The people you met.....so far.

So far my journey has been more or less been summarized by my blogs posts.  However the people I have met on my journey have played a key role in my experience so far here so I decided to dedicate this post to every person I have met that have made a contribution that is worth noting on the entire journey.  I apologize every one but I have a hard time remembering names so some of the names might get well lost in translation.

A notable mention before I start mentioning the living people was the pilot I saw coming out of the plane in a casket with a full honor guard in Billings MT.  He was a helicopter pilot that was shot down the first week he was in Vietnam.  His family had been trying to recover his body since, and finely a fallen brother has come home to rest.

The first interesting person I met on the plane is one of the nameless but I remember him well.  He was an aeronautical engineer and was doing airplane tests up on the high line.  The reason he is well remember is because it was great to sit next to a guy that designed and tested every aspect of commercial airplanes, I was able to ask him every question I could think of about commercial airplanes while we were flying (its a nerd thing).  This was on the flight from Billings to Denver

The next interesting person was a Maori decedent (native New Zealander) whom was on the way back from Salt Lake city where he and his American wife and just gotten married in the Mormon temple. He was a really nice man and we talked religion for several hours and in the end he invited me to go and stay with him and his wife in the city of Hamilton. At the end of the flight he had a bunch of fruit from America that had to be disposed of because of customs so he gave me a lot of fruit which I chowed!  This was on the flight from San Fransisco to Auckland.

I finally made it to New Zealand and the first two people I really met were.....drum roll a guy from France and and guy from India.  The guy from France really has nothing notable to add to the pot of interesting people but the guy from India gave me quiet a laugh.  I am in the bar at the base of the hostel drinking a beer and this guy from India comes up and challenges me to a game of pool.  Now I am not very good at pool but hey what the heck.  This guy was talking non stop about how good he was at cricket, and pool.  Well lets just say he won the first game, but after I started to get a few beers in my my game drastically improved, its just a pity I wasn't playing for money cause at the end there was one tipsy American and one very pissed guy from India as I ended up cleaning up the floor with him at pool. (this was in Auckland at the Globe bar)

One guy I met in Paihia made it to the honorable mention list.  He was at the Mako bar outside having a beer.  Well needless to say I ended up stopping and having a few beers with this guy that looks he should have been playing Moby Dick in a movie.  I think I only understood half of what he said because his accent was so think as he was from the UK originally and moved to New Zealand.  He would laugh and say something and I would pound my beer and laugh at the appropriate spots and I apparently made an impression even though I didn't know half of what he was saying.

The next notiable person I met was Joe.  Well his original name wasn't Joe, but that is what I called him as he was German and I couldn't remember his real name.  Joe was a mechanical engineer from Germany that landed a really great job and wanted to live a bit before he became a slave to the machine.  I had been in Paihia for two days and had my room all to my self so I was a bit unhappy that I had a room mate.  He was typical german tall, big , blond hair and accent.  Within the first few moment Joe and I got along.  Some how among all the hundreds of Germans traveling around New Zealand I met one that was a perfect compatible personality to mine own.  He mentioned this hike he wanted to do but had no one to do it with.  Here I was thinking, what the heck am I going to do with this time I have tell I start teaching??   So I volunteered to hike with him but we had no way to get to the trail head.  We finally worked every thing out over some BBQ hamburgers and from then until I got to Paihia we were attached at the hip (not literary hahaha).  We had some amazing conversations, because what else are you going to do when you are hiking for 12 hours.  It seems that we both had a very similar view on life, his just in German and mine in American.  Joe was one of the great friends I have made here and hope to meet some other people like him because he was a great friend.


John.  Well john is one of the most interesting characters I have met so far bar none, not as good as friend as Joe, but very interesting.  He was born in Zimbabwe and from there he traveled the world from the UK to Egypt to India...and on and on.  Some of the stories this guy had were so unique I would be hard pressed to reproduce them.  In the end he was working for this hostel part time with his van set up to sleep in and move on when he felt the need to roam.  Very few people at the hostel got close to him however with a little Montana hospitality we became fast friends. John was our transportation to and from the trail head.

Marry.  Marry was one of the last people to add to the list in that she showed up at the hostel right before we treked out to the cape and then left the same day we did.  She was originally from France, but had moved around the world and was currently residing in Tahiti teaching french and scuba diving.  She had some amazingly great stories and was so engaging when you talked to her that you couldn't help being drawn into conversation.  The interesting thing was John very interested in Marry, but Marry was just interested in living.  However Marry went along with us to the trail head and also was along for the pick up.  John was taking her fishing and she promised us that she would have fresh fish for us when we were done.  True too her word she caught a fish and cooked joe and I some great food after our trek, the highlight being us watch her eat the fish eyes in true Tahiti fashion. 

The final evening before we all left we went out to the local pub and drank beer and had a great time with stories and laughter.  Here is to all my friends I have made so far and the people I have met so far.  Cheers