Here I come

So it seems that every time i neglet my blog for a period of time it is because of busyness from having so much fun and these past couple of weeks have been absolutley no different. It makes me worried writing this that i will in no way capture the times i have had recently with words but i will try my best.

The last time i updated this thing i was preparing myself for awhile alone and trying to cope with being anti social. Damn I couldnt have been more wrong!!! Let me take ya back to the beginning of my amazing time here in Taranaki.

After staying a night at Evan's house whom i met in gisborne i headed about 20 mintues out of new plymouth to the town/village of oakura where i have been ever since. oakura is a very laid back town consisiting of about 100 houses, a skate park and a holiday/camp park. i parked Birty up in front of the beach whom had already blown her muffler and was making the loudest most bad ass sound that turns heads and actually set off car alarms. after a day of sitting on the beach, reading and surfing i was befriended by some of the most out going and talkative girls who were holidaying with their family right down the street and were from new plymouth. Meg, maddy, izzy,. and meg are four young girls ( 15 yrs) were the beggining of my time meeting and making just some more lifelong friends. i soon started to hang out with their older brothers whom are my age and all surf.

For the next week i had dinner at their camp sites with them and the rest of their 16 family members and started to feel as if i was settleing down again , the last time being airlie beach in australia. our times were spent hanging out with the crew which was continually being added to by other kids we met who lived here in oaks and getting some awsome surf in along wiht some bridge jumping. even the girls surfed. around this time was when i for the first time on this trip started opening my eyes to the possibility of being an ex-pat living abroad, especially somewhere so amazing as oakura.

After the families from new plymouth left to go back to school after summer holiday i continued to stay in the van and started to hang out alot wiht the crew i have been with all this time. though there are about 6 or 7 of us that are constantly hangin out the core group of us is made up of Mike, Matt , Sammy and I (the crew)who hang out at sammies all day which is one of the best atmospheres i have ever been in but ill get to that later. Mike is 17 and works for a land surveying company, matt is a 19 year old uni student studying to be a vet and lives on one of the most amazing farms ever. sammy is in her last year of highschool (here it is year 13) is just one of the guys and my sister from another mister.

Besides sammies house our haunts have included matt's farm, mikes house looking over the water and the skate park in town. we spend most of our time bumming around sammie's house which is where i am staying at the moment. her parents are some of the most amazing and fun to be with people i have ever met especially for parents. Snoz, the all over the place mom is always making this place interesting and there is always some amazing reggae or other cool music blaring through the house which is always opened aired and looks over the ocean. groovey aka gibby aka paul is the dad thats hold this place together with his out of nowhere humor and relaxing as just one of the boys. i feel like i have met another family that i was destined to be apart of.

Now lets get to the amazing fun times which will partly be censored from this blog haha. we have had some awsome times together going into town for parties in auto garages and in the middle of the road based around birdy. not to mention the late night tequllia throw downs that have frequented these parts. though what i am about to write could be its own book i will try to put it in here for you to get the full grasp of what most of us are calling the best weekend of our lives.

the plan was made about a week earlier(during our tequllia happenings) for the boys to head up to raglan for a surf trip and with our fingerrs crossed that birty would make it, thats just what we did. mike took friday and monday off of work and we hit the coast with a stop half way there for a great surf at a place called mokau. now the interesting part of this leg was the fact that after we left mokau we didint arrive in raglan until 6 hours later which was surprising because of the fact it was only supposed to be a 3 hour drive.(lost) we continuoly got lost and had some amazing laughs talking boy talk and yelling at sheep. we finally made it to raglan after the sun went down to go to sleep early enough to be up at sunrise to low and behold find the surf to be completely flat.. this is where it got interesting with the choice to either head back home where the surf was good or to continue the road trip. but where to..? it just so happened that sammie, her folks and our mate rosie was on the east coast about 6 hours away at a pro wakeboard comp. with the promise of tickets to the v.i.p. after party we were quickly on the road going transcoastal.

much differently to the leg before, with bikins and beers in our mind we made amazing time over to napier. though known for being the hottest sunniest place in the country we were greeted in napier by rainy, cloudy weather but after the times we had already had there was noway anything was bringing us down from our high on life. we got a good surf in mid day (stuck)and headed to the wakeboard comp where snoz,gibby and the girls were working. i met a real cool girl named sonny from orlando who knows some of my mates from back home in the wakebaord industry. after dodging rain all day and watching some impressive riding we were ready for the after party. and ready we were!!!!! to put a long nite short we watched two amazing bands and converesed with some cool pro wakeboarders whom i realized i had alot in common with after talkin about our travelling adventures. the highlight of the night was the dancing and mikes flaming mangina. hahaha.

we woke up sunday morning glad it was still gloomy weather as the sun would deffinetly had made our head pound a bit more if thats possible. us boys had plans to travel up the coast for a surf as the rest headed home and head back the next day. but.. as on par with the rest of the trip those plans changed and the van was all of a sudden made quite busy with the girls and us making 5 and snoz and groovey following behind. our 6 hour trip turned into 12 as we all stopped numerouse times at different spots on the way and highlights included watching sammy and rosie do bunjy jumping along wiht a great lunch by lake toupo and funnily enough another highlight included the back window of my van being smashed out by matt and a loose beer bottle which somehow ended up outside the van.the funiest part of the trip had to be coming back into new plymouth. now besides the muffler problem birty had run smooth as can be and this was all about to chang. as if in a movie we were 10kms from home and not because were sight seeing we were going about 15mph down the highway wiht everyone in the back giving her encouragment at the top of her lungs and the paresnt in the front with their high breams on as our lights didint work at all. . birty decided her time was up and puttered and threatened all the way home where she is currently residing on the street waiting for me to figure out what to do with her. we all made it back to sammies at about 12 at night tired as hell and ready for a good night sleep that all of us were needing after the best weekend of our lives.

so long story short if thats possible i am having the time of my life and have extended my trip by a week and just bought tickets to soundsplash a reggae fest in raglan with sammie, mike. snoz and her friend shell. another road trip coming up!!!!
dinner an hour ago on sammies back porch

here are some more random photos