Well, I made it back in the states. However, technically, I don’t leave from Auckland till 2:30pm this afternoon. Ain’t time travel grand!

Oh, ended up selling the car with 2 hours to spare yesterday for $1300, only 200 less then we bought it for. Meaning I traveled all through NZ for only $100 bucks plus gas and stuff. Not too shabby. Although I didn’t get to go to Rangitoto as a result, that’ll give me a reason to come back.

I did a lot of hanging out with peeps in the hostel. Met a really cool girl named Rebecca from Israel. We went to go see a movie together and watched A LOT of movies in the hostel.

Hung out with a german girl named Sarah who was astonished everytime I would open a door for her. I guess southern manners are not world wide.

Met a german guy named Rolph who gave me a book to read, “Hot Zone,” about the Ebola virus which he’d gotten from someone else. (In the months afterwards, I would read it and pass it along to someone else)

Leigh and I were able to atleast part ways amiably with a hug and a smile. I apologize for what I said earlier, we were both pretty stressed out with each other. It happens sometimes when you travel.

I took a cab back to Melanie’s from the airport cause I didn’t want to make anyone miss work to pick me up. And my beautiful car was there waiting for me. Thanks again to Melanie for storing it for me while I was gone. I owe her big time! I slept alot of the cab ride and read Hot Zone which Rolph had given me before I realized we were driving on the right side of the road. I was trying to retrain my mind, but it was wierd. Let’s hope I can get myself back in the habit before I kill someone. Well, that’s all she wrote folks. That’s New Zealand. Can’t wait to see all of you again, most of you at the party on Saturday. Until next time, this is Zach’s Travels signing off.

Well no car was sold today, perhaps tomorrow.

Met a lot of interesting people in the car park though waiting all day. I went ahead and bought a world map and began planning my next trip. I wanted it to be around the world but there are so many places I have to hit, I don’t think I could do it in a year. However, looks like the next trip may be South America, if not Japan. We’ll see.

Of course the next most immediate trip is in July to Wales for Christie’s wedding. I might take a jaunt up to Scotland and Ireland whilst I’m there though.

Oh, btw, if I mispell something or type something funky, it’s because I’m using a very odd keyboard. That’s my disclaimer anyway.

So what have I learned? I’ve learned that backpacking, although highly social and having the purpose to experience other cultures and peoples, is largely an individual venture and should be taken alone to get the most out of it. Unless you’re with someone who is mostly like you, it’s far more meaningful to experience other cultures and peoples on your own instead of trying to make sure the other person is having a good time. If you do embark on a trip together, be sure that you each are independent and may part ways at any time if need be. However, taking a trip together which requires decision making, roughing it, and lots of compromise can be a good test of a relationship. I would recommend if you’re really getting serious with a significant other, go on a trip of at least a month together in another country. Problems are bound to arise, but that’s not so important as much as how you deal with them.

I’ve also confirmed something that I already suspected about myself. I need a variety of experiences in life. So I can’t just do one thing. As much as I’d love to live up to the expectations of everyone around me when I was growing up and become a great actor or genius scientist or make lots of money, I feel that I wouldn’t be truly happy unless I tried a variety of different lives and occupations. Unfortunately, that means that it will be difficult for me to settle down and I’ll have to move from place to place quite often. I’d much rather be content with finding a nice girl, settling down in one place and raising a family. And while I know one day that will be my priority, right now I can’t say that it is. Although the search for the girl still remains, and I will traverse the globe to find her, no exceptions.

What will I take back with me? Apart from the souvenirs, gifts, new vocabulary, and an appreciation for other cultures around the globe, I will take back with me a greater desire to learn about all walks of life in the world and compare each to what I believe to be right.

But even more interesting is how what I believe changes based on my experiences and how much of one people we could become if we’d only let ourselves. I’ll also take back a greater desire to write. I’ve been working on a book for quite sometime and will consider taking a month off to write it finally. I would also like to look into writing for travel magazines and books. Not quite sure how to go about that, but it would be cool.

Right now, the plan at hand is to work in the States a year, then become a dive master and be a diving instructor for a year, then to work in the states, then to teach English in Japan for a year, then back to the states, then to become a skydiving instructor for a year, then back to the states. After that perhaps I’ll go back to school and get my masters in teaching and teach college. Somewhere round in there, the girl will be found, we’ll see. But that’s all depending on how the next year goes.

For the moment, I’ve got to find someone to pick me up from the airport on Wed morning.

Well, no surf this morning unfortunately, it seems a surf shop from which to rent boards is unheard of in the northland, you actually have to buy a board. That would actually be a good business to start I think. You’d only need 10,000 capital to start I think, get a van and 10 boards, you’d make it back in 3 months I think.

Anyway, that’s for another time. We ended up just going to the beach and laying in the sun, then heading back to Auckland and cleaned the car so we can sell it tomorrow. I also was able to screw the bumper back on the side where the blow out occurred and hammer/wrenched the fender back into place. Looks pretty good actually, it’s just hard to get the black marks off the car.

The adventure is almost over and I’ve learned a few things. Now is the time for introspection, looking back on the last 6 weeks and deciding what was really important, what I will takeaway and treasure and what I will use again in life. Great wisdom can come from such thoughts, but I’ll get back to you on that, I must ponder.

Diving today was soo cool! I’m so glad I did it. Went out to Tutukaka to take the boat to the Poor Knight Islands and it was beautiful. There are so many archways and caves on those islands it’s amazing. Our boat, which had about 30 people in it with room for more was able to easily go through a couple of the archways on our way to diving locations.

We even went into the largest sea cave in the world! (seems like everything in NZ is the BEST IN THE WORLD so they tell me) And the boat fit spacious inside of it. I was supposed to only do one dive, but the instructor said I could add another dive on for $50 bucks which I finally decided to do, so I got two dives.

The first dive, was not so great. It was cool seeing the reefweeds and the various subtropical fish, but I was having problems with my bouyancy, I kept floating up and down. The second dive, I got a handle on it. I adjusted my BCD (bouyancy control device) to equalize me and discovered that when I’d take a deep breath in, I’d rise, and when I’d breath out, I’d sink. The instructor said we’d go up and down like that as we breathed, but for me it was an extreme amount, I guess cause I breathe pretty deeply.

But on the second dive, I was able to regulate my breathing so that if I started to float up, I would just blow out all of my air and wait to sink, breathing in a little bit as I did so. Worked out really well and I got to see a lot more.

The second dive was at Blue Maomao Arch. We actually dove underneath the archway and there was a huge boulder which had fallen underneath it which we swam under, making a small but still extremely cool underwater cave. I saw Scorpion fish, some eels, even a jelly fish, which wasn’t poisonous so I could touch it. Beauty.

Man that was amazing. I also got a log book and wrote down my first two real open water dives. I’ve been thinking what to do with my life and I’ve formulated a little idea. I think I’ll work for JustiCorp a year, then go off and become a diving instructor for a year, then I’ll work for JustiCorp a year, then go teach English in Japan, then I’ll work for a year, and then spend a year becoming a skydiving master and teach that. That sounds like a plan that would just fit much better for me. Just hope I don’t die while doing it.

Tomorrow, surfing, then back to Auckland

Okay, so from Rotorua, we drove up to Auckland, not 20km from Auckland we had a blow out and had to pull to the side of the road. It really chewed up the side fender but not too bad. The car’s been through a lot the last couple of days. We changed to the spare tire on the side of the road and then drove to an automotive place and bought a used tire for $55.

From there, we went to Aloe Tree hostel so that I could put up a sign for the car in case someone wanted to buy it. Then we checked out this Backpacker’s Car Park which runs everyday instead of just weekends.

Costs $65 for three days to sell your car. So we registered for that so we’d have a spot when we returned and then got back on the road.

We decided not to seperate because Leigh didn’t want to be without a car and I didn’t want to risk losing more money on it. So we drove up to the Northland to Whangarei, pronounce Fungerae.

While in Whangarei, we got a chance to check the oil again and found that there was none in the tank. Yikes! So we filled it up with the last of the bottle we had and then went to get some more just in case.

We stopped at a hostel which was not that great, then woke up and went up to 90 mile beach the next morning. It’s called 90 Mile Beach but it’s really only 96km (60 miles) long. It’s cool though, you can drive up and down it if you want. We drove onto it and I went swimming a bit and collected shells. The waves were nice and the water was not warm, but not cold either.

We drove from there up further all the way to the tip top of New Zealand at Cape Rienga. There’s a nice lighthouse there and I watched the sunset and took some pictures. I met some people up there who were also watching the sunset and on the way out, told them if they saw a car on the side of the road, please stop cause that’s us.

To get to Cape Rienga, we had to cross 20km of gravel road which is not so good for the car, plus we thought there was a hostel there cause that’s what the book said, but even though it called it the Cape Rienga hostel it actually was south of there and we had to go all the way back down the gravel road.

They, of whose names I later learned were Satu (Finland), Aires (Sweden), Rachel (Dunedin, NZ), and Bobbie (Oz), told me about this place they were staying called MArty’s Pack and Paddle. $10 for basic bed and bathroom, plus a fish dinner.

So we followed them back down in the dark and came to this tiny house in the middle of sheep paddocks. He wasn’t there cause he was out fishing, but they said he’d def let us stay there so we waited and he came back with some big snapper. He fried those up and they were sooo good, just crispy enough. We were then shown our accomodations, a delapadated trailer van out back. It was quite funny. It had beds, so that’s all that mattered.

In the morning, we all got up and rented some sandboards from Marty, then we (the whole 6 of us) went up to Te Paki sand dunes, that’s right there’s sand dunes, and they were huge too. We walked up to the top and then slid down on the boards. You got goin pretty fast too! On the other side of the dune, there was a tiny stream and the best run I had was shooting down that dune, hitting the bump, then going straight down and across the stream. Aaahh, sweet exhileration.

We did that for about 2 hours before we got too tired to walk up the thing again. We returned the boards to Marty’s and then parted from the other group going down to 90 mile beach again for a swim. We took another path down another freakin long gravel road (I hate them) and onto the beach.

We decided that it might be better to just go down the beach rather then hit that gravel again. On the way down though, we hit some very soft sand and the car got stuck. We tried to get it out to no avail. We even got some help from this huge german dude and an irish couple, but the more we tried, the deeper the car sank and it actually got to the point where the car was being held up from underneath by the sand. So we had to dig out the entire front of the car. Then the irish girl found a flipper and we used that as a base and jacked the car up off the ground and continued to dig sand from underneath it and laid down some branches under the tires for texture. We took the jack off and started her up and everyone gave a big push and at first it still didn’t budge, but finally it moved, and we pushed harder and finally, Mo was free!

Leigh was driving and started to stop, but we shouted, “Keep driving!” I wanted her to get the car completely off the sand before she stopped. The others helped me carry the stuff we had to take out of the trunk back to the car which was extremely nice of them.

Poor car.It took us a little under 2 hours to get that car out. Phew. We then drove back to Whangarei, took showers and ate dinner. I just reserved a spot to go diving tomorrow in the Poor Knight islands, one of Jacque Costuea’s top ten diving spots in the world! Whew, got through all that

Why, why did I drink so much wine last night. I swear I must’ve drank more then a bottle myself. We had four bottles of wine and one Champagne bottle and the 6 of us finished them all. It was me, Hannah and Lina (Swedish), Bruno (French Adventure racer), and Akira (Japanese wanderer). It was good times though. Now I’m off to Auckland as soon as I get some food in me.

Yes, I just realized that 5 does not equal 6, there was another guy Patrick (German) who was drinking earlier but he left around 11 or so.

Man women can talk. At Taihape, Leigh and the lady that ran the thing chatted away for hours whilst I stood there, and later the woman’s husband stood there, waiting to ask a question. Sheesh.

Anyway, we drove up to Rotorua and went to see some more thermal stuff, then I went Zorbing which was awesome! Basically, zorbing is sticking you into a giant inflatable ball and rolling you down a hill. There was a straight track and a zig zag track.

I do the first one strapped into the ball and down the straight hill and the second and third in what they call the wash cycle, where you’re not strapped into anything and there’s a whole bunch of water thrown in there with you and I went down the zigzag track both times for those. Oh so much fun, you roll around and get thrown, it’s great.

Then we stayed the night and expected to leave the next day for Auckland after I went to a bone carving class, but I got to the class at 11am and spent the entire day there till about 5:15p. It’s really hard to carve these little things, but I got a nice carving out of it, complete with abilone settings. Pretty sweet as. And Leigh is not feeling so well, plus it’s raining so we decided to stay another night. Plus there’s two Swedish girls here with whom I talked in the spa last night so that’s a bit of motivation to stay as well.

Man I need to take some more pictures, I just realized I didn’t get one of the carving guy. My moods been a bit down lately cause Leigh and I have not been getting along. I have not yet mentioned it in my logs because I didn’t want to spoil it. But since about two and a half weeks into the trip, she decided she doesn’t like backpacking and we’ve been arguing a lot ever since. There’s a lot of details that I could go into but I won’t. I’ve been trying not to let her attitude affect me having a good time but as of about a week ago, I couldn’t take it anymore.

So the plan is to get to Auckland, I’ll give her $750 for the car cause she doesn’t want to deal with selling it anymore and then we’ll part ways. I’ll go north and then we’ll meet back on the plane. It sucks cause at the Tongariro Crossing, a really cool hike south of Taupo, normally I would’ve stayed the night to do it the next day, but she didn’t want to do it and really I just wanted to get to Auckland so that we could part. I think she feels the same.

Anyway, it sucks, but you live with it and move on. If you can’t live together, and can’t work it out, you go your seperate ways and that’s how it’s got to be. We’ll see.

Almost forgot to mention the Ozzy hitchhiker we picked up yesterday on the way to the ferry. he kinda smelled but we found that’s because 2 days ago, he lost his wallet in Queenstown and only had 70 cents to his name. He had put his passport and return ticket in a locker in Auckland, so he was on his way back there to get everything sorted out.

He’d been living out of his tent and scraps of food he could get along the way. He’s a boat builder back in Oz, so he was able to get a free ride on the ferry in exchange for inspecting the boat engines and such. Pretty applicable job I must say. Felt so sorry for the guy. Leigh gave him a granola bar and a biscuit, all I had was canned peaches and he didn’t have a can opener. He thinks he’ll make it to Auckland by tomorrow though so he should be alright.

Oh quick something I forgot to say. I met two English guys at Cathedral Caves who said there was a backpacker’s carpark everyday of the week so we don’t have to be back in Auckland on a weekend, so I think we’ll be able to hit north of Auckland.

Woke up extremely early this morning, 4:30a to go to Dolphin Encounters and swim with the dolphins. It was the most amazing thing of which I unfortunately did not get any pictures of. I even bought an underwater camera but since we were going in several times, I figured I would just experience it once then take pics later.

We got all wetsuited up, got on the bus, then on the boat and went out 30 minutes. I had meant to buy dramamine the day before but unfortunately forgot, that will come to play later. These dolphin are wild so their not coaxed into this section of water or fed or trained, there’s a huge underwater canyon right off the coast of Kaikoura which makes a nice play pen for dolphins, seals, and whales who come there to feed. The boat drivers know the locations where dolphins usually are, so they just sort of guess until they see dorsal fins.

We got ready to go, they stopped the boat, blew the horn and we all jumped out. I looked underwater and at first didn’t see anything, then suddenly a dolphin came swimming right underneath me, then another and another. We were swimming in a pod of about 50 dolphins which is a good size, the guide said. He said any bigger then that and they usually aren’t that interested and keep on swimming. They said the dolphins are not there to entertain us, we’re there to entertain the dolphins so make as much noise as you can to attract them to investigate.

I made my dolphin call, others were singing, it was quite funny looking. They’d swim by to check you out and if you held eye contact and circled with them as they swam around you, they’d just keep circling. One circled me about 4 times, it was deadly! Then I tried my dolphin swim and they actually swam with me as though I were a dolphin.

Oh man, it was amazing. We were there for about 30 minutes before they finally lost interest and went on. They were so close, I touched one! Wild dusky dolphins.

We went back on the boat and then moved to another location and went out again but this pod was well into the 200s of dolphins so they just sort of swam through us and passed on. Then they boated around to get some good surface shots of the dolphins and told some dolphin facts, meanwhile I was being sick on the back deck.

There were a few others vomitting into buckets around me, but I refused to throw up. I actually made it through the hour without throwing up, I just focused on how freezing cold I was.

Here’s an interesting fact for you: Dolphins have to breath voluntarily, unlike humans, they have to conciously think to breathe. So if they were to go fully asleep they would die. So what they do is they go into kind of a meditative state and shut down half of their brain while the other one still allows them to breathe. Then when that side is good and rested, they shut down the other side. Pretty cool huh?

I also saw little calf dolphins. They were only like a foot long. So cute. I could tell you of the promiscuous nature of dolphins as well but I’ll leave that for when I have more internet time. We drove from there, up to Picton, took the Ferry to Wellington and then drove to this tiny little town with one hostel where we are the only guests besides two girls. To whom I am going to go chat with now.

Last night, in Timaru, we stopped on our way to Christchurch for the night. I was preparing dinner when a group of Swedes asked me if I wanted some of their rice stir fry. I respectfully declined. Yeah right, just kidding, I ate to my heart’s content. They were gonna throw it away anyway.

This morning, we got up, drove out to Christchurch and stayed there a few hours before going on to Kaikoura where we are now. Christchurch was a nice little town with a bit of history, obvously not much history, but there was some. I visited the Cathedral and the Memorial Bridge which was erected for the soldiers who served in the conflicts of the late 1800s and WW I and II.

I went to some of the beautiful architectured Provincial Councel buildings and then went to the city square where there was a guy on a step ladder dressed in all Quaker black and top hat with a long beard just talking. It was as though he were the town speaker or something. He was quite funny and a crowd had gathered to listen about how he comically approached the world’s history and how women were to blame for all war and the creation of shopping and men had quite hard lives indeed. Now we’re in Kaikoura and I’m going to go swim with dolphins tomorrow.