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Published: February 20th 2008
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Hello. It's Wednesday, February 20th, at 8:30 p.m. I am writing from an internet cafe in Hastings, after spending the whole day at work in a vineyard. Because the contractor I work for couldn't get me a ride from the motel I'm staying at to the apple orchard, I ended up working at a vineyard instead, clipping nets together around grapes so that the birds can't get to them. It's an easy job, and it pays $12/hr. Sweet as. Also, he hooked me up with a room at an old motel called the Aladdin that has been turned into an apartment building, with rent at $70/week, which automatically gets deducted from my paycheck. I live their with a British girl named Kaylee who has been working in Hastings on and off for 2 years.
Monday was probably the best day of my trip so far, and I saw the prettiest sights I have seen in New Zealand. I took a ferry through the Haraki gulf(sp?), which gave me beautiful views of the city, and after 35 minutes stepped onto Waiheke Island, which I believe is a must visit for anyone in Auckland. I took a bunch of photos, but half
way through the day, my camera stopped working and still isn't working, so hopefully I can find a camera shop here in Hastings that can handle it. I went there with a friend named Sarah, and she took a couple sweet pics, which I will upload. The island is beautiful and remote, although nearly 8,000 people live on it. Most of the houses are summer houses for rich Aucklanders. I went swimming at a couple beaches, one of which was in a town, and the other was at a secluded bay. It was pretty cool, and beautiful. The water was like the caribbean, a turqoise or aqua color. We walked along a bunch of paths, which took us for a trip through the woods, or the "bush" as Sarah called it, and took over 4 hours. At times I felt like I was in an Amazonian rainforest. It gave us beautiful views of the entire island (we actually climbed to the highest point in the island, and at this point I realized my camera was broken, so I couldn't take any of those pictures.
We ate lunch at this bohemian place in the town of Oneroa, and had some
cool different foods from there. (I was craving a hamburger, but that wasn't an option. I made up for it with dinner. BK, baby.) Around 7 or 8, we hitchhiked back to the ferry and caught the ride across as it became dark. It was a really sweet day.
Tuesday morning, I got up early, checked out, and went to skycity to catch a bus to Hastings. That ride, which cut right through the center of the North Island, was breathtaking in the least. The land here is just so raw, so new, so fresh. The volcanic forces that created New Zealand did so extremely recently in world history. If the history of the world were the length of year with right now being midnight on december 31, NZ was created about noon today. Because of this, the unrelenting hands of time, wind, and weather haven't touched the land. The rivers passed through canyons that haven't been cut like the Grand Canyon, and the mountains are younger than the youthful rockies. In Maori, New Zealand is known as the land of the long white cloud (Aeroea, i think it is spelled), and I could see why on the ride.
Clouds, sky, and unbroken breathtaking views stretched as far as the eye could see.
The highlight of the trip was coming over the central plateau and looking into the valley that holds lake taupo and the town of taupo, with the mountain that was Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings looming in the distance. On that view alone, I will return to Taupo immediately when I am done working. That was the first time (hopefully of many) that I decided: "If I were to stay here forever, and never return to the US, I would be completely fine."
On a side note, I have discovered my favorite food: Fish 'n chips. I love em, and eat them every chance I can, partly because they are so cheap and partly because the fries are 20x better than any fries offered in America.
Also, I probably won't be writing for a while because, well, to be honest, Hastings sucks. I don't think I will be doing anything worth telling anybody (I work 6 days a week, 9 hours a day), which means that I won't be spending money. (yay!) Send me a message if you have any questions,
or, I hope, you want to schedule where and when to meet up when you come down here.
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Cyndy
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Mom's
Mom's are ALWAYS right! Well...until they get to be in their 70's....BUT....right now....of COURSE your Mother is right even if she's a bazillion miles away! It was great to see it in writing...THAT will come back to bite you at some point, ya know!