People that believe you need to take hard drugs in order to find new brain tangents, expand your mind, or have an epiphany or sorts should either travel or chill out in nature. Every day I think of new things that I have never though about when I am here. I guess that is probably a big part of being by yourself in a foreign country. I wish I could write everything down. First and foremost I need to find some way for an American to buy land down here because of the opposite weather patterns. It is summer here during our winter, talk about ideal.

I got close to zero sleep last night but woke up early this morning to go to the Catlins which is basically the southern most tip of the South Island, about 1.5-2.5 hours down the coastline of Dunedin. About every 20 km or so there would be a new sign for an epic view, hike, waterfall, some kind of mind blowing visual. This place was sooooo lush it was insane. I have this bad habit of eating if I am not busy doing anything else. Car rides are the worst and today was no exception. Three bags of chips, a big bag of candy, two peanut butter and jellies, a chicken sandwich, two blue cods and some french fries. I am most likely leaving some stuff out, but you guys get the point. I have been consuming a jar of peanut butter every single day trying to gain weight but without success; I had to google search negative health repercussions from indulging on this much pbutter. sketchy. I put it on apples, bananas, mix it with any kind of icecream I eat, sandwiches, plain spoonfills. Rob Roy dairy is less than a block away from my flat...bad news. A single scoop is equivalent to a double in America with two flavors for $1.40. And a double is a quadruple. Its plain sick.

On the drive to the Catlins there was a full rainbow going over our road which was awesome for so early in the morning. The first stop in the Catlins was a lighthouse built in 1869 at Nugget Point where there are usually yellow-eyed penguins. It was so windy and unstable I thought I was going to be blown off a cliff into the sea. I held my ground this time against mother nature. Purakanui Falls was right off the road, rather small but easily accessible and convenient which was great because of the rain at that point.

We drove another 45 minutes down the beach to Porpoise Bay. Quite self descriptive. Home to Hector's dolphin pod - an endemic species to New Zealand - Porpoise bay was probably my favorite site today. I don't think I have ever seen dolphins in their natural habitat, let alone a species that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world. It was awesome. I am definitely going to pay whatever it costs to swim with leopard sharks, dolphins on my trip to Golden Coast in Australia.

After the bay it was freezing cold and raining so we headed towards Waikaka where we found a fish n chips RV serving Blue cod. We got into a conversation for about an hour with the people working and it was definitely a learning experience. Waikaka has a population of 28. That is no joke. We met 1/14 of the entire city. The fish n chips was so deep fried that the food was wet. Apparently the person who caught the fish was a third generation fisherman on this area of the coast so they had their quota lifted. Pretty cool stuff I thought.

Before the next stop in the middle of the road was a herd of sheep. Never seen anything like it. We couldn't drive for atleast 2 km because of the roadblock. By the way, why the hell isn't the US on the metric system? Sure makes a lot more sense. I guess we're really stubborn in our ways and love our national identity. Surprise surprise.

The next waterfall, Mclean Falls, was gargantuan and had a little pool in the bottom. If it weren't so cold I would have surely jumped in. I almost did anyways, but no one would go with me. I always do that kind of stuff. The water was about as cold as Jake's cabin that I used to spend birthdays at every July 30th. I really miss those days of cops and robbers in the forest, freezing my balls off, the ski-bowl, and it was the first time I had ever smoked a cigar. I love the Harders. One of my all-time favorite families.

We had to climb a little bit to get to the last waterfalls, Matai. I thought we were going to run out of gas on the way back, as did everyone else in the car. I have only had that happen one time in my life, with Shane Chandler on the way back from a Blazers/Nuggets game on I-5 in December. Police came and that wasn't too fun but it all ended up being okay and we sat courtside at the game after buying 2 tickets from a homeless guy with no front teeth and a beanie. We initially thought they were counterfit.

Somehow, someway, we made it to a "petrol" station and filled up. The most strange thing ever was inside. So, you know when you are filling up your cup of water from a big filter that you have to switch the flip and poors out? They had about five huge jugs, with empty (more or less, a little liquid at the bottom) fifths and wine containers. You could fill them with vodka, rum, whiskey, or bourbon. It wasn't even just weird for me, none of the kiwis had ever heard of such a thing and we all decided it was unsanitary. Obviously didn't stop us from filling up other things than gas.

My kiwi buddy AJ just noticed I am writing a blog, he was on the trip today, and he decided he wanted to make a celeb appearance in the blog. Legislation decided to approve the request:

Ok guys (very kiwi mother start to a chat to be honest), my name is AJ (Alasdair Johnston)and I was a key player in the trip today. I provided the 1996 Nissan Pulsar SR-V rubbish 4WD with SR18DE, as provided by my aged mother, well more aged then my youthful self and obviously more aged than your loved one... Kevin... I know him too... we share that in common, now we're close... I may have create raport with you. Nice.

Today, I almost stranded your loved one in the desolate, tourist infested South Island region called the Catlins. But thankfully the petrol station we found just in time was also fueled itself with various homebrewed spirits... let just say, drinks were drunk (not by myself, the driver), people got a bit effed, effin effed, and a Kiwi helped Americans see dolphins... for reals... in the sea... I rated it. They literally said they'd had as much fun as a fat kid on a scooter... going down a slip and slide... wet.

Well until next time my loyal new friends, from the pretty much exact opposite side of the world.

All my love, real kiwi, 100% pure love,

AJ