Into the final hours now folks... 24 hours until boarding time... HELP!!!

Actually, I'm ready for change now. Iam in the stage where I despise my backpack and wish its incineration, constantly thinking soon... soon I will be free of you my friend! But then I take a second look at it and think how cool it is that everyhting I need to live I can carry on my back. Everything I need to survive Christmas I have to wear on my back, front, side and drag along behind me, but I'll deal with that in LA.

So I'm tired and poor and ready for my own bed and to see everyone I know again. I guess I am ready to go home. I will miss NZ desparately and many of the things that have become so normal here ... cafes, year round walks on the beach, mountains, sheep, SUMMER!!! ... but look forward to the faces and comforts of home. And a little snow would be nice. A little. A dusting. A thin covering. That's enough.

It's very hard to get in the Christmas spirit here... few decorations - why would you when it's light until 9:30pm? - and what there is seems to be mainly blue & silver, which I think is an influence of the beach and summer holiday. Towns generally have a few bells or angels hanging from lampposts (I even saw a fish in Whakatane - a fish! He may have been a dolphin, the glittery garland did not reveal great detail, but regardless, not a typical Christmas figure). Auckland is more decorated than most places, complete with the 5 storey Santa on Whitcoull's corner that beckons at small children. I wish I was lying, I will try to get a picture... he is in the ranks with Alien Santa he's so creepy!

Anyway, I just came back to Auckland this morning after 4 totally chilled out days on Waiheke Island. There I just wandered the beaches (still no beach days due to the intermittent rain!!) and met loads of cool travellers, having some great laughs and even a few rounds of crib (I'm ready for you Grampy!). In the words of Kim Mitchell, I am a wild party. But it's cool, I've just spent time enjoying all that I love about NZ.

So tomorrow I depart for the la la land that is LA, arriving hours before I ever left! There is a 21 hour time difference between NZ & LA but only a 12 hour flight. I leave here at 19:40 Sun but arrive there at 10:30 Sun... freaky shit going down... Not sure what I will do there, probably just catch up with Nicole, Julia, you know, see how the twins are... the norm. The back to Isle of Ed Wed night. Whoa.

Ever walked around an active volcano? I have! Monday I went out to White's island, NZ's only active marine volcano. The only other active volcano here is Ruapehu in the National Park, southern part of the North Island. But I didn't go tehre, so let's get back to White Island...

I eventually did get to Whakatane at 4pm Sunday (understand my griping now?) and stayed at a fantastic little hostel. Most hostels in NZ are omes that have been converted, making them small and cozy and completely spoiling the weary backpacker and tricking them into thinking this is how they deserve to be treated. But anyway, Monday turne out to be perfect weather for the trip out to the Island so on the boat I went.

It's 24 nautical miles to the island (about 50km) , taking at least 1.5 hours each way. We saw 2 pods of dolphins on the way there (bottle nosed?) who hung out with us for awhile. They are such fascinating animals and love to interact with boats and humans. I've been really lucky and have seen dolphins everytime I've been on a boat here, and am continually intrigued by them. But I digress...

So off we went in search of a volcano... White Island (so named by that Capt cook guy, who must have gotten so sick of naming this byt eh tiem he finished discovering the entire South Pacific!) came out of the ocean only a few hundred years ago and is about 2.4km in diamater. It's rated at 1 on a 0-5 scale, 0 being dormant and 5 being volatile. But it's last eruption... July 2001. Not a whole long time ago! There is bubbling mud and water everywhere, the smell of sulpher is incredibly strong and the earth is really warm to touch. I found my feet were getting quite hot through my sneakers as we walked around, but would cool off the higher we went up.

Tourists are only allowed to tour the island with a guide and provided they are wearing hard hats and have gas masks in case they are needed. There is a huge crater lake in the middle with a PH level of 1 - I'm told that's as acidic as it gets. The lake temperature is between 100 - 200 C. The island is still changing everyday, particularly in the lake levels. Check out the link form this page http://www.whiteisland.co.nz/ and you can see pictures of White Island upadated hourly.

Yesterday I came back up to Auckland and over to Wiheke Island, a 35 min ride from the city centre. Sherilyn & I came here in Feb-ish (remember the picture of me on the scooter?) and I thought it would be the perfect place to spend my last few days in NZ chilling out on the fantastic beaches. It's raining again. This is not funny anymore. I just want 1 mice beach day. I've been asking fro this for 2 weeks. Just one. please.

Sorry another extended absence... small internet is a costly affair in this country, ranging between $6-8/hour... would you like a limb with that as well? So I save my internet times for moments like this when I have a crappy bus waiting time.

I don't mean to sound negative today, I'm just missing Lucy (my car) in a BIG way! To travel the 90km from Tauranga to Whakatane it is taking me an entire day! I had to leave the hostel at 9:15am to get a lift into the city (no public buses on Sunday) the travel from Tauranga to Rotorua (1.5hrs), am now having a 1.5 hour wait until I get on another 1.5 hr bus to Whakatane. I should have just hitched. (But I would never do something as reckless as that mother dear.)

Anyway, enough on my rants, I do appreciate that (normally) there is a good public transportation network of both buses and shuttles so it is very easy to get around this country and into the strange places.

Speaking of strange places... where have I been this week?

I go tup to Auckland last Sunday morning, impressing myself with my memory of a city I had never driven in and returning the car with no problems. It was nice to be back in the city and visit some of my old haunts and fave spots ... mmm asian food court... I ended up spending 2 days there just enjoying city life but also realizing why South Islanders constantly slag it off. It is a beautiful city, but it is a city. It's not as laid back as the rest of NZ and the people are different - they're city folk. It's nice to have the contrast and I appreciate both sides, but can see why they give each other shit now!

So I headed out to the country to the Coromandel. This was the first "out of Auckland" experience I had in NZ - we went there the long weekend in Feb - and I had memories of spectacular scenery. They were right. It's an amazing place and I went straight for the beach areas (don't get jealous, I still haven't had a beach day). I stayed 3 nights in Whitianga (Fit-e-an-ga), wandering the beach (wearing a sweater!), visiting the Hot Water Beach (hot springs under the beach create hot pools so you can build yourself a little spa pool at low tide), Cathedral COve, Hahei (some may call it Habel...), Cooks Beach (where the infamous Capt Cook first landed in NZ), and maybe somehow managed to fit a winery into the schedule...

Friday I moved on to Tauranga, having another day of peaceful wandering, staying out of the damn wind that won't die down! Yesterday I went out to Mt Maunganui, a mountin just beside Tauranga, and walked around it and the beach and suburbs beside it. Later on a bottle of wine shared with some fellow travellers and talking shit... as you do!

Now, as I mentioned, I am taking the longest travel possible to Whakatane where, hopefully in the next day or two I will get out to White's Island, a still active volcano lying in the Bay of Plenty. And then, maybe, just maybe, a day on the beach...???