I'm going to try to sum up 14 kinda crazy and great days for the sake of my sanity of not needing to feel like I need to reflect anymore, at least this far back in the past lol.

Day 1: We arrive in Perth and try to go through passport security which we didn't know if we needed to go through, wait 30 minutes in line and finally get to front of the lin and ask the passport guy if we need to fill out the form if we're just transferring flights, he says yes and to go back and fill out a card. We fill out the card, wait in line again but kind of get suspicious of if we actually need to do it, ask someone, they take us to the front and the guy tries to check us in, he can't verify our passports and then sends us to a lady who eventually sends us to the transfer part of the airport we should've gone down LOL,
THEN we go through security again, and we had already lost toothpaste and nail clippers in thailand so security makes us nervous.(but thailands just weird, cue the gun advertisement below) i managed to keep my toothpaste in thailand because the girl opened one of my backpacks pocket that had dirty laundry and didn't really want to continue searching hahahahah.

we then got price rocked out of our world where you can buy 1 slice of pizza for $11. noOoooo take us back thailand. from kings to peasants lol

we land in auckland realizing there was no lounge there either(really tough trip for us LOL)

but in auckland you can check in our own baggage, hooray we don't have to wait 2 hours until baggage claim opens, but CRIKEY aiwa puts her passport in with our baggage and it shoots off LOL.
so then that's a major freakout for aiwa and we ask them if they can find it, they spend about an hour and can't find it and tell us to keep checking back, and then 2 hours later they find it and we're saved, super nice staff! Technically now would be the time we could've checked our bags in for our flight LOL, but hey this was a great way to pass time. Sorry Aiws. Way to catch it early, could've been fatal lol.

THEN we land in Wellington. Hallelujah. Wait, my debit card doesn't work. How am I supposed to pay for the car. LOL. whole crisis on that, eventually get the cash at midnight after aiwa trying to withdraw several times but reaching her limit, and so I complete the transaction with them in the dead of night since we went to the same hostel as them because it's awkward. LOl.

Day 2: New Day New Dawn, Left Side, Right is Wrong?
We hit the streeeets with my car that i'm terrified to drive in. We head to check out mount victoria, aiwa keeps politely saying the code word "mayday" when i'm too close to the line/curb on her side, still hit the curb a few times regardless of the maydays lol.

Then at Mt Victoria I lose PURPLE. You know you're completely privileged and only have first world problem's when the most upsetting thing happening is you losing a purple little gnome. We go back at night to look for him,
"Purple?!"
"Can you hear me"
aiwa occasionally shouts for him lol. but is also really considerate of my semi psychotic severe heartbreak i'm trying not to have over this situation hahahah, because it's really dumb lol, friend of the year.

mid day during where in the world is purple drama, we check weta caves which is really cool, we bring out my smeagol mask and the guy working there is like oh god. and then he goes in the back and gets out a legitly made ring replicate that we get to hold and take a picture with hahaha so awesome.

we then watch a documentary cause we only do the free portion of the mini museum which is literally one small room LOL. there we pretty much learn all the art that goes into movies is pretty wild STUFF. mind blown as i wonder where my share of talent went lol.

We also hit the peninsula and drive around at a really beautiful sunset that we couldn't have planned better nor did we even plan it lol, and that's when we were like holy moly we're in new zealand. and i can somewhat drive the car to get us places.

After Purple fails to come out of the woods, we decide to head out for our first free campsite/sleeping in a nicely bedded car experience lol.
We still have the car seats in the back which made it really hard for me to see, so we set them out of the car even though it's wet and gross and then make our bed,and have a surprisingly pleasant sleep being the only one in the campsite, slightly blair witch project but it's alright lol.

Day 3:
We plan a looot at the library,
Aiwa somehow magically remakes a new purple during a car drive, which is one of the nicest things lowkey someone's done for me when i think about it hahaha friend of the year twice in a row.
or maybe i just have an insane attachment to that thing LOL.

we discover uncle bills after shopping at the warehouse which is like NZ's walmart. we are way more impressed with uncle bills. even though everyone here likes the warehouse and doesn't even know about uncle bill's, LOL. Team Uncle Bills.

We move on to napier after having planned things which aiwa strongly pulled the weight in since she knows i struggle without plans lol, heck i struggle always LOL, just kidding but that was nice!

In Napier we meet at Moto's!! Awesome family! and Japanese exchange student girl who skateboards lol.
"What year are you in school?"
"Grade 13"
"uhhh.." conversation dies because we don't know what year that is lol.

After adequately exploring napiers night life.(it's totally dead and quiet and we had the sand sea shell stage to ourselves hahahah We also pass by this chinese massage place where you can get a basic massage for $5, and their "recommend" is $10, so vague and awesome LOL), we spice things up EVEN MORE by playing old maid and pirates dice. Where me & Moto lose every game and want to keep playing yet don't lol.

I could get use to Napier Life man.
which color will the fountain turn next ! aiwa never knows

Thanks for letting us sleep in your room moto hahah..
and for introducing us to pineapple lumps.

Day 4

Unfortunately for aiwa moto & i are sloths lol,but we get up in time to hike the tomato! or some say te meta. Unfortunately we're dumb And we park right in front of the hill and climb all the way up expecting to be at the highest peak, only to see another hill, so we climb back down and then up the 2nd hill, and then we're able to see wait dear god there's a 3rd hill. LOL. so we needlessly climb up really tall hills and then back down 3 times.

At the peak it's really nice, we're slightly dead and out of shape, but we take some good pictures of aiwa and moto jump high fiving, and then we try to find a way to take one of all 3 of us but it comes out as a really cheesy picture of us and it's pointed at the sky HAHAhah so bad.

We meet with Moto's Broto, Mori! And there we play Fibbage a lot LOL, and also this bomb game that me and aiwa kept destroying our team with, occasionally mori when he didn't let aiwa say her clue and jumped the gun hahahah.

we also got to witness moto's friend's connor go on an involuntary road trip with his friends when we arrived LOL sad sight to arrive to.

Then Moto goes to work and aiwa & i hang at the hottest spot, McDonalds. and have a quality conversation over fries lol.
We then go home and watch The Block with moto's mom and get hooked hahahah. along with a bunch of NCIS shows lol.

Day 5:
We make plans to watch the sunrise at 7am.
We wake up at like 9 or 10am hahahah.
we're pretty dead because we didn't sleep so much which is great because it just makes the day even more wacky.

we record a song, which isn't a song but who needs the details.
then with our newly established band, and first album "Basic"(2nd album will be "Recommend")
weeee go into TOWN! and Take some BAND PHOTOS! which are almost as bad as our sky one(we try to recreate it even). We also go to the place where we would have seen the sunrise if we woke up LOL.

The day life of Napier is just as rocking as the night man! We hit up a museum that we realize costs money, so we draw on it's whiteboard instead LOL.
Then we try on hats and get lunch and sit next to a picture of a naked baby.
Then we get donuts and Moto correctly guesses that it's an old white guy in the donut hut, so he wins the Basic Chinese neck/shoulder Massage! Which we're surprised he actually agrees to get LOL. We feel kind of bad but it's pretty funny hahahah and only like 5 minutes.

After a goodportion of the day losing our minds, i take a nap but not really i just lay there for 30 minutes LOL, and then me and aiwa go on ouuur way to taupooo. where we staaay near this hotel that has a kitchen and we're excited. but then i guess it's pretty random and outside and small and has nothing in it LOL. but we cook our thai spicy ramen and create some songs which showcase a loot of talent, because we were feeling inspired from our band album photoshoot, and then hit the van(hit the hay?).

Day 6! We wake up in the morning feel like p diddy. and then head out to tongariro crossing which is home of one of the best hikes in the world, but it's waaay too dangerous in the winter sooo we take a ski chair lift up lol. after figuring out where the shuttle bus is, and then figuring out where the chair ski lift is "it's the lift that's right there" LOL. we make our way to trek and get a really awesome view of mount doom. pretty surreal nerd moment.
then we take some/too many pictures with us and the smeagol mask, and head to the water falls where smeagol was filmed which was also really cool lol.

Then something in my brain shuts down and I start to be really zoned out no energy, as we drive to the top of taupo aiwa tries to help me in my funk and buys me burger king, finds a hostel because i hadn't booked the one i thought i did, rents towels for us to shower with, cooks dinner(that i take a shower before eating like an arse lol), but at the end as we're in my van i say sorry and then we laugh pretty hard at how everytime aiwa tried to be nice it was like in a wack way kind of shut down for no good reason hahahahahah. anyway one of the funny moments of our journey was when i became wack this day lolo. thanks for dealing with it and always trying hahahahah.

Day 7: Talent Release Day.
Well the world is about to get rocked because today is the day aiwa and i finally released our talent. There was a marketing team filming people taking selfies at taupo and they asked me and aiwa if they could film us, and we hadn't used my tripod as a selfie stick before so it was a bit awkward LOL but either way they sent us emails of talent release forms to sign. So we're a pretty big deal.

Huka falls was really cool and really powerful lol. We also went to watch the dam break but that was anticlimatic and pretty slow, not that it wasn't cool but it was just funny lol.

We go to a volcano center that's closed wooop, then we learn more than the average person about bees and the womanizer colony that it is. and the strength of royal jelly LOL. that's what separates queens from worker bees. and the queen bees fight for queen bee if they hatch at the same time. but i guess that hasn't happened in awhile since beyonce's been around.

We took some pictures at lake taupo and failed at our kicking photos again lol, and also filmed smeagol proposing randomly, lol i'm glad it's winter and not many people are out.

We also hit up kerosene creek which is the hot spring to be at, and it was so nice but also smelly but also so cold when you got out of it hahahha. and all our clothess/swimsuits were gross afterwards.

We laid them out at our campsite, in which they froze overnight hahahahaha. so that worked. we also helped a couple move when they got stuck with their campervan.
Aiwa said it looked like they needed help so then she went over to them and we tried to push their huge campervan..lol. then we found two guys who were going night fly fishing or something hahahah, and they also helped, and it almost was damaged by a tree, like a centimeter away, but we managede to get it out. nice and stressful times. most exciting thing we've done past 7PM the entire trip as I tend to fall asleep around 6 LOL.

Day 8: Rotorwhata,. MATAMATA!
We Hike up Rainbow Mountain, and pretend we're in gokarts and sing the rainbow road song for a solid portion of it. lol.
aiwa met an american named tyler at our campsite who said he was doing the same hike, we thought we'd meet him on the way down(we're above average paced on the time it takes to do hikes, we did a 50 minute hike in 49 minutes we'll have you know.) but to our surprise and his LOL he gets to the top shortly after we do even though we left a ways before him. He then encourages aiwa to climb this tower thing that i dont want her to climb because we're already high up as it is lol. but everyone survives so it's ok lol.

then we go back down and talk which is nice and see an alternate path, then we head to MATAMATAAA! for our hobbitton touuur/our rise to fame LOL.

We go on pretty much the best bus ride of our lives with Greg talking to us about the area and how he helped exterminate possums and save the kiwi bird. Best bus driver EVER. Served on the conservation team. What A Guy.

Then we meet our tour guide, James, and we're with primarily chinese tourists who are so funny about taking pictures of things, and a lot of our group didn't even WATCH lord of the rings and only like 2 people read it LOL. yet spending 80 bucks for this tour man lol. We're pretty much the only two people talking back to James so he's like man if you two weren't on this tour nobody would talk to me, which is his mistake because then we start to talk to him a LOT and make signals while he speaks LOL. but he's really nice and uses the smeagol mask for some of our shots, what A GUY! him and greg man!! we write a travel review for him because we were talking about how people rip you apart with reviews because the reviews on campermate are so funny "disappointment". "i give it 5 stars out of 100" LOL.

anyway it was wack, there were a lot of jokes because some of the tourists wanted pictures with me in my mask or to wear the mask which was great lol. i got really into the zone. it was a short tour but we really went ham during that hour , let me tell you lol. we sat real close to greg on the way back because he's our hero.
"it must be real" - james

Day 9: BLUE SPRINGS
"dust if you must"
we trek through blue springs which were quite blue and coo.
then we go back to the smelliness of rotorua since we have a hostel there lol, walter, great guy, makes great soup lol.
We hiiike redwood forest and are kind of unsure where we're going but we we make it to the top of something and some lookout hahah and we wait a whole hour to see if we can see the geyser. and i'm pretty sure we do see it several times HAHAHah but it's hard to tell from our distance.

then we trek back down and from there we go ZORBING.
LOL.
dumbest and quickest thing ever.
we opt to go together because the guy says it's more fun usually. which i can imagine because we roll down that hill so fast and you can't stay upright so you're just falling like an idiot in a ball as it rolls down a hill, and paying like 20 bucks to do that and it's over in 15 seconds and you're soaked LOL. they didn't put that much water in it but i was laughing during it and so at one point i was like drowning HAHAHah. it was just like 15 seconds of being slammed around and laughing because it happened so fast and was so weird lol.
two nice women film us because they notice my camera stopped working, and what a gem that video is lol.

it was a really nice day but that was the main event, LOL. similiar to our crying bungee jump.
so then we just take it easy the rest of the day to prepare for our hells gate and maori tours the next day.

Day 10: 2 Tours. We Love Human Interaction. lol.
The first tour was really cool seeing the culture and the living village and how they all bathe together kind of lol. Also the talent in their show and the haka is scary.
The second tour was great and we got to hear about geothermal activity(our now favorite thing) and all the idiots mark encountered LOL and we also wood carved! or attempted, kiwi bird was a tought first choice lol.

Day 11
sunrise fail
nap before cathedral cove lol
hot water beach

Day 12
Coro pies
scenic drives
top of a waterfall!
square tree

Day 13
Glow Worms, Simons, Dead Phones.
Wrong Bagel Place.

Days 14-19:
The first week on my own has been a bit of a journey.
I think with Ed Abendroth passing away that was unexpected and I've been a bit dazed in and out about the whole thing and the unexpected things life brings.

and then being on my own for the first time after 3 months of being back to back with my closest friends and family members is also new.

It's not necessarily bad though and I'm not missing home even though I love everyone at home, I think my growth experience is just long overdue, i'm like a 24 year old baby LOl.

But I Also think in fairness that I've just been attempting to reflect during this time so I've been living in the past and haven't had time to really look at my situation for what is minus a few logistics(surprisingly hard to open a bank account, figures finance people are the only unhelpful kiwis lol though actually the girl that signed me up was really nice and kind of nudged me to go to a different branch because her manager was being weird lol)

I got a phone which was nice the guy set it up for me and i realized how dirty my iphone is Lol.

I checked into this really bad motel/hostel thing for 2 days but it has an outlet so I was able to make 2 montages and reflect to the best extent I could today lol.

I also climbed a mountain yesterday which was really nice and had some good times with donald, the foot, and purple greg jr.

I've set myself up now to watch the sunrise at east cape which is a looong trek lol so i don't know how worth it it is but i've committed lol.
and then chill in Gisborne for a bit before going to take moto on the worst road trip of his life to the longest named village lol.

then i've committed 2 weeks essentially to this sanctuary in taupo which looks really reflective and peaceful and accepting so i'm excited to start there and i hope i know how to interact with people for extended periods of time LOL.

A lot of wwoof/helpxchange people have contacted me so it's a pick and choose kind of mentality now which is kind of cool, and I don't know how much of my time I want to spend in the same place as I'm trying to gain different experiences, and at some point I want to make money lol so I reached out to the reffing community as well..if the pay sucks here i won't bother lol but it's actually a really flexible job that i have experience in and i don't want to work food industry really, and i have no skills LOL.

still trying to figure out how to fit into this country, I feel I've adequately explored North Island minus doing the 20km walk in Tongariro. & Climbing Mt Doom. But Even doing a 30 minute hike up the mountain was rough on my knees back and soul so LOL. i dunno man. everything here is so steep. heaps steep. 14 days, too weak. krok kah kop

But i'm excited to have finished everything mostly today in terms of reflecting, i kept getting distracted and going inbetween planning and reflecting.

But overall looking back on the past 21 days with aiwa in thailand and new zealand , it was really great , and the 30 days i spent in europe, 15 days with friends and 15 days with family was also awesome.
i'm really appreciative of people stepping in to take care of me when i didn't have anything super planned out for what feels like the first time in my life.
everything worked out somehow and even though life is unexpected and short i'm hoping it'll all continue to workout. and i won't get axe murdered lol some of these free camping spots are scary in winter by yourself.

but if i do get axe murdered it's okay. i'll be with purple. LOL jk.
who will look after purple jr.
man my priorities are wack.

anyway I feel like this past week has been good but very library and wifi hungry, logistics draining, and communication attempts and so this next week should be interesting because i think i'll be forced to live in the present/plan a future for myself which is a bit scarier.

i know it's still early but i wonder like what my plan is on when i'm going home but also what the point of going home is for me or what i want to do back home.
i guess i could keep the mentality of half a year working and half a year traveling savvy.
or maybe i need to settle down, keep building life skills and focus on developing a relationship even though i'm stubborn and like independence.

i don't really know what i need when i think on it. i know skills i'd like to have and so i just focus on those for now, but maybe the two weeeks at this sanctuary will help guide me. i hope it's in my path to start my first experience there.
i'm giving up housesitting at an alpaca farm for this lol. 150 alpacas LOL. could've been lit.