Aaaahhaaa, so yeeeeeeeeeees, some things in New Zealand leave me surprised.You go shopping and are allowed to park 20 minutes before getting ransacked, a.i, your car gets clamped or towed away, and you have to pay a fine. Being a person who takes an extreme long time to shop, due to extreme hate of shopping and undecisiveness, I wonder if the day will come when I'll turn up in the car-park looking for the vessel to throw the produce I have bought with my hard-earned money, only to find a void, an emptiness in the place it should have stood. Aaaaaah.
Another funny sign.
This grinning buddy also made me laugh somewhat.. friendliest skull I've seen in a while!!
But in fact, it's all about the poisoning of a native bush area. See, the possums kill native birds, so the government, in agreement with DOC, dumps food pellets for them regularly until one day the pellets they dump are poisonous.
Unfortunately, they happen to be poisonous for dogs and people as well. Not only if they eat the said pellets (especially dogs), but even if they just happen to chew on a poisoned carcass (referring to dogs here as well!) , even long after, and even if it's been floating down the river to an area unsoiled. So in fact, you can't really know, hey. The poison was dumped in the area next to the Stony River, which remains a beautiful place regardless.
Paul even has the Mount tattooed on his arm. What's that if it's not reverence?
More and more in love with this beautiful mountain. Non-philistines will have recognized Mount T., formerly known as Mount Egmont. I LOVE these cloud formations, they are sooo beautiful!!!

It's also the beginning of blackberry season (don't I love the world upside-down!) so these days mark the beginning of a season for compulsive berry-picking and eating!! (1 apple and blackberry crumble already baked!!)

And yes, so life here down under.

Like I said, i'm working at the mo. It's really bizarre because I always end up doing random and totally un-nomadic things. Lemme explain. Having left to explore the realms of unleashed freedom (amongst others) I find myself currently
1) having lived the same place for like 1 month or so, not to mention being in the same VILLAGE since I got here, almost.
2) I have a job, 39 hours a week (WTF?) and also
3) a car.

Such normality is unnerving.

Now I know it looks like I'm complaining, but it DOES feel strange. (whoever wants details either doesn't know me enough or can ask personnally)
And just so YOU know, I know I can also transform that into :
1) I am very lucky to have found a nice place to live
2) I am extremely fortunate that someone lent me a car so that I can go to work every day, instead of hitch-hiking there and back and
3) Isn't it wonderful that I can work almost full time.


At any rate, work, ahaaa, yeeeeeeeeeeeees work. Theoretically I am waitressing in a French cafe/bakery. The harsh reality more often looks like a full-on very full sink of washing up, but whatever.
The upsides are that I can eat really good bread and cakes. The downsides are that I can eat really good bread and cakes. :o)
The funny thing is I never used to speak English with a French accent, which I now find myself doing occasionnally (aaaargh, I'll have to go and live in the UK next to make it better!!) Apparently I say "salade" when I say "would you like a side-salade", aaaarg, whatever, I say. Or should I say ouatte-eveur?

No joking now, although it's not a bad place, working there (like a few other places I have worked actually) is an incentive to make me reflect on the conditions of workers in developping countries for instance, and (I know I know nothing about politics) would tend to enhance my social/commie ideals/ideas.
It's a good, posh, expensive shop. Cakes can cost up to 6 dollars (yep, just one of them!!)
We are payed 13,50 an hour, which apparently isn't even minimum wage. (12,50 an hour in NZ)
An avocado costs between 0,50 and 1,30 dollars (in a country that produces them
A litre of milk up to 2 dollars (in the "Dairy province" of NZ)
At any rate, i'm starting to think my brains are getting slightly wasted doing jobs like that, and even maybe I should go back to studying something useful rather than end like one of those shrivelled old waitresses who left their life behind them in a kitchen.
Or not.
Whatever. I would have lots to say on the subject.

ANYWAY.
Still hanging out in Taranaki, as you see. The mountain is extremely magnetic. Some things here remind me of Iceland, which I think of a lot. The sand is black on this coast.
I see seals pretty much every time I take a walk on the beach!! Oh yeah, and funnily enough, someone had told me (quote): there's nothing to eat you here in the water, so I liked to go to the beach and swim until last week this guy got stung by a sting-ray and got a 40 cm wound on his leg, and incidentally, Paul and I found a 40 cm dead shark on the beach the other day, and it had teeth. I know it was LITTLE, but looking at it, i couldn't help thinking his mum and dad are still lurking in there somewhere. :o)