the swans were pretty curious..

my pics are not uploading. :(

Hey guys, I'm very happy to tell you that I will be staying one more month in New Zealand. My cousin is coming in tomorrow morning, and while my parents are on the flight back to Arkansas, we will be on our way to the South Island for a whole thirty or so days of EXTREME stuff.
Hopefully, we will be spending a week ripping mountains apart with our snowboards.
Here is the trail map, notice how there are only a few lifts, and many hiking trails:



I have not been on a board in a few years, but maybe I can forget my skis, and pretend I'm on a surfboard.

So, in my last days of Kiwi living, I decided to do a very kiwi thing; brew the perfect cuppa. (Cup of tea, that is.)
Naturally, I did some research before setting out on this most complex task, and came up with a few points:
1. Pour the milk in the cup FIRST. Otherwise, the proteins in the milk somehow disassemble, or something.
2. Don't use sugar. This is one of Orwell's tips. I did not follow it... so much for research.
3. Do not stir tea with a spoon covered in detergents. That was one that I already knew, and luckily I had one spoon without detergent all over it.

Maybe I should add that I have never liked tea, and have always avoided it at all costs. Tonight was a major breakthrough for me.
I can tolerate tea now. I am on my second Kiwi cup, and am never looking back!

A glacier by me.

A quite un-original photo taken by me, of the Auckland sky tower.

A stingray near Goat Island, north of Auckland, New Zealand.

Today was quiet a big day in the musical world of Ben.
I actually went into iTunes, and unchecked music!

I suffer from an obsessive compulsive desire to have all of the music in the world on my ipod. It doesn't matter if I will never listen to it, it's there in case I ever feel like I need to.

It took a while to do it, but I actually unchecked boxes from those many queen albums that no one has actually ever listened to.
My ipod feels much lighter in my pocket now.

I'm trying to repress the twitching and nervous ticks as I scroll through my drastically shortened playlist.

Dad got a new underwater camera housing.
Guess what that means? ...I'm going to bring the underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef to you!
Maybe I'll get a shark for you. (I may eat these words later)

Oh, and another thing.
I DON'T LIVE IN AUSTRALIA!
I live in NEW ZEALAND!
It is a different country.
A lot more different than you would expect.