Wow this computer I’m using is nice. Windows 7 and everything although no firefox :(. Although my hands are cold so that makes typing a lot harder but ohh well.

Last night went well. Cooked Dinner, pasta again, and had a pretty enlightening conversation with an American couple who were about my age. They were from Texas Tech and paid 11k just in fees and tuition to study in Brisbane! Through there reflectiobn on their experience it helped me further think about my experience. I might detail that thought later when it is easier to type. Seriously this keyboard sucks.

So anyways sense school is out there are a ton of American students travelling. Lots more than I ever encountered during my other travelling experience. It is good and bad. Some Americans are obnoxious but others are nice. The only thing is a lot of them are travelling in groups or on a guided tour so I feel kinda out of the loop being an independent travellor. And it gets old travelling alone after awhile due to the numerous advantages to having someone else along with yah. I think it helps with a better experience mainly because you have someone to 1. experience new things with you and 2. push you to do things you otherwise might not do. Obviously there are downsides as well but I think the good would outweigh the bad.

I also had a great conversation with a Korean guy who was new to our room (replacing two other americans) who was from Pusan. We talked for a good hour and then I read and went to bed.

In the morning his iPhone alarm started going off at likt 5:30. And it kept going off (I think he was just using the snooze feature). It was hella annoying but I got some quality rem sleep in as well so it wasn’t all awful. I got up at 8:30 dressed ate breakfast, checked out and stored my backpack and food in the hostel.

I learned a valuable lesson that Sunday mornings are quite boring. There were only a few people out and there was nothing open to see. So I walked around town and sat down by the lake and watched an American tour group come by. I then went and did a little shopping and aimed to go out to the Warehouse (NZ version of Wal-Mart).

The shopping complex out there was as close to suburbia as I have found in NZ with Giant Box Retailers set out in that Florida outdoor market style. It was quite interesting to watch the locals go about there shopping and I browsed the store. Found a t-shirt with American astronauts holding a gun and some beer cans and it made me laugh so I bought it.

I then returned to the Hostel picked up mybags and went and caught the bus to Tauranga.

The bus ride was short only about 75 minutes. I was dropped off in the CBD and went and quickly found my hostel. The hostel was fairly empty but very clean. The lady at reception(the owner) was pleasant enough. She informed me of there no alchol policy(not really a problem for me) and showed me my room. Linens werent provided so I had my sleeping bag.

I then headed back out into Tauranga which seemed like a really cool place. In fact for the first half hour I really like the feel. And then suddenly a little wind and a little rain and the entire damn city shut down. Like all of the shops and restaurants closed their dorrs. It was really wierd, a little ghostownish.

I then went to the i-site to investigate what to do here in Tauranga and didn’t find much. I saw that there was still an arts and crafts echibition going on for 2 more hours so I went and checked that out. It was nice and there was so cool stuff but most of it was too expensive or fragile for me. I then had lunch and read by the river. That was nice although the seagulls were a little aggressive.

I went back and checked out the one item of culture in the city, the Arts Gallery. For it’s size it was Really good. It was all NZ exhibitionists and had good detailed explanations of the work. I especially like the realist series “The Farmer.” I liked that it told a story.

I then went to the i-site and asked the lady what there was to do and how to get to Mt. Wanganui (sic). She explained that there wasn’t too much to do and helped me with arranging stuff for tommorrow. Theres another aviation museum near the airport but that is it for museums. So I’ll go climb the mountain and there are some hot salt pools that are suppossed to be good. But this is defintely not a tourist geared town. Although the beaches would be beautiful in summer. And the watersports.

After that I went back to the park and read for awhile and then came in hear to type this. I have one more full day here in Tauranga (I am acutally pretty good at picking the amount of time to stay in places here in NZ) and then back to Welly on the 7Am bus.

The next day and a half in Welly will fly by no doubt.

I am looking forward to being home.

Thinking about you,

-Mathias