For my "blog-needy" parents =)

I'm back in Sydney, the beautiful city that I hated after one day here (back in November) but since then have actually come to love. The beaches are beautiful and sushi's cheap -- that makes a great city as far as I'm concerned. Since I don't know yet where I'm staying tonight (I sent some couch requests but haven't heard back yet), I'm in no rush to leave the airport -- and the free internet.


Here are my plans for the day:


1.  Find a place to stay tonight and tomorrow night.
2. Get my Australia phone turned back on. As soon as I get this taken care of, you'll be able to contact me at 0411319242 again (plus whatever country code numbers you need to enter at the beginning).
3. Change my $10 NZ for $7 or so AU.
4. Finish drying my clothes. I washed them yesterday (at Earl's house where I spent the last couple days) and then spent about 40 minutes hanging them out on the line outside. When my clothes were about halfway dry, it started to rain so I ran outside and gathered up all my clothes and re-hung them on one of the inside laundry racks. When I woke up this morning for my early flight out of Auckland, my clothes still weren't dry. :( So I had to bag them up and bring them with me -- wet -- to Sydney. Bad times. 

...

I'm back -- and now I'm in Manly Beach! On the train into the city, I sent a text to my friend Soo Se (a SLO friend who I thought was in Brisbane or somewhere up in Queensland) just because I was excited to finally have my Australia phone back and text my friends here. He wrote back that he was in Sydney until Sunday. Sweet! He said he was in Manly and going to a couchsurfing meeting tonight at a bar so I decided to come meet up with him. I'm hoping to find a CS host tonight at the meeting. Right now we're just sitting at his hostel watching South Park, and my clothes are drying. :D

After two relaxing and lovely days in Rotorua, I was going to hitchhike to Bay of Islands. That didn't work out too well. It was cold and rainy and I wasn't getting a good vibe from any of the cars that were driving by so I didn't even hitch -- I just walked back to town and got on the internet and booked a bus to Tauranga. I would have booked all the way to Bay of Islands but it was $80 and it was only $20 to Tauranga so that made my decision for me. Tauranga was a nice town but it was cold and rainy the whole time I was there so I didn't do anything. The first night I walked around and found the least expensive hostel and just read my book, drank some tea, and got a good night's sleep. Right around check-out time the next morning, I got a text from some people I had sent a couchsurfing request to the night before. They said I could stay with them but they had to come pick me up right away and take me back to their house about 20 minutes outside of town. Their place was nice (right by the river and they had sheep and a huge vegetable garden) but they were kind of weird. They were conspiracy theorists who have an unfinished bunker/panic room (made from a giant storage/shipping container) outside their house. It was kind of awkward staying there, and they had a cat who I was, of course, allergic to. I had to wake up at 6:30 am so I could get a ride into town with the woman, and then I just caught a bus to Auckland. So much for checking out Tauranga. Oh well. I did take a nice walk down to the river with Bev. 

and I got to pet some fluffy sheep :)

When I got to Auckland I wandered around the city waiting for Earl to get off work so I could head over there. I walked over to the Sky Tower and asked them if I could climb to the top ... they said No. :( I walked down the street to the world famous Les Mills gym and found out it was $25 for a day pass -- but free for two days if I came with a member ... which Earl is. Super sweet! Earl brought me with him to the gym on Tuesday evening and we took a really cool class called Body Combat. Then he left and I stayed to take a Body Pump class, worked out on the cardio machines, and then used the steam room and jacuzzi. It was awesome. I went back again last night. Other than that I didn't do too much in Auckland this time around but I had a really good time hanging out with Earl and his roommates. They're all so lovely and welcoming. One of his roommates, Gemma, even drove me to the airport this morning. :) So nice! Allright, we're going to head over to a beer bar in a little while and meet some Sydney couchsurfers. Cross your fingers for me that at least one of them has a free couch for me to sleep on tonight!! :)