Well part 1 of my trip is coming to an end. Part 2 is about to begin. I'm back in Auckland, and it's like a dream. Or maybe I have entered a timewarp, I dunno. It's like it's October again and I have just arrived to New Zealand. Nothing has changed, but everything has changed. I feel a mixed bag of emotions. Anticipation for what is to come, regret for what I didn't see, and fulfillment for the way everything turned out.

It's hard to believe four months have gone by. That's 1/3 of my trip. It's also funny how I remember my life very clearly in these months. the places I've been, the people I've met are still very fresh in my mind. I remember the American poker boys who came to Auckland to compete and blew 10,000 dollars at the Sky Casino in one night. They brushed it off by calling it a "disappointing night." Leoni, the lady who walked with me in Napier on her lunch break for a total of 10 minutes to show me the way to the top of the hill. Mika, the Japanese girl in Queenstown who I met on top of a 1500m mountain. Louie, the yacht owner who invited us on to his boat that came from Washington D.C. where we drank cheap wine. And so many more characters. This proves that I really had to get out of DC. where everything was a blur and my life was becoming to comfortable. I was like a cat nestled by the fire. So comfortable that I would probably never have left. Not that I don't miss home or don't want to come back. I do. But now is not the time. When it's time, I'll know. It might coincide with the downward slope of my bank account.

A really disappointing thing that happened was when Jota and I tried to copy pictures from my camera a couple days ago. Half my pictures were deleted which, to put it midly, was frustrating. But I have salvaged some and I will post what I have left on facebook.

Today I take the train to Waitakere to meet Phillip and chill on the beach. My last full day in New Zealand.