Pre-fiji

Hello,

Christchurch has been good to me so far. Its a 50/50 mix of auckland and wellington, so that makes it a big (ish) city with a bit of character. I'm here for a bit too many days to wait for the plane back to auckland, so this afternoon i'll find out what kind of day trips to do. They've got a church square like in a lot of english towns and there is a guy there called "the Wizard." He's this guy dressed in an all black wizard costume and he talks in the square on a big step ladder. He rambles on and on about the strangest things. The topic for my time watching him: industrialization of new zealand (and the world in general, he was just using nz as an example) and the progression of society to its current state of conformity. I haven't used big words like that for months. He is one of those people that you don't know if they are too smart or just crazy, but in most of the guidebooks he is listed as the unofficial mascott of Christchurch (and i hear he gets paid by the city to do what he does...i'm leaning to the calling him smart side).

the crazy wizard guy.

I hung out with Pauline last night and this morning she went north to meet up with Laura. They'll be flying to fiji together two days before i get there. I'm really lucky to have met them. Its made the trip feel like i've been traveling with good friends. Other than that i'm just catching up with emails, sorting out my pack, and getting ready for fiji (things like buying a snorkel and such). Three months hasn't been enough in New Zealand, but i think i am ready to see what fiji is going to be like. And i've decided to get my first haircut of the trip tomorrow. i figure it will be easier to swim with the snorkel mask with shorter hair.

My mom has been in canada for the past week, which means Google (my mom's new dog) is staying at my brothers house. Before my mom left she decided pepper was going to be the name, but my brother's changed the name to Jasmin. I'm all for this because i think it is a more clever name than pepper. (Jasmin = kind of tea = boston had that whole tea thing = mom's dog is a boston terrier) I'm still pushing for Google as the middle name--and nothings going to stop me from calling the dog google anyway.

So, the postings may get sparse for the next few weeks. I won't be doing too much for the next few days and i'm going to keep my distance from computers in fiji, unless theres a nice rainy day to catch up a bit.

have a good day

chad