Onto the north!

Now, before I say anything let me address the fact that I'm alive! Let me also mention that prostitution is legal here, and therefor is much different and much safer than it is in America. And lastly, New Zealand is probably one of the (if not the) safest countries on the planet.

So now that that's all squared away, last night I found myself walking home alone in the red light district!

Hah, ok ok, so that's a BIT of an exaggeration-only the begining of my walk home was amongst the ladies on the corners, the majority of my journey was just down K st which, as far as I could tell, was free of prostitiutes.

Sounds eventful, but really, I felt much safer walking around Auckland at night than I ever did walking the streets of NYC. The rest of my night (which all happened before my lone walk back to the hostel) was spent with Ky. After he got off work we went to his apartment where he made some dinner HOMECOOKED pasta with tomato sauce, spinach, and chickpees. It was delicious. We then headed off to Ponsoby's social club where they played some reggae funk music and I bought my first legal drink! Then didn't even card me, heh. We just chatted over a few beers until we were both about ready to pass out from exhaustion and decided to head home. However, on the way, one of his friends spotted him from a dif. resteraunt and we went and met a bunch of people and Ky got us some chamomile teas which was really just the perfect thing. One of his mates asked where I was from and when I answered KY he went into a huge story about how he travelled across America and while he was in NYC was aressted for smoking marijuana, which of course, then got everyone talking about America's legal system and particularly the cops in America and how ridiculous they often are.

NZ cops don't carry weapons. They're much more polite and generally good to be around. I feel a lot safer with them than I do with the cops in Am. who all seem to have an inferiority complex.

The big news though is that tomorrow I'm heading out of Auckland. I'll be going up to Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands to stay at the hone heke backpackers lodge and work picking kiwifruit for a couple of months. Hopefully to earn enough $$ to fund some of my travel. I'm extremely aware of how much money I'm spending and feel guilty pretty much anytime I make a purchase.

Honestly, I have mixed feelings about leaving Auckland. I've always heard "get out of Auckland asap!!" But I haven't even been here a week and it's become my home. It has everything I could possibly need, including the IEP office, and leaving is bittersweet.
I hope to come back for Easter if I can, since there's a jazz festival on Waheike Island that day that I would love to attend! Plus Tiare is going to be in Auckland around Easter and it would be nice to meet up with her.

We'll see. But since I'm moving locations I have no idea when the next time I'll be able to post or check anything.

Sianara for now. I'll try to send out a notice when I get to Kerikeri saying I got there safely.

Cheers, mates!