Novotel Tainui Hamilton

... centre then there is a vast improvement and the CTC area that James stays in looks very modern and isolated. Each room is like a podwith large glass windows that are identical the most of the other rooms. It is situated near Hamilton airport, about 10 miles away from Hamilton in the middle of nowhere.

The sun has just risen here and James has already gone to CTC, preparing for our flight.

... found a swimsuit in the free stuff bin an put it on) "You look more like you're going kayaking" "Yeah. More appropriate? Good." "So the basics are you do this, and you want to turn your wrist a little at the end. It's all in the wrist... You can take that any way you want, heh heh." "ah. K" "And don't drown." "Yeah. I'll work on that." "So, if your not back in an hour or so I'll come look for you. And by that I mean I'll stand at the edge of the dock." "K. I'll try ...

... SE Asia! Stacy and Jamie visited Auckland's Sky Tower (http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/skyci ty/auckland/sky-tower/sky-tower_home.cf m) which is the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere and then met up with Lauren at a Mexican Cafe (I think that's actually the name of it, too) for happy hour and our last meal in New Zealand. We had an early morning flight to catch on Friday morning for BALI!!! Goodbye New Zealand and the normal 1st world... hello SE ASIA!!

... House reading or playing cards or whatever. We'd take a trip into town now and then for a coffee (which is a whole other topic - will save it for next time) and a look around, which generally was a great way to spend an afternoon. As the weather picked up, Renee and I headed to the beach and had lots of great days reading and sunning :) I took a surf lesson one day (don't have the pics currently) and got up on the board!!!! It was HEAPS of fun and it is ...

... guiding us flawlessly. The only problem with it is that the voice cannot seem to correctly pronounce any of the Moira street names and even struggles on many English word names. I'll never travel without one of these gadgets. A final observation is about "Motels." There are almost as many motels in this country as there are people. They are mostly bright, shiny and all are welcoming. You park right next to your room which is almost always entered by way of a ...

... t have a face, a sex, a name. I believe in the energy that we as human beings carry within ourselves and that the earth carries as well. I believe in many things and I respect all of those "rules" or "commandments" that every religion has in some form or another. I am spiritual but I am not an Organized Religion person. In general, my feelings towards The Church (Catholic, mostly) is strongly negative for many good and valid reasons that I won't go into because I could write a ...

... much except eat lots of yummy food and try and make a bit of a dent in Tane's very nice selection of wine. Today Tane is off to work and to hand in my cv. Fingers crossed, lots! The job is a physio assistant job at the hospital which would be amazing to get. So far the job hasn't been advertised and they need someone as of next monday so with a bit of luck I should have a head start.

... to go and nothing to do and no internet and well it just was not very much fun. Enough of that. The bus was crowded with school kids, gossiping about the new kid and whining about their teachers and going on and on about how much they hated so-and-so. I was crunched into my seat with my heavy backpack on my lap and the ride was very long because of all the stops the bus had to make. The bus was loud and bumpy and hot and I just wanted off. All the students got ...

... now. Anyway, we arrived here on Monday 7th and didn't do much other than discover that our plans were not well thought through! But on a plus point we have food now. On Tuesday 8th Jan we headed to a local surfer village called Raglan and it rained for the first and only time since we have been here! So we cafe hopped the whole day waiting for the afternoon bus back to Hamilton (very nice drive though), lots of ...