The North Island sucks. Ok, that isn't true at all.... but upon leaving Wellington, the rest of the trip went a bit pear shaped. I got up to Palmy.... good old BORING Palmerston North. There wasn't much going on (as usual) but I did get to catch up with my good mate Claydon, Safwan and a number of the other Palmy locals and some of the old MUAC (Massey University Alpine Club) members. Cool. Then, the day I was leaving on a bus to head up to Taupo... my laptop and it's case was stolen from Claydon's house. The laptop was cheap, no worries. The only real loss there was a bit of music and ALL my pictures from the vacation AND the past 4 years worth of NZ! No worries. The case, however.... external hard drive (to back up everything on the computer!), my dvd writer/ reader, my US and NZ cell phone, my chargers (phones, camera, computer etc), a few hard to replace books/ magazines.... and... my passport. Yippie.
I got to Taupo. My mate forgot to pick me up, so I waited at the bus stop for almost an hour until he decided to check his phone.... ooops. So then, I had to call the US consolate to cancel my passport and make arrangements for a new one. Oh, they are closed for the weekend. "In case of a global catastropie, involving the immediate peril of a US citizen, please hold the line and leave a message at the beep." Great.
I did a bit of climbing and a bit of hotpool soaking to sooth my soul. It worked. Monday was drive to Aukland day. My mate Ryan was kind enough to drive me up... we made an adventure of it. $400 dollars and a day later ($200 for new passport, the rest was travel expenses), we headed back to the Waitomo region for a bit more "soul soothing" climbing. As that we arrived at the crag late, we decided to camp just down the road... so we could get an early start. As the second cup of coffee went down, we realised the car was dead and cell reception was spotty. Perfect. We had to sit around most of the day, waiting for a friend to come give us a tow as that the area was a bit to dodgy to leave the car alone while we went for a climb. Bummer.
So we eventually got the car fixed. We did get a bunch of climbing in, here and there.... but what a lot of twists and turns to get there! I managed to catch up with the rest of the crew... to say goodbye to those who I really needed to say good bye to. I managed to bolt and send a few new lines, here and there, as a fitting "farewell" to NZ. All in all, the vacation was awesome. I do wish all the bad stuff hadn't held off until the end of my 4 years of experiancing NZ.... but ah well. It is what it is.
After all was said and done, and the final hugs had been hugged.... it was time time to go. I flew, safely and with out any issue, to LAX. The flight was smooth, the booze was free and the movies were good. Even immigration was a breeze! In LA, my mates Jim and Angela Corcorin met me at the airport and we cruised around... catching up with friends around the area. It was fun... and a great re-introduction back to the states. After that... home. I'm back where it all started, safe and sound. I suppose.... it's time to "grow up" a bit. Time to settle down and start to worry about "what I'm going to do when I grow up!"
So.... now for the bad news. This means that, all though I will ALWAYS have adventures.... probably none will be as great as the trip to NZ. Also, as that I am around these parts, most of you will be able to see me (now and again) and keep up with me a bit more personally. So, it is with a huge sigh that I type (what is more than likely) my final post to the blog. I may keep up with an annual review.... but it will never again be as indepth as what I have done up to this point. My life just won't be that exiting anymore and I'd hate to bore you all with an "aveage life."
Thank you all for keeping up with my adventures to this point. I hope all of you who have read this continue to keep in touch. My email is mnatti@hotmail.com. My new cell is 978-879-6984.

Love to all of you..... thanks again, for everything!