from down under

melbourne, quickly, was a haze of discussions, instruction, and masses of information. i am amazed at the writers i met, not only by their breadth and diversity of worldly experiences but by their ability to stay out drinking till 3:30am and then manage to show up the next morning and be coherent.

got way lost today in auckland. had no map in hand except for the one which was supposed to show me how to walk the 16km hike across the city. i also made the not-really-a-mistake mistake of asking locals how to get to X street. they sort of knew where i wanted, but usually i'd follow their directions and wind up on the wrong street and then ask someone else a block later or keep walking. note to people who do not want to walk 32km instead of 16km in one day: sometimes it IS better to ask three times. like that buddhist saying: 'go down seven wrong paths, walk around in eight circles.'* or something like that? suffice it to say i didn't finish the hike but did about 1/3 of it plus got off track and explored some other parts of the city.

day after tomorrow i'll be hopping into my campervan, the basic kind with bed and cookstove but without a shower (it does have a 'portable loo,' whatever that means). i love kiwis. i love new zealand and i've only seen a day's worth of auckland plus the supremely stunning green coastline i glimpsed from flying in. i love that an old tasmanian man who got stuck squished next to me in the shuttle bus from the airport demanded, 'you all right, girl?' when i got my seatbelt fastened, and then proceeded to joke and laugh with me for the next half hour and wish me well and safely along on my travels. he asked if he could come with me instead of his wife (chuckling from the back seat) and the old couple they were traveling with. in response she said, 'my luck is turning!'

so for now i'll just wish you ta, cheers, and wonder how you're going.



* not an actual buddhist saying