Guess what, everyone?  That's right, I'm back at Tank Juice.  Funny how things go in circles, isn't it? 

I actually think that today at Tank is going to be a good day, and should go by pretty quickly.  The Supré store next door to the shop is blaring Britney Spears' greatest hits, which is obviously a wicked awesome start to the day.  Haha, just kidding.  When I got here today Jesse, a friend, was here talking with the girl that I was taking over for.  I had just emptied a box of kiwi fruit into the kiwi fruit storage container (ready for juicing, of course!) when I noticed one of the kiwi fruit had been slightly squashed.  I dared Jesse to squish it all over his face and then lick it off, all for the measly price of $1.  What a bargain!  He did it, and it was well worth the $1.  Way to go Jesse! 

So now I've got just about five hours to go, Britney has stopped charging out of the speakers next to me, and I'm going to prep oranges.  Fun fun fun in the sun sun sun!

Today a very brave friend and I went to visit an old burnt-out house, just around the corner from where I'm staying at the moment.  Tam, you're awesome. 

This house has recently been in a fire, probably in the past couple months, and it hasn't been torn down or fixed or anything.  We went there with the intention of taking pictures, but instead we sort of ended up exploring the wreckage and surrounding yard.  It was amazingly fascinating.  The backyard was filled with kiwi fruit trees, lumber, rubbish, and all sorts of random articles that actually belong in a junkyard.  Once we got up the courage to explore further, and decided that there probably weren't any crazy crack-whores sleeping inside the house, we delved deeper. 

This is where the fun began.  Despite the fact that there clearly hadn't been anyone living there for many many weeks, there was always the fear that some crazy person would jump out of a dark corner and freak the hell out of us.  Inside the house, which was half burnt out and roofless, there were all sorts of random articles such as clothes, old radios, garbage, photographs, and other random crap.  The most fascinating thing that I found was old black and white photos from around the 1930s or 40s.  Then again, probably the second most interesting thing we found were packages and packages of rolled up oats.  The person that lived in this house was a huge pack rat, and after he'd finish a bag of oats, he'd roll it up and stuff it in the cupboard.

Why would someone live like this?  I mean, I'm all one for nostalgia and trying to hold on to things that make you feel good and remember things, but he would even keep old milk bottle caps!  How wierd!!

I'm going back tomorrow...

If you have a chance to see either Batman Begins, or War Of The Worlds, but can only see one, see Batman Begins.  It's awesome.  Out of ten, I gave Batman Begins a 9, and War Of The Worlds a 6.5. 

The Dark Knight has returned...

Back in Christchurch now, after a hair raising few days in Wanaka which you all know about.  We were rescued by three friends (Mel, Tam, and Boy Stacey), and headed back to Christchurch.  We didn't actually make it the whole way that night, so we stayed in a chalet in Twizle.  It was a pretty swish place, which normally went for $160/night, but we got it for $100 for the five of us.  Not too shabby...

Anyway, back in Christchurch we went, where we haven't really been up to much.  We're trying to get our heads around not being able to do the travelling we want to (well, I am anyway), and we're going to try and pick up some work around town to get some cash in our pockets.  Geoff is pretty low on money at the moment, and my situation could be better.  The loss of our van was a big hit in the pocket, as we were both relying on that money to continue our travels.  We'll get through it though, it's all part of travelling.

Tonight we're going to see the War Of The Worlds preview that our old work is putting on, so that should be pretty fun.  Apparently I'm working on Saturday night at the club, and Geoff's working on Friday.  Mel is maybe going to hook me up with some work at Tank, so FREE SMOOTHIES FOR ME!!!  Haha, thanks Mel.

Cheers everyone, check out my photos page to the left, as I'm definitely going to download some new pictures today.  Exciting stuff!!! 

Oh boy, where do I begin?  Travelling is a funny thing, let me tell you.  One day you are on top of the world, looking down with nothing but an elastic band strapped to your feet, the next you're in the ditches paying someone $200 damn dollars to dispose of your beloved vehicle. 

Back the train up a bit, and we're on the road to Queenstown.  Beautiful weather, beautiful surroundings, nice people.  We had arranged to stay at the flat of a few people we met back in Christchurch, which was a much appreciated break from sleeping in the van.  We parked and went walking to the information centre, then walked around the town for a bit.  It's very picturesque, and very nice, although incredibly expensive.  Low and behold there are a few camera shops around, so I went in and asked a couple what they thought about my now defunct digital camera (from way back in the accident).  Basically it's a write off, and so I started looking at cameras.  One shop had a very nice model, the Canon Powershot S70, on for a very good price, so I picked it up.  I'm a happy camper.  "Life is good", I say to myself.  Then we book in to do our big ol' bungy jump, so we're happy.

The next day we wake up early, see the sunrise, and head down to the bungy store.  Off we go in the bus, with 17 others, for a 40 minute ride to the bungy site.  Good times, I tell you, this one.  The bungy is basically a hanging gondola, 134 metres above the Nevis River.  All you can think to yourself is "I must me damn crazy to be doing this".  But in actual fact you get up there and the nerves wear off and all you want to do is jump out of the pod.  It's such an amazing experience, and I would thoroughly recommend it for everyone.  I'll try and post some photos at a later date (it's always at a later date, isn't it?).

Anyway, our second day in Queenstown we decided to hike up this bastard of a hill just to do a little sledding, which was fun and all, but it wasn't worth the hike.  I mean, I'm pretty fit, but this was ridiculous.  After all this, we decided to make our way to Wanaka in the afternoon, which is a beautiful little town.  Our only reason for going there was to go to Puzzling World, which is a museum of illusions and they also have a wicked two story outdoor maze. 

I just realised that this is getting WAY TOO LONG...  I'll start to cut it short.  Yesterday we woke up early and went to puzzling world, which was awesome.  Then we were off to drive to the west coast.  After about 25kms, we get to a fairly big hill, and Farley (our van) dies on us.  We pull over to the side of the road, I have a look at the engine, and it's smoking.  DAMN!  A cop pulls over, gives us a ride to a local petrol station where we call for a tow truck.  The tow comes, has a look at it, and basically says "I think you're fucked, guys".  This tow truckie was a real idiot though. 

Anyway, back at the garage, and we find out it's a blown head gasket.  Not good news, apparently.  He says we have two options:  Number one is paying $600 for a new gasket, all the while we'd have to wait around and find out if it was cracked, which would take about ten days as he'd have to send it away somewhere.  If it was cracked, we'd have to pay up to another $1000 to get it all done.  Whoa.  Number two is shelling out $200 to trash it.  Now, I don't know if you all know this, but I'm not rich.  I know, I know, it comes as a surprise. 

We trashed it.  R.I.P Farley. 

Now we have a couple friends coming to pick us up tomorrow, with all of our gear, and drive us back to Christchurch.  This means that we don't see all of the west coast of the South Island, and we have to do DAMNED BUS TOURS of the North Island.  I hate bus tours.  But it has to be done.  Probably we'll stick around in Christchurch for a couple weeks and try to get some work, then decided what happens next. 

So there you have it.  Our immense disappointment, all wrapped up in a few long-ish paragraphs.  I hope you haven't all passed out from boredom.  Thanks for listening, and check back soon as I hope to have some photos up for you to look at soon.

Oh, and any words of consolation would be great.  We need them at this point....