Epic quest to the world down under

OK. my travel plans have taken an interesting twist.
I originally planed on spending most of my time on the south island of New Zealnd then doing a bit of the north. Nick and I decided one night at 2am to head to the norht island for a bit. We're headed to the vipassana center in just under a week. see some of the sights along the way. so we jumped a bus 4 hours later to Picton (5 hours), the ferry port on the S. island. took the boat ($45nz/3 hours) to Wellington. Spent a night in the backpackers there after our attemps to camp on private property were spoiled. good times with the germans in the hostel. set off in the morning. spent $9nz on an hour long train ride and a short bus out of the city to a nice hitching point, on the Kapi coast, near Kapi island. (This was Nick's first hithiking experiance, BTW) - Waited no longer than 10 minutes and got picked up. In the car was our german friend from the hostel, who had been waiting just down the road from us. The driver (dutch/cuban) had plenty of room and felt very good about filling his car full of travellers and gear. We drove for about 5 hours, to Turangi.. stoppping at a few sights along the way and pitching a few bucks on petrol (a mere fraction of the would-have-been $75nz bus ticket each)
While in the car I was communicating with Henning and Maki via text (I get free text messaging on my mobile phone on weekends here in Nz) and made arrangements to meet up with them in Turangi. met up, got some beer and headed out to the nearest country spot, set up near a river on a narrow path. Henning, his brother, Cort, and Maki and then Nick and I... we built a fire, drank our beers.. told stories and jokes, and then it started pouring rain and we had to move into the one big tent. continued to tell stories and more jokes, and then jokes that made us all sick... and eventually, at some point slept... not before wandering in the rain in the forest watching the many, many glowworms dotting the forest like stars in the sky.
good times... Went to the local thermal pools, just down the road after breakfast... stayed in until we were all woozy and then wandered about the hot sprigs and mudpools in the nature conserve. Henning, Maki and Cort had to continute on so we parted ways and
Nick and I checked into the backpackers in Turangi... as our gear was throurally soaked and the weather was not improving. Was a really nice backpackers... had a nice big climbing wall which we climbed on until we couldn't climb any more yesterday after the hot springs. we even got into free climbing... which was reall fun. Nick took a fall... about 5 metres before his rope pulled taught. just about shit himself... was weak as a kitten afterward from the surge of adrenaline. was bloody great. I can't wait until my rock climbing muscle groups are strong enough to do what I want to make them do! I'm definetly a lifer.
Hostel was really nice. Courtyard in the middle and rooms all open into the courtyard. Cheap, ($21 for 4bed dorm), immaculately clean and all the anemnities. Spent the evenning last night, being properly exahusted, playing chess and cards and talking with an ameriacan fellow, Matthew. really great day, all in all.. and I got a chance to dry my tent!
Hit the road again today... after a lazy late checkout. Walked about 1.5km out of town. got picked up by a civil engineer... he drove us to Taupo, where we presently sit at an internet cafe. Thinking of heading up north to Rotorua or bay of Plenty... lots of volcanoes, thermal pools and things.. and Anna, (my old roomate from Canada) is up in the bay of plenty. We don't really plan very far ahead.. so we'll just see where we end up!
ok... I'm spending too much time on here. got to go. will write again soon! life is great right now!
hey - was it easter this weekend just past? just occered to me... maybe it's next weekend?