Another great weekend - went to Wellington, did two interviews, went to Blenheim, did another, then went to Abel Tasman National Park, where I did a day-long kayaking trip. The park is gorgeous, and it was the most perfect day. We paddled from Tonga to Anchorage Beach, which allegedly is No. 7 on a list of the world's top 10 beaches. I could've stayed right there for the rest of my time in NZ. I wish I'd had another day there. Also got sunburned, as per usual. God bless the Irish skin...

My mag paid for my transportation costs, since I went for work, but the trade off was that I pay for my accomodation. So of course I went the cheap-ass route, via hostels, and I have never been so glad to get back to my own private room with my own double not-a-bunk bed, where i don't have to wear earplugs.

It is interesting that no two hostels are ever alike. I stayed at a YHA in Wellington, which was pretty plain but with big common areas, where I ran into a woman I skydived with last weekend, and sat and talked literature and got drunk on wine with American expat Scotty. Then I stayed at a really cute home-y place in Picton, right by the ferry landing.

The next two nights I stayed at the same place in Nelson, one that my guidebook described it as "Club Med for the poor." Now, I haven't been to Club Med, but something tells me they're nothing alike. It did have a swimming pool, volleyball sand pit, sauna and a hot tub, but the hot tub was, very sadly - especially after kayaking for 6 hours - not hot.

The highlight of this "Club Med," however, was the "Magic Bus" behind the pool, which was such the prototypical bohemian drug den it was hysterical. I walked in the door, right into a cloud of smoke, where a group of haphazard long-haired, barefoot folks were playing wooden flutes, and a dij, and guitars, even a ukelele, and a bunch of drums, while passing around a huge bong, drinking beer and rolling their own cigarettes/joints. I drank a beer and played chess with Sami, who is on a four-month round-the-world vacation with his sister. They left this hostel for the North Island a few days before, got to the other side, decided they'd rather spend their last week in NZ aboard the Magic Bus, and came back. Also met a group of Aussie musicians, who came over and rented one van for the 12 of them, and are just driving around the country for a week before heading back. Gotta love the transients...