Angriness

So this post will be much shorter due to technical f-ing difficulties.
In Wanaka I met up with an Israeli girl and some Irish guys, and we went to Puzzle World which was pretty cool. That afternoon I was picked up by this really nice Korean guy who had a campervan, and because we had the same itineraries, we decided to travel together for a couple of days. One eventful point was when he got his campervan stuck in teh sand, and had to pay a towtruck driver 80 bucks for 5 minutes of work. We met up with some other Koreans later on, and travelled together with them for a couple of days, all the way up to Greymouth. I mostly ate Korean food the entire time, and they wouldnt let me pay for anything, so I did quite well out of the entire deal.
Hitching out of Greymouth took a while, but all in all, Feb 8th was quite uneventful. I got abotu 5 lifts in total that day, and managed to make it all the way back to Judith's. I stayed there for two nights, and just basically got things in order.
On the 10th, I hitched up to Picton in pretty good time, and got there three hours before my ferry was due to depart. I was worried about getting picked up outside Judith's as teh cars are going at elast 100 km/hr, but was actually picked up by the first car. Then a crazy excited lady picked me up, and we went to a couple vinyards and tasted some wine before getting to Picton. I met a cool Dutch guy on the ferry (whos name I never ended up getting) and then was picked up by Leonie at teh ferry terminal in Wellington. She's the girl I went hiking with when I was in Punakaiki. We drove around the city a bit that night, and Wellingotn is a beautiful city to see at night.
The next day I caught the train out of Wellington, to one of teh suburbs where it would be easier to hitch out of. I was quickly picked up, and most of the day was uneventful. My last ride of the day though, which got me into Taupo, was this American couple who were going sight-seeing, so I got to take a few pictures with them. He was a civil engineer in Baghdad but didn't really seem to want to talk about it, as I can full imagine why. The backpackers in Taupo was pretty much a dump, so I did my best to spend as much time away from it as I could.
On the 12th, I hitched up to Alyth's with relative ease. I was first picked up by a nice oil rig production manager guy who got in a yelling match with some ladies because he parked too close to the turn-in to a parking lot. It was really quite funny. Then I got picked up by this nice kid in Rotorua who had nothing better to do, so decided to drive me to Tauranga. He didn't seem to care much for money (probably because his dad was a millionaire) and bought me lunch as well. So yah that was pretty cool! When I got to Katikati, a guy in a beamer SUV picked me up, and he turned out to be some big sales guy from south africa and offered me a job in Melbourne if I wanted one, as a door-to-door salesman! We ended up hanging out together, due to a brutal accident that closed the only road up to Waihi, and then he really started attempting to recruit me. If I get short of cash in Oz, maybe I'll give it a shot! I got into Waihi around 3, and then wandered around town until Alyth got off work. We had a quite evening back at Alyth and Bob's with a much better dinner then I could ever imagine of making.
On Tuesday I bid goodbye to Alyth just outside of Thames, and got picked up right away by an interesting close-minded environmentalist. She thought everyone should drive less, yet due to her personal circumstances she shouldn't have to. She also was of the opinion that because she planted trees she was better than everyone else. Oh and she think someone should kill George Bush but she is against violence. An interesting lady... She dropped me off at teh same gas station where I had been dropped off at way back on November 7th, so I felt obliged to take a picture. I asked around, and pretty quickly got a guy who was driving up to Auckland. He was a really cool guy and then dropped me off right outside the Unviersity in Auckland. I chilled in Acukland all yesterday, and then checked into this backpackers which turned out to be a total hole. My Dorm-mates hot-boxed the room, and the place didn't have any toilet paper or cutlery or dishes in general. Like none, nadda, zero. Then I found out they pushed my flight back four hours, so I had to cancel my reservation at teh hostel in Fiji I was going to stay in tonight, as it would be pointless to now I get to hang at teh airport for 5 hours!
And now my time is running out, but I am pretty much up to date now. Sorry for the lack of detail, but I just didn't feel like typing everything all out again. I'll be sure to update with more detail in Fiji though!

Continued

I just typed for an hour and these stupid computers totally lost my post... I must say that North American computer cafes and broadband and technology in general are leaps ahead of New Zealand. I'm sorry... I can't deny the truth.

Over 3 months... wth?

Oooo time for a quick update before I start trying to hitch all the way up the North Island in three days. I guess I left off after chasing the bulls around, and the rest of that day was quite mellow.
The next day (Jan 24) I left Lester and Caroline’s and hitched to Mount Cook. After waiting for like an hour in Faerlie for a ride, a nice Englishman picked me and we stopped at multiple destinations to take pics and see the sights. There is this really cool church on an alpine lake, and it’s like one of the most photographed things in New Zealand. He dropped me off, and I got picked up by a Mount Cook local, who at one time would have been a pretty cool guy, but now acted like he was a big deal, as he had a couple of businesses up in the area. Typical ski bum sell-out :p. Mount Cook is really stunning; it just rises out of the ground in front of you and you can see why the Maoris worship it. I probably took way too many pictures of it, but the entire area was beautiful. Supposedly it is always covered in cloud, so I really lucked out in getting a clear shot of it. That night though, because of the clear skies, was really really cold, and the wind would come flying down the valley in gusts that felt like they would blow the tent over. At one point, the fly was half blown off, and so I had to randomly get up to re-clip it. It was totally worth it though, as the sky was lit up with stars that you don’t see in the Northern Hemisphere.
The next day I just did some short hikes around the area. The weather had turned sour though, so I had to cut that short, though the views in the entire area were fantastic.
On the 26th I had to hitch out of Mount Cook, but my luck at first was pretty horrendous. I waited two hours at what I thought was a pretty good spot, then got frustrated, and as soon as I started walking, was picked up by an American guy who was marketing for one of the skydive companies. He gets a pretty sweet deal, and gets to fly all over the country and go skydiving for free and gets a company car thrown in. After he dropped me off at the airport (he was going to go do a dive) I got picked up by two skydiving instructors, and as their plane had broken down, they were going all the way down to Te Anau to work there. They were pretty carefree guys, drinking a couple beers while driving and filming like everything… kinda like what you see in skateboarding vids. They dropped me off in Cromwell though, as they wanted to go visit a friend and have some beers, so I was picked up immediately by some nice old lady who got me into Queenstown. I met up with Andy before he had to go to work, but then he quit his job because his manager didn’t like the look of his “English backpacker friends” (me) as the place was giving away free drinks and supposedly anyone was allowed to show up. So yah, Andy got pissed and just walked out. That night we went to about 5 different bars, and got to bed about 3 (that’s early for Queenstown). So all in all, a pretty full day.
The next couple of days I hung out with Andy, and got my hair cut and generally just lazed around and played video games and watched movies. After realizing I was wasting time though, I hitched down to Te Anau on the 30th, and drove most of the way with a nice Italian guy, who owned a restaurant in Te Anau. No matter where you go, there is always one thing everyone has in common. An opinion on American politics.
On the 31st, I caught a bus up to Milford Sound at 7 in the morning, and it was absolutely brilliant scenery. It rained the entire time, and so there were waterfalls pretty much everywhere, running down the cliff faces. Supposedly Milford has hardly any soil, just rocks, so the water just races down the cliffs, and isn’t muddy at all. But anyways, I took way too many pictures again, and hung out with some Germans (what else) when we went on a 3 hour cruise in the sound. The sea was pretty rough too, so it was a pretty fun day. That night, Michael (one of the Germans) and I hung out and drank some wine with a friend of his Sarah, who ended up giving me a ride back to Queenstown the next day. That day was pretty uneventful, and the next was too, though I did hitch to Glenorchy and do some walks around there.
Saturday, TJ and Andy had a big party for a couple of the guys at TJ’s work who were leaving town (and for me). We got a bunch (about 200) of free beer from the supermarket (it has just expired) and had a grand old time. While Andy and I were setting up, some random guy showed up at 6 and just sat around. Rick the random, who didn’t talk and was pretty friggen awkward. It was a pretty good party, although Andy almost smacked some French Canadian guy who was totally trashed out of his mind. I hung out with Tyler much of the night, a White Rock (South Surrey) native who I think is going back to Canada in a month or so. I ended up going to bed at 5, just after the party ended.
The next day, after cleaning up, I bid farewell to the English guys, and Carla (Andy’s girlfriend) drove me through Arrowtown and about half the way to Wanaka. Then an Israeli guy picked me up, and I tried getting in touch with Lea ( a girl I had met while I was up in the Bay of Islands and was now working in Wanaka) but to no avail, so checked out the town. It was really nice, and I wish I had been able to stay there longer.
Okay, this post is already way too long, and I have to go make some lunch before I set off trying to hitch to the ferry. So I’ll try and continue the update in a couple days. I am trying to get to Wellington tonight, and then hitch up to Alyth’s and get there on Monday, before going into Auckland the next day. So yah, wish me luck!