From me, in the future, to you

I have been in New Zealand now for nearly two weeks. Recently I discovered that while I had thought before that NZ is only four hours behind the Western US, it is actually twenty hours ahead. So that means that while most of you are out having a pre-Halloween party on this Saturday night (now Sunday morning), it is my late Sunday evening. That's right; I'm in the future.

What can I tell you? I've spent a lot of money. All the expensive, adventurous things have been done, including a tour up to Cape Reinga, complete with duneboarding, swimming with the dolphins in the Bay of Islands, blackwater rafting through the glow worm caves, and a Maori hangi (traditional meal and ceremony). Those are the big things. In the month or so that I have left in this country I plan on saving my money more as I move on to the south island and begin my series of hikes.

Right now I'm in Wellington, the capital city of NZ, and I love it here. When I first landed I spent five days in Auckland which I regret daily. Wellington has a much more interesting culture, with museums, art galeries, cafes of every variety, mainstream and independent cinemas, and horrible weather. It is constantly windy, and if you add any amount of rain to that (such was the case all day today) it's miserable. Last night I went to the NZ Film Archive and watched a 1975 documentary about the Maori Land Crossing - when the Maori tribes walked from the northern most point of the north island to Wellington in protest of their treatment by the government.

Staying in youth hostels has been an excellent way to meet people. Nearly everyone here is friendly and willing to share a story or two. Or a beer or two. Mostly I've made friends with people from the UK and Germany. Sometimes I get teased for my accent, but not too often. Early on I dropped a lot of my American slang and started picking up British and Kiwi words and speaking rhythms. The New Zealand phrase of choice is "sweet as." Sweet as what, I'm not sure, but my entertaining one-person joke for awhile was to pretend that anyone saying this was actually saying "sweet ass." Right...

I've posted a few pictures of my trip on my flickr account. More may follow, but the internet here is very expensive, so be patient with me.

http://flickr.com/photos/vivalime/

Much love to all of you, friends.