What? Jeepers!!! And you say you were getting to like this place?

hello. i’ve been out of the loop for a while doing civie for the UN and…um sorry weird comand and conquer flash back there. but all the shops were closed yesterday which was quite annoying. finaly moved into the hone heke hostel today and out of that pest hole known as the aranga holiday park. i actually was begining to like it, but i’m glad i left. this new place looks cool. there was a free BBQ at the aranga last night. when i say free i mean you get free potatos, pasta salad and obsenely unplesant coleslaw. the meat you purchase yourself. this was interesting as all the shops were shut, so i had no access to meat. so while everyone else ate mounds of delicous looking steaks and sosages(what the hells going on i can’t seem to spell sosages!)i champed my way through a plate of pasta salad which seemed to have been coated in flour for some reason, dry potatos and evil coleslaw. yummy!it was as i was consuming my food and minding my own busines, when a truly massive bloke (he must have been retired wrestler or something)leant over and politly asked if i had stolen his plate. “no.” i said continueing to eat methodicaly. “yeah, some one stole my plate, bro.” he said raking the other diners with his gaze. “outragous” i said. “what” he swivled back to me. “OUTRAGOUS” i repeated slowly. he norrowd his eyes. “are you sure it wasn’t you?” “yes, quite sure” i said. “what about him? did he steal my plate?” He pointed across the table at ben a guy from my dorm. ben looked up, then looked down hurriedly. for an instant i considered say that yes it was him and in fact i saw him do it. but sanity prevailed. “no, he did’t steal your plate.” i said. “well someone stole my plate” he muttered. “no, bro. you lent to that girl over there don’t you remember?” said his friend who was sitting nearby. this didn’t seem to get through to the psycho. he continued to give me unplesant looks. “what colour was it?” i inquired, perhaps unwisly. “likeyour, just like yours” he said gesturing with a hamlike fist. then he twiged that in fact all the plates were glass and inherently colourless. he sat up and looked at me, his mouth flecked with spittle. he gestured at my plate “do you think you can finnish that lot before i smash it into you face?” he asked. i paused mid mouthfull. i looked at him, then the plate. “i recon’ so” i said grinning. he made a lunge and grabbed my plate. “think so?” he said reading it to throw. “hey!” i said shocked. “no, bro!” said his friend. “look, we got our plates from our dorm!” said ben. the psycho made a grab for ben’s plate. ben held on. the was a small tug of war then ben let go and the psycho had both plates. his friend tugged at his arm. “no, bro you lent your plate to that girl over there, see?” luckily he did see. grumbling he tossed our plates back on the table and sat down. we continued our meal.
incerdentally the swing was classy. i’ll describe it on the 21st
casting of the die is postponed due to rain.

julio

Ps

Eating on local side street stalls you will be glad to hear mama!!!!!

Sour sop juice tonight for sweet course!!!

love T

hail, sound like this picking lark is money for old rope, so get to it you lazy fester. Had actually planned on you having a red t-shirt, but you can discuss that with liv later!!! Has someone changed the font around here????? the other one was better.

Apparently that happens here as well, but there is a doctor involved as well, involving loads of cash handouts. Basicallt trust no one. We are going to have to make sure we are there to meet the binion. WE being hardened and seasoned travellers used to the lying and cheating that goes on should be able to brush these tricksters off with ease, but the likes of the bunyi will no doubt hand out a few dollar in case they are hungry, ask to be directed to a cash machine to stock up on a few wads and proceed to glug quatities of their kindly offered rafresher!!!! Can’t trust anyone these days. WE ahve not yet met a kind local who does not want ‘dollar’ of you for something or other. it gets rather diheartening after a while. Apparently the peole in laos and cambodia are much nicer, and are friendly just for the sakem of it. The people here seem to have been brought up on: foreigner = many dollar. ask where from, say football is number one and then introduce money angle!!!!

Well, will keep you up to date later.
Mama, i am in process of writting a letter with lot of desciptions for you
Love tanya

www.barstoolracing.net/

Interview with: Chris H – 25 years old from Australia.

Q: Did you enjoy picking fruit in Kerikeri?

Yep, it was really fun working with other local pickers and backpackers from around the world. I picked for two weeks in one orchard, then moved down the road to another orchard and picked for one more week. That was enough money for me to get down to the South Island and hit Queenstown.