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The past few months have been pretty awesome. I went to Fiji and got high on Kava, South island to do some Kayaking, Auckland to watch my ladyfriend run a half-marathon and Taupo to drive a race car.

I met my mom in Fiji in October, which was quite an experience. I took her around to a lot of places, including Waya Island and Suva and Nadi. I had been to these places before, but this was definitely the first time my mom had been to Fiji. We stayed at a resort in Waya Island, which was absolutely beautiful. Resorts totally aren't really my thing, but my mom absolutely loved it there.

The day before my mom arrived, I was staying at a homestay outside of the city of Nadi. I had booked the place online, only to show up and realize that the family was no longer accepting guests and hadn't taken their website down. They still let me stay, which was nice. That night, I decided to wander around and found a market that was open at about 8PM, with all sorts of people selling food in candle-lit wooden stalls. I wanted to buy some hot peppers, but the woman selling them indicated that I shouldn't actually try to eat the peppers. Eventually some guy brought me into one of the wooden stalls and invited me to sit down with him to drink some Kava. He only offered me a single coconut shell's worth, and we talked for quite a bit until my mouth became numb. After that, I walked back to the homestay, bringing bread to the family. The kava really started to kick in about the time one of the kids put the movie "Pineapple Express" on the TV, which made for a pretty surreal night. I found Kava to sort of be like weed, but only more blurry? Hard to describe.

After I met my mom at the airport, we took off to Waya Island. About 20 minutes before we arrived at the island, we received a message on the boat that an earthquake had happened nearby and there was a tsunami warning. Once we got to the island, we had to run up to the top of a hill where all the resort-people and locals from the village were already waiting. We waited for an hour, and then we could go back down to the shore. Pretty scary, especially considering that a tsunami did a lot of damage in that area to Samoa a few weeks earlier. Fiji is the place where Keith Richards fell out of a coconut tree and had to be helicoptered to New Zealand. We didn't climb any coconut trees, but we found a few freshly fallen coconuts to crack open against some rocks, "Cast Away" style (a process that took me about 20 minutes the first time). At the resort, there was also Kava that the villagers would sit around drinking and playing music. I was offered some, but I found that it didn't actually have an effect, unlike the stuff I got from the dodgy guy in the middle of nowhere. I think since they are offering it to whiteys at the resort, they must have a way of scooping it to water it down greatly. This time I ended up having 7 coconut shell's full before I felt any effect, which ended up being 20 minutes of staring up at the most amazing coconut tree from a hammock.

After that, we took a local bus into Suva and stayed a night in a cheap hotel that sort of freaked my mom out. The next day we wandered around, and I looked around for a Sulu (a men's skirt with pockets, worn by a lot of guys in Fiji). We both stayed in the homestay and then took off back to New Zealand. We spent some time out in a vineyard in Martinborough, rode some horses, I kinda crashed a rental car, then we went to the south island and did some kayaking and hiking, etc. It was very awesome! I think sometimes you need to be reminded that your mother is a lot more than just your mother, and that she's also an awesome traveler that can stay in crappy hotels and be the only white person on a bus, and kayak in the ocean, etc. Her trip here was worth it for that alone.

After my mom left, Mel and I flew up to Auckland. Not having been there for 2 years, were were starting to believe the whole "Auckland is shit" attitude that everyone has, but we were really surprised about how much we really enjoyed it. Mel was there to run a half marathon, which was pretty damn impressive considering all I could do was sleep while she was running it. Flights to Auckland are so cheap that I think we are going to start visiting more regularly, even just for the food alone. (actually, Mono is playing there next month.. hmmm).

The week after that, we drove up to Taupo with another couple from work. We were up there to visit the Taupo race track so I could drive a race car for the day, which is something I've always wanted to do. Before I started to get laid regularly, I used to play a lot of racing simulators on the PC with a steering wheel bolted to my desk and pedals underneath. This was a single seat open wheeled car that was rev limited to only go about 165km/h, and we were on track 2 (more complicated layout of the track). Since I've never really driven a real car before and I don't have a driver's licence, I had to lie to the operators and say I had one, but it was back in Canada. I'm surprised how quickly I got a hang of the car though, and all those years of racing sims actually helped. It was hard getting used to using a clutch for the first time, but after a few laps I had the feel for it. During the second session, my car wouldn't shift, so I had to drive back to the pit lane in 1st gear, so they could swap out the steering wheel and push me back onto the track. My fastest time was 1:28, which was a few seconds faster than the people I went with (who both actually have driver's licences), and it was fast enough to put me on the podium for the day next to an actual race car driver. What the racing sims can't prepare you for is how physically demanding it is being in a race car. I was only racing for about 20 minutes, but the next day I was bruised up and sore. But still, it was probably the most amazing thing I've ever done in my life that didn't involve naked girls. They only run on the more complicated track 2 a few times a year, so I think it's my plan to visit at least annually. I also had the most amazing steak ever, and had an accompanying profound moment of realizing how lucky I am for being able to do all of these things. Whenever I tell people at work that they should try things like this, I always get the same 2 reasons why they'd love to but they can't: Kids and Mortgage. I've organized some go karting next week for the people I work with though, so that should be fun!

Summer is just starting to get here, which is nice. Next week we are going up to Bulls with a friend of mine to hopefully photograph an abandoned hospital. It's been a long time since I've found anything abandoned worth shooting here, and it might be a perfect opportunity to try out my new Yashica Mat-124G. I shot a few rolls in Fiji with an Olympus XA, which was really fun to shoot. Now that I know I can process 35mm and medium format negatives reliably in the bathroom, I'm hoping to shoot a lot more film.

In January, Mel and I are going down to Dunedin to do the Otago Rail Trail which should be fun, and a good little 3-day test for some of our gear that we'll be using to bike the whole south island probably in 2011. To get ready for Otago, we're going to be doing the Rimutaka Rail Trail in December during xmas break. I'm excited, since it's been a few years since I've slept in my tent.

That's about all that's going on here. Oh yeah, I picked up an old Denon PMA-350 stereo amp for cheap which just sounds awesome with the NAD bookshelf speakers I got at the salvation army. We've been enjoying lots of Modest Mouse, Can and DJ Shadow lately and I think Mel now understands why spending a bit of money on good old-school hifi equipment is so worth it. I'm aching to build some speakers again though, since I think my taste has changed since I built the large transmission line's that are currently at my parent's place. I'll have to wait until I'm back in Canada to do it though, so I have access to my workshop and to cheap drivers. I'm thinking 2-way vented bookshelf speakers with 6.5" woofers and all Vifa drivers. Oh, and I also take back every negative thing I've said about HD TV's now that I have one. Actual broadcast HD is a pretty slick system, and the picture quality is great. I'm kicking myself for not shooting "The Cross Canada Project" in HD. Lesson learned.