Auckland Still

(Sky Tower, Tallest Building in NZ)

Well, I know it hasn't been too long since my last post, but I figured just to keep you all entertained, I would post again, although not much has happened. I'm still here in Auckland, and I have been coming to an Internet Cafe almost daily because it is very ridiculously cheap here. The last few days haven't been extremely exciting. I've been staying at my freinds flat which is very nice indeed. It sure beats the Hostels. I've been meeting up with Martin and he is looking into buying a car, and if he does buy a car, we are probably going to travel a little more together. I told him I'd split petrol with him and we could cruise. But since buying a car isn't a show up and pay for it process, it has been taking quite a while. He has to figure out insurance, make sure the car he is getting is road worthy, and become an AA member. (Similar to our AAA.)

Anyway, one thing exciting has happened to me that I thought I'd inform all of you on. I finally got off my lazy bum and hit a local climbing area here in Auckland. This area is called the Mount Eden Quarry, and it is the rock that was exposed when it was dug up to build walls for the prison that is across the school yard from us. Yeah, you heard right. The layout of the area goes, from north to south, Prison, Grammer School, Climbing Wall. All within a square kilometer! Apparently for gym classes the kids are allowed to go climbing! How lucky! The routes are very difficult however. Very short compared to the climbing I'm used to doing though. Anyway, I showed up completely alone to this Rock wall hoping to find some fellow climbers willing to give me a belay. Sure enough, the first people I ran into immediatly offered to let me join them! People are very nice here! The problem with the particular people that I joined though were that they yelled out beta (advice) for the climb before you even attempted it. One guy told me how to do a climb step by step even though the climb wasn't even that difficult and I easily could've figured it out myself. It really takes the puzzle out of the climb if people do this. Oh well. It was actually very fun on some climbs to listen to their beta, and then purposefully do the climb a different way. I was laughing on the inside every time I did this succesfully. :)

So what's amazing, is how quickly, yet how slowly time goes. At the same time! I fly out of Christchurch on the 19th of February, just over a month from now. I thought I'd be down by the south Island by now, and I'm nowhere even close! I may have to skip the South Island until I return from Tanzania! There is still so much up north that I want to see! Two more tramps, Mountain Biking, Hobbiton, Mt. Doom, Zorbing, and Fly Fishing are all on my list! Jeez! For that respect time is FLYING by. But on a day to day basis, especially when I find myself alone, man it drags by. Whenever I find myself alone, I find myself thinking of home, and yeah, missing it a lot. For that reason, it's good that I've kinda found a travel buddy.

Well, till next time!