*Insert Jaws theme music here*

I found myself in Byron Bay, booking a surf lesson, despite the torrid tales I had heard along my way down the east coast, about the incidents in the Byron area. A man was bitten and killed. A boy was bumped off his board, but not hurt. A woman's kayak was tipped, and her arm was munched off. So when our instructor parked at the beach, and brought out a waiver for us to sign, I asked "In case we get attacked by a shark, right?" He scoffed, and said that the media loved to make things up...he's lived in Byron Bay his whole life, and the last shark attack was in '93. BUT...if at any point in time he told us to get out of the water, we were to do so with no questions asked. Ooooooh. Okay. So on we went, learning some dry-land training before hitting the waves. It was a small group...a girl from Ireland, and a couple from Denmark. Only the Irish girl had tried it before, and said Canadians were usually good at picking it up, but I still had my doubts. Which turned out to be misplaced, because I ruled that board! haha! I was up on my second try (the first attempt didn't really count I figure, because I was the first to go, and was so excited that I forgot what to do), and every time thereafter. So I quickly progressed to paddling on my own, and doing the jump-up method, instead of the slower 4-step stand-up process. It was all fun and games, and I was feeling quite confident (not only with the board, but also with the surroundings)...with only 15 minutes left, our group was whittled down to three, as the Danish guy had hurt his ankle. All three of us girls had paddled out to our instructor, standing in chest-high water, to have another go. Suddenly, although calmly, the instructor said "Okay, we're headed in now...kay Caroline? We're going in." I thought, okay, sure, might have spotted a shark a ways out...but as I paddled in and got knocked off my board, I immediately thought (with a remarkably calm awareness), that there was the distinct possibility the shark was a lot closer than I realized, and he was going to bite me in the leg any second. So that sped up my process in getting out of the water. Our instructor had taken over the board of another woman coming in from the water, and paddled out a little ways, then came back onto the beach. Approaching us, he said, "I'm not going to lie. I saw a big shark and thought it best to get you girls out of the water before going for the other guy." The other guy, as it turns out, was not part of our group, but the 10 ft. shark our instructor (Dan) spotted in the wave had looked to be heading right towards him. Dan thought by the time he told us to get out of the water and turned back to him, he would be a goner. Luckily enough, the shark swam right underneath him. I asked Dan how close this guy had been to us...maybe 15 ft away. So therefore, the shark had been about 20-25 ft. away. So I asked Dan if that was it for the day, and he said we only had 10 minutes left anyways, but if we wanted to head out for one more try, it was up to us. He looked skeptical. The other two girls immediately said no, no more. I pretended to hem and haw: "Weeeellllll...aw, nah, I guess it's best if we don't." I was sorta bummed I didn't spot it in the wave though...that would have really been a creepy sight.

I spent two nights in Newcastle, before embarking on a 20 hour bus trip to Melbourne. I had a brief stopover in Sydney, but got a glimpse of the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House en route to the bus station. Melbourne's pretty big...over 3 million. But I was super excited because I finally got to see friends!! People who I actually knew, and didn't have to explain the tiresomely repeated basics to ("I'm from Canada, no, only traveling three months, no, quit my job, yeah, was in NZ first, but going home after Aus...just down the east coast, flying out of Sydney"). Kim moved to Mt. Gambier about a month ago...with her boyfriend, who was sent here for six months for work, so she took the bus and train here to see me. And Darren has been here a little longer, staying in the Melbourne downtown core too, so he escorted me on a visit down the Great Ocean Road...

Surf class 07

Wheeeeeee

Lighthouse in Byron Bay

In Possum Park...The classic Hurry-up-and-take-the-picture-before-this-rabid-thing-bites-me smile

Kimmy!!!

There were no words to describe how happy we were to discover Buck Hunter on another continent...


12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road

This was supposed to be a nice picture... but Darren timed it so a huge wave almost took me out!

And the aftermath

London Bridge

Crikey, what a beauty!

I missed Steve Irwin Day at the Australia Zoo by one day. At least I beat the crowds! I had been in Noosa when I made the day trip out to the zoo, and although it pretty pricey for a zoo, it was worth it. A beautiful place, filled with all the critters I had yet to see out in the wild...like wombats, tasmanian devils, echidnas, dingos, not to mention all the snakes and alligators. I did have a close encounter of a potentially dangerous kind (yes, yes, despite all my promises to be careful...but sometimes these things can't be helped!). I did a beach walk in Noosa, up into the national park, which had some great views, overlooking the ocean and huge rock formations, known as the Devil's Kitchen. Since my Capricorn Dave trip, I was feeling somewhat comfortable in the fact that if I saw a spider, I wouldn't freak out (opposed to if I saw a cockroach...riddle me that!), but I was keeping a keen eye out for anything to cross my path. However. I was meandering along, when I heard something in the grass behind me, and to the right. So I froze in my tracks, turned around slowly, and it took me a moment to actually spot the darn thing...tricky camoflauge. It was a pretty big snake (or so I thought)...it was lying there just off the path, and I had walked right past it! If it had wanted to, it could have easily nipped out it's head and gotten me in the ankle (a snake presentation at the zoo showed that guys are more often bitten than girls...mostly because girls run away, and guys decide to poke the snake with a stick. And they only attack when provoked or threatened, so it must have sensed my extreme innocence!). I snapped a quick pic (using zoom of course...I'm not that daring), and continued on my merry way...at a much faster pace, with eyes darting right and left. It got me wondering what other things I had passed by, oblivious to! An older couple (locals) was strolling in my direction, and I jokingly told them that a snake was waiting up ahead for them. They asked what color it was, and I showed them the pic. The lady looked at it thoughtfully, but didn't say she knew what it was...just said that there were poisonous snakes in the area. And so then I went home, convinced she knew what it was, but didn't want to scare off the clueless tourist.

Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, Brisbane, Surfer's Paradise...in Surfer's as I write this. Timing along the Gold Coast is not really all that good, since the schoolies are running rampant! Thousands of them flock to the Gold Coast since they're done school for the summer, and here in Surfer's, it's madness everything that's set up for them. A large section of the beach is cordoned off for them, and there is a long line of first aid tents, registration tents, rest tents, porta-potties. Two girls (who looked like they were 14, but could have been 16 I guess) were talking to me and asked if I was American. I said no, Canadian, and they said "oooo, are you here for schoolies?!" HAHAHA. I was incognito in a hat and sunglasses, but I didn't have the heart to tell them my age, or the fact that my "schoolies" eligibility would have expired seven years ago.

The kicker is, I heard on the radio the number of arrests made over the weekend alone...almost a hundred. Not just kids though...their parents too!! There were actually parents joining their kids in Surfers, getting drunk and disorderly, and trying to sneak booze into the alchohol-free student areas. One local told me they have at least one death per year during Schoolies Week...mostly because of someone getting drunk and falling over the railing of their rental unit, or going swimming while inebriated. Ah, the future is in their hands.

This statue had been unveiled the day before, during the Steve Irwin Day celebrations

This grumpy grandma was born in 1933

The secret is to ambush them when they're sleeping...

I can't get enough of these.

The cool thing about this zoo is that the keepers could play with almost everything (even the tigers, and wombats, as above). Maybe not the crocs.

Not in the zoo...but in the Noosa National Park. Cheeky little thing...

Alexandria Beach in Noosa

My iconic Surfers pic tainted by the onslaught of Schoolies Week. A little Photoshopping can fix this...

Many, many, many high rises of rental units, apartments, hotels in Surfers. Pffft. Touristy, what?

In Dave We Trust

I can't keep track of everywhere I've been and everything I've done. I've been to the Whitsundays, a beautiful boat tour for more snorkeling and suntanning and island exploring. I was in Rockhamtpon, the beef capital of Australia, which was one of the highlights of my trip so far, despite some people asking me "Why would you bother going to Rockhampton?". For one simple reason of course... Capricorn Dave. Dave is a crazy (albeit, relatively quiet character), who spends his days taking small groups of people out into the bush to hunt for snakes and spiders and such. I had first heard about his tour from a girl I met in NZ, and she spoke very highly of it, so I had to check it out. First thing I noticed about Dave...he has feet like Lloyd, from Dumb and Dumber. They were so obvious because he doesn't wear shoes! The whole time, whether we were tramping through cow pastures, or climbing trees, Dave did it all in bare feet. Our first stop was in the pasture of a 20,000 acre cattle farm, where we found an ant hill. It t'was no ordinary ant hill...it was a meat ant hill (when farmers need to shoot a cow or horse, they do so by a meat ant hill so the ants can have a feast). The joy of finding this meat ant hill was that we could remove our socks and shoes, and see how long we could stand on top of it, before breaking out into the "ant dance". As soon as I stood in the middle of the dirt mound, the ants swarmed to my feet like magnets. The feeling was so weird...not really so painful, as they were nipping, but pretty uncomfortable and odd!! Four years ago, Steve-O and Party Boy of the Jackass fame were out on the Capricorn Dave trip, and Steve-O lasted less than 5 seconds on the ant hill. I lasted more than 10!! My glory was short lived, as I heard about a crazy Irish guy who had been out there recently, and spent 10 minutes on the ant hill (and subsequently, couldn't walk very well for three weeks thereafter). Anyways, as soon as you couldn't take the biting anymore, the ant dance came into play...in order to get rid of all the ants on your feet and legs, you had to take off running, jumping, and stomping. Sometimes they draw blood if they bite hard enough, but the only blood that was spilled during my ant-dance was when I was running around and stubbed my toe on a sharp branch!

Next up, snake hunting (the yellow bellied tree snake...harmless!), which Dave had found in a tree and brought down for us to hold. Then horny-devil spider-holding. This type of spider isn't poisonous (although it is of a fair size), but Dave did find a redback (second most poisonous spider in Aus), and he held it while we looked on, holding our breath unless the slightest disturbance made it bite Dave. He's been bitten before by a redback, and ended up in hospital...I was surprised how small it was. I thought that something potentially deadly would be the size of my fist, so it was a tad disconcerting to know that it was small enough to go unnoticed. After that was the ant-bottom licking. They were green ants, with bulbous little bottoms which were rich of vitamin C, and tasted like limes. If you got a good one, your tongue tingled long after the licking! oooo, lucky!
There was some swimming in a billabong, where the mud at the bottom was tea tree mud and made a wonderful body mask...so we coated ourselves up (there were only the four of us...me and a trio from England) and basked in the sun. We visited some of the massive brahma bulls on the cattle farm, and chased after kangaroos to see how fast they could really run. I think the most memorable part of the day was spider #2. Dave fleshed out a huntsman spider from a crevice in a huge tree which he referred to as the spider tree (a shame, really, because it looked like a tree out of a fairytale, but it turned out to be ridden with hidden evils)...this thing was bigger than my hand and it wasn't even full grown!! It was preggo too...I took a look at it, and thought Nope, I can't hold that. But nobody else was jumping at it, and I knew I had to do it eventually, so I told Dave to chuck it over. It was really weird...but also in the sense that I wasn't as nervous as I thought I was going to be. So Dave asked if I wanted it on my face. Sure!! I wasn't allowed to breath while he transferred it onto my face, lest the air from my nostrils triggered some bite-reflex in the little minx or something. But I think she sure took a liking to me, because she stayed relatively still when I held her (either in my hands or on my face), and I thought about smuggling her back to Canada (her and all her babies!) so I could give one to mom. Muah ha ha ha, oh mar mar, you've been forewarned about the picture below...

View of the Whitsunday island

Getting eaten alive atop the meat ant hill...

And the running-dancing-jumping-stomping that ensued

Getting warmed up with the horny devil spider

Mud monsters...

Carolyn, you got a little something...ah, nevermind

Riling up the lizard before passing him on to someone else...

Viva Australia!

I'm here I'm here I'm here I'm hjear I'm heare I'm heare I'm here I'm here I'm here I'm hear I'm ehat I'm hear I'm rhear I'm hear!!
After oh-so-many years of waiting (and not so patiently either), I've finally set my feet down on Australian soil. First thing of the plane in Cairns I noticed how muggy and humid it was! It was wonderful to put on the warm-weather clothes that have been buried in the bottom of my backpack for the past six weeks. I jumped right into the Australian leg of the trip by arranging a trip for my second day there aboard the Passions of Paradise boat, destined for the Great Barrier Reef. There was a lot of snorkeling and sunbathing (a little too much of the latter by the looks of my very red back), and I even tried out scuba diving for the first time ever, which was such a thrill...once I actually stayed below water anyways. When our guide indicated for us to let go of the rope beneath the boat and start swimming, I was good for about 10 seconds before I started floating back up to the surface, trying like mad to get myself twisted around to swim for the bottom. The guide was looking at me with a "what the heck are you doing? are you okay??" look. I found it difficult to remember not to talk or laugh with the regulator in my mouth (yep, can't shut me up under water either), but I raised my palms upwards and shrugged "what's going on?!" with a panicked look in my eyes. He swam after me and attached another weight to my belt, and I promptly sank to the bottom of the ocean floor (which was only 7 meters deep). We explored the reef for about half an hour, and it was amazing to hang out under water for that long.

Two days after that, a fellow Calgarian girl working at the desk of the hostel asked if I wanted to work the AJ Hackett Illuminescence party Saturday night. AJ Hackett is the bungee site she also worked at, and she was recruiting workers for the party. In exchange for working, we were to receive a day of unlimited bungee jumps. Done and done. Or so I thought! The bungee site was in the middle of the rain forest, with a lagoon and two rocky tiers where the party was set up. It was madness, I had never seen a party of this magnitude...over 600 people, two djays playing at once (all electronica/techno junk though) and a third stage for fire throwers, drum performances and laser shows. My task was to pick up bottles and cups...in general, clean up after people. Good practise for parenthood (augh! Take it back!!) but I would often take breaks and watch people giving 'er on the dance floor. Talking to some locals, I found out that there weren't many of them there...most were travelers. I figured that explained some of the 50-60 year olds that showed up. They must not have known what they were getting themselves into!!
So anyways, I was at the water station, switching the big blue water bottles, when I tried lifting one and felt something go in my back (ah, so that's what happens when you don't lift with your legs!). I lasted another half hour (until 3 am, when I was supposed to be there until 5 am), then I bailed (nobody sober should be up until 5 am anyways!). The next day I was a bed ridden mess. Painful back, head cold, and still sunburned from two days before. My day of free unlimited bungees went unfulfilled. I bet you're thrilled at that news, Mom!! :)

Off to Townsville, where I did a little side trip to Magnetic Island, and was pleasantly surprised to run into two Irish girls on the ferry over that I had met on the Cairns reef trip. We spent the day beach hopping on the island, and koala hunting....since it's apparently the largest koala sanctuary in Queensland (or even Australia), we were sure we wouldn't be disappointed. We saw ONE!!! But it was cutest, sleepiest little gaffer ever.

I also had another first in Townsville: My first cockroach. I know, I am 25 years old and I have managed to go this long without seeing one, so it was about time. Maybe if I had seen them earlier in life, I wouldn't have reacted the way I did! I was strolling from the kitchen one night with a cup of tea in hand, when I saw something scuttling on the floor near the shelves where our food bags were kept, when it suddenly braked to a stop. I also stopped in horrified fascination, confirming that yes, that was indeed a cockroach, when all of a sudden the creepy little thing charged at me!!! It's like it could sense my disgust and went in for the kill (or heart spasm anyways). I literally jumped, raising a knee in defense and ran to the other side of the room, squealing "eeeeyAAAAAAA!" and leaving a trail of spilled tea in my wake. I turned to see who else was following suit...People on the patio craned their necks to see what the commotion was...meanwhile the girls lounging in the area, reading and visiting, looked at me, looked at the roach...looked back at me with disinterest, and a look that said "So?". I said "That's my first cockroach!!" and fled upstairs. On the way up to my room , I saw a girl sitting on the couch, with another roach climbing the wall just inches above her head. I didn't bother telling her. Because, you know, she's like pro at seeing them or something.

So, I've become more aware of just how huge this country really is, and I'm REALLY going to be motoring through...I counted out about 10 or 11 more places I really want to stop in at, so I can only stay about 2 or 3 nights in each place. I think I really could have used another month or so...

Cairns

With the Irish girls aboard the Passions of Paradise

With the fire throwers from the Illuminescence party...

Dude was scary!! It was weird to hear him talk, with his proper English accent...

From the top of Castle Hill, overlooking Magnetic Island...

...and overlooking Townsville

On Magnetic Island...obeying the "Swim within the stinger nets" signs

Coochi-cooing to convince him to jump into my arms

Underground cave dweller

Saying good-bye to NZ was a little heart-breaking, as its sad to think that I may not ever see it again. My last few days there were pretty low key, considering I was jumping from town to town every day. Spent some time in Mount Maunganui, which is pretty much a rich-Kiwi resort town...a one-bedroom apartment across the street from the beach (no houses I saw were actually on the beach), started at $1.5 million. There was one little campervan park, which was pretty weak in regards to size and landscaping, but the thing books up two years in advance! Apparently it gets super packed in the summer, and the backpacker bus doesn't do trips out there at that time of year because the traffic is so backed up...maybe even as bad as Sylvan Lake on a long weekend! So I felt fortunate to be able to check it out.
I also did a little side trip to the Coromandel peninsula, which was absolutely beautiful. We stopped at a hot water beach where our guide armed us with spades and we followed the throng of people down to the beach, where we could see steam curling up from the sand. The idea was to dig yourself a little pit and then wallow in the water which seeped up from below that was hotter than a hot tub. We were told the water could get up to 60 degrees Celsius, so in some spots we had to abandon our digging because we couldn't bear even standing in the ankle deep water! And on my last night in Auckland before flying to Cairns, there was a Tahiti dance group doing a performance in the hostel bar...I was talking to one of the dancers (Kaverah? He's on the left in the picture below), and apparently they had been in Canada this past summer, performing. It was pretty intense, with chanting and chest slapping (well, for the guys anyways), but it was an awesome treat for my last night out.

And the biggest misconception I've heard about Canada so far...

In the internet/lounge area of the hostel in Mount Mauganui, a Brazilian guy was picking away at his guitar, when he stopped to ask where I'm from. When I replied, Canada, he shuddered involuntarily and said "Brrrr....so cold". I replied yeah, it could get pretty cold for a few months of the year, but it wasn't like that the whole time. Then, in his broken English, he told me he had heard Canada has cities that are "down", as he slanted his hand towards the floor. I had no idea what he was talking about, so a guessing game ensued. After a few painful minutes, he managed to get his meaning across. He had heard that Canada has underground cities where people lived to escape the cold. Heehee!! The corners of my mouth started tugging upwards, but I stanched the laugher, as I just shook my head and said "Nope, don't got any of those".

I was tempted to tell a New Zealander though that yes, hockey is quite similar to curling...

Somewhere between Wellington and Napier

Huka Falls

Overlooking the beach from Mount Mauganui

Digging a wading hole at the hot water beach

Walking to Cathedral Cove

Sky tower, Auckland

Dance group from Tahiti shaking their groove thang

The inspiration behind the dance moves I'll be busting out soon

My last glimpse of NZ...

The end is near...

Ooooookie....so from the last post, it's become apparent that I've left the south island...after Christchurch, I went to Kaikoura (arg, it seems like I need to backtrack so much...I can't remember what I had for lu-pper yesterday). I wanted to swim with the dolphins, but those elusive little squeaks didn't want to swim with me. I suppose it was more the weather than anything though. Despite looking like a beautiful day out, it was apparently pretty windy out in the middle of the ocean with increasing swells, so it was cancelled the first day. The second day, we were out on the boat, and saw a small pod of dusky dolphins, but they were pretty antisocial, seeing as how it was their mating/calving season (I suppose a girl's gotta have her priorities), and the weather was picking up anways, so we headed back in to shore. I got most of my money back, so I decided it was an omen to skip this petty dolphin crap, and save it for the BIG BOYS OF THE SHARK KINGDOM muah ha ha!!!

The view from the back porch of the Kaikoura hostel

View from the Kaikoura peninsula walkway, atop the bluffs

Anyways. After Kaikoura, it was Picton for 2 hours...enough time to meet Anna-the-Pom and rent a car to head to Nelson. Nelson apparently gets the most sunshine in all of NZ...I can't really attest to that, seeing as how it was pretty rainy/overcast for three outta the four days we were there. But the day we chose to go to Abel Tasman for a day-long kayaking trip was super nice out, so I guess that's all that matters! It was a long 16-km paddle trek, and we saw several quiet, secluded beaches, heaps of seals, some jellyfish (one guy poked at with his oar, so I didn't have to) dozens upon dozens of bird species, and one particularly impressive miracle... me successfully supressing the urge to smoke my kayaking partner in the back of the head with my oar. She claimed that she had just been in Australia, where she had done a sea kayaking trip. So, of course, she must have thought it would be the most logical thing if I sat in the back and steered (even after me telling her I had no idea what I was doing), while she sat at the front. There were some particularly choppy parts, and I pretended I was Robinson Crusoe and paddled for all I was worth. But I couldn't understand why everyone was so far ahead of us. Then I realized it was because she had stopped paddling. And she was sitting back admiring the view, and for all the good it was doing, the oar might as well have been stuck up her...nose. Then she'd leisurely pick up the oar again, and do some dipsy paddles...then stop again. This continued a few times, and I sat behind her fuming, but biting my tongue. One of the guides, Katherine, came up beside us and asked Jennifer from San Francisco (aka lazy stewpid jurkface by this point) if she was okay, and she said yes. Questioned a second time, about 15 minutes later, she said "my hands are cramping up." And the third time, the million-dollar question was answered with "Yeah...I just don't want to get wet." My laser-beam death ray eyes were boring holes in the back of her head. But maybe I'm just being insensitive, because I know that when I signed myself up to paddle out on the ocean in a little plastic boat, the last thing I expected to happen was get wet. All barbs aside, it was an awesome day, and we were all hurting by the end...which was kinda cool, because it really felt like we had accomplished something!

Blue Thunder, aka Troy

From R to L: Moi, Sarah the Pom, Stewpid Lazy Jurkface in background, leaning over kayak

Anna and I headed back to Picton to drop off the rental car (thinking I had the hang of driving on the other side of the road and shifting with my left hand, I drove on the way back...and I only scared Anna about three or four times...but she's theatrical). She headed to Wellington, and I stayed for a wine tour, my first ever. I decided I like wine tours. Everyone's just so happy. One couple from Australia were particularly delightful (Alison reminded me of my aunty Carol) and told me I reminded them of Delta Goodrem...the other two guys from the UK agreed. I had no idea who this Delta Goodrem was, but I decided that anyone named after a geological formation of a landform where the mouth of a river flows into an ocean, sea, desert, estuary, lake or another river, couldn't be all that bad. (FYI she's an actress/singer from Aus, who I had seen on tv here but just didn't know it was her...and who I thought I bore no resemblance to at all, but meh. I'll take what I can get!)

While in Nelson, I hiked to the top of a hill, where there was a monument marking the exact geographical center of NZ.

Manhandling Troy on the open road

The Gargle-Swish technique perfected by seasoned wine connoisseurs

Then onwards to Wellington, the country's capital (via the ferry, where no alcohol consumption, therefore no drunk and disorderly arrests ensued)...I at least went to see the outside of the Parliament buildings. Then onto Napier...a great town that I adore, and didn't really want to leave. I was surprised that I was the only one on the backpacker bus to opt for staying at the Napier Prison...how many times do you get to stay in an old prison?! I think the fact that the bus couldn't drop people off right at the prison because the road was too narrow and couldn't turn around might have factored in...but it makes no difference to me, because this is the coolest place I've stayed so far!!! I was actually in my own little cell...female dorms were all full, so they gave me my own cell for the same price...muah ha! It was tiny and was kinda creepy at first, but it was so nice to not have to share a room with seven other people! I did the tour ...it was NZ's first prison, opened up in the 1800's and actually just closed in 1993. Was abandoned for 10 years, then reopened as a hostel four years ago. When it closed in '93, only five of the cells had toilets...all the others were still using pots. There were only ever four hangings here, and there's actually a cemetary with only one grave of one of the prisoner's hung. Another hang-ee was buried just outside the main wall, and his grave is marked with a bump. He was Maori, so that's why he was not buried within the prison walls. So, it definitely was a neat experience, sleeping in an old jail and hearing the torrid tales (my cell was occupied by the "good boys" only, so as far as they know, nothing terrifying or alarming happened).

My very own cell door, complete with deadbolt on the outside

After Napier, I left the Magic bus' well beaten path, and jumped onto the InterCity to Gisborne (smelliest bus ride ever...first the lady with the gag-inducing stale cigarette smell...then the school boy with two random patches shaved into his hairline and a serious case of B.O.) ...first city in the world to see the sun, as well as a sweet surfer town. The rain followed me all the way from Napier though, and by the time I arrived in Gisborne, it was torrential rain. Upon my arrival, I was quite dismayed to realize my plan of going to the travel center to find a hostel was kiboshed...seeing as the travel center was closed. I figured I could walk to the main streets of Gisborne and find a hostel...not an easy feat carrying three bags, an umbrella and a map. Crossing the street, I saw this long, huge puddle that I couldn't really get around, so I traipsed through it...only to discover it came up mid-calf. Luckily I was inappropriately attired in flip-flops and long shorts, which still managed to drag through the water. Then I missed getting nailed twice in the same freakin' traffic circle (the pedestrian lights were out due to construction). So I wandered the city streets, suprised to see that even though Gisborne is over 30,000 people, most shops were shut down by 5. I was about to use the payphone to call a hostel to see if they did pick-ups, but as I was throwing down all my luggage, I heard someone behind me ask if I needed a ride somewhere. Turning around, I saw a Maori woman in her mid-30s giving me a big, toothless grin. I had never been so glad to see a strange, toothless woman. She had three little kids with her, and I am not ashamed to say I jumped right into her dirty little van. As if reading my mind, she said not to worry, they were Christians, and she was also delighted to hear I was from Canada ..."Celine Dion!!!", "Shania Twain!!!" ...and she delivered me safely to the Flying Nuns backpackers (first a prison, then an old convent).

My time in NZ is coming to a close, and I'm finding myself burning through the north island. As I'm finally finishing this post, I'm in Taupo, but taking off again tomorrow morning. Ten more days of Kiwiness...