I was settling into life in New Plymouth. I was working at the motel, I had just started a new job at Lonestar (not the same chain as in the US) waiting tables, surfing heaps and just found a place to do jiu jitsu. About 3 weeks ago I got an email from my sister informing me that my dad had been diagnosed with lung cancer and had spread to his stomach. The doctor has given him less than a year to live. I did the only thing I could think of which was to buy a plane ticket and get [View Full Entry]

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I know its been a while since my last entry but I haven't had any good adventures lately. No good stories and to quote Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia Founder) "Adventure doesn't start until something goes wrong". By that definition, my adventure has definitely started but lately its been a little lackluster. The day after I got back to Taranaki, Barney and I had a good surf at Kumera Patch. After Barney got back from work that night, we drove down to Wellington for the weekend. Barney's girlfriend's birthday was on Saturday. After being in the middle of nowhere for the past week [View Full Entry]

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After getting my van running again and possibly starting a job soon, I was itching to get back on the road again and go on a mini surf trip. I drove all day to get to Ahipara. By the time I was less than a hour out of Auckland, it was dark so I wasn't able to enjoy the scenery. I arrived in Ahipara late Thursday night. Since it was around 12, I didn't want to pay to stay somewhere so I just parked in this little piece of grass on the side of the road and set up camp. I [View Full Entry]

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From Raglan, I made the journey to Taranaki. Driving in New Zealand can be so fun. It's totally not stressful and at times you can go for miles before even seeing another car. Also, there might be 2 major 4-6 line highways on the whole island so 95% of the roads are 2 lane mountainous, country roads. Again, on my way to Taranaki, I got to drive through more magnificently scenic reserves. This time I took the time to pull over and snap off a few pictures. When I was still in Raglan, Mike and Rob had already been to Taranaki [View Full Entry]

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Mike and I have a beautiful drive back to Raglan through the National Reserves. Mike's not much for taking pictures so no pics. The reserves are huge and it takes hours to drive through them. A third of the drive back to Raglan was through the reserves. Good on ya New Zealand for protecting their native land and vegetation and not selling out to developing every inch of it. The reserves have thick forests of ferns, palm trees and other native trees on mountains with steep slopes that lead into beautiful, wide rivers. It weird because it totally reminds me of [View Full Entry]

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New Zealand is a very beautiful place. I've heard that the South Island is even more beautiful because it has more dramatic scenery but the North Island is very beautiful too. Both islands have very drastically different environments within a very short distance which makes it so beautiful. Its colder than I was expecting. I was expecting a San Diego type winter but I think it's more like Central California. I heard that this is the coldest winter they have had in 10 years. I guess I timed it perfectly. Coming here is kinda like going back in time when your [View Full Entry]

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Before I left the States, I contacted a person selling a van on-line. I arranged to meet Pip at the airport when I arrived. I met Pip and checked out the van. It looked like it was exactly what I wanted so I took it for a test drive. That was an experience. Within 10 minutes of being in New Zealand, I was driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car. When there is traffic on the road, it's easy but when I turn onto an empty road I still have to remind myself [View Full Entry]

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