Mark Called, Mark calleddd! YES!

Ah! Much better day. My friend Mark Strother, from home---who i have already met up with here, FINALLY called me because I was waiting to see if could stay with me while I house sit....as I don't want to be by myself for a week in an extremely remote place. Karamea is literally a dead end. LITERALLY. so he called and I am so relieved! He is picking apples, which he said was fucking awful down in Central Otago. he said he gets paid by how much he picks and one day he picked the wrong type and they had to throw them all away. ha. and he said he lives with a drug dealer (again) and in a dungeon (again--as we did in queenstown). so anywho---so happy about all of this.

the day is good. woke up and went for a run. did some lunges and stuff. there is a cricket field across my hostel so i ran around there. its kind of gloomy here today. but thats OK. I bought a FABULOUS sheep skin rug. Its HUGE, and so FLUFFY and i love it. should get to my house in 4 weeks. also bought a really cute, short skirt---i kind of don't buy short skirts anymore, but this one is super cute. good with boots and sandals. yahooo! Oh andi bought a eye mask because the place I'm staying at in able tasman is just a GIANT room (i believe) so everythin gis exposed. I doubt I will sleep.

I made a reservation for my kayaking trip today...its all day friday---get to swim with seals, dolphins, and blue penguins!! I guess there is a HUGE seal colony on Tonga Island which is where I will be part of the time. VERY excited! Ready for another adventure. I think the rest of the ime i'm in able tasman I will just hike all day, or take a water taxi somewhere. hoping to meet people, as I am in a more social mood now. I haven't been in nelson, as my hostel is a small german town, and I was kind of getting sick of having the same conversation with people....

whats your name? Where are you from? where are you going? where have you been? how long are you here? Any tips? Thats a standard backpacking greeting. its nice and what not, buuuut, it gets old if you don't break it up. maybe sometime, when I am at my breaking point for that convo, i will pretend to be deaf and see what happens. ya?

what else what else........new japanese girl moved into my room. not very good english and VERY japanesey. cute girl, nice sweet. was making rice when I left....enough to feed the german colony.

ummmmmmm, well, i guess I will get goin! I leave nelson manana at 3 pm. then I get to able tasman. SO EXCITED too because its supposed to sweet as weather there---blue skies, sunny, and HOT. can't wait! Hopefully the sandflies and bee's aren't bad. I know they will be though. I bought some bug spray yesterday and the man I bought it from was like "going some place where youre gonna get attacked?" and I said " ya, I think...able tasman" and he was like " oh god yes, you will definitely be attacked." kiwi's are funny people....the nicest people too.

OH, i forgot to tell you about the FUDGE shop! I am not necessarily a fudge person, BUT, they have this fudge calle dGrandmas chocolate fudge and its out of this world. so pretty much everytime I walk past I get a piece. they know me now. slightly embarassing, but not enough to stop going. chocolate is everywhere here. they have entire isles in the grocery story dedicated to it. I LOVE CHOCOLATE. and today i was at this little grocery story and I saw this tube thing that said "Marzipan" which is what my friend Helen's mom has called me for YEARS, and I thought it was a tube of meat, BUT, it was CHOCOLATE! so meant to be.

ok, must go now. its raining and I have no raincoat. I should have brought it into town...stupid me.

CHEERS! xoxo