I am a rubbish blogger. The past 2 weeks have by far been the most eventful, most story- inspiring, most interesting and entertaining times of my travels thus far, and I have missed blogging about them all because I no longer have access to a computer. Why? Because I'm on the road again. Finally after a month in Raglan, a town that captured a piece of my heart forever, me and Vermont Amy hit the road in our friend's Claire's car, who decided on a whim to go to Asia for 5 weeks and is allowing us to borrow her car in the meantime (Yes...people do lend cars like clothing when they travel). And now It's Me and Amy, cruising in the Saab with a broken radio, camping where we can, eating oatmeal and peanut butter and banana sandwiches on the Reg, and getting ourselves into some pretty funny situations. But before I go into that, I will give some brief and important bullet points of things I missed blogging about:
1. New years. Boys from Wanaka came to Raglan. Copious amounts of beer and food consumed, then heard rumors of a Rave out in Rhuapuke on a farm. Drove 40 minutes into Bumblefuck New Zealand farm land in the pitch black until we saw what looked like spotlights in the distance. As we approached closer, the moos of cows were slowly becoming muted by the a thumping baseline. Drive over a hill to see about 500 people dancing their asses off around a massive bonfire, with a huge dance floor and crazy rave lights. Arrive exactly 23 seconds before the New Year's Countdown, celebrate the New Year dancing barefoot in a cow field. Woke up on top of a hill overlooking the ocean with all of my Raglan friends. Epic fuckng New Years.
2. Sold my beloved surfboard for 400 bucks, so essentially I just rented a board for a month for 50 bucks. WIN!
3. Sunday Session in Raglan: Watched someone steal my purse, but surprised him when he realized I was a girl he danced with on New Years. Got the bag back. Danced until the dawn of my last day in Raglan
4. Within 2 hours of me and Amy departing on our new road trip, the check engine light turns on. And we almost run out of gas. And the car smelled funny. And the hood won't pop. And we ate a whole bag of Chips and Salsa for dinner because we couldn't find a place to camp. But ended up stumbling upon what may have been a refuge for the mentally disturbed, on an isolated beach on the West Coast, where a woman with crazy, crazy eyes insisted that we come inside her bunk for a cup of tea. And we camped right there beside her cabin, and it was lovely. Thanks Loretta.
5. Hiking Mt. Teranaki and not seeing a thing, until we decided we had gone far enough when the clouds miraculously opened up and we got an awesome view of the summit. And then I fell and scraped my entire ass on some volcanic rock, blood gushing down my legs and staining the only pair of shorts I have. But at least we got the views.
6. Seeing the Colossal Squid ad Te Papa Museum in Wellington. LARGEST INVERTEBRATE EVER ON DISPLAY! And i'm not being sarcastic- that was definitely a highlight of my trip thus far. Just the fact that such a beast exists and has rarely been seen just makes you realize how little we really know about our deep oceans. It had eyes the size of SOCCER BALLS for shits sake.
7. Crossing over to the SOUTH ISLAND! Can't believe that at all!
8. Meeting up with Kristen Alexovich in Mapua- the land of 15 year old sluts snorting speed for lack of better things to do.
9. Hiking into the Nelson Lakes...absolutely beautiful
10. Katchafire at Summer 6- Sooooooo good. Got a photo with the bassist, and Kristen definitely drank a few beers with them after they performed. amazzzzzing
11. ABEL TASMAN on MONDAY!
I really, really lucky to have been able to do all of the different kinds of traveling I have been doing. When I first came here, I figured I would just be traveling on the bus passes to towns every few days, spending nights at hostels here and there, moving on. That's called flashpacking. But so far, I have done the flashpacking, wwoofind at a family's farm, being a "longtermer" at Solscape in Raglan, and now I'm traveling via car, free as a bird to do as I please, with another travel buddy who has the same plans and goals as me. It's awesome to have been able to do all of these kinds of traveling because it really makes me realize what I do and do not like about each way. Flashpacking is great when you're on your own if you have set things you want to do or see in a town, like tours and what not, but you dont really get to know people very well, and you're limited in the places you can really go due to lack of transport. Staying long term has some "what the hell am I doing here" kinds of days, but I absolutely fell in Love with Raglan and my friends I made there. It was awesome walking down the street in Raglan and being recognized by locals, by other workers, feeling like you have friends and a real sense of community. I also met amy here, my travel buddy, which is also a bonus. I am So, so glad I decided to stay there for a month. And now we have a car, which is amazing for freedom, but not amazing for money. We've been putting 60 dollars of gas in the damn thing every 2 days at LEAST. Camping is cheaper obviously but you also then lack the social-ness of staying at backpackers; it's just you and your travel mate. Which is awesome, especially when you both bring your guitars and write songs about Loretta and the check engine light turning on.
Phew: This is an epic entry, but I must conclude with this genius observation I made today about the Kiwi 15-27 year old male hair cut:
It must incorporate one of the following:
1. Rat tail
2. Curly Mullet
3. Fo-hawk
4. Single braid, perhaps fastened with a feather and a bead at the end
5. Bleached skunk stripe that sits asymmetrically on the back of the head
We're going to keep a tally sheet to see which of these haircuts deems most populat.
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