Hola todos! Como estas? I'm having no luck in New Zealand so far with a computer. Apparently I really need to be paid first. So- I thought I would simply keep in touch with all of you via the web. I will of course still answer emails, but for the general "I wonder how Willow is?" this is by far a better solution than my spending hours in a pricey internet cafe and not writing everyone that I want to stay in touch with. I trust that it will also provide a bit of entertainment for you. If not, it's your own fault for reading it and I have no sympathy.

New Zealand is beautiful. Last weekend I went skydiving with a couple of friends. Unfortunately, it was too windy, so we couldn't skydive. We decided to go para gliding instead- too windy. Ab-sailing? Caves were underwater. No luck. So, we drove a couple of hours to see a giant bottle of "World Famous in New Zealand- L&P". At first we were a little suspicious- it didn't look that tall. Fortunately there was a cafe where we were able to purchase L&P (it is truly unlike anything else- sort of a lemon-ish carbonated interpretation of tea and cleaning fluid?) and pay too much for a vaguely attractive lunch entirely devoid of flavor. Upon exiting the cafe we had come to the determination that this was NOT in fact the giant bottle, but a MEDIUM sized bottle and furthermore, the name L&P wasn't even in the name of the cafe, but was instead just put up on the sign in a way to imply that it was, when in fact it the only concrete established by the sign was that L&P was sold in "Cafe & Bar". Demoralized and not even mildly entertained by our belated realization, we made our way up the street to the REAL giant bottle where Katherine -obviously one of the group I was with, as you can tell by the context, please stop interupting with frivolous details- took pictures out of a sense of obligation. We did after all drive two hours to see this giant bottle! We were dutifully excited and read all of the plaques which were very entertaining and told us all about the wonders of the springs that it was originally made from. They would have pilgrimages made to them for healing purposes if they were in Europe, and a great many other wonderful things if they were somewhere else. When we finished reading, we realized that they don't even use the original water anymore and L&P is actually now bottled by Coca Cola (Coca Cola was actually discovered upon further reading of the drinkable bottles purchased in the Bar and Cafe).....hmm. Katherine needed comfort after that last bit. It was like hearing that Santa doesn't exist.

Right then. Up the road to hike a beautiful lush gorge! Oh the ferns!! Never have I seen such lush growth!! Fabulous day for a hike. We were just about to leave the car when......it began to rain. Then it began to pour. Then it poured harder. Not to be discouraged, we decided to go to the beach instead. (Sarcastic comments to yourself please). Fortunately, at the beach it wasn't raining. I collected a great many seashells and a cool piece of driftwood. We discovered an unexpected trail that would take us to some scenic waterfalls in just over an hour! Gorgeous scenery, beautiful day, what could be better?! Unfortunately Christopher (the other member of our trio) wasn't actually prepared to walk uphill on a slick muddy path, so we had to turn back a few minutes into the climb. We did however see a lovely view before trekking back to the car which we reached just as it began to rain- we then congratulated ourselves at our good sense to turn back before we got soaked and fell slip sliding down a steep hill into the sea. On the way back to Auckland we stopped off at a lovely little ice-cream and country store shaped like a castle for some decent ice-cream and bad potato chips (crisps).

Not a bad day.

Until the next installment,
besos
Willow