jrink

And that's it, folks. Back again in Durham, putting my life back together after an amazing dream. I slept terribly on the flights back -- maybe 5 hours on the 8-hour flight, and almost not at all on the last 4-hour redeye from LAX. I got into RDU at 5:30am, had a bit of a shuttle snafu but was still home by 6:15 or so. I know that you're supposed to stay awake for the day to get used to the time change, but it was physically impossible for me, especially since it was still dark. So, I crashed, hoping to wake up by 10 or so. But I was so freaking wiped, whenever I woke up I felt terrible and my shoulder tendons were shaking. It's kind of a weird feeling to describe, but there ... read more

Well, I'll say this of staying with people you find on couchsurfing.org: if you can roll with the punches, you may have some amazing experiences you did not expect. My host in Paihia was Josh, a native-born kiwi and self-professed pirate. He is renting a house in Russell, a small yacht-favoring town just outside of Paihia in the Bay of Islands. He often hosts people and friends in his house, so there were 8 people that were there the first night I stayed! The bedrooms/couches/cottage were all taken, but they had an air mattress and a gorgeous view so I just slept outside on the porch under the stars. It was amazing! Josh is an interesting character, a "retired" programmer and entrepreneur who now hangs around and spends his money as he sees fit. (Apparently his ... read more

I'm honestly not sure if this place could get even more awesome. It's like the perfect storm of good things has happened: good food, good fun, good people. Last night I stopped by a Thai restaurant on a whim (this place is full of small international food restaurants off the main street, the Thai place had their windows open so the delicious smells leaked out) and sat down at a small table by myself outside. Within about 5 minutes a Chinese girl came to sit at the other table, and since she was alone I invited her over to my table to eat together. It was great! Grace works in Nanjing at a private school for Australian students, they cycle over for 5-week periods, and since she was on holiday she was traveling New Zealand for ... read more

Happy 2014, to one and all, from Wellington! The city is located on the very south tip of the Northern Island, and it is the farthest south that I will go on this journey. It's a port city, with a lot of cafes and bars on the waterfront. I couchsurfed one night and stayed in a backpackers in the second night, both of them located in downtown Wellington. The feel of downtown really reminded me of New York, with buses running, stores everywhere, interesting people walking by, the whole shebang. There also seem to be a lot of artists in Wellington, so that's another parallel. There are many things to see and do in Wellington, but the only thing I did was visit Te Papa, the AWESOME museum they have there. Most of the museum is ... read more

Today I faced the mighty Tongariro Alpine Crossing! It's a day hike, about 20 km (13 miles) long, traveling up to the base of some active volcanoes and then over and down. It's ranked as one of the most picturesque day hikes in the world, and, importantly, mount Tongariro is what they used for Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings. The crossing does not begin or end in the same place, you hike from one carpark (parking lot) to another, so you have to arrange some sort of transportation to drop you off and pick you up. I'd arranged transport with the Alpine Hot Bus via email before leaving the states, and it was due to pick me up from Mike and Kicki's (see the next entry for all about Kicki and Mike!) at ... read more