slept in 'til about 9am this morning because i could. we were in a dorm last night but today we moved to a twin. i like to be in a separate room if we're gonna be someplace for several days because then i can spread my stuff around the room and not worry about things getting stolen by dormmates. also, it gives me a chance to charge all the stuff that needs charging, again without fear of dormmate sticky fingers and prying eyes.

while walking around the town and visiting electronics shops, we learned that it seems pretty hopeless for repairing my camera with a quick turnaround time. they have to ship things off to auckland for repairs! that can take 1-2 weeks. i only have 10-12 days at most for my video camera to get fixed. i don't even know how much it will cost or if it can be repaired. i am not sure what to do. i feel pretty out of it. later in the day, i test my camera again and things are looking much better. it appears that the only thing wrong is that it will not rewind. it will rewind for about 1-2 seconds then stop. it will record. that's fine. as long as i can record i will be happy. later when i live in wellington i can see about fixing it. maybe i can even wait until i am back in america. for now, i will just record and do only that. i really don't have any need for rewinding the tape, other than to review my footage. so i just won't review my footage!

a much cooler looking storm drain

we walked down to the visitor info center to try to figure out if there was any way we could hire a shuttle or take a bus out to the national park so we could do the lord of the rings tour that departs from that area. nothing works. a 1.5 hour drive by car takes all day to do it on the bus service. in fact, you have to take 3 different buses. fucking ridiculous! we are in taupo, the major city by the national park. why isn't the transportation system more efficient in this matter? because it's fucking new zealand, that's why. i've come to learn that things are very slow and backwards in new zealand. that's why it's new zealand, because everything has yet to come over here and is still a new concept. that's my bitchy attitude because i'm in a bitchy mood. other times new zealand is cool. it just sucks when you go at the pace of snails!

we then walked to 3 different car rental places. way too expensive to rent a car to get out to the park as all the cheap cars have been rented out already. "ok, screw renting a car! let's make some phone calls and fuck around with our schedule." so we did just that. we called up kiwi experience and moved things around. we bumped forward our east coast trip. we will leave taupo tomorrow and head for napier. i changed our napier accommodation accordingly. then we'll return to taupo and stay for 1 day to do the tourist thing because we really won't be able to do that today. it's best to get out of taupo if i'm not in a good mood and return when i'm feeling groovy. otherwise i just won't enjoy my time here. then we're back on schedule as previously planned.

after doing the east coast and returning to taupo, we'll get dropped off in the tongariro national park at the visitor center. the company that does the lord of the rings tour is actually a motel/hostel. they will pick us up and take us back to the visitor center 2 days later. excellent. while we're at it, i decided to save us some money by canceling the trip i had booked to kayak in the south island at abel tasman national park. another company has a good rate for kiwi experience travelers, even including getting charged for canceling my reservation with the other company. i called the company with the kiwi deal just to make sure of the details and that there will be space. everything is looking good. i feel better.

maori rock carvings, lake taupo

since we're cutting early out of taupo, i wanted to get in 1 sightseeing/activity thing so we got on the ernest kemp for a cruise of lake taupo to the maori rock carvings. there were really cool to see in person but they weren't as breathtaking as i thought they would be so i'm kinda glad that i didn't kayak my ass all the way out there. also, on the kayak i wouldn't have taken sensitive or valuable equipment such that is not waterproof. hence, i'm glad i did the cruise because i was able to take my video camera. which is working. :) just not rewind. :(

i was more impressed with this little piece than the main face

while we were waiting to board the boat, i saw an ad for skydiving. it was $80 cheaper than what i paid for what looked like the same package. it was offered by the company next door too. the catch was that you had to jump between sunrise and 9am.