From Palangi to Pakeha

Well, back on the mainland with a touch of culture shock. Currently reading: Falling Leaves. Got used to being called "whitey" aka palangi in Samoa, and learned that we are now Pakehas in te reo Maori, though nobody here calls you that to your face in our experience. One of my favorite things about being in another country is just a nice cold reality check called "not everyone does things your way America!" Especially funny to learn different names for things in a fellow English-speaking country. Some of my faves: chilly bin (cooler), lollies (candy), gone off (moldy), sweet as (cool), pissed (drunk), hard out (tough).
Met a funny German man who told us his favorite German word is tuhuvaluhu (roughly means, a mess made by a child). Naturally we decided to assign this word as the glorious name for our new travel deity. If you wish to think of him in avatar form, think of Chris Farley in a banana hammock. Works for us. Tuhu helps us through the hard parts on the road. For example, finding a car. Bought "Banjida" from Jimenez in Auckland and hit the road after bidding farewell to Kit and the Colonial Rd crew, Jill and Olly and the fundus. Just a couple of hours outside the city we got a flat tire and had to replace 3 of them. On the bright side, the cute Maori mechanic Joey helped us get some safety equipment. We in turn gave him a ride home as he told us about life in Huntley and how hard it sucks. He adorably made us a cuppa and introduced us to the plastic fantastic. Thanks mate!
Continued to Waitomo, one of my fave spots. Here we were constantly delighted by caves, epic waterfalls, hanging bridges, tunnels and karst topography. Celebrated the inaugeration of Barrack Hussein Obama (yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhh) by channeling our inner Indiana Jones and spelunking/abseiling/caving at Rua Kuri (two dogs). We jumped off ledges with inner tubes around our bums, making resounding slap sounds, we saw glow worms (carniverous cannibalistic maggots with shiny shit), caverns, eels, we climbed up a waterfall, we zip lined in total darkness doing battle cries or action themes. It was a spectacular time.
Stopped at the 3 sisters beach, one of the prettiest I've ever seen. Unforunately we also saw a dead goat covered in maggots. Ya win some, ya lose some. Hiked Mt. Taranaki and checked out some of the most magical mossy trees. Climbed over 7,000 stairs round trip. Crippling soreness descends on our calf muscles. Had to turn around when we couldnt see anything but fog and I kept falling on the volcanic rock (no path) and it was freezing. Good times.
Wwoof job #2 White Cliffs Brewery in Urenui, run by the Trigg family of South Africa. Jill is the mom, she was supacool. Her in-laws were Mike, a delightful old man who let us play our music while we helped with bottling the organic brew. "Are they saying down here at the porn shop?" -his response to Sublime. "Sounds like a love sick moose!" -response to Bob Dylan. His wife Ren was scary and racist, and we avoided her as much as possible. The property was lovely and we stayed in an avocado orchard. Saw our first hedgie! Hedgehogs are rad and they eat anything and let you touch them. Not much nightlife here, thought we did stumble upon Scottish music in the park. Sad to leave the free beer, Jill, Dylan and Mike, but not the Trigg family squabbles. On the road again!