First two weeks in New Zealand

now i'm in new zealand. i've been here for two weeks now. i spent a week in a place called raglan, which is a surf town on the north island. my good friend lucretia lives there. it's such a cool place. everyone is pretty chilled, laid back. kind of like home. i like it there. i've been in the south island in a little town called murchison for just over a week now. the first four days were rather inebriated. it was really good to see my best mate lee again. i met his missus, lina. she's alright. she doesn't seem to like me much though. i'm trying, not hard enough though. that's alright. it'll sort itself out. life will be good again. as a result of not getting along famously with lina, i've been spending increasingly more time with the rest of the family. i've spent a fair amount of time with joe, lee's 30 year old uncle. and with ben, lee's 17 year old brother. and of course i've been spending lots of time with gran dot as well. i've really enjoyed the family. a couple days ago i learned how to drive a 2 ton digger. it's easier to figure out than a playstation. pretty cooll. and today i learned how to shoot a rifle. i wasn't half bad either. good fun. i think i'm going "up the rainbow" tomorrow. the family has a cabin up rainbow mountain. most of the family is going up tomorrow morning, with a bunch of the boys coming up in the afternoon to do some hunting. they've invited me along, so that should be fun. it feels good being treated like part of the family, i reckon. and it's a pretty amazing family to be invited into. i'm pretty happy here. i'm being fed well, and i'm laughing often enough, life is good.
i miss you all back at home. i wish you all could come and see this amazing little communtiy and this amazingly gorgeous country. it's phenomenal.
xoxo