Who Builds A City On A Volcano? (Rotorua, NZ)

Throwing chronology out the window, I'll tell you that before immigrant maidom, I went through a town called Hokitika where I carved a jade pendant. That's sort of a lie - a crazy master carver who thought he was the authority on truly absolutely every single topic known to the human race - he carved it. I spent a good 5 hours polishing it. And now it's a necklace. You all know how I like to make jewellery - don't you, Caroline?

Also, if anyone knows of job openings for coal fire builders in the States, I'm quite good at this now. I'm not quite sure why a country that prides itself on its image as environmentally pure allows the burning of coal in the home, but they do and it's cheap. Since nobody has central heat, coal stoves are the way to go and now I can light a mean fire in one. Think that will pay off down the line?

After my last posting, I spent a long day hiking in Abel Tasman National Park. I took a water taxi out so I could see twice as much and make it back to Nelson in one day. From the water taxi, I saw a penguin swimming about in the open water. Most people just see them on the beach. So there. The Abel Tasman track is one of the most popular trails in the country. It follows the coastline, in and out of jungle, passing a million beautiful bays of turquoise water.

From Nelson, I took a ginormous ferry to Wellington, stayed with a generous friend of a cousin, checked out the famous Te Papa museum, rode a cable car, wandered through the botanical gardens, and hopped on a bus for an 8 hour ride to Rotorua where I currently sit typing. This morning I got a ride (finally, a free ride!) with some nice German girls to a thermal wonderland of crazy pools of water and mud bubbling at all temperatures in every color. The whole city is surrounded by such bizarre thermal action and smells accordingly like sulfur. They say you get used to it, but it has been 24 hours and I still think it smells funny here. Tomorrow I am going to work on a fruit orchard up north for a few days so I may be a bit MIA again. Eventually I will resurface to go dive in the Bay of Islands.