> Several scenes from LOTR were filmed around these tracks. I'm *certain* I found the place where the hobbits first saw the Black Rider (the "GET OFF THE ROAD!" leaves-blowing-around scene.)

Too bad you didn't try to get a picture of it. I would have loved to see that, because I'm weird.

> 2) I saw a royal albatross during the passage to Gisborne. I don't know much about birds, but it couldn't have been anything else. There's no way something that big should even be able to fly. It was *amazing*. It looked like it was the size of a Cessna. They breed in the South Island at Taiaroa Heads and are fairly common along this part of the coast, but I had never seen one before. It was resting on the water; I wished it would fly so I could see its wingspan, but it was too far away to be frightened into flight by the boat.

That sounds very cool.

> 3) In the Marlborough Sounds, the williwaws were something special. These are water whirlwinds caused by sudden blasts of wind rocketing down from the steep hills. I even, incredibly, got a good photo of one. During the week of our trip, wind gusts of 117 km/hr were recorded at The Brothers, some small rocky islands in the vicinity of where we were sailing; for us it was mostly calm, because we could move around to avoid the worst of the weather, but it was a real experience to be at anchor and feel the whole ship react as one of these incredible, howling things went over us. The williwaw would only take a couple of seconds, but while it lasted it was hard to even stay on your feet. One second later, it would be perfectly calm again. Nature is so endlessly fascinating.

That picture rules, and the story rules. Also, the word "williwaw" rules.

> 4) While sailing up to Gisborne, I got to see Cape Palliser from the sea for the first time. Wow. Just wow. There is a line in our national anthem which goes "May our mountains ever be / Freedom's ramparts on the sea." I never really understood what that line meant before. I didn't take a photo -- it couldn't possibly have conveyed the impact which comes from that first sight of vast, stark mountains rising straight up to the sky from the Pacific. Any photo I could show you of it would just get accused of being computer generated. Wow.

I wouldn't have been accusing. In fact, I now order you to go back and take a picture, because it sounds really cool.

> 5) A terrific display by a Hector's dolphin along the South Island coast. It was leaping right out of the water and turning somersaults. Nobody else on the boat saw it, and accused me of making it up.

You seem to get or expect accusation a lot. Are you developing a persecution complex? ;-)

> 6) Also, I think I might have achieved the ultimate antithesis of tree-hugging hippie environmentalism: I threw up on a dolphin. Somebody give me an award.

I hereby award you with the "This is the Coolest Thing Monkeyman has Heard in a Long Time" award. Treasure it always.

> 7) I gained ten more days of sea time towards my license, one new scar, about four hundred new bruises (I find more every day), the knowledge of what it's like to be continually seasick for two days and a night and still be required to work, and a lot more. The stars out at sea are incredible on a night sailing when you're almost alone on deck and there are dolphins all around and a crescent moon in the sky. Things like that make up for a lot.

I still envy you, bruises, scars, seasickness, and all.

> When we arrived in Gisborne, I then had an eight hour bus trip back to Auckland. I slept through most of it, since I had been on night watch the previous night and only had about three hours' sleep, but fortunately I was awake when we went through the Waioeka (I think) Gorge. I had never heard of this area before but now I will have to go back some day and hike around there and see it properly. It was another one of those huge, impressive, dramatic places that look like something from another world.

All of New Zealand seems to me to be another world. For you to refer to something as otherworldly means that either it is:
a) Something really, REALLY ordinary from North America, or
b) Likely to kill me in wonder and amazement if I ever see it.

> By the time the bus arrived in Auckland I felt like somebody had been hitting me with sticks for two weeks, so it wasn't all that much fun hauling my bag miles across town to another bus to get home on. By the time I actually got home I probably looked and smelled like a drugged vagrant, I hadn't washed my hair or had a shower in ten days, and every item of clothing I had was filthy and/or damp. Getting clean again was PARADISE. I slept most of today, and tomorrow I go back to my regular job.

I don't know why, but I really enjoy looking and smelling like a drugged vagrant -- I suspect that it has something to do with that paradise of cleanliness that comes afterwards. Very odd, that. Of course, despite my penchance for failing to shower often, I don't actually achieve drugged vagranthood often.

> Brunnen-"the cat seemed happy to see me again"G

Don "I like posting when I'm really tired" Monkey