To sum it up

So my adventures in New Zealand are coming to an end. I have been invited to stay with my host family until my departure which is very nice, one less thing to worry about.
To sum up all of my adventures here I shall begin with my arrival. I got into auckland on the 20th of January. My host family lives kinda outside of Auckland so it would have been a $70 cab ride. luckely I found free internet at the airport and found not only where they live, maps and direcitions, but a cheap bus ride over there. little did i know at the time but I was riding the same bus as some of my host family's friends, their daughter Natilie was waiting on the street to meet them and saw my confusion. That night they were having a party (not for us, just good timing on our part). A few beers into the night I had bought into a poker game, $10. a couple hours later and many beers later we were all having a good time, it was a close match but i pulled away $40 richer. We stayed with another host family the next night, they gave us some suggestions on where to visit, so we made plans to head to the south island. An 11 hour bus ride, a stay over in Wellington (a beautiful city that prides theirselves on every 20 something being an extra in the Lord of the Rings movie.) and a 3 hour ferry. We rented a little POS Ford Festiva and traveled some odd 3000 miles, or as they call it over here, 3000 kilometers! Strange. Camping, hiking, boat rides through fiords, climbing. One climbing spot, filled with hippies, we thought they were playing flutes, I kept trying to find these hippies, turns out they were birds. Back to the north island, a few hitchs up north, a stay over in a crappy little town called North Polmerston, a bus ride to a little town just outside of hamilton, a couple of hitchs to some climbing, then some camping, then back to Auckland where I am right now. Eric and I just took out a kyak around the bay, had some fun sloshing around in the sea. Eric leaves pretty soon for Australia, then I will follow in a couple of days. Thats about it right now.

North Island, Auckland

Here in Auckland, awesome city, much like Seattle. Same kinda people, same scene, etc. Last night I went out on my own to get a picture of the sky tower, I forgot my memory card, but I met a German guy who bought me some beer. about 4 beers later the bartender gets up and says , "awhhh letsgetouthere, findus a real party, youin?" why not i says. so he closed up the bar and about 5 of us went to a night club, 70's disco kinda thing. I get up to the bouncer and he says, "Na mate, cant go in there like tha, you need trousers." "trousers?" "Yeah long pants" (I only have one pair of pants and I just roll them up to make them into shorts), so I rolled them down and said, "this alright?" "ya sure mate". I also go a free shot from the bartender at the club, I walked up to him and said, "Give me your biggest, cheapest, strongest drink." he had to think about it, so he just gave me a beer and then poured me a shot and said it was on the house. HA!
We did a lot of climbing in a little place about 200k south of Auckland, mostly farm land. there were goats and sheep walking around us while we climbed, kinda funny. we really didnt have much of a plan to get back to Auckland, and we were miles away from civilization. well the day we left we packed up everything and walked out on the road and within 1 minute with our thumbs out a truck (mind you there wasnt much traffic around) came out of nowhere and offered us a ride. he dropped us off pretty close to a place called Hamilton about 100k south of Auck, again within about 2 minutes with our thumbs out someone picked us up and drove us into hamilton and to the bus stop where (now this was just perfect timeing) there was a bus for about $20 heading into Auck that was leaving in 5 minutes. jumped on the bus and we were off, no worries. it was amazing how quick that went, we had actually planed to stay in hamilton that night but everything just worked out so well.
Right now we are staying with a host family, Sue and Bruce. They have an awesome place right near the bay, beautiful view.

New Zealand

Hitchin' into Kihikihi, pronounced somewhere along the lines of kitty-kitty, well at least thats what I kept calling it.

Ahhh, back in my day....
We got a Ford Festiva to drive around the south island

To say the least, it scared and confused us.

to the point of our primal instincts
Out on the farm... climbing


near Fox Glacier

For Andy Cameron

Eric Climbing every chance he can get in New Zeland

Fiji

Our host family in Suva, Fiji

Willson!!!

The water was a bit cold

This looks like an album cover, a christian album cover...
Later a coconut fell on his head

Accually the real story is much less interesting.

Thats me
This picture is one of the best I have ever taken, its so beautiful that there are no words to describe its greatness, there for I will make one up. Scrumtrulecent. Its Scrumtrulecence was so divine, i cried for hours.
later that day we swam by a white tip reef shark, oh about 6 feet long. but by the time i get back from my trip the shark will probably be a 30 foot shark that attacked us, then bears swam in to feast on us too, but luckely I had my trusty bear/shark mace.

What does fiji really need an army for anyhow? who would be that much of a jackass to invade fiji? who I ask, who?!
Eric climbing around a swimmin' hole with our guide that took us to the top of a peak.
This peak