Tuesday, January 23, 2007

First and Foremost here is an article that Anna sent me....awesome.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070123/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_shark_attack

Second, here is my ridiculously long seventh installment of my humunga
cowabunga from down unda trip.

OI,

I am sitting in a video store in Raglan, NZ on the North Island chilling with
some extremely slow internet. I have been here in NZ for a little over a week
or so, and it has gone by pretty fast. After a hell day of flying and
sleeping in terminals, I boarded a bus to a city that Zeke spelled
"taungarua". The cute thing about this is that there isn't a town with that
name in all of New Zealand. I booked a bus out of Aukland for a town called
Tauranga, which was about four hours out of Aukland. I crossed my fingers and
hoped for the best. I had about three hours to kill in Aukland til my bus so
I took care of errands, and got some food. I ate my food leisurely back in
the bus terminal and when it became time to board, I went to get all my bags
out of the locker, and it jammed. Some loser bus station employee laid a
guilt trip on me about it and how hard it was going to be to get it out, then
he finally went to work (btw, my bus is leaving in about 7 minutes). He
demanded ten dollars for him to start working, and i told him i didn't have
cash, then he said that he couldn't help, so I shelled out ten bucks, and had
him go to work. we tried a bunch of different things to get it loose, but
nothing was working, he then had to get the 'wonder bar', and if that worked
he had to be paid another 30 bucks because it damages the locker. when he
went to go get the wonder bar, I summoned all of my chuck norris chi, and
delivered a roundhouse kick to the locker, and that did the trick. My stuff
was free, everyone in the locker room cheered (because they all thought the
dude was a jerk), then the guy came back out wanting...

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

First and Foremost here is an article that Anna sent me....awesome.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070123/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_shark_attack

Second, here is my ridiculously long seventh installment of my humunga
cowabunga from down unda trip.

OI,

I am sitting in a video store in Raglan, NZ on the North Island chilling with
some extremely slow internet. I have been here in NZ for a little over a week
or so, and it has gone by pretty fast. After a hell day of flying and
sleeping in terminals, I boarded a bus to a city that Zeke spelled
"taungarua". The cute thing about this is that there isn't a town with that
name in all of New Zealand. I booked a bus out of Aukland for a town called
Tauranga, which was about four hours out of Aukland. I crossed my fingers and
hoped for the best. I had about three hours to kill in Aukland til my bus so
I took care of errands, and got some food. I ate my food leisurely back in
the bus terminal and when it became time to board, I went to get all my bags
out of the locker, and it jammed. Some loser bus station employee laid a
guilt trip on me about it and how hard it was going to be to get it out, then
he finally went to work (btw, my bus is leaving in about 7 minutes). He
demanded ten dollars for him to start working, and i told him i didn't have
cash, then he said that he couldn't help, so I shelled out ten bucks, and had
him go to work. we tried a bunch of different things to get it loose, but
nothing was working, he then had to get the 'wonder bar', and if that worked
he had to be paid another 30 bucks because it damages the locker. when he
went to go get the wonder bar, I summoned all of my chuck norris chi, and
delivered a roundhouse kick to the locker, and that did the trick. My stuff
was free, everyone in the locker room cheered (because they all thought the
dude was a jerk), then the guy came back out wanting more money. I told him
that my rex kwan do was free of charge, i flipped him off called him a
dipshit, and got my stuff on the bus. I had to sit next to some young girl
who was apparently very scared of my attitude towards the bus terminal, and
the fact that I was in a wifebeater with a bandana covered in tattoos didn't
help either. I fell asleep on her shoulder. poor poor girl. We had a break
two hours into the trip, and the girl got off. I sat down in the back and had
two seats to myself. Of course, considering my track record of bus trips
(kids vommiting), I wasn't in the clear. Two INCREDIBLY TRASHY indian girls
sat behind me drinking what smelled like butterscotch schnopps, and listened
to indian music on their cell phone really loud. About a half hour into the
trip they started giving me the dick-eye, and started to try to rub my neck
and face.....kinda creepy. About fifteen minutes after that, the trashier of
the two started puking all over herself and all over the floor of the bus, and
she masked it by spraying a half bottle of perfume on herself and the bus. I
was trying to barf on them as a retalliation. The bus driver didn't do shit
of course, and I spent the trip stuck there due to no other seats being open.
KILLER BRO.
I got off the bus with hopes of seeing Zeke and Esan, and there they were. I
had picked the correct "t" town. I had a lot of relazation come over me at
that time, because I didn't have to worry about much after that. we loaded up
all the gear into our minivan and went to a place called Mt. Maunganui. We
surfed there, and it was ok, then we had some kebobs, and looked for a place
to crash. We slept in a vacant lot, and I slept with my sleeping bad in the
grass looking at the stars. Kind of a hobo thing to do, but I look good, so I
think its more of a "rugged" thing to do. The next morning we went to
Coromandel peninsula and surfed at a place called hot water beach. Some chick
out in the water saw my hotline wetsuit and talked to me. Turns out she lives
in Santa Cruz, and was bumming around with a couple of dudes and some aussie
girl that they had met. We spent the day there, and we had planned to go to
the beach at midnight at the low tide, and dig up the sand. Hot water beach
has sulfuric boiling water upwellings, and you dig at the low tide to have
your own hot tub. I was pretty stoked on it because there is a place in
Stinson Beach that has that called Red Rocks, but that is full of naked gay
dudes at all time, and I don't really dig on that. The chick from SC was
supposed to wake me up at midnight cause she had the spade, but I don't think
her kiwi dude friends were too keen on my attending the party, so I never got
the wake up call. The surf the next day was shit, so we headed out to a place
called Piha Beach.
We got there and there were waves, so we surfed for a couple of hours, then
lounged around for a bit. We got dinner at the lifeguard club in town and
drank 6.50 pitchers. After a fair amount of drinking we were hustled outside
to the balcony, and we saw an awesome site. That night was the first night
that the 2nd brightest comet in history could be seen from NZ. It will be in
the sky for the entire time of our trip. It supposed to be visible for 2
weeks. The trail of it was insane, and it was a definate plus of going to
Piha. Afterwards the barmaids and us started chatting, and they offered their
place for us to stay at, and we took it up. We drank for a while with them,
played cards, talked shop, then retired. It was nice to not sleep on the
ground, in an airport terminal, or in a van with nick.
The next day, we went to a huge concert called "big day out" in aukland with
the girls, and it was pretty good. We hung out in the day at a house with
beers and burgers, and it was perfect. We finally got to the show, and had a
hell of a time getting tickets. They were being sold for 150+. We sat around
and ended up getting in for 40 bucks each through some wheelin and dealin.
Bands that played were Lily allen, the killers, chemical brothers, violent
femmes, tool, trivium, and Muse. Muse was great. The rest were not. We had
mobile troubles, and didn't hook up with the girls inside the venue, so we
ended up going north after the show, and ended up at goat island after a night
of sleeping under a tree, and getting woken up by a ranger. Goat island had
some snorkeling that was supposed to be amazing. Compared to the GBR, it was
like going from surfing mavericks to a wave pool. I still saw a couple of
fish, and it was ok. Esan snuck up on a girl and gave her a heart attack when
she saw him, and that has been a running joke for the trip. I tried to catch
a duck too, but was unsuccessful. I got a pic of the duck though. We headed
up to the bay of islands that night, and I made a plan to dive a shipwreck the
next day. The dive that I did was called the rainbow warrior, which is a
shipwreck. Its a greenpeace ship that was sunk by french secret service
agents, and now its final resting spot is in the Bay of Islands. It is said
that the bay is one of the premier spots to dive in the world, so I was stoked
that I did it. The divemaster was a bum, and it was super unorganized, but i
got my money out of it. I did have a travesty though. The warrior took my
watch. It fell off while I was boarding the ship after the dive, and a watch
that Ive had for around a decade is now part of the deep. My watch tan is out
of this world.
We went to Raglan from there, and thats where we have been for the past couple
of days. Raglan is one of the best Left's in the world, but we haven't been
scoring. We have been in a holiday park camping here, and trying to pass the
time in between swells. We went golfing, have hung out and ate, and drank a
lot, and its been good to get some non driving time. We are going to stay
here for the night, and then depart tomorrow after a surf in the morning.
Esan has to get back up to Aukland for a flight out, then I have a day or two
to burn til we fly out. I think that we will go back to Piha, and surf, and
stay in the lifeguard club. I then go back to Sydney, visit Dave, and then go
home. Im thinking that I really want to go home, but a friend in Byron bay
says its great right now, so I am thinking about postponing my trip home for a
couple more days, or months, or years.....
I love you and miss you all, and Ill see you soon.

cheers.
justin.

"the world is a garden man, dig it."
-joe dirt