I'm in frigging New Zealand

I completely forgot how to post things on here, and I have no idea how I got to this page to add some thoughts, so I'll just take this as a good omen.

Well I'm here, and I feel like I'm on cloud nine... billion. What the crimeny is that saying supposed to mean anyways? I flew into Auckland, New Zealand yesterday and hopped on the air bus, which I stayed on for probably two hours - I missed my stop the first time around I was so happy to be here. Then I found my way to Formule 1 Backpackers, it was recommended to me by one of my local friends: pretty new, pretty nice, pretty unihnabited by any other fellow adventurists. I didn't mind though, I decided to stay there in the first place because I would have my own room; that would provide me a chance to hibernate for awhile and get my bearings. I never ended up hibernating, although I did go to bed way early - slept from 8pm till about 7am.

I was way out of my comfort zone for the first few hours I was in town, although still highly amused. Two guys offered to smoke me down within probably the first ten minutes I was at the backpacker, one of them, looked to be in his late 30s, had been living there for the past 8 months and was wearing one of those long dress thingies (hopefully I'll become cultured enough to know what that was actually called by the time I leave). To be perfectly honest I was tempted to partake, but I'm not really trying to collapse another lung anytime soon, when I declined they both became much less talkative.

Anyways, the comfort zone thing, I was really kind of freaking out. It hit me while I was walking back onto the plane in Fiji that I didn't know a soul where I was going, and that that comfort of home was along ways away... at least that's what I thought at first. I'm pretty sure people walk on the left side of the sidewalk here, not positive, because it's kind of chaotic on the footpath, but I'm not about to ask so I'll just keep ooon truckin. It took me quite the while to figure that out, surprisingly enough. I found another backpacker fairly shortly after wandering the streets checking things out, and this place is COMPLETELY my style. By the end of the day I had figured out the phones, found some cheap internet, a place to store my bags tonight, and most importantly a smile that I absolutely could not wipe off my face. When I first arrived I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, and didn't like it, when I was walking back to my place I had to have stood out (like a SOAR thumb :)) because of that huge smile, and couldn't have cared less. I'm in New friggen Zealand.

So this afternoon I'm going to stay at a friends place on Waiheke Island where they'll show me around. Then tomorrow I fly down to the South Island for Christchurch, where I'll either start a bus tour from there, or make my way down to Queenstown and work from there. I didn't realize how nervous I was about not really having planned anything, but now that I've discovered the world of hostels, I couldn't really give a damn about it. I have no reservation anymore about just leaving for a destination and finding a place to stay - lugging my bags around is the biggest challenge I have, and a welcome one. I had the thought this morning that I should start stretching after I'm done with my little work out (how revolutionary Ryan), and the first page I came to online today was of "10 great stretches - for men". I consider that a message from the universe, so I printed it off. I've got so much on my mind right now, but it all kinda just makes sense, I'm in the flow right now and it feels great.

Cheers,
Radical Ryno