Sitting in the "Sunniest City in the Country", where it has rained constantly for the past week. At the Green Monkey hostel, you will almost always find a dozen or so twentysomething weary world travelers sitting around pretending to read books they have no interest in, feasting on Ramen noodles and potatoes, and discussing the merits of the metric system. One such chap spends most of his days pruning trees in trhe soaking rain at $0.80 a pop. He stumbles in after work looking as if he'd been in a fight, but at least he made enough dough to pay for that week's beer fund. Two young Swedes have been here for 8 months and have seen/done enough to get their fill of the southern hemisphere for a lifetime or two. Realizing I wasn't one of those crazy Bible-thumping Americans, they deemed it safe to accompany me on an evening on cross-cultural debauchery, to include painfully public renditions of "November Rain". Needless to say they knew much more about American politics than I ever will.
The weather broke just in time to permit the Scandanavian duo and I to take my recently acquired Holden Vectra for a drive up to Abel Tasman National Park, which may be small but always packed with folks looking for hikes with a high satisfaction to effort ratio. Very impressed with the DOC's commitment to make life as cosy as possible for would-be adventurers. Sights being seen, it was back to the hostel for card playing, Facebooking, and passing of more time in self-imposed communal poverty.
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