and Back Again

Admittedly, I think I've left a few of you hanging. And while reading about me selling my guitar for the past two weeks might be just exciting as it was the first time, I suspect its probably time to write something.

So if you hadn't figured it out yet, I am back home in Corning, New York. And the weather has been so nice its been hard to sit down and really write something. But alas, it is raining. So here's a quick recap of my final days...

The last few days mostly consisted of studying for my last few exams, er....pretending to study. I know when we tell people why we were in NZ it was "For School." Yeah right. More like hang on the beach, go hiking, have lots of parties, relax, "accidently miss class", etc. My parents are still convinced I never attended class, well thats only partially correct. I did sometimes.

The night before we left about 15 of us went out to dinner in the pouring rain for one last huzzah. As I looked around the table of smiling and laughing faces, I think it finally set in how much I'm going to miss being around these people every single day. And I don't like to get sappy, but these friends are for Keeps.

The last day, before the heading to the Airport in the evening, a few of us headed downtown for one last look. And as a final farewell we made sure to pay one last tribute to NZ, we ate Lamb kebabs. And it had never tasted so good.

We jumped on the 12 hour flight to San Fransisco, and it turned out to be pretty painless. This might be attributed to the Ambien I stole from a friend. After arriving in San Fran we headed toward town to help kill our 7 hour layover. We went to the infamous In and Out Burger, whom Ed (or resident burger enthusiast) assured us was the best fast food burger ever according the burger enthusiasts world wide. They were indeed delicious, dripping with grease, onions, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and their "special sauce". I was convinced, they were the best. Unfortunatly, they're only to be found on the west coast.

We walked around a little more than jumped a streetcar to head back to the airport. We had another red eye to JFK departing around 9:45pm and arriving at 6:00am. The flight was much more painful as I could not get myself to fall asleep, as there were no pillows or shoulders to fall asleep on as I did the previous flight.

After standing through the awkwardness in JFK of everyone being re-united with their parents except myself and a few others, I made my way to the JetBlue terminal with my two carry-ons and two 50lb. bags, for my final flight. I think its fair to say that standing in the security line for 40 minutes was less than fun, and then having the plane wait in line for another 45 to take off was less than exciting. But with 30-some odd hours of traveling, what was a another 4 anyway?

So after being home for almost two-weeks, there are noticeable difference between here and There. The food for one is on a much higher level here, since its prepared by my mother. It is also much quiter here. Where before I was in a city and hanging out with some of my closest friends day in and day out. So its relaxing, but a bit lonesome sometimes.

The last thing that I noticed is that I often find myself starting a sentence like this, "Well in New Zealand they...." or "When I was in New Zealand, I...." Maybe that'll wear off, but I'm thinking for awhile it won't, and I don't mind. I'm already trying hard not to lose a lot of the memories from that beautiful place.

Everywhere I went when I was in New Zealand I tried not to take for granted. I tried so hard to soak it all in, because I knew eventually I'd have to leave. I'd peer out into the distance. I'd close my eyes and breath in the landscape. I'd listen to the ocean and mountains. Even now I try so hard to remember the memories of friends and places I tried so hard to ingrain in my mind; but sometimes there are places and times where the mind just can't hold it all in no matter how hard you try. New Zealand is one of those places.

Yet this isn't meant to sound sad in any way, but in fact, the opposite. I'm glad to have been fortunate enough to experience such a place. Somewhere that made me really appreciate the beauty of the earth and people. But I also realized you don't have to go all the way to New Zealand for that. Its as easy as staring up at the night sky or laughing with your friends.

Thanks for everyone who read this blog and all my shinanigans. I hope to start a new blog on who knows what, but I'll post it here, once I get an idea, for anyone who might be interested.

I'll leave you with a song wrote in toward the end when I was in New Zealand. Only a small group of people have heard it. I also put a little slide show along with it. The song can be downloaded via the player on the right or facebook or my music link.

I hope to make it back someday. And I hope you'll make it there too.

Peace & Love
-Nick

Sit Tight

There's one final post coming, I swear. In just one or two days, its special so its taking a bit longer than I thought.

So don't go away, I'll back after a short messages from our sponsors.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Timm and I having a jam awhile back.

So I sold my guitar today at a pawn shop. Bringing it back to the U.S. just wasn't going to happen. Marie (what I named my guitar) will be sorely missed and provided me with endless hours of joy. I bought her for $135, and got $60 back. Not too bad, I wasn't really expecting anything more than that. The end is coming near and I'll be home to warm weather. Yay!

One Week

It's certainly weird to know that I'm only going to be living in New Zealand for one more week. Maybe I've become so accommodated to living here that I haven't realized in less than 7 days I'm going to have to pack everything up into to big bags and head home. Unfortunatly, I also have a few more exams standing in my way.

I'd of course be lying if I said I wasn't a little sad. This place is rockem-sockem hoppin, and in all reality, it might be a good while before I get back. Plus there will be lots of sweet friends I made to that I won't see for a little bit.

I am pretty excited to get home to warm weather, family, and more than just pasta and grilled cheese for dinner each night, though.

Soooo....with that said. Stay tuned for a few more posts before this adventure is over.

Keep it real home skillets.

~~Wade in the Water~~

Here's another post about a tramp (hike) that I did here in NZ. With just over a week left in this beutiful country, a few of us decided we better make the best of it and go on an adventure. Rich, as you can see, was totally into the idea.
So we started of on what would seem like a regular hike through the woods. Of course when we started going downhill we realized there would only one way to get back. Going uphill of course.

Cate is great at posing for pictures...really.So we made it to the bottom of the trail and was faced with two options. Continue on forward, or loop back around via the stream track. We picked the stream caused it looked way more exciting than anything else.

It soon became obvious what it was called the stream track, because we ended up having to cross the stream about 13 times, and at times it came way past our ankles. If you've ever seen the movie Anaconda (not recommended) than that's what it was like.
At one of these big pools I may have jokingly mentioned the desire to go swimming. With me saying this Cate, Rich, and Lynn were quick to press the matter. While I was a little afraid the water may have been infested with some vicious bacteria that would eat me from the inside out, I gave in. Turns out I'm a sucker for peer pressure.
The water was cold. And when I was happy with just jumping in once, Rich insisted I jump in again cause he missed the photo. So I did. Then he missed it again. So I jumped again. Then he missed it again. So I jumped again. Then he missed it again. By this point, my skin was burning because the water was so cold. I did not jump again.

Either way, we continued on the stream which ended at a nice water fall. After cheking it out for a bit we climbed back up to the main trail to get back to the car, with our shoes soaked but heads held high. The signs had said on advanced trampers should hike this trail. We now consider us advanced.

Tim Tam Slammin

Today you are going to learn the art of the "Tim Tam Slam" as demonstrated by our in-house Tim Tam guru and model, Cate.

You may be sitting there thinking "What is a Tim Tam Slam, Nick?" Well, to put it simply, its a 1"x2" piece of Joy. It's like anything that was good in world suddenly exploded in your mouth in edible fashion. Plainly put- IT...IS...YUMMY! Directions are as follow:

1. Heat up some milk or hot chocolate. Either works.


2. Take out your Tim Tam cookie biscuit and wave it around in the air like Cate here. I recommend "Chewy Chocolate Fudge," but other friends of mine stand by other varieties.

3. Now take your Tim Tam nibble off the opposite corners to expose the biscuit and chocolaty filling.

4. Now take one bitten corner and dip it in to the milk or hot coco. Take your mouth and apply it to the other bitten corner and apply your mouth. Now suck. Once you feel the liquid touch your lips then stop. Now take the whole Tim Tam and plop it in your mouth. Take too long and you'll fins yourself in a messy situation of melting chocolate.


5. Try not to die from the orgasmic blast of chocolaty deliciousness in your mouth so you can do another!

Also, you'll probably have to do serious research to find somewhere that sells these back in the U.S. They're aren't exactly sold there as far as I know, although I'll be bringing back some packages. This Wikipedia article also has some alternative ideas. So gimmie a call when I get back and we'll give it a go.

One Tree Hill

With about 3 or so weeks left in NZ we seem to be searching for those little things that we have left to do around Auckland. Things that have been on our lists, but haven't gotten around to yet. Well a few days ago, we did just that. We went and checked out One Tree Hill. Yes I know there is an obnoxious show named after it.

Cate felt she could climb the hill instead of taking the "Sheep Path."

Technically this annoying, One Tree Hill, a show that involves a bunch of angsty young persons with boatloads of melodrama is named after a U2 song on the album "Joshua Tree." One Tree Hill (the song) refers to the volcanic peek, One Tree Hill, here in Auckland. The song was released exclusively here in New Zealand, which I thought to be pretty cool.

Sheep

More Sheep

Everyone

Funny thing about One Tree Hill however.....there's no actual tree there anymore. And while I originally planned to write out the story and reason behind it, it turns out to be quite a long story to retype. Thus, I highly encourage you to read the Wikipedia version, which is full of Boy Scout jamborees, angry activists, amongst other things. It's not too long.

We hiked up the hill to the top where you can see a tree stump of where it was. Oh yeah, and there's a big Obelisk there commemorating someone. The park (which is sacred ground to the Maori people) also had sheep and cows wandering freely. We tried to get up close to some, but they usually manage to scamper off.

I presume this is the "Tree." Maybe it should be renamed "One Stump Hill". Or just "Stumpy Hill."

Sheep?!!