Passport De-virginized

You never forget your first time... the anticipation, the nervousness, not knowing what to do or where to go, the butterflies... and then I realized I was in customs in New Zealand handing over my passport for it's very first stamp. My first stamp!!!

That was at 5:15am NZ time... I quickly found a cabbie who even though he was speaking English I had NO friggin clue what he said and I'm sure he thinks I'm half-retarded. He kept telling me not to get drunk and party too much, which means he was either just looking out for me or I gave him the impression that that's my status quo- either way I was a littel offended and just nodded along... Until I looked at the cab fare and it was $90 bucks! Then I realized that's only like $45 US dollars (whew)

My hotel is called the Shakespeare Brewery and Hotel... that's right, I'm staying at a bar that has a little room for slot machines, a bar, and upstairs 10 suites that look like studio apartments... and here's the kicker... It's open 24 hours a day! They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and all the local brew (which they brew in-house) and it's so cheap...

Of course, since I'm me, nothing can ever go smoothly without drama! My cell phone will not pick up a signal, and my wireless card does not work out here. Currrently I'm at a little internet cafe across the street...

I'll post pictures when I can figure out how to upload them! Here's where my lack of technology skills are coming back to bite me...