New Zealand

party weekend
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New Zealand is good. Started in Auckland, got a 1987 Toyota Town Ace, I own a car here! It is all set up- even came with food! So far I pretty much love my van- it feels reallly good to have the freedom to go where I want, whenever I want. Driving on the left was a challenge at first and I still drive really slowly (she has absolutely no power) but it is beautiful.

The first weekend here I ended up at a 1970's flashback weekend party at the beach. We surfed, played cricket, ate and laughed. Then I took a drive around the Coromandel Peninsula, absolutely beautiful. It really reminded me of home, Point Reyes. I stayed one night at a Tibetan Buddhist center, very peaceful and nice.

the boys checkin' the surf
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My friend Mike from home who is originally from here gave me some good contacts- on the Coromandel I stayed with his Dad who lent me a mountain bike, then I made my way down to Rotorua where I contacted Graeme, who took me for a ride then kindly took me in to his home. For the last few days I have just been hanging out here, it is really nice to be in a house. We have done a couple of really fun rides- the trails here are great. After the first ride I had to make some modifications to the bike- riding on flat pedals on the trails is super sketchy- the local bike shop hooked me up with toe clips for cheap and now I am just learning how to ride with them again. It is pretty hilarious, really- it rained yesterday and the trails were slippery as snot. Although I did go down a few times no real damage was done- just had a lot of fun. There are hot springs all over the place here so I have been doing some of that too.

and then the sky turned to this
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All in all life is pretty much great right now. John comes in early tomorrrow, then I reckon we'll be heading down to the south island. Enjoy the pictures.