a quick note from the Auckland Airport

Where am I right now?

Signed onto a free internet kiosk computer in the middle of Auckland International Airport and bringing this post to you over outrageously slow internet. One of the things that really bugs me about Australia and New Zealand is the sloth-slow internet. Can you really call yourself a first world country when I can fetch a cup of tea in the time it takes the Facebook homepage to load? I think not!

But all internet grievances aside, I'm wrapping up my five-month-long journey abroad and feeling pretty sad about it. I spent the last eight days in the South Island of New Zealand and completed a few heart-attack inducing activities and had my fill of gorgeous Lord-of-the-Rings-does-it-no-justice scenery.

Most notably, I FINALLY skydived from a plane at 12,000 feet and bungy jumped a modest 43 meters (about 141 feet) off the world's first bungy jump bridge. Not to mention taking a morning to go sea kayaking in New Zealand's famously beautiful Milford Sound.

EDIT: When I get back home I'll upload some of the skydiving and bungy pics.

new zealand epic fail

Two things I failed to do in the last 10 days:

Update this blog, and skydive! Well, the second wasn't entirely my fault. Weather was bad in Taupo (a deliciously infuriating combination of clouds, wind, and quickly fading daylight). But no worries, as they say in these parts!! I'll try to skydive over the glaciers in Frans Josef or maybe outside Queenstown some time this week when I'm in the South Island. And I'll definitely bungy-jump!!!

As for the wrap-up of the North Island, I'm still working out the photos and will grace you with them when I get back to the US! This is code for: I am exhausted from traveling non-stop for a week and I'm ready to catch up on the episodes of LOST I've missed :)

I've leave you with this youtube video of one of the crazy-ass things I've done so far, which was invented in New Zealand. It's called Zorbing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isRlb9dIJRA

(For more info also visit the trusty Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorbing.)

The Land of the Kiwis

New Zealand suits me, I think.

It's quiet and unassuming and intensely beautiful... at least from what I saw from the ride home from the airport!

I've been staying the last two days with my cousin Kai, who lives in Hamilton, New Zealand and has just opened his own Chinese diner. He also has an 8-month-old baby girl with his wife Rainy. My aunt is also living with them to watch the baby, so it's a full household! But taking a break from traveling has been a nice change of pace. Yesterday I went into town and got a bunch of errands done, such as getting a New Zealand SIM card for my phone (now I can be reached anytime and from anywhere in the world... aka my parents can now rest easy) and buying a rainjacket because NZ is famous for its rain (how else could the grass have become so lush?)

In a few hours I am catching a bus and heading out to Rotorua, which is a geothermal village. Then it's on to Taupo, and finally Wellington for two or three days. Then back to Hamilton before flying to Christchurch to tour the South Island. Can't wait!

Internet access will definitely be shoddy, but I'll write again at least when I get back to Hamilton next week.