March 31 - 10 pm

In the beginning, I had to keep telling myself - "You are in New Zealand. You're really here." And now I find that I have to tell myself - "You are still in New Zealand, you're Lifelong dream!" So I don't take it for granted; now that I've been here about 2 months I can see how it might start to feel just like normal, everyday, not special.. But I don't want to feel like that, I want to enjoy every day like it's my first day here. That's what a friend from back home told me when I asked him for advice on traveling alone. He said to try and enjoy every minute of everyday, because it will all be over before you know it. And there will probably be days that you wish you were home, you're lonely, stressed, or whatnot, but the best thing you can do is just look at it all as part of the adventure.
So I'm trying.
Today was fine. Finally experiencing the New Zealand "4 seasons in a day". It rained overnight, but woke up to partly sunny skies. Cool, not cold, even hot when the sun came out. But as I was riding the bus to Orewa it started to rain hard. On and off all day long. Got caught in a heavy rain walking around the other side of town. Not too good. But then there was a rainbow and it was lovely.
The place I'm staying tonight is more like a family lodge. Seems like most guests live here actually. And I'm just in an 8 bed dorm room all by myself. Again! Crazy! Orewa is a great town though. Too bad the weather was wacky today. There's a nice beach right across the street. Lots of little cafes. A gypsy market on the waterfront. I bought some earrings made from buffalo horn, so I'm hoping they won't bother my ears like every kind of metal seems to.
Didn't really feel like Easter today. Couldn't make it to church. No Easter basket, no dying Easter eggs or having an Easter egg hunt. No family dinner. Weird. Sad. But I'm here in New Zealand enjoying every second of every minute of every day. That's right.

March 30 - 9:45 pm

Interesting fact- in Maori, if the word begins with wh it has a f sound. So the city I'm in tonight, Whangarei, is pronounced "fongaray". Same with Whitianga (fitianga) where I was last week.
So pulling into town today, I wasn't super stoked to be here. It was raining, the bus stop area was not impressive, and my hostel was located way out of town, so the hostel people came and picked me up. But my attitude changed when I went out to see the Whangarei Falls. Just about a 2 minute walk from my hostel, I went with a German girl I met at the hostel, Katalina. Gorgeous, lush greenery. Incredible waterfalls. Right then I was glad I stopped here in this town. And from there we walked around, down around the falls, through the Kauri tree forest, on countryside roads, to the Abbey Caves. Took about an hour to walk there, but a very pretty rural walk. Prepared with our "torches", we headed into the caves - barefoot, because we heard there was knee deep water to walk through. The caves are in their natural state, so no lights, handrails, walkways, etc. so lots of climbing, ducking, wading, and exploring! And there really was a section of water that I walked through that was crotch-deep. All for fun though. It wasn't too bad going barefoot either. All part of the fun. And the glow worms were neat. And the stalagmites, tites, limestone, all that cave stuff. Very cool.
Didn't get a chance to walk around town, because the local buses weren't running today, so that's a bummer, but oh well, I'm off to Orewa tomorrow. Spending Easter on my own in a strange and distant land. And get this- New Zealand, home of Cadbury chocolate, does not have the Cadbury eggs that you can get around Easter in the states that I love so much. What's up with that? Lame.