i managed to climb down mount victoria (a volcano)

in fancy shoes & a dress but i slipped and fell
down the stairs coming out from the restaurant.

i finally made myself clean up my temporary room.
i thought about how i've lived in so many
different rooms within the past year.
i like it: the concept of just getting up and go.

momo and i are taking a scenic train down the north island, dropping off our bags in windy welly, flying to christchurch and joining a few others to roadtrip through the south island to the fiordlands. we will see mountains, volcanoes, rivers, glaciers, rainforests and caves. i am excited to use my headlamp.

"linda, we're going to Christchurch."
-morgan.

today we visited tiritiri matangi island,
a bird sanctuary about 1.5 hours off the auckland habor.

"if it weren't for jenny, i wouldn't have
known what i was looking at."

jenny, our guide, led us through
the bush pointing out the island's distinctive birds,
flora, history and how the Maori used/shaped the land.

however, then jenny began her ethnocentric rants
and even called the Maori, "savages"
who "damaged 'our' beautiful island."
she kept on complaining about
how the Maori did all these "destructive" things
such as pick plants and let their dogs run loose to hunt birds.
um lady, they had to survive.

but anyways, we saw some interesting birds.

BIRDS:

this is greg. his species is the
10th most endangered bird in the world.
there are 14 of them on tiritiri.

yesterday, we visited the auckland museum to
watch a maori dance performance.
the haka send shivers down my spine.

we took off our shoes to enter
the intricately carved meeting house.
notice the eyes are made of shells.

waiheke is sweet as.

auckland, new zealand
this is the most multi-cultural city i have ever been to.
i met a korean high school boy with a kiwi accent,
a phD british girl interested in biodiversity.
a very pale swedish girl from lund.
there are norwegian girls down the hall
and fijian, samoan and papua new guinean students
here for a tennis tournament.
the streets are filled with japanese markets,
vietnamese cafes, indian herb stores & maori television stations.
i even spoke in chinese to the lady at the cell phone store.she's from dalian.

we came to a consensus that this city
feels like an intersection of:
seattle, london, and hawaii.
*seattle-urban but ecoconcious with
greenery filled potholes & under bridges.
*london-european-y architecture/feel.
*hawaii-tropical weather & lush breathing land.

the sea the sea!
we swam in polynesian waters.

maori boys with tattoos were nearby.
'the word "tattoo" comes from the Tahitian word "tatau"'

day #1
kia ora aotearoa!
it's summer here in new zealand.
this consists of humidity, rain showers,
rollling green hills, lush flora, and sandflies.

they put pineapples in sandwiches here.

sushi, mochi, cream puffs for lunch!

he sneezed in her face.

going for a ride with mops!

the weather has been usually warm.
perfect for transplanting my pumpkins & morning glories!

i dreampt of a war with ostriches in the arctic,
fidel castro and the blooming of my morning glories.
they were growing so fast, i couldn't figure out
which way i wanted them to grow:
crawling up a tree?
across the fence?
or just let them figure it out themselves?

i began an archaeological dig in
my flower pot and found all sorts of pink treasures.

then i went to a warehouse and
there was a man lying in a freezer
next to giant lucky charms (cereal).

happy chinese new year!
xin nian kuai le!

zealandia, you are so close.new zealand dollars have an
interesting transparent plastic patch.

i accompanied hiroki to visit his friend who

recently got a new position as pastry chef!
she brought out delicious things for us.
we stuffed ourselves silly.

mops' head is much bigger than mine.
he looks like a snowball lion.

"he ao! he ao!"
(a cloud! a cloud!)
;;maori;;

p a r t y.