There's still a little Ireland in the sands of Ol' New Zealand

Never thought body surfing was an option for celebrating St. Patrick. Raglan was gorgeous. We all left friday early and basically went right to the beach. Got some fun shots of coastal rock formations and all that and I saw a bright red sea anemone in the wild!!!! so excited, haha. The hostle we stayed in was amazing, i'll get the name and throw it in here later. There was a ropes course, zipline, and it even came with a dog! Haha, so, we all went up to inspiration point (yes, there's actually a place called inspiration point) and we relaxed, sang, and sipped wine under a full moon. I shot a couple photos, one of which is up on Pinhole Adventures (shameless plug). So most the group left and it was Brian, Ed, Gina, Burger, TK, and me left up on the point. Brian's telling some story when Ed goes "Hey Brian, there's a dog next to you." Lo and behold, there was a dog next to Brian. It had tags, but no name, so at some point we decided Ray-Ray (a play off of Raglan.....kind of) So we hung out for a while wondering where this beautiful old girl came from, then someone remembered there was a water bowl down by the hostel. Now this hostel screamed "Commune," there were dirt paths everywhere and you were essentially in the jungle, AWESOME place for a dog to relax, so it made sense. It was getting a little later (or so we thought, it was actually around 12), so we started to hike back, and Ray-Ray just started following us, then after a little longer, Ray-Ray started leading us. She actually found us a bit of a shortcut. The leading turned to following as she trotted behind us, up the steps, down the bridge and up to our room door. So we said goodnight again and hoped our paths might soon cross and opened the door. Now it was a four person room for Tim, Ed, and me, and Ray-Ray knew that. So she strolls in and luckily settled for the bottom bunk. Brian snuggled up along her and we all had a lovely nights sleep. In the morning, Brian's gone (evidently it was a chorus of snoring, including our guest), and in his place next to Ray-Ray is a sizable wet spot, and all I can think is "I can't believe Brian wet the bed, and now he's gonna try and pass the blame on Ray-Ray" or at least that's the story we're sticking to. So we cleaned up after the ol' girl and gave her a reassuring head scratch. As we were all gettin up and ready to check out, we kind of expected her to just mosey on, but instead she did the most adorable thing ever. She just laid in front of the door. Anyway, she continued to hang about for another hour, then Ed went to go fill up his water bottle, so she trotted along beside her. Ed gets up to the kitchen and hears a sharp whistle and a forceful "Taupu!" Ray-Ray's ears perk up and she trots back to a familiar scent. We've decided that we may have given that dog the best night of her life, but all we can really hope is that she'll remember us. Pictures of her will get thrown up soon too!

So! the Rents are coming! Extremely excited, haha, until then I'll be researching and map reading and all the good things that come with travel! Also, side note, I'll be living in Baltimore this summer! I recieved a Fellowship Grant from the Humanities at Loyola for wet plate collodian urban photography. If anyone actually is interested about that stuff I can tell you guys about it, but I hideously tired, haha, so i'm gonna get some rest. Love you all!

Coromandel

....yea, life could be a lot worse...

I will be writing about my adventure through Auckland (The City of Sails), The Bay of Islands, and Coromandel shortly, but as you can tell, I'm inundated with classwork right now.
But to be as serious as I can be right now, haha, it's a little hectic here. I'm currently enrolling in classes for next semester, as well as tutorials (extra smaller classes required by Uni) for this semester, and getting ready to hand in my Senior Thesis, since i just finished my proposal for the Humanities Grant, while preparing my Independent Study. Stories will go up, haha. Shortly, but until then, totally check out my buddy Stanley's blog. Hannah introduced us and he's trekking around the islands with me. And if you guys think I'm lucky, he isn't even taking class (or paying for anything I might add). I put up a link to the left to his blog. Also, as always, Nick and I are throwing up some photographic phun on the ole' Pinhole Adventures. Hope to hear from everyone soon, Love you all!
-Kiwi Kev

I'm Here!

Months of waiting are over, and the flight's behind me, I'm on an Island between the Tasmanian and the Pacific, God Bless Aotearoa, God Defend New Zealand.

This will be a long entry, haha, so...

On February 17th, I boarded a plane in New York City at 8:30 AM and on February 19th, at about 5:30 AM, I breathed kiwi air before the sun rose.

Before that, however, there was a journey all it's own. Airports are surprisingly empty at 4:30 in the morning, except for kids, there are lots of kids. The woman who checked me in was absolutly wonderful, he was so excited and exclaimed "Before I die......(awkwardly long pause).....i want to go to New Zealand" and then she proceeded to not weight my bags and give me the wrong luggage tags, but all was rectified. Luckily I knew the name, another Greyhound Jedediah Adams. I stood around with Mom and Dad, pacing, chatting, wondering why no one else was here and hoping that the plane didn't leave oh the 16th instead, and then Ed strolled in. Now assuming we wouldn't both have shown up a day late, we went through security and went on our way. The wait for the plane was filled with that anxious excitement, that thrill you get on an old wooden roller coaster when you notice that a screw is missing or there's a rouge termite colony rearing it's destructive head. It could have been not everyone knew each other and we were all feeling that mutual "anxitement", or it could be that we were there at 5-6 in the morning, but it's was kinda quiet for a while.
We touched down in San Francisco around 12. Great city, we had a 7 hour layover, so Brian and Moria drove over to the airport and Melis came in on the BART. We went to Brian's apartment and played the most thrilling "Make a railroad across the country to obscure cities in the Midwest" themed board game I've ever played, and I really want one. Also sampled some of Brian's brewings, including the cider and the deceptively strong "Make it easier for Kevin to sleep on the plane" 10.5% Ale (Brian, correct me if I'm wrong!). Then we had a scotch, took a walk down to the Tour de California bike race, and went back and had a glass of port. There was a funny running theme that I couldn't place my finger on. It was a lovely visit and the perfect way to see off America for a while, and I'm extremely excited for Brian, and Mom and Dad to hop the Pacific.
So went back to the airport and Melis stayed with me until security. Again, the woman checking me in was uncommonly nice, asked me where I wanted to sit and why I was going, very nice experience. Said goodbye to Melis and then I headed back to meet up with the Hound. After another rousing round of waiting, we boarded our chariot.
I ended up getting a window seat (I like having that extra wall to rest on) sitting next to two women who were going to one of the Polynesian Islands. We chatted a bit, but the main attraction was the bloke in front of us. Very friendly and very audible, he was going fishing in Oz then coming back to hang in NZ before the return flight. A couple of months of adventure, as he called it. I watched the Simpson's Movie, which was wonderful, and then went back and forth with Flight of the Conchords and Simpson's episodes. I ate, which was nice, got the chicken for dinner and the fruit for breakfast, and evidently the woman next to me disliked my elbows and knees, then proceeded to comment to me about it. She also tucked my coat into the seat cause it was disturbing her...fair enough. But all in all it was a lovely flight and much more manageable than the Cali flight to be honest. Granted part of that might be attributed to Brian, I did sleep for about 6 hours.
As we landed we went through the battery of customs without much delay. And got on out shuttles. Ed, TK, Tim and I were on the last one and actually in there with bloke who told us a few tips, phrases, and basically said that Auckland is a lot like a game of Frogger, but you have to look right first.


Well I got us to the city, hopefully the next entry can talk a little bit about this lovely little island. Sweet as, Cheers!