But now with more ZEAL

Wow. It really is interesting what twists and turns your future can take while stumble forwards into whatever possibilities lie ahead. Here are some updates of my journey so far:
1. After finally scoring a bike shop that was not insanely busy, I was able to get my bike put together! Whooo. BUT, that also meant that all of the stuff I had so cunningly crammed into the bike box had to be exposed to the light of day, and more importantly, had to fit somewhere new.
My friend generously dropped me off into Auckland city, where I had booked myself an "economy" single room in a hotel on Queen Street (the central drag) that had the glorious reviews of "it smelled like wet paint," "there were ants everywhere," and my favorite "the receptionist had a face like a slapped arse." After those enthusiastic reviews, how could I stay anywhere else!? (For the record, while the room was small and rather sauna-like, the receptionist was lovely and the location was hard to beat. Besides that, the room smelled like onions...but that was entirely my fault since I was surviving on the hummus, tomato, and onion sandwiches that I carefully prepared in my economy room using the gigantic bowie knife that came attached to my "military chow kit" that my Dad and I had found at our local Army/Navy surplus store. Wait, sitting here and thinking about Army/Navy surplus stores has left me mulling over a big question. Time for a tangent! Whooooooo.
*Ok, now here it is: with our country's current military use, we have awesome Army/Navy surplus stores that are filled with all kinds of things that you had no idea existed but INSTANTLY want (mosquito head net and flame proof swamp suit, I'm talking to you). Now, do you think that if we demilitarized our country, our Army/Navy surplus stores would surge with an increased stock or would they be driven out of business since the Army/Navy no longer had to produce 20 million flame proof swamp suits? Hmm. Do they have those in the JC Penny's catalogue?*
Alright, alright. Back to sanity. More recently I have been staying in a family friend's home that is nestled in the Waitakere mountain range. I quickly realized that the free wheeling, plan as you go along nature of my travels thus far had left me with...shockingly NO plan. Well, that's actually not really true. My problem was not that had a lack of plans. I had too many. For a few days I was pondering riding down to the Napier/Hawkes Bay region to try to pick up some work as a fruit picker. "Hmm," my concerned friend said. "Didn't the orchards down around there get into legal trouble a couple of years ago for forcing their employees to pay them a heavy cut of their wages in exchange for being accommodated in shipping containers?" "WHaaaaaat?" I said. The guide book I have has a nice passage about how many traveling backpackers try to earn some quick cash by picking fruit. However the conditions you will left to do so in are not described. Could be awesome or a bit dodgy. (I have also slowly been learning that my other guide book that suggests cycling routes around NZ may be SLIGHTLY flawed when one of the routes it suggests takes you into NZ's version of "da backwoodz" where most of the country's pot is grown and angry gang members apparently sit on their porch with sawn-off shot guns waiting for intruders. It's ok, I'm sure that the bright orange safety vest that you'd be cycling around in to try and avoid being killed by drivers would help you blend right in (actually, you'd probably be better off with the aforementioned flame proof swamp suit). All part of the learning curve I suppose.
Well, I also applied for a bunch of random jobs around the Auckland area. I got an interview for a paid fruit picking job a bit south of here, but upon reaching the small white interview room and finding out that the job didn't actually start for until March and the interviewer had no idea what the pay would be but I would have to fully commit for the three month season, I more or less high tailed it out of there and tried to mend my slightly dampened spirits by climbing Mt. Eden again and eat my onion sandwich in peace.
That afternoon, in an unexpected turn of events I received a phone call offering me another interview for a job working for the University helping them out with various events. As the door to the sketchy fruit picking job slowly shut, a better paying air conditioned window opened! Long story short, I landed it and will start working full time for the University this Monday. My job is temporary but AWESOME my main duties include the following: figuring out how to and then building a raft out of any buoyant materials that will be duplicated for a race across the harbor between the different faculties (departments) and working at some cool David Bowie themed and college radio sponsored concerts. Doing this, I hope to gain some cool job experience AND save up some money so that I can realize my dream of traveling to the tropical rain forests of Queensland, Australia to throw sausages at a rather unruly family of Cassowaries.