed him some more of my recent stuff on my laptop, and he seemed to dig it. The office is pretty cool, right on Wellington’s waterfront. Hopefully I’ll get a call Monday about a second interview. The terms of the contract aren’t really clear, but I think I’d be freelancing by the hour, which would be fine by me.

After the interview, I hit the road for Auckland. A long, tiring drive. I did it in about 8 hours, arriving around 9:30. Not bad considering the road guide says it’s a 9.5 hour drive. Dugey would be proud!

I tried a couple hostels when I got there and they were booked, but the third was free so I got a room and crashed out. Good night.

Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008

2008-02-22T00:56:00.001-08:00

Nothing much going on for today, just killing time till tomorrow’s interview. Time for some surfing. Getting a little better, but I’m finding the hardest part is paddling out past the beach breakers to get to the bigger, more surfable waves. I finally managed to get out there and everything felt a little easier. After catching a wave, you don’t have to paddle back out through all the whitewash again. Just turn around and paddle for a minute or two and you’re back in position. Surfing is definitely as much science as art.

I went down to the cinema and checked out There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day Lewis. I found it as awesome as all the hype. No talking for the first 15min, that’s my kind of movie!

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008

2008-02-22T00:55:00.001-08:00

Well I got a call at 7am from the insurance company’s damage inspector and he seemed pretty agreeable. Said they’d definitely be classifying it as a ‘total loss’. Gee, thanks for the validation. He said I’d hear from the insurance company soon about payment. Let’s hope so.

I also heard back from the guy about one of the senior designer jobs. Apparently the dude didn’t think I had enough experience (9 years). It sucks because these people are judging me on my 4 years out-of-date online portfolio. It’s not they’re fault, I should have a new one. I’ve just been working full time so long I haven’t had a need for a new one. Poopy. He (the recruiter) said I was the best they had interviewed so far, so he didn’t know what the company was looking for, but said he’d make some other phone calls to contacts of his and see if he could hook me up with some other interviews.

I’ve still got the interview on Thursday for the contract digital designer position. That sounds pretty sweet and I think a contract situation would be a lot better for me anyways. So there.

Monday, Feb. 18, 2008

2008-02-22T00:54:00.001-08:00

Headed into Wellington today and I got a call from Aaron, the tow truck guy who towed my smashed up car. It’s been sitting at his wreck yard, and apparently there’s a $15/day holding fee I didn’t know about. It’s now up to about $450! D’oh… He said the insurance company would probably handle it once they came through with the money, but that I should call them and find out.

So I called them again and of course they said they put in an order to remove the wreck from the yard 6 days ago. I’m so surprised they failed to do so... they’re ‘looking into it’. I know it’s all part of the insurance-game’s strategy to frustrate claimants out of seeking they’re money, but come on people. Help Mikey out!

Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008

2008-02-18T14:33:00.002-08:00

Well I was right about getting tossed around pretty seriously in the sea here. It’s kind of like a washing machine with one wave after another, coming in sets of about 10 it felt like. The sun was blazing out all day today though, so it was a sweet day on the coast. After getting worn out in the sea, I headed south towards Wellington, but I didn’t want to go back into the city until Monday. So I stopped in a place call Kaepapariki (I think that’s how it’s spelled). Got some cool pics of a kitesurfer right on the main beach as soon as I arrived.

The Kaepapariki backpacker’s is a sweet hostel run by a lady named Denise, you have to go up a super steep path from the road, but it leads to a sweet deck and view of the Tasman sea about 100m away. I can keep a close eye on the waves from here.

I’ll probably just stay here the night, get some surfing in the morning and head into Wellington tomorrow afternoon and hope to hear about the jobby job. I wonder if I should forget about full time work and just pick fruit to pay for my hobo lifestyle? Something to think about. And while I’m thinking about stuff, why do people here drive so damn fast on these treacherous mountain roads? Makes me feel like an old lady.

Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008

2008-02-18T14:33:00.001-08:00

I headed over to Castle Point beach this morning and grabbed some food at the store/restaurant. The sun was blazing with no clouds in the sky, that is until I put on my wetsuit and jumped into the chilly Pacific. The clouds came out and the waves were so-so. The water here on the east coast is noticeably a little colder than the Tasman Sea on the west coast. Anyways, after trying some waves for a little while, I decided to hit the road again. I’m basically killing the weekend waiting to hear about that job on Monday/Tuesday.

I headed back to the west coast (3 hours) and found a little cabin shack for the night. The waves here down the street are pounding and I should get tossed around quite seriously tomorrow morning. I managed to check my email quickly and noticed another bite on a different job in Auckland. That makes 3 bites in 4 days. This guy wants to meet me either Tuesday afternoon or next Friday. Maybe I’ll tell him Friday, that’ll give the big-money boys here in Wellington enough time to make an offer (hopefully…).

Friday, Feb. 15, 2008

2008-02-18T14:32:00.001-08:00

I called the guy back first thing this morning about the senior designer job, and we set up and interview for 4pm. I had to go get a shirt and some shoes. Business shoes. Awww yeah, you know what time it is. (FOC reference…)

Anyways, now I had a whole day to kill, so I went and picked up a cheap pair of shoes and shirt for the interview, then headed back to Lyall Bay to see the surf. Still flat for the third day in a row, so I headed up the coast a little bit to check out a couple of other spots. Nice scenery but not much surf today.

I went down to one of the electronic stores and broke down and picked up a new CD player for the car. Right now there’s an old Alpine cassette deck in the car with only one speaker working, unless I hit a bump, then the passenger side speaker pops on for a second. I got a cheap Sony CD head unit and proceeded to pull over to an empty corner of the parking lot and began ripping my dash apart to install it. I’ve done this a few times in my day, so I wasn’t too worried. It actually went along pretty good, considering I was doing the whole job with just a Swiss Army knife. Once I got it all in and wired up, it didn’t work, but I soon found out I had blown a 15amp fuse. After replacing that, the CD player lit right up and both speakers were working fine. Nice. The whole install took 2 hours from start to finish. Oh, I might add I was doing all this in my fancy new shirt and business shoes. Awww yeah… business shoes.

I found a parking spot downtown for the 4pm interview and met up with the agent-guy. He does the pre-interview for the company to narrow down the candidates. It went swimmingly, and he basically told me I was the most qualified candidate so far and he was gonna recommend me very highly and very quickly. He thought I should hear back from him early next week. Sounds good to me. I had considered heading back up to Auckland, but now I’ll definitely hang around Wellington until I hear from him.

I didn’t feel like spending another night in the hostel, so I got out my map and looked for a place to go. I bought the New Zealand surf spot guide which basically shows every spot worth surfing in the country. It’s a fat book. I chose a spot that was about 2-3 hours from Wellington across to the east coast called Castle Point. No particular reason. Just wanted to drive. I left Wellington around 5:45 (rush hour traffic, real smart Davidson) and got to Castle Point around 8:30. Popped into the local “hotel” and rented a cabin all to myself for $28. Add two beers to the bill to bring it to $38.

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008

2008-02-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

Grabbed some breaky and headed back to Lyall Bay to check out the surf. It was flat again today, but I know it gets good sometimes. Oh well, gotta clean up my resume anyway. Went back downtown and fixed up the resume and emailed around about some more jobs. I decided to apply in Auckland as well as here in Wellington to broaden the net, even though Auckland is about a 9 hour drive north.

I went and checked out the Wellington Zoo. I must say it puts Cherry Brook to shame, but I guess that wouldn’t be too hard.

I got a call from a guy in Auckland about a possible job putting together some kind of catalogue for a 3 month contract. Sounded pretty good and the money is the same as I was making back home. He said he’d call me back after he was more certain of what he is going to do, or when he finishes his interviews.

Later in the afternoon around 4pm, I got a call from one of the placement agency’s about a high-end senior interface designer job. He sent me some info and told me to call him back in the morning. I must say it’s similar to what I was doing back home, which I didn’t really want, however the money is ridiculous, and like I said before I’m greedy. I guess it wouldn’t hurt me to actually hold down a regular job like a normal person. Sigh…

Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008

2008-02-13T01:07:00.001-08:00

After a pretty good sleep, I up-and took off back to downtown Wellington. I headed to the i-Sight visitor center for a coffee and some internet access where I fixed up my resume and applied for a couple of jobs online. We’ll see if I get any bites.

After that, I decided to jump on the harbour ferry to Days Harbour, a 20 minute ride on a catamaran ferry. Thought it’d be nice to get on the water (I miss the Relic).

I missed the next ferry by 5 minutes so I grabbed a ticket for the next one 2 hours later. In the meantime, I walked up the harbourfront and check out the Te Papa National Museum. This is the biggest craziest museum I’ve ever been to. I was pretty impressed, couldn’t take any photos though, you’ll just have to see it yourself…

Back to the ferry at 2pm and it was a nice little trip over the harbour. Not much to do on the other side though, just a small village. So I grabbed some pizza and laid on the beach for an hour or so and jumped back on the ferry at 4:55pm.

Now I wanted to check out the closest surf beach to downtown – Lyall Bay. I went a real round-about way to get there cause I missed the turnoff, but when I finally made it, it was pretty cool. The waves weren’t that great, they’re dependant on wind here, but the beach was directly beside the airport so planes were taking off and landing right next to me. I didn’t go in the water, too tired after being in the sun all day, but now I know where to go in the morning. On the way back to downtown I went the right way and it was only 6km and about an 8 min. drive.

I made a reservation at the Wellington YHA hostel for tonight and Thursday night, so after some SubWay I headed over there for a shower and some relaxin’.

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008

2008-02-13T01:05:00.000-08:00

I decided yesterday I would leave this morning and head 5 hours south to New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington. I’m starting to run low on cashola, so I figured this would be a good spot to find some temporary contract work. I thought I didn’t want to do any design work, but the pays too good and I’m greedy. I just hope the surf’s good.

It had rained really hard through the night, but cleared up by the time I got on the road around 10am. It was a pretty straight-shot for me to get to Wellington, around 5 hours exactly with just one stop for a burger and one stop for gas, with a little rain on and off.

I tried a couple of hostels in downtown Wellington, but they were booked, so I called one further out of town (25km) that my guide book recommended. They had an opening so I took it. It was a B&B type place right on the coast, and was supposed to be $76, but due to a ‘clerical error’, it ended up costing me $36. I was gonna tell them, but decided to keep my big mouth shut. Hee hee.

When I showed up there was a kite-surfer right across the street ripping up the waves (sorry Craig, but the conditions for kite-surfing here are so perfect it would make you puke!).

Monday, Feb. 11, 2008

2008-02-13T01:04:00.000-08:00

Got up early and grabbed some breakfast with JoAnne and her visiting family. When everyone’s here we’ve got 8-9 people hanging out in a 3 bedroom bungalow. Good times. Me and her dad Jim started out early digging a hole for the last remaining fence post for a fence on her side lawn. Took a while, but we got it good and deep and put in the post, and it was lined up pretty straight if I do say so myself. Then we strung 3 rows of steel cable between the posts and tightened it all up. The finishing touch was to wire-tie some brush sheeting to the cables for privacy.

We worked till lunch time, then Jim went for a quick nap so I shot down to Back Beach for a lunch time surf on the new board. It was way to rough and I couldn’t catch a good wave, but at least I got to cool off from working in the sun all morning. Ah, sweet Tasman sea!

After my surf I came back to find Jim’s old friend had stopped by, and took over my job hanging the brush screening, so JoAnne took me down back to the orchard to do some more weeding and whipper-snippering. We ended up having a full day after all.

Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008

2008-02-13T01:03:00.000-08:00

We got some rain today, so JoAnne didn’t bother getting me to do any work. I went downtown in New Plymouth to check out the Puke Ariki museum. Pretty sweet museum, lots of wildlife displays and a giant great white shark similar to the big whale hanging in the NB museum in SJ.

Just kind of hung out and watched some Chapelle show and Flight of the Conchords episodes I had on the laptop. Tomorrow JoAnne said we’ll have a ‘full day’…

Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008

2008-02-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

Uggghhh, hangover. Haven’t had one of these in weeks now. Crawled out of bed around 11 and JoAnne and her family had just left for her dad’s bday BBQ. I took a drive up Surf Highway 45 (that’s what it’s actually called) to check out a place called Opunake about 45km away. Just needed to drive for a while to kill the hangover and headache. It definitely helped. Not much in Opunake, so I just grabbed the paper and checked out one of the nearby surf beaches.

I drove back to JoAnne’s place and started some of the weeding around her fence she wanted me to do. Worked for a couple of hours but had to go lay down for a bit. Damn all day hangovers. After a power nap I headed downtown to grab some Micky D’s and went and checked out some live blues music in Pukepara park. Gonna try to get a lot more weeding work done tomorrow now that I’m feeling better.

Friday, Feb. 8, 2008

2008-02-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

After breakfast I hit Back Beach to try out the new surfboard today. It’s smaller than what I’ve tried up to this point, but I think it’ll be good after some practice. I need some more wax, didn’t put enough on before I went. The waves were good today, they seem pretty good everyday… JoAnne’s family is arriving this afternoon for her dad’s 80th bday party, should be around 5 or 6 extra folks around the house tonight.

Got back to her place and fired up the whipper snipper for a couple of hours. I was right, it was fun!

I ended up going to a couple of bars with her niece Leoni and her nephew Hayden. They’re around 23 or 24 I think. Hit the Grumpy Mole and a couple other places. Good times, too much to drink…

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

2008-02-13T00:58:00.000-08:00

Didn’t get a very good sleep last night with the chilly temps and I think there was a stray cat circling my tent. Too bad Moe wasn’t here to be my guard-cat.

I packed up and went and grabbed some breakfast, and met the WWOOFing lady JoAnne around 1pm. She works two jobs and isn’t around her house too much, so she’s looking for some help fixing up her yard/gardens/fruit trees. She’s got apples, grapefruit, lime, and some other trees, and you can smell the citrus when you walk down back.

My first job tomorrow will be to whipper snip the back yard area. Sounds like fun!

I went shopping around for some surf boards at a couple places, and I finally broke down and bought one. It’s a 6’11 OceanImpact (apt name, the ocean always seems to ‘impacting’ me when I’m out there), it’s kind of short for my first board, but it was $275 and next cheapest one was about $650 so since it was my first board I didn’t want to spend too much. Feels good to own one now so I don’t have to worry about renting and I can just pull over to the side of the road whenever I see good surf.

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008

2008-02-13T00:57:00.000-08:00

Packed up this morning and headed south to the Taranaki region (province). I’ve got a reservation at the Top 10 camp ground in New Plymouth tonight. I ended up next to an Irish couple I met back in Waitomo – crazy coincidence…

Not too much going on tonight, went to see No Country for Old Men for my bday movie. What an awesome flick. It was damn cold in the tent last night and tonight, had to bundle up with my touque and gloves. I emailed a lady about doing some WWOOFing while I’m here in New Plymouth, she said to come on by so I’ll go meet her tomorrow.

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008

2008-02-05T22:31:00.001-08:00

Got up early this morning to get some breakfast and meet the cave tour guides for 8:45. We jumped in the 4WD van and headed down some dirt roads through some farmers fields to the rubber boot and wetsuit shack, where we suited up. Then down the road a bit further to the cave entrance.

After Paul the guide showed us how to use the harness and abseiling device, we stood on the edge of a 27m hole and jumped in! This was unbelievable, really awesome. The light was filtering down through the trees into the cave hole, you can see it in the pics.

The whole shtick of these caves is the “glow-worms” on the ceiling. They’re kind of like a lightning bug, but they’re worms that glow to attract insects which get caught in dangling spider-web-like fibres they hang from the ceiling. When we switched off our cave lights it was a pretty impressive light show.

So we plodded around underground, in toobs and on foot for a few hours checking out the glow-worms and the caves. I was pretty impressed, and had a great time.

Monday, Feb. 4, 2008

2008-02-05T22:20:00.000-08:00

Saturday and Sunday were a bit of a write-off, just because I wanted to be lazy. Some computer lessons for Pam (hooking up her Camcorder and Digital Camera).

Monday morning I packed up and headed out for Auckland to check mail, then down to Waitomo for some spelunking adventures.

Checked my mail at the BASE hostel in Auckland, just got the insurance docs for my second car. Then I grabbed some lunch and headed to the insurance company I’m trying to get to pay for my car and filled out another form. Combined with all the previous documentation (police report, letter of explanation, 2 panelbeater quotes, towing receipt, and photos), hopefully this will be enough. But knowing how insurance companies work, I’ll probably still be trying to get my $ in 2011…

Once all that garbage was out of the way, I headed south to Waitomo. It’s about 2.5 hours on the highway, and I’ve heard the cave expeditions are pretty cool. At least the roads in this part of the country are nice and wide!

I arrived in Waitomo and set up the tent at the “Top 10 Holiday Park”, just a basic tent ground. Nice and clean bathrooms anyways.

Friday, Feb. 1, 2008

2008-02-03T21:22:00.002-08:00

Got up early and cooked up some good ol bacon. I drove down the road to a visitor’s center and hiked the 40 min nature trail. Some pretty crazy trees around here.

That didn’t quite satisfy the burly outdoorsman in me, so I stopped by another hiking track on the way back to the surf shack. This was the Nihoputu dam track, 4km each way. After about 20 minutes I came to a crazy waterfall like I had been hoping for.

I took a few pics and taped up a couple of blisters that were starting on my heels. I felt like such a pro. And to top it all off, on the hike back I stopped at a stream and tried out my water filter. That’s right – I drank out of a stream. And it was delicious and cold. What a crazy feeling, somehow not being limited by the amount of water you can carry.

After I got back and had a sweet shower, me and Big Mike went to a neighbour’s to grab an old fridge to bring back. We ended up moving two couches for the lady while we were at it. So that combined with me uploading 6 photos onto their website constituted my WWOOFing duties for the day.

After all that, I chilled out in the surf shack and checked out Michael Moore’s documentary “Sicko”. My god, I’m glad I’m Canadian.

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008

2008-02-03T21:22:00.001-08:00

Yep, definitely burnt my back yesterday. It’s a little tough sitting, laying, driving, blah, blah…

Didn’t do much in the way of WWOOFing work today. Pam’s son Tim is home for his 29th birthday, so she’s busy preparing a BBQ for his mates. Just had scan a few of Big Mike’s surfboard photos to put on the website tomorrow and wipe off the picnic tables! That I can handle. Big Mike shapes surfboards right here in his workshop, just like watching my dad back home grinding away at car panels.

They gave me a free surfboard rental and I headed down to the beach for another try. The sea was pretty rough, combined with my aching, freshly toasted back, I didn’t stay in too long. Did get up on the board a couple times though. I actually got tossed and dragged along the sand – you guessed it – on my fried back. Oooooo…

Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008

2008-02-03T21:21:00.003-08:00

I headed to the next town over, Titiringi, to get my muffler looked at. It’s about a 20 min drive and the closest grocery store, ATM, mechanic, and the list goes on. I finally found one after asking some dude in the convenience store. After about 2 hours of walking around to use the internet and grab a couple ‘necessary items’, the guy called and the car was ready. They ended up just welding some patches over the ‘many’ holes in the exhaust – to save me money. Well, it didn’t sound much better afterwards, I wish they just put on the new parts. Oh well, it’s a little quieter I guess.

Today’s WWOOFing job was to assemble a patio rocker over at Pam’s (the owner) daughters house. She lives just down the street. Pam and I dropped it off, then I came back to get my car and went down to get started. It was pretty smokin’ hot on the back deck where I was assembling this thing, so after 1.5 hours I went down to the beach and jumped in the sea. Oh how sweet it is. After a little stroll up the beach and a quick trip back to the surf shack for some lunch, I went down and finished the furniture assembly after another 1.5 hours. Good work Davidson, only two left over bolts (not a bad ratio from previous experience!)

I went for a walk down to the beach, then just hung out in the shack after supper and checked out the ‘Endless Summer’ (old surfin movie from the 60’s). Ariel’s taking off tomorrow so she watched it too.

I think my back may be a little crispy from the sun today…

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008

2008-02-03T21:21:00.001-08:00

I get up around 8 this morning, and the other WWOOFer here, Ariel from Hawaii, asks if I can give her a drive to the next town over to use the ATM. No prob, I need food anyway and it’s the closest grocery store. We get to ‘Titigingi’ after a 15 min drive and I load up at the grocery store. She finishes her stuff and we head back. I need to find a mechanic one of these days and get a new muffler for the Toyota, sounds a little loud for my liking.

Anyways, I put in my full three hours today, mostly weeding the long driveway and carrying buckets of water around watering plants. Hot day.

I come back to my caravan to discover Pam and Mike’s dog, Spikey, has flipped my cooler lid and helped himself to my steak, bacon, and probably a couple other things I didn’t notice. I should bbq up some doggy for supper…

Feeling kind of beat now after my big 3 hours of work, think I’ll just relax and hit the surf tomorrow. This must be what it feels like to be on “island time”.

Monday, Jan. 28, 2008

2008-02-03T21:18:00.001-08:00

Up bright and early today, can’t wait to get out of this drunken teenager packed frat house. Not my style anymore…

With the car packed up I hit the road back to Piha. Only get lost once this time! I arrive somewhat early so I go for a big walk on the beach and try the track up Lion Rock. At about the half-way point, I seem to get the feeling I may be afraid of heights! I’ve suspected it for some time, but getting a slight feeling of losing my balance seems to confirm it, I’ll have to work on that one… so I head back down.

At around 4pm I finally meet up with Pam and Mike. Pam shows me around the property for about an hour. She shows me all the different tasks that may need to be done on a day to day basis like weeding, gardening, odd jobs like assembling a porch swing and when I tell her I’m a web designer she asks if I can help them put some surf board photos on their website. Sounds good to me, just keep the free accommodation coming.

Mike Jolly is a surfboard shaper and creates boards right here in his garage. Man, this place is sweet. They also rent boards and small ‘caravan’ accommodation. The caravans are like big tool sheds set up as cabins with beds, propane stoves, fridge, and picnic tables. I could get used to this…

I do some weed whackin around my caravan to start out. Just a couple of hours tonight.

Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008

2008-02-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

This morning I walked down Queen St. to grab a Duncan Donuts coffee. Even at Duncan, I’ve been having a hard time getting “regular” coffee. “Flat-white”, “Long-black”, cappa-mocha-whatever. Come on people – give me a large double-double! Is that so difficult?

Anyways after that Martin picked me up to go and get the Toyota. His place is a suburb-town of Auckland called Henderson. I hope I can find my way back…

So I get the deal done and everything goes silky. I decide to drive to the west coast and check out Piha – a big time surfer destination. Along the way I get kind of lost (as usual) and end up at another killer beach called Bethells. It’s pretty amazing with big waves and cliffs and caves right on the beach.

So after an hour or so there just checking it out, I head back on the road to find Piha. This treacherous mountain road driving is starting to get to me. You can lose focus on the road for 2 seconds or you’ll end up careening over a sheer cliff face. The only thing protecting you is some ferns along the road! Left-right-left-right, the roads are making me nauseous…

When I finally arrive in Piha, the drive was worth it – as usual. Crazy view coming down the mountain road into the village. Big rock formations right on the beach “Lion Rock”, it actually looks like a lion laying down looking out to sea. So I walk around for a while and check out the beach, and I decide I’ll move here tomorrow for a while! There’s a couple in my WWOOF book (WorldwideWorkersOnOrganicFarms) named Pam and Mike Jolly who operate a surf rental shop and backpacker accommodation in Piha. The general idea is that I work 3 hours a day in return for free accommodation. This was a big part of plan in coming to NZ, and this will be my first try.

I jump in the car and head back to the Auckland hostel (25min drive), and of course get lost a couple more times. I eventually arrive at my place and send Pam and Mike an email and Pam promptly responds saying she’d be glad to have me come by, and to pop in Monday afternoon to get set up.

Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008

2008-02-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

I grabbed the newspaper first thing and started scanning for cars. Quite a few to choose from – now if I can just get the people to drive the cars here for me to see!

The first one was a 90 Ford Falcon station wagon. The guy was trying to convince me to walk halfway and meet him. Ok, even though I know I’ll get lost. So 25 minutes into the walk I’m lost. I text him on his cell and tell him where I’m at, and he drives over to meet me and pick me up. The car seems in good enough shape, but it’s too big – 4L engine. That’s a lot of gas…

At 4pm the second car is brought by for me to check out. This is just like the one I had that got cremed, but white and standard transmission. I take it for a drive and it seems pretty good for the price as well. I still have one more to check out around 6pm so I tell the guy maybe.

At 6pm, a guy named Martin comes by to pick me up and drive me to his place on the other side of town. He runs a small used car dealership out of his yard. Come to think of it, the first car I bought was from a guy named Martin… Anyways the car was a 1989 Toyota Corona – not Corolla – Corona, that seems pretty basic and simple which is what I want. So I decide to take it. He said he’ll pick me up in the morning and come back to get it. Sweet.

Saturday night, I walked up Queen St. to the SkyCity cinemas and checked out “Cloverfield”. What an awesome movie – way better than I expected. I’m not usually a fan of handycam movies, but this director made it work.

Friday, Jan. 25, 2008

2008-01-25T15:14:00.001-08:00

Got up at 7am this morning, I want to get on the road asap. There was noone at the desk to take my money, so I just left $60 for the 3 nights I stayed behind the front desk with a note. I think that’s the right amount…

Today’s plan is kind of crazy:

- drive north to Auckland 2 hours and check in to my hostel
- drag all my luggage out of the rental car and up to my room
- drive north to Orewa 40 minutes to return the rental car
- get 2 ‘panelbeaters’ (bodymen) to look at my crumpled car in Orewa and give me repair estimates for the insurance company
- catch the bus back to Auckland

This whole scheme of mine seemed like a longshot at best, but somehow, someway, everything went off exactly as you see it listed above. And I got back to Auckland about 4 hours earlier than I anticipated. I should buy a lotto ticket today.

I got myself a private room in the hostel this time for 3 days. I don’t want to hang out in the big city – I just want to find another car asap and hit the road again. Let’s see how January’s second car hunt goes tomorrow.

Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008

2008-01-25T15:13:00.003-08:00

Got up and had a quick lite breakfast, and went an rented a surfboard from the front desk - $20. Neck’s feeling a little better today as well. I called Avis’s insurance number since I got the name of the guy who rear-ended me and totaled my car from the Urewa Police last night. Apparently I need two quotes on the cost to fix it, then have to fax Avis a letter telling them what I want. I’ll have to wait till I get to Urewa on Friday to arrange all that. At least I got the ball rolling.

So I headed over to Ngarunui beach and suited up in my wetsuit. Left the car keys in the car and just put the remote in my inner pocket.

Got in the water and it was really sweet, sun was beaming down. Got up on the board a couple of more times. I was only there about an hour, I figured I come back down this afternoon and I didn’t want to wear myself out.

I go back to the parking lot and lo and behold, the saltwater shorted out the remote in my wetsuit pocket, so I’m locked out of the car. Serenity now.

I figured I’d take the remote apart and let it dry out on the roof of the car for a few minutes. 5 minutes go by and I put the remote back together. Nothing happens. Serenity now (whenever I type ‘Serenity now’ it means I’m freaking out inside and trying to ‘Zen’ the panic away…)

So I take the remote apart again, and let it cook on the roof of the car for another 5 minutes. It worked! Thank god. Show me the A/C.

Back to the lodge for a quick shower and some pizza. Maybe I’ll try out one of those free kayaks this afternoon.

I grabbed one of the kayaks and went out for about an hour. The water is tropical green all around here. When I got back from the kayak, I was feeling a little worn out. Won’t be surfing again tonight! I tried to squeeze in a quick 9 holes of golf up the street, but I missed the twilight tee off time by half an hour. Oh well.

Just took it easy the rest of the night, BBQ’d up some steak and watched ‘The Guardian’ in the lodge.

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008

2008-01-25T15:13:00.001-08:00

I got up with a little bit of a sore neck, but nothing too serious. I keep thinking how lucky I was my snowboard didn’t decapitate me or something in that car wreck. I headed across the street for some scrambled eggs and bacon at the ‘Tongue & Groove’ lounge. Not too bad, a little pricey like everything else in this country.

I decided to go check out the beach and see some of these pro Raglan surfers. There are a few beaches close by, Manu bay is for experience surfers and Nguinui is the ‘beginners’ beach. At Manu, it’s a rocky shore line and you have to jump off the rocks to get into the water. I sat on the hill by the parking lot and watched these guys giver’. Pretty cool, there are big waves and dudes were riding for like 15 seconds or more.

Then I headed over to Nguinui. It’s a little closer to the the lodge I’m staying at, and for a beginners beach it’s pretty heavy. As big as anything I’ve tried yet! I’m not surfing today, just scoping out the waves, I’ll come back down here tomorrow. I went back to the lodge and had some lunch, and went for a walk around this little town. Really nice spot, definitely gonna come back here.

I just chilled at the lodge all night, did some reading and watched a couple DVD’s with a couple from Vancouver and Phil from England.

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008

2008-01-25T15:12:00.001-08:00

Today was my last day here at the Endless Summer Lodge up north. I got up around 7am and packed up the car. Skipped breakfast so I could get on the road, I have an 8 hour drive ahead of me.

Everything was going swimmingly, had been on the road about 5.5hrs, and was coming close to Auckland. It had been raining on and off the whole way, which can be treacherous with these crazy winding mountain roads. So in a place called Orewa, about 20 minutes north of Auckland, I was coming down a particularly steep section of highway #1 in bumper to bumper traffic as it really started to downpour. We were going about 40kph, when the car in front of me suddenly hit its breaks. I hit mine and the wheels locked up and I slid about 15’ right into the back of them. Instantly I was smashed from behind, totally crumpling my wagon/trunk.

Well, 14 years of driving and my first car accident. Not too bad overall, I’d say. Anyways, I got a bit of a bang in the back of my head from my seat’s headrest, but other than that came out unscathed. The old couple I hit were fine as well, although a little shaken up. It seemed to be quite an inconvenience to the wife, as she had an appointment to keep in Auckland. Well, excuse me, next time I choose to get in a highway crash, I’ll pick someone who has a free afternoon!

The couple who crashed into me from behind were Polish, they didn’t talk much. Well, I should say the husband didn’t talk much, as his wife had smacked her head and was knocked out. I was quite scared to look at her, her eyes were rolled back and mouth hanging open, so I called 111 right away (NZ’s 911), and the cops and ambulance and fire showed up in less than 5 minutes. They attended to the Polish woman right away and it turned out she was fine, just got knocked out for a minute. She had a little bit of a black eye, but other than that she was ok and walking around in no time.

So I gave the cops my statement and the tow trucks loaded up all the cars. Mine was totaled in the back end, all smashed in, glass all broken out and rear passenger side wheel locked up as the fender was crushed in on it. I managed to get a few pics before it was loaded on the tow truck.

One week and car go bye-bye. ☹

The next 3 hours were spent getting a rental car, going to the tow yard and loading up all my gear from the mangled remains of my “new” Legacy. I talked to the insurance people and it seems all good, I have to go after the guy who hit me from behind for money, and the people I hit will have to come after me. The guy who hit me had an Avis rental Toyota Rav 4, so I think I have to contact Avis. This should be fun.

After all that, I got back on the road to Raglan down south. I decided I might as well keep my reservation and take the next few days to figure out my next move. I think I’ve got a plan – but it’ll take a few days at least to work itself out. Stay tuned.

I finally arrived at Raglan around 7:45pm (11 hours traveling including car wreck and clean up) – not too bad overall. This place is pretty cool and the hostel, “Raglan Backpackers” is really nice. Free kayaks and bike rental, three to a room, decks on the water – sweet. I think I’ll come back here after I return to Auckland on Friday to straighten out my car business.

Time for bed. What a day.

Monday, Jan. 21, 2008

2008-01-25T15:11:00.001-08:00

Today the waves were pumpin’! I think there was a little rain last night – enough to get the ocean moving. Me and George ate a quick breakfast then rented a couple of surf boards from the lodge owner. They were 7’9” Bics – beginner boards, perfect for us. George is at the same level as me, which is to say, the bottom level.

So with our wetsuits on we headed into the water, nice and warm once we got in – the warm sun beating down doesn’t hurt either. We both did pretty good, got up about 5-6 times, and had the longest ride I’ve had so far – about 10 seconds. Sounds short but it feels a lot longer when your cruising along.

After that first session and having swallowed about 2L of salt water, we went back to the lodge for a break. I headed into Kaitaia for some lunch and set up a quick blog using McDonald’s wireless internet connection.

Then headed back to the lodge and sat in the sun and read for a while. Then me and George decided to go back into the water and try the surf again. Unfortunately, the tide was out and the waves were no good, plus I finally spotted some of those Jellyfish we were told about, as on slid right across the deck of my surfboard as I was paddling out. Jellyfish freak me out.

Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008

2008-01-20T16:13:00.001-08:00

Slept good again last night. Apparently there was some partying going on across the street and our host was worried it might have kept us awake, but I didn’t hear anything. I was hoping for sun and big waves today, but instead got clouds and a flat ocean. Oh well, I’ve still got a couple more days here before I head South along the West coast to Raglan and I’m sure the waves will be agreeable soon. Come on waves…

So I just spent some time typing up this journal, reading the paper, and having a light breakfast. Around noon I headed down to town and the Austrian guy in the bunk above me (George) came along for the ride. We grabbed some groceries and a bit of lunch then headed back to the lodge. I chilled out on the porch and did some reading and soaked in the views of the blue-green Tasman sea across the street.

Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008

2008-01-20T16:12:00.002-08:00

Slept pretty good in the tent last night, despite not having a pillow. I just stuffed my sweater in the air mat sack and it worked ok. Some jerk driving on the beach buzzed my tent – came about 5 feet from my door. I looked at the tracks in the sand and you could see where he swerved to try and freak me out – it worked.

Anyway, I went about taking down the tent and packing up the gear. An old fella who lived nearby stopped on his morning walked with his dog for a little chat, telling me about the tides and the fishing, and how those young people on the quad bikes were the most dangerous thing is his 35 years of living here. He was pretty cool, although I found it a little hard to understand everything he was saying with that thick NZ accent.

So I walked back down to the car and packed it up. Stopped by a little take-out joint for a bacon and egg burger, I thought it might be like an egg mcmuffin, but it turned out to be a hamburger with a whole fried egg, bacon, lettuce, onions, beats – nice lite breakfast…

I decided to take a little drive around before checking in to the Endless Summer Lodge, and I ended up on a 25km dirt road. Turns out there are a lot of these in New Zealand. Pretty funny, every 10km or so you come across some house with cars and a lawn in the middle of what looks like tropical jungle. Once I finally emerged back onto pavement, I headed the grocery store in Kaitaia to pick up some grub for supper.

Back in Ahipara, I checked in to the Endless Summer Lodge. This is a nice chilled out place, much more relaxing than the hostel in Auckland, which was quickly filling up with drunk kids partying for the weekend. I threw a steak on the BBQ, and met a few folks from Germany, a guy from Austria, and a fellow Canadian girl from Victoria. We played a few games of cards and had a couple of beers, then off to bed.

Friday, Jan. 18, 2008

2008-01-20T16:12:00.001-08:00

Got up early this morning, checked out of BASE, and loaded all my stuff into the car. Gassed up, got some road food and ice and hit the road by 8am.

I was pretty nervous about driving – not just because of the “left-hand of the road” thing, but just like any big city traffic and off ramps can be hard to figure out at the best of times.

But it turned out great, just a couple of blocks and I was on the #1 highway North. I finally got a chance to see some of the New Zealand views I’ve heard about.

After 1.5 hours drive North, I arrived in Whangarei (pronounced ‘Fan-Ger-Ay’). Stopped at a surf shop looking for a used board, but they were too expensive for my first one - $660 for the cheapest used board! I’ll wait…

So I hit the road North for another 1.5 hours and arrived in Paihia – what I thought was supposed to be a surf town, but I didn’t see any waves, and there was nowhere to buy a board here. Oh well, screw it – I’m going straight to Ahipara on the west coast where I have a reservation for Sunday night. That’ll let me camp on the beach tonight, and they said they might have an early vacancy tomorrow night anyways.

Another 1.5 hours straight across from the east to west coasts, with some of the windiest roads I’ve ever seen, I arrived in Kaitaia, a small town just before Ahipara with grocery stores and gas. Picked up a few things then headed down the road 15km to Ahipara.

This is more like it! Beach, waves, and sun… Went for a walk down the beach and saw all the vehicles that drive on it and use it for an actual legal highway (NZer’s know how to enjoy themselves…). The water’s a little cooler than I expected – good thing I packed my wetsuit.

I decided to try my car on this beach highway, it is an All Wheel Drive afterall. It seemed to go pretty good. I stopped to take a picture of my car on the beach, and when I went to take off the wheels started spinning – Oh S@#t! But I eased it into reverse and managed to get going again. Whew…

I drove around for a bit and found a place to park by the beach entrance. Loaded up the camping gear into my pack and headed down the beach to find a spot to pitch a tent. Walked about 10 minutes and found a good flat spot above the high tide mark and set up camp. By now it’s about 7:30pm.

Once camp was up I just sat back and took in the views. These are supposed to be the best sunsets in the country, and it didn’t disappoint. Around 8:30pm I tried out the new mini stove – it boiled a cup of water in 1 minute flat – pretty sweet! Tried out a freeze-dried camper meal – Beef Teyiaki – not too bad. Getting tired now, hit the bed around 9:45pm.

Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008

2008-01-20T16:11:00.000-08:00

Today’s mission, get my cash out of the ATM to buy the car. Because of my account daily limit, I can only get out a certain amount per day, and it’s not enough for the car.

Plan B: try the VISA card. Same problem…

Plan C: call RBC. Well, turns out I can’t direct dial from my cell phone, so I gotta go get a phone card from the front desk. I finally get hold of an RBC operator, but she can’t hear me because of the cell signal. Sigh…

I try calling 5 more times. International calling using a cell phone and a phone card feels like I’m using a telegraph machine – S.O.S.

Finally I get hold of a guy who says in order to get a ‘wire transfer’ I need to send a letter with and original signature to RBC with a page full of info I don’t have.

Serenity Now.

Serenity Now.

After I ‘calmly’ explain to him that would take 2 months, and the guy is coming by to sell me the car in one hour – he comes up with a plan to increase my daily ATM limit so I can get all my money when I want it. I say “Yes please”.

So then I go grab a StarBucks vanilla latte (f@#$ing delicious btw…) and walk back over to the hostel with a fat wad of $NZ twenties to meet Martin about the car. He brings it by and parks it, then we wald over to the Post Office to transfer the registration. $9. Sweet. We shake hands and part company.

Now I have a car.

Insurance isn’t mandatory over here, but my momma didn’t raise no fool – so my next mission is to get some. I talk to a couple of places, and settle on getting it from the Band of NZ – same place I opened a bank account. $170 a year for PL, PD, Fire and Theft – and that’s expensive to these people! $16/month, I’ll take it!

Insert lunch here.

Next up I go walking to the shops to pick up a few last pieces of gear for camping – stove, cooler, and a security “club” bar for the car steering wheel. A quick walk back to the grocery store parking garage where I’m “borrowing” some free parking for the afternoon (thanks Food Land), then back to the hostel for a nap.

Oh, I almost forgot – the airport found and delivered my snowboard bag first thing this morning. There was a basket ball-sized hole ripped out of the bottom – looked like a rabid security dog went digging for a milk-bone. Somehow, none of my clothes fell out and the board wasn’t damaged. Small miracles.

Car. Insurance. Snowboard bag. I can finally relax, everything’s done that I need to get done. I’m leaving first thing in the morning for Ahipara – a small beach town in the northern part of the country. I called the “Endless Summer Lodge” to reserve a bunk, but they’re full until Sunday. Sounds good to me, I can finally break out my tent.

Big day. Good day.

Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008

2008-01-20T16:10:00.004-08:00

Had a deep, refreshing sleep my first night in Auckland at the hostel – finally! Feels like I haven’t slept for a week after that punishing flight. Jet lag sucks, kind of feels like a hangover without the benefit of forgetting everything that happened the night before.

Got up at 6:30am, out the door by 7:30. Grabbed breakfast at some café called Ronnies. Dat some good breakfast. 2 eggs, toast, about 8 pieces of back bacon, a whole tomato, and a coffee for $10. From what I’ve seen so far, this is the only good deal in town, everything here seems really expensive. $20 for sunscreen???

Opened a Bank of New Zealand account. Now I just gotta figure out how to get my RBC cash transferred over. Got a cell phone too (sorry mom, just for emergencies!). Sweet. Next on the ‘list’, buy a car… this could be a tricky one.

I called a few people in the newspaper and the hostel bulletin boards about cars for sale. Some didn’t answer, some were sold. I got a hold of one guy named Martin, he said he’d bring his car by the hostel for me to check out – awesome!

So he came by and the car was just what I was looking for – 1989 Subaru Legacy AWD wagon, automatic (driving on the left will be hard enough – I don’t want to have to shift with my left hand too!). I know you’re supposed to shop around when buying a car (dad!), but it’s hard when you’re on foot and don’t want to spend all your money on cabs driving around town to look. So I told him I’d take it. Now if I can just get my cash from RBC Canada…

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008

2008-01-20T16:10:00.003-08:00

Well to continue my streak of great travel luck, Air New Zealand lost my snowboard bag (which also had all my clothes and prescription meds. Awesome. 3 more days till the old stomach starts to burn. Sigh.

Hopped a bus to downtown from the Auckland airport to the BASE hostel. Finally got a much needed shower, I didn’t realize I could smell that bad… I also washed my shirt and socks in the shower with me – sweet just like the cave men! Then I headed out to go for a walk around Auckland. The weather here is better than I had hoped – 25˚C, dry, nice breeze – f@#$*ing awesome. The cleanest, most beautiful city I’ve ever seen.

And, while I’m no Cool Cat Carrie, I have been to a few cities in my day! Everyone in this town looks like they just came out of some magazine ad.

Grabbed some BK for lunch and took a sweet afternoon siesta from 2-6pm. Got up and grabbed some SubWay for dinner, then went and caught Alien VS Predator to keep myself out of the bars!

Monday, Jan. 14, 2008

2008-01-20T16:10:00.001-08:00

Got on the flight to Auckland and took off at 10pm. What a shitty flight! 12 hours – no sleep, no leg room, no thanks… I did sit next to a cool guy from N.Y. We talked about IT work at all that crap, and it turned out he was the computer network guy traveling with the Police tour (you know, Sting…). Cool. Some old fart on the plane had some kind of delirious alzheimer’s moment and we almost had to make an emergency stop. Although I don’t know where we’d stop over the middle of the pacific. Maybe some island nation for some good voodoo medicine? He was alright though in the end, just needed a little oxygen and some hand holding by the flight attendants.

Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008

2008-01-20T16:09:00.001-08:00

Got up at 6:30am and caught the hotel shuttle van to the T.O. airport at 7:20am. At the ticket counter I find out there’s been another screw up by Air Canada. Well, I’m just so surprised. The itinerary print out I was given in S.J. said Los Angeles, but the Air Canada computer said San Francisco and that I already missed my flight. Awesome! I guess when she changed the booking in S.J., she neglected to telegraph the change to Air Canada headquarters in Pakistan.

Luckily the woman was nice and was able to re-book me (does that make 4 times now since yesterday morning?) back to L.A. Now I’m supposed to arrive in NZ 7:15am Tuesday.

The 5 hour flight to L.A. was good. Watched some “Man VS Wild” (can’t get enough of that Bear Grylls guy) and saw my first episode of “Dexter” – that’s an awesome show (you were right-on about that one Marshall). And even though I had the book in my bag, I decided to watch “Into the Wild”, hopefully it won’t ruin the book totally. I caught the whole thing except the last 20 mins. D’oh! I had been waiting to see this one since it wasn’t released in S.J.

It was 23˚C in L.A., much better than T.O! Now I just have to kill 7 hours in the LAX airport. Let’s see if I can scam some free internet…

Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008

2008-01-20T16:07:00.000-08:00

Today’s the day of the big flight. Had to get up at 3am to get ready and get to the airport by 5am. Once there, we all boarded the flight on time, only to be told we had to disembark due to a faulty landing gear sensor. Well, I suppose that’s something I want to work so I won’t complain. So the next flight was rescheduled for 12noon. At 12 the flight was still not ready so that makes two trips through security screening. Starting to wonder… The ticket agent’s next bright idea was to book us on a bus to Moncton where we could catch a flight, “Just to get us moving”. Well, ok. Just as we sat down to wait for the bus, pilot radio’s in that the plane is fixed and ready to go. So third trip through security’s a charm. Do I really want to fly on this bucket-o-bolts? What the hell.

The flight to Toronto was smooth and quick. Air Canada put me up in a Sheraton to catch the next flight to L.A. in the morning. Ate a great dinner at the hotel and felt way better. I went to see “I Am Legend” at the IMAX, turned out to be my most expensive movie ever – took a $22 cab ride there, ticket and popcorn was $28, cab ride back to the hotel was $25 for a grand total of $75 to see Will Smith kick some zombie ass. Luckily the movie was actually really good, way better than I expected. Mikey gives two thumbs up.

My laptop was able to pick up some free internet in the hotel room, so I was able to cancel my Monday night hostel reservation in NZ that I wasn’t going to be able to make due to the flight situation.

Gotta be to the airport by 8am tomorrow to catch my flight to L.A. at 10am. Then an 8 hour lay-over in the L.A. airport and on to NZ from there. Supposed to arrive in NZ 4:30pm Tuesday.