It is time...almost.

Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow! Holy moly wow! Yeah, it always get me - where does TIME go?! Oooh, this concept of time just behooves me.

The BIG trip is just around the corner. Can you believe it? As in less than THREE days, I meet Kate at the airport in Auckland. Aaah!!

The reality of this situation is that I am so ready to embrace simplicity again. To the max style. I live a simple life by most USA-ian standards...but it's filled with a bit more junk and accumulation crap (mostly bead related) than I prefer at the moment. I enjoy grasping the less is more concept. This is when I feel for real FREEeeeeeeeeeEeeEEEeee! Too much internet time is not healthy, either. And this will be practically non-existent on the open road :) (But don't worry - I will find internet from time to time to keep the bloggy blogg blogg in a relatively healthy state of being).

Again, we've had heaps of cycle tourist coming through the doors via Warmshowers. I believe I mentioned that last week we had over 7 tourists on one night! Takes me back to the days of the AT when friendly homeowners would open their doors for sweaty, happy, grumpy, tired, energetic, smelly, etc hikers (over 30 in a few cases). Here in Rotorua, cyclists have been all of the above - except maybe grumpy. We've had sailers, french people, germans, dutch, swiss, austrian, montanans, californians, french canadian, UK-ian (the english sort)...appears to be lots of europeans. They know how to travel :)

Below are pics of some of ventures with warmshowers guests in Whakarewarewa Forest (and its chopped down bits)...in these snapshots, we've got kiwis, germans, californians, and the photographer (me).

Cycling allows the travel to meander slow enough to see the backroads and meander off the beaten path to little gems of a town, yet fast enough that one can actually get some decent distance in a nice timeframe. Plus, unlike driving, you get excersize...BUT because the bike carries pretty much all the weight - including you, it feels breezy and effortless - haha, not. But it is quite a lot easier than carrying a pack and walking miles and miles and miles and miles.

But these cyclists are a fun bunch and hearing their stories gets me super excited...even though I will forever feel a bit of nervous anticipation until out treaded tires hit the road...or dirt :)

Okie dokey - on a bus to Whangarei to meet my friend Shandy...then to Auckland on the 19th to meet Kate at the airport...then it's a life of living with what me, my bike and my trailer can carry for three solid months :)

Let the beautiful crazinesss begin!