I'm still alive.....

So i've been a little MIA.....yesterday I wrote a really long blog and before I could post it the time on my computer ran out and i lost everything...bummer. I arrived in Wesport today which is on the east coast of the south island. I spent three nights in Nelson which was a great little town on the northern tip of the south island. I finished wellington with mike deb and ethan and was spoiled rotten... i forgot how nice it is to sleep in a nice big bed! I am excited to stop back towards the end of my trip to see them again. Wellington is a fantastic city, alot like San Fran. Everyone lives up on the hills and the city is in the middle with a big beautiful harbor. I went to Te Papa, Wellington's main museum, and i visited the botanical gardens (took SO MANY pictures!) Mike was my personal tour guide and drove me all over the city.

Nelson was a great little town... it's alot like West Chester or Doylestown. Apparently it is hippie-central (richard you'd do well there) Yesterday i walked through the Abel Tasman National Park. It was absolutely stunning. I felt like everything i was looking at was fake because it was so beautiful. I rode in a water taxi the length of park, then did a four hour walk to a beach where the taxi picked me back up. i didnt know anyone on my tour, but met some new people (who i am traveling with now). OH! and i got to see seals! i tried to get one on the boat so i could steal it and take it home to live in my bathtub, but he was to preoccupied with eating an octopus...yeah... did you know seals really don't eat that many fish? i bet you didn't!

Everyone I was traveling with since Auckland left a day before and my friends Ben and Stu stayed behind with me. So we've split until we reach Franz Josef which is two cities away. Stu Ben and i have been hanging out having a pretty good time without everyone else, but it still stinks to lose half your crew. We met a new guy named Jimmy today who is very cool. He is actually a cave tour guide in Wiatomo and he jumped on the bus for a few weeks until he has to go back to school in Dunedin (done-e-din) so the three guys got me to go jetboating on a river that runs through Westport today. the boat went crazy fast and the driver was whipping us around all over the place. It was like being on a ride in Disneyworld only 10 times better. I got absolutely soaked. After we got off the boat, everyone looked at me and was like, how did you manage to get so wet? I was in the very last seat on the end and was getting sloshed with water. It was like someone was pouring water on my head with a bucket! i took a few videos with my digi camera... so when i finally find somewhere that i can download pictures and videos i will. most of the computers here, if not all of them, are locked so you can't download onto them.

Tomorrow we move to Lake Somethin-or-other for a nite then we head to Franz Josef to do glacier hikes. I am pretty excited about that. Kathleen has asked me to compile a list of the top jobs in NZ... so here is what I have so far in no specific order:

-Tandem Skydive Jumper/Instructor
-Cave tour guide
-Aqua-taxi boat driver in Abel Tasman Park
-Kiwi Experience bus driver
-Ocean Kayaking guide
-I'll let you know more later

p.s. the NZ bus drivers are crazy here... all of them. no matter what bus i get on i feel like i'm in Dana's mini cooper going to Iron Hill Brewery for lunch! They all dance and sing while they're driving and they're all freakin crazy.

some new NZ lingo:

sandflies: worse than mosquitoes
mosquitoes: mossies (how do you spell mosquito?)
jandals: flipflops
goon: any kind of boxed wine (Mr. Wich, I hope you're enjoying the goon you bought in Delaware:)

ok, that's all for now... i'll try to write more frequently... it's been pretty tough. hope things are good back home!!!