Dec 14

Back for another update!
I hitched to Napier with relatively few difficulties. It took a while to get a ride, and I had to walk for about an hour to get to the road that actually went out of town to Napier but it all turned out alright. The guy I got a lift with had a son in the British Army (even though he was from New Zealand) who was in Iraq, and was very forceful about his dislike for Americans. It was a little sad to see the pure discrimination coming out in his views, but as he was giving me a ride, I just nodded and grunted. He also explained many of the rules of cricket, so I now think I have a general understanding (although Guy, Sandy's son, is telling me a little bit more right now). It sounds like a pretty good game! I may have to give it a go (the test matches sound like drinking marathons though, to be honest). I made quite a good dinner that night, consisting of chicken cordon bleu and some sauteed veggies and spent the rest of the day hanging out with the (many) Germans.
The next day, monday, this German girl, Jana, and I hiked to the top of the bluff above Napier, and it was quite a breathtaking view. We talked about pretty much everything, and she had some quite interesting views. Supposedly extreme left and right parties are coming back in Germany because of the lack of jobs there, and the only parties that actually display any sort of National pride, (due to the unfortunate past) are those parties. So looks like we have World War 3 coming up soon! After we hiked down from the cliff, we went on this five hour Cape Kidnappers hike, (named after an incident where the local Mauris tried to kidnap a polynesian boy aboard Cook's ship) where there is a huge Gannet colony. They totally stunk, but there were about 3000 of them and they were very tame, so we got some pretty good photos. We only got to spend a couple of minutes there though, because we had to beat the high tide back.
The next day I slept in until about 10:30, then totally lazed around on the beach. It was totally awesome. However, even with 45 SPF sunblock I managed to totally cook myself. Have to do better next time :p. When I got back to the hostel, I realized I had forgot to tell them I was staying another night, and they had given my bed away (no doubt to a German). So I had to pack up and head out to another one down the street, which actually turned out to be quite nice and spacious. I met a couple Seattle girls there, but to be perfectly honest, they were a bit wierd!
Wednesday I hitched down to the Tui Beer Brewery, which actually turned out to be not too entertaining. To start off the day, I got a couple of rides further down the ride, but none for more than 10 minutes. Then I got picked up by these Somali guys, who were seriously quite sketchy. They were chewing on some leaf, which they called 'khat' which basically is speed. The driver hadn't been to sleep all night, but he conveniently forgot to tell me that until about 39 km's down the road. It was at that point I decided I would get off early, at teh brewery. They kept on talking about guns too, and how hard they were to get in New Zealand. So maybe next time I'll be a little more cautious in deciding what cars to get in to. I wound up camping in a sleepy little campground in sleepy little Pihatua, and ended up reading most of the day. I did manage to get some aloe vera there, which was greatly needed.
Today I got up retardedly late, and after finding the campsite owner, managed to force my money on them ( I hadn't seen them the entire previous day). I got picked up right away by this Israeli couple, who's luck with cars had been quite poor. They'd already spent 5000 dollars on cars, and the present one didn't actually look that great. They were really nice though, and we stopped at Mount Bruce Park on the way south for a couple of minutes. Both of them had just got out of the army, and I was impressed to find out that the guy had actually been an Israeli commando for the last six years. I really wanted to ask him about some of the details of his previous job, but he was very modest and declined to elaborate. They dropped me off in Greytown, and after talking to some people about the Bidwells and Handysides and how well they were known, got picked up by Sandy.
Sandy has been very nice, and his wife Fiona very hospitable. She is a part-time doctor (which I didn't know) and loves her job, so I have been trying to ask a lot of questions of her. I met Joan Bidwell, and she remembered my parents as well as my grandparents and was quite with it for an eighty-something year-old. Dinner was some roast lamb (which was oooo so good) and then random discussions for the rest of the night. Sadly, all the TV shows here are between 4 months and 2 years behind, which is a bloody nuisance to a North American. Anyways, now it's time for bed, but tomorrow I will try and upload some photos.