Starting The List

Right out of the gate I am starting to check things off the list on day two. I know some of you are wondering what I did first?? Maybe you are wondering what was added to the list? Well I will let you in on all of it soon. First I will tell you the additions to the list since the last time I posted it. I must say, I am loving this list. I am hoping to complete everything on it before I come back home. Instead of rewriting the whole list I am just going to put the additions, so they are as follows:

• Visit the Franz Josef or Fox Glacier
• Shower under a very tall waterfall.
• Catch a trout at Lake Taupo.
• Visit Waipu, a Scottish settlement and the founder was from Nova Scotia.
• Go Skydiving.
• Go cage diving with great white sharks
• Ride a sheep.
• Find the lake with no bottom, throw a rock in and make a wish.
• Find someone that has had a close encounter with a Moa.
• Visit a geyser
• Go see Flight of the Concords

Needless to say I will be kept busy! I am grateful for all the creative additions to the list, and if you think of anymore please feel free to message me and I will add it on.

So, you are probably wondering what I started with! Did I go base jumping?? Did I jump out of a tree and scare a random person? Maybe I visited the Auckland Zoo.....The winner of the first ever To-Do List check-mark is.............Draga!! Draga's addition was to visit some old volcanoes in Auckland, take pictures and post them to facebook so that she could feel like she was there too. Yesterday I visited Mt. Eden, a very old and very extinct volcano in Auckland. I walked right up to the top and took some pretty awesome pictures for Draga! I also learned that Draga's addition will be ongoing as there are about 20 extinct volcanoes just in Auckland! I tried to go to another one today, the newest of the old ones, Mt Rangitoto but I just missed the ferry. If the rain isn't too bad tomorrow I will go back and try again in the morning. I am going to try to go to the top of all 20 in Auckland.

Yesterday was my first time on a volcano and it was very cool! Of course Mt Eden is a few thousand years old so it is very grassy and lots of trees on the way to the summit. Once we got to the top it looked like a bomb went off, or maybe it was hit by an asteroid. There was a huge crater in the middle, and you can't really tell from the pictures but it goes down quite deep. It was hard to imagine that some thousand years ago it was spewing molten lava. Mt. Rangitoto is the newest volcano in Auckland and is just a baby at 600 years old. Julian told me that it is much more 'volcano looking'. I am really looking forward to it, but unfortunately there is only one ferry that goes and comes back from the island it is on. If you miss the last ferry off then you could get stranded there until morning. I could have caught a ferry over this afternoon, but I wasn't confident I would make it back for the last ferry off. We are supposed to get a week of rain, so I am hoping it won't be too bad, and I will still be able to get some exploring done.

I almost forgot about Dawn's entry in the list, an album on facebook that has a picture a day added of something beautiful. I have tweaked this a bit and decided to to an album of awesome because somethings that are awesome might not be 'beautiful'. So I guess I better get started on that too! So check out my pictures and my ongoing albums on facebook for The List!

Before I go, I am leaving you with a question. I ask you, my followers, why do I attract the crazy!? It seems to me that no matter what province, country, continent or hemisphere I am in the crazy is drawn to me like flies to a shit pile. Just today, and it is noteworthy that today is only day 3 in New Zealand, I was walking down to the ferry to see about going over to Mt. Rangitoto and just after I crossed the street a small Asian fellow came running up to me. He asked me where I was from, to which I replied, " Canada." Then he asked me if I would talk to him. Yea, just like that he said, "Rill you talk ris mea?" I gave the young fella a puzzled look and said that I didn't understand what he was asking. Then he said that he said that he was Korean and he was studying English and he was hoping I could talk with him while we walked down the side walk so he could practice his English. What do you say to that!!? So I said sure, but made sure he had his own destination as to not get sidled with this guy for the day. Then I had a 10 minute walk and talk with this guy. I never did find out his name.........

Then after finding out I couldn't make it to Mt. Rangitoto I decided to take the train to Newmarket, and have a look around there. I wanted to figure out the train system so there is no better way then to just do it, and ask people along the way. I boarded the train and was sat waiting for the guy to some take my fare when an older gentleman got on the same car as me and sat across from me. I don't know if they have group homes in New Zealand, but I am pretty sure this guy lived in one. He then started to tell me about school kids being angry because the buses were full, and something about the minister of education and lord knows what else! It is a good thing that Newmarket wasn't far because, even though I did not engage, he just kept talking! So why, WHY does the crazy flock to me????