Taupo, Tropical Island Retreats and Aging!

It' cold. I'm not talkin cuddle up in a blanket on the couch cold, I'm talkin high humidity with a chance of rain that does a U-turn before hitting the ground because the screaming winds from the antarctic won't allow them to do so....... it's cold. That being said, it is still a pretty cool place (pun is somewhat intentional!).

Anywho, life is truckin along at a pretty steady pace. In fact, I have been thinkin alot about "life" lately. We just celebrated my 35 birthday with a fancy dinner, a bit of lost season 3, a call from mom and a fishing supplies care package from the lady. Birthdays are such an interesting devil. As a kid, second to Christmas, it is the most highly anticipated day of the year full of high hopes and wonder. Even into my twenties and early thirties, it was a chance to throw a party with your mates and indulge in that ever so wonderful morning headache. This year was different. It's not a mid-life crisis, it's a mid-life. The thought that keeps repeating itself in my head is "congrats, you have reached the center of the teeter tauter." Being a logical person, the average age that men in my family depart this life is approximately 70. Not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty good at math, and I believe that half of 70 is 35. And if we infer that the word "mid" means middle or center...... we have arrived at the half-time show, but is it going to feature a marching band or commercials? I'm hoping for the marching band.... however....... if it is the Superbowl, maybe I would lean towards the commercials! My whole point is that I am guilty of reminiscence.

Life is what it is, I am not afraid of dying, but more importantly I am not afraid of living. But in order to improve your stats you must look at the first half to allow for "improvement" in the final stretch. So, without further a-do, I present to you my first half ........ um........ moments.

What follows is simply a recount of the moist poignant memories that keep rolling around in this ol' head of mine. I don't give them a numerical value, this is not a "best of", they are simply ........ decisive moments. I don't know how your memory works, but mine has a tendency to auto-delete. I believe this is necessary to make more space. My dad once told me that he had "forgotten more than he ever knew". It is starting to become clear exactly how true a statement that actually is. My early childhood memories are almost a complete blur. I have this movie that plays in my head about riding my plastic three wheeler around the deck of our old house in cottonwood. It's not high def, more like 16mm from the attic played on a dusty reel-to-reel. There are basically only a handful of solid moments from my life in Priest River. We moved from there when I was in fourth grade, but the things that I remember most are having an icicle fight with my younger sister and damn near taking her eye out, chicken pox, finding "mama" kitty and her kittens inside an abandoned vehicle next door, my box of "pets" (what a wonderful assortment of dead things), making a "no-lying" pact with my dad, jumping our bikes off of ramps made out of found objects, the u-haul truck, and my chat with the principle as to why it is not OK to pull girls hair while they are hanging upside down on the jungle gym or throwing rocks at the school buses.... or the principle's car (that I believe was the second visit). Never really been very good at being told what to do!

Junior high and High School were both filled with ups and downs, but the three most important moments were all centered around love. No, I'm not talkin about the love affair that started first period and usually ended by lunch! This is the kind of love that once discovered, it changes you. I would never say that my life was hard, but it definitely had it's moments. Being that we moved around quite a bit after the divorce, it wasn't the easiest thing to "fit in" or simply make a friend. That all changed for me when we moved to Four Lakes and I found love. I found love for a girl who used to bruise my shins during sewing class. And for those of you who feel it necessary to ask, yes I can still sew and in a box somewhere I have a red and yellow surfboard pillow to prove it! But this love was not a fairy tale romance, it was an awkward young man who absolutely gave his heart and soul to a gal that wasn't keen on being more than his friend. Yet through that friendship the majority of my life was set on a path. Because of that gal I wound up at an audition for the school play, which after being cast have never strayed from the path to the point that I am now making movies as a profession. Through that relationship she taught me what it meant to struggle for what you wanted. And most importantly, she made me realize that I couldn't stay in our small town. And because of that I have now lived in Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, New York, and Wellington.

Life really started to roll through and after college. There was a point where I started to stray away from the quest for a degree and began getting sucked into the daily struggle of bills and hourly pay, but mom bought me a ticket to London to study a bit of Shakespeare (and the rolling stones at Wembley!) and this ....... led to college startin to ROCK!!! I would admit that I am very proud of all of the plays that we put on at EWU as well as my stint as ASEWU President. But what I am most proud of is that the friends that were made in that little state school are the those people that are still the closest to me. Be it my roommate's brother or the cute little blonde girl from theatre camp, they are my true accomplishments. Ended up 1/2 a point shy of the honor role and moved to Los Angeles. Got tied into the entertainment industry, and since then have reached my goal in the creative world, met my wife, found happiness. So, all in all, it was a pretty good half.

OK!!!! Enough of that reminiscing stuff!!!! Jeanne and I were workin on the same crew for the better part of 3 months and finally got a hiatus. Actually, I got a hiatus and she ended up having to work another week before getting to take off..... so Danny and Misiu went on a road trip. ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!

I was planning on takin a few weeks, but got called back from our break for another week of work. Rollin with the punches, had to cut it down to four days. And, of course, I went in search of an ideal fishing spot! As you may or may not know, New Zealand is the

brown trout capital of the world. This, I have discovered is true, but mainly on the south island. However, the quintessential fresh water lake is within a days drive: Lake Taupo. Grabbed the dog and a minimal amount of camping stuff.... plus an air mattress for the car and hit the road. Rather than drive straight up to Taupo, which is in the heart of the island, we headed northwest to New Plymouth and the volcano. Actually, most of you have probably seen it without realizing. This is the location where they shot "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise. They converted large portions of the city to look like early Japan and used the volcano as Mt. Fuji. Anyway, we found a pretty good spot. It was along the ocean where a freshwater stream dumps in and at certain times of the year the Whiting run through and it is suppose to be "off the hook" (yes, that is a pun!). Well, I didn't catch any fish but Misiu found a log to relax on and seemed perfectly content..... fish or no fish!

Since the fishin was a bit dead, moved on up the coast line and discovered a really cool lighthouse.

By this time it was gettin close to dark, time to find a place to sleep. One of the really nice things about this place is that if you have a vehicle in which to camp, no body seems to mind where ya do it. We drove out of town a bit a took a random left turn, ended up at a beach all by ourselves and called it a night. This is where I realized a crucial mistake. Shouldn't have packed the air mattress! As we are gettin ready for a decent nights sleep, I let the car run with the heater at full blast to warm up the inside of the car.

It actually worked pretty well, but that damned air mattress just would not let go of the cold from the air inside. Needless to say, it sucked. Ended up sleeping on top of my sleeping bag wearing every article of clothing that I had packed. But it was worth it.

The next morning we had breakfast at a lovely train cafe and made our way to another section of head water.

Here, unlike the first location, I caught a couple of nice fish. Nothing worth taking pictures of, but at least we finally caught something. It was a gorgeous spot. There was a small river outlet on our left with a driftwood encrusted beach. Beautiful. I almost forgot, we also found what I am calling, the world's largest surfboard!

Now for the truly exciting part of the trip. Since sleeping in the car was just too cold with the wind coming in off of the ocean, it was time to high-tail it to Taupo. I took a look at the map and there seemed to be a pretty straight shot on major roads to get from New Plymouth to Taupo, so we set out. SO........ there is a major difference in what I would consider a major road and what a NZ map would consider a major road!

We must have spent 5 hours on roads that should have required a four wheel drive vehicle with absolutely no sign of civilization except for the occasional road sign that stated the obvious. FORGOTTEN WORLD HIGHWAY!!!! And let me tell you, the name is fitting! Plus, on top of the road being ridden with potholes and washboards.... and even some washouts,

they have this little sign. This little sign is a new thing for me. What it means is that the next section of road allows two way traffic but there is only enough room for one car, and the one traveling in the direction of the larger white arrow has the right of way. In theory that makes sense, but I can't tell you how many times I would come across this little beauty and the road would remain that way for quite a stretch. And we're not talkin straight roads were you can see in somebody is coming, we are talkin curvy mountain roads with no place to go but down. Gotta tell ya, that is just a touch uncomfortable.

Eventually we did make it to Taupo. I should have done a bit more research, because it is considered to be some of the best fishing around but it is fly rod only access. The place is a fishermen's paradise. There must be 30 plus river and streams that dump into the lake that are ideal for fly fishing. I didn't have a fly rod with me. I went down to the local fishing shop and talked to one of the locals, and he told me of the one place on the river that you are allowed to fish with spinners, and off I went. Along the southern end of a lake there is a hydro-electric dam that has a concrete river channel that lead back into the lake. Since the channel is man made, the rules do not apply. Also, since there are no fish in the man made river, the rules do not apply. Lame!

Eventually, after having enough of the weed fishin in the rain, we packed up and headed south a bit. Since I had my freshwater day license, I decided to take a road that ran a bit off course and it actually ended at the conversion point of another electric station and a small river. This spot was amazing. Not sure if your allowed to fish there, so we only hung out for about an hour. I actually did hook into a decent sized trout, but couldn't land it. So, my fishing road trip was mostly a bust, but I did get to see the country side and also bought a fly rod as soon as I returned to Wellington. The Taupo saga will be revisited.

Actually, it wasn't a complete bust, I did find the world's largest gumboot!

Once I got back home, Jeanne and I ended up working another week before being able to escape the damn cold for a week long retreat to a little island called Fafa, which is a 30 minute boat ride from the capital of Tonga. This place is absolute heaven! We didn't do much of anything at all...... and it was wonderful. The island itself is the entire resort. They have the usual amenities of dining, massage (which was........ perfect), Polynesian floor show, and sunbathing...... but they also offered bliss and BATS. Really, really big bats.

Our accommodations where quite unique, we stayed in what is known as a "Fale". These are authentic native structures with solid coconut wood beams and wall and ceiling covers made from woven palm fronds. They have been updated with mosquito nets and "indoor" showers that are run off of collected rain water and heated through solar power. In fact, the facility is mostly self-sustaining minus the need to run into town for groceries.

It was an amazing time filled with beautiful beaches and a very island time lifestyle. We did do a bit of kayaking and snorkeling, but to see those pictures you would have to go to facebook. Cuz, of course, when you buy a really nice underwater digital camera for your tropical paradise vacation the first thing that it does is decide to die 5 minutes into your first snorkel. Waterproof my A@#!!!!!! But on the fishing report I got a totally new one for ya, I went fishin with a local Tongan man named Sam that taught me how to fish by hand. That, my friends, was a blast. I feel bad for Sam, he didn't catch anything, but I brought home a cuddle fish and 3 white snapper. One of the snapper was really nice size, so we had the resort cook it up for Jeanne and I for dinner and I gave the remaining fish to Sam. So, actually, I ended up with one and he got 3!!!!

The place was a true get away. Except of course for the TSUNAMI!!!!!! Yup, we decide to finally get away to a tropical destination for a quasi honeymoon and what do we get...... evacuated!

Part of the Earth's crust decided to shift under the ocean floor between New Zealand and Tonga which was somewhere near a 7.3 on the Richter scale. We are on an island that is basically 10 acres with no phones or Internet or world contact accept for, your gonna love this, it's called "island news". Jeanne and I woke up and made a cup of coffee. I lounged around in my shorts as she soaked up the sun in her bathrobe. Both of us having very little inclination to do much of anything else except enjoy the aromatic flavors of the Tongan blend and read our books. We are greeted by one of the locals that work for the resort and she asks us if our morning is going well and if we are enjoying the island. We both let out a huge sigh accompanied by a relaxed smile as she says "I am happy you are happy, please, no rush...... but could you follow me to the beach because there is a tsunami and we must go. Take your time, but we must go". WHAT!?!?!?!? Did she just say what I think she said, and if so, why is she not concerned at all.

Well, there was a tsunami warning and the entire island's inhabitants were being shoved into boats and taken to higher ground. I'm not real sure where they were planning on taking us considering Tonga is flat and in my estimation the tallest building was the cruise ship that pulled into port the night before! Anywho, by the time we got back to the island the warning had been cancelled so we returned to our bathrobes and books and coffee and bliss!

So, now we are back in wonderful wet and windy Welly. I landed a job with the art department and started the day after we arrived. Jeanne got an extra two weeks vacation, but it is now time for her to return to work as well. Should be interesting. She is on days and I am on nights. We'll just have to see how that goes! I'll try to come back a little bit sooner than last time.........

Hobbits, dwarves and wizards..... oh my!

First off, I feel as though I should apologize for taking such along time to write the second installment of the wellington adventure, but it is for good reason. But we'll get to that, be patient (yes Kim, that means you as well!).

Where did we leave off..... oh yes..... day two in wellington. Well, a lot has happened since then. Once I arrived in Wellington it was a perfect day. The sun was shinin, people were out on their bikes, walkin their dogs, havin coffee outside of one of many cafes you will find. In fact, I believe that there is one within a 3 minute walk no matter where you are in the city.Now we aren't talking percolator or even Starbucks, we are talkin GREAT coffee. Hand packed free-trade espresso with steamed milk and just the right amount of natural sugar. In fact, they actually have 3 different kinds of sugar: white (processed), raw, and coffee sugar (which is actually meant specifically for coffee because it dissipates quickly and evenly throughout your cup, stirring may not even be necessary and you don't end up with that really sweet final bit). Anyway, it was a beautiful day.

Jeanne was still workin, so I spent a bit of time checkin out the city. I gotta give the kiwi's credit, I have lived in quite a few cities, and this one really is laid out quite well and gives you that small town feel within a city of skyscrapers and 195,549 other people of which 46% of them are working for businesses with at least 100 people. Since we are on facts (since i know dad will be curious): 4.45% steady increase in population since 2006; 33% of citizens have a bachelor'sdegree; 55.9% of the general populous is 18-49; their coffee is amazing; they receive approximately 2025 hours of sunshine per year; it is the capitol city but was not the original

(Okiato in Maori, a.k.a. Russel, in the Bay of Islands, was the original and also was considered to be the "Hell Hole of the Pacific "); Largest recorded earthquake was recorded at 8.2 and had more than 200 aftershocks in an 11 hour period in 1855. It completely changed the landscape by raising the earth enough to connect where we live now with the actual downtown. And downtown is where, due to the earthquake, only poor Baron von Alzdorff lost his life when a chimney collapsed; there are 68,901 dwellings in the city (all within a three minute walk of a cafe with outstanding coffee); their most famous citizen of all time is actually a dog named "Paddy"; and they have pretty decent coffee.

Anywho, as I was toot-aling around town I saw the beehive, which is their capitol building, and the other usual tall buildings mixed with an intermingling of men in business suits, sidewalk artists, mopeds....... what you would expect. Grabbed a coffee and a french crepe and decided to head down to the wharf. Spent a bit of time walkin the boardwalk and there, right in the middle of things is a shrine commissioned by the city to a dog named "paddy the wanderer", which acts as an eternal water bowl.

The story is that paddy was the faithful companion of a sailor's daughter until she died from pneumonia at age 11. Paddy ran away and was eventually found down at the wharf waiting for the sailor to return. Not to long after his daughter's death, the sailor himself had perished at sea, but paddy continued to wait for him at the wharf. As time passed, the other sailors, delivery drivers, and especially the Wharfsman, began to take a liking to him and took turns paying his city license so that the city wouldn't pick him up. Taxi drivers were known to stop off at the wharf on their lunch breaks and take paddy for a ride, free of charge, of course. And after awhile, he began taking ocean voyages with his new friends and travelled the world. He crossed Tasman Sea more times than can be accurately calculated, he once made the round-trip voyage by boat to San Fransisco and back, and one gentleman (whom I can't seem to recall his name) took paddy along with him in his Gypsy Moth airplane as he was attempting to break some sort of aviation feat (as it was the space travel of the day). As paddy got on in years, he gave up travelling but could always be found watching the boats or nestled in the Wharf Master's station. Paddy gave up the ghost on 17 July 1939. Almost the entire population of wellington turned out for his funeral procession, which consisted of a parade of wellingtonians lead by 12 taxi cabs and a police escort. It shut down the city.

The wharf has always been the real center of the city since it's establishment. Although the major flurry of the massive export/import traffic of the early years has been spread out to other areas, it is still bustling with museum after museum.

I apologize for not taking a lot of pictures, but I was truly enjoying myself. However, I did snap a pic of the Maori recital hall in the Te Papa museum for ya cuz I find it stunning with all the color and contrast, and the crazy metal rocks constructed along the boardwalk!

Towards the evening I hooked up with Jeanne and moved into our temporary room in a 4 bedroom flat with a continual population of at least 6, up to tons, on any given day. We had a great time with our new flatmates.

From "food on a stick night" to casual sittin and chattin, it was pretty cool, but it wasn't our home. However, over the next week or so, while JD was workin, I spent my time either lookin for a flat or fishin. Eventually, after a massive amount of researching and site visits our home was discovered:

"It is a reasonably priced 1 bedroom on the end of a pedestrian access road atop a serious set of stairs that has an amazing, neigh I say outstanding view of Evans Bay.

Whew! After 27 trips up that serious staircase, I had all of our belongings moved. Course, once it was all set up there was something missing..... oh a fridge, dehumidifier, or anything that even closely resembled furniture besides the bed. We focused on fridge first, and on her day off managed to drag this sucker up that serious staircase and into the kitchen where it remains full of beer, fresh fish, and a few left overs. As time progresses we have picked up a nice couch set and a low profile Chinese cabinet built around the 1880's - 90's. So, it is really startin to feel like a home.

Enter middle earth! Our plan from the beginning of this adventure was for Jeanne to come over here before me in order to get us established and try and build some contacts that would eventually lead to work on the hobbit. All the while I stayed in Los Angeles and closed up shop. This plan is working great! She landed a job as a lighting rigger and works with a great group of guys. I, on the other hand, work in the art side of things and had been trying to make the right connections to get in with their art crew. Well, her boss seemed to take a liking to me and personally gave my resume, along with some encouragement, to both the art director and the production designer. Nothing has come of it so far, except for a meet and greet, but while I was waiting, the guys decided to offer me a job as well. So, now we are both working as lighting riggers on "The Hobbit." It was originally a two-week offer, but I have been having a ball working 6 days a week (and this week it's lookin like twelve days in a row) and they keep encouraging me to stay, so........ we'll see how that goes.

Now I know you would love for me to spill the beans on the behind the scenes of the most expensive movie ever attempted, at a whopping 500 million dollar budget, and maybe a picture or to....... but I'm sorry I can't. All I can tell ya is that if ya liked lord of the rings and this turns out to be even close to as cool as the stuff i get to see everyday......... It's gonna be AWESOME!!!

And to all my new york friends....... look what I found at the local record store in wellington. That's right Jeremy, I found a used copy of the ex-boyfriends. How cool is that!

So with that, here is the justification for my lack of blogging! Goodnight all, gotta hit the sack.

11 April 2011: Windy in Welly and the beginning of a new journey

Being that this is the first blog, it seems pertinent to start with the scenario. Picture this, if you will, completely erasing the life that you have spent the majority of your adult life building in order to uproot and move to a country in which you have never been. Now, adding more to the painting of our picture, go through every scrap of belongings in which you have accumulated over the years and limit it down to two check-in bags and a carry on. This is the start of my new adventure.

After three months of yardsale after yardsale after yardsale, followed by ebay and craigslist up the wazoo, all the while dealing with international pet transportation issues and numerous goodbye parties..... I landed in Auckland at 6am on the 1st of April.

Jeanne picked me up at the airport and we spent the day galavanting around the city enjoying eggs benedict and a beer for breakfast down on the wharf, followed by a bit of sight seeing and practicals (i.e. phone and bank account setup). Then, it was off to the northern part of the island for a bit of a weekend stay with some kiwi burn friends. It was a wonderful way to be introduced to such a beautiful country. The girls spent their time cooking, chatting bout girl stuff, and shimmypoppin! Dave and I escaped for some guy time in his "tinnie" and ended up catchin 5 decent sized snapper and 2 gurnered (which are these really cool fish that have wings like butterflies!)

After a very quick weekend it was back to Auckland for orientation, last minute errands, and getting Jeanne to the airport only minutes before her flight to Wellington (she had to start her new job on "The Hobbit" the following morning). And thus begins my tramp.......

Due to New Zealand's strict biosecurity measures I was unable to bring my fishing equipment along for the ride, so first order of business was to find some new stuff. Man..... outdoor gear is insanely expensive here. Put it this way, I purchased a decent 14' penn surfcaster with akuma reel, small tackle box, a the bare necessities of tackle and the bill was......... $500! Guess I am gonna have to catch a hell-of-a-lot of fish to make up for that lil investment!

After hours of car trampin I ended up in this cool little town called Karangahake. Established in 1875, K-town was a bustling mining town back in the day. This place was hopin, it had a suspension bridge, post office, school, churches, shops, nine boarding houses, a bowling club and two hotels. Today you would hardly be able to tell. There are the remnants of a glorious town, gone the way of a dodo bird, but the landscape is glorious. This was to be my first night of accommodation. Being that there were no campgrounds, I cleverly arranged my luggage in the back of the car and set up a nice little sleeping area and food prep

station....... and was extremely glad that I did the first....... because then came....... the RAIN! By the way, in order for a country to be lush and green it must rain CONSTANTLY! They don't tell ya that part in the travel brochure. But can you really complain when the entire countryside is covered with amazing spots like this. Deep, lush ravines covered with pine tree forests and crystal clear stream with deep pockets and a slow, meandering quality. And It's everywhere! You don't even have to look that hard, just drive for a bit on some back road and you'll end up in paradise. Well..... paradise with a chance of showers!

Actually got a pretty good nights sleep for such precarious conditions and it was off to find a good fishing spot after a quick stop in Coramandrel. As I was told, and it is definetly true, this is the posh ocean front lifestyle. Very classy and upscale beach neighborhoods with hints of french cheese shops and fine wine cafes. It was pretty..... but it's time to FISH! Headed on down the coast a bit to Waihi Beach. Stopped in the pub for a pint and after a chat with the locals found the ideal fishin spot: The Cove! Although the weather was a bit testy on the other side of the hill, the cove was freakin phenomenal. And on top of that I caught a HUGE trevalli.

Bit of history, captain cook landed not to far from Waihi beach and restocked his hold with tons and tons of trevalli.

After a lovely day fishin it was time to head on down the road in search of the next great fishin hole. Oh, by the way, this being a Danny trip the entire thing is based around road-trippin and fishing holes! I decided to head on down towards Opotiki and find some friendly accommodations near the beach. As per any great road trip, you have to stumble upon (and get your touristy picture taken in front of) a "World's Largest." Actually, my friend Zak and I spent over a month road-trippin from New York City to Los Angeles doing nothing but searching out the best roadside attractions that the states have to offer. Eventually, I think it may make an awesome coffee table book! Anywho....... on this road trip I happen to stumble across the "World's Largest..........KIWI!" It has an observation deck inside and a small trinket shop.

Back to fishin! Arrived in Opotiki and found a great spot. Pulled off into the grass parking lot and proceeded to find a superb beach with long lengths of sand, a bay inlet, and a bunch of people on the beach in modified go-carts with sails. That looked awesome..... gonna have to build one! Walked back to my car, started her up, and immediately got stuck! Yup. Trying to get out of the muddy grass back onto the road the carolla high centered on a tuft of sand and I was stuck. I tried pushin, I tried rockin it, I even tried building ramps out of driftwood. Stuck!

Fortunately, after sittin down and havin a coke and a smoke, the crew of wind ridders happened upon me. A gaggle of girls ranging from 13 to 16 and two chaperones. With a brief intro and a handshake they had the entire group surrounding the car, and...... Viola! It is true what they say about the people here, they truly are nice........ and helpful!

Went up the road a bit, found a camping site, set up shop, then back to the beach. Did pretty good, caught two Kahawai (sort of like an ocean trout) and enjoyed a stunning sunset on the beach. Not a bad day! Plus, I finished her off with a bit of fresh fish and port. Mmmmmm! The best part about this particular campground is that they had super hot showers...... and they were only 50 cents. So, got everything packed up in the morning to head on out, took a shower, washed dishes, and hit the road.

Next stop..... Mahia Peninsula.

For those of you who have never been to New Zealand, this is where we really start to get back woods country. Really glad that I had put gas in the car last night, cuz there was absolutely nothing for ever. In fact, when I actually got to Mahia, I believe I ended up having a beer with the only 3 men that actually live there year around! One owned a bar, one owned he campground, and the other tried to keep the golf course in good repair. Of course, at this time of the year the only thing I saw enjoying the golf course was a herd of sheep!

I did end up finding a great little spot to fish off the peninsula that had steep rocky banks with a sand a seaweed bottom. Really hoped that I might catch a flounder. Didn't...... but i did catch a nice sized Kahawai.

The next jog of the trip went away from the coast and into a mass of curvy roads and hillsides. Lots of spectacular lookin streams to fish, but as of yet I don't have my freshwater license, so, gonna have to come back. BUT...... i did find another "World's Largest." This time it was "Longest Place Name in the World."

You ready for this....... Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu!

I think I spelled that right!

Anyway, after gettin stuck in a bit of "Morning traffic," ..

i took an off-shout road and ended up in a tiny, tiny town called Herbertville. However, the weather had turned and the waves were pounding the beach, so this became a camping spot after a good long trip to the pub! Gotta love Tui!

Got up, ate fish, and headed on down the road. Final destination...... Wellington! Got here a bit early, so ran around a bit and checked out the locale. Beautiful spot with tons of bays and beaches. More to come on that later. We are now at the end of day two in Wellington, so, let the adventure....... continue!