Back from the south island, this time I was actually tempted to live there for a while. One girl I met had the story that she used to live in Auckland and spent 5½ months sitting on a billboard for a radio station contest. She won the $20,000 but quickly spent most of it and kept having people recognize her and ask for money. So now she lives in a housebus around Motueka & seems happier. I noticed on my return a security video camera on the train from Upper Hutt, which I suppose has some useful function but was kind of depressing to see. There’s also the way the bigger towns have public nuisances/health-hazards like unsafe-sex-practicing prostitutes, not that they’re any danger if you just say no thanks. I’ll go into Medlab for the blood test today - & open the box to find out if the Schrödinger’s Cat is dead or alive. Will this be the end of a temporary unpleasantness from which I can get on with my life & know better next time, or is it the end of the world? I’d happily settle for Hepatitis which is bad but preferable to AIDS. Wish me luck.
It’s bizarre how technology seems to take us backwards in some ways, to the point where you have to fight just to get back to normality. I went to the camp for anti-GE activists near Motueka & met a bunch of interesting people. I failed science in fifth form (not that I wasn’t interested, I just didn’t do enough work to pass the internal assessments at that point – I did well at exams though) so most of the technical stuff about GE goes way over my head but I can appreciate the resentment against corporations et al forcing the stuff down people’s throats without telling them. Some of the lets-go-get-arrested/destroy-everything/fuck-the-pigs attitudes were a bit much but most of the people seemed really interesting & friendly. I learned a lot & it was an interesting twist on the summer camp concept. Group skinnydipping excursions are always a good idea. The one disappointment was at the end when the car wouldn’t make it up the steep hill to Mt Arthur so we could go for a tramp, but not having my own car it was nice that people made the attempt (thanks Val). So Kahurangi National Park is still on my list of NZ places I have yet to explore. I did walk the Queen Charlotte track though – it was pretty sad when I saw a cat on the track (not good for bird population).
Anyway back in Welllington now, I think I can give it one more year as I have plenty to do. I’m writing a chapter on The Space for a book about jazz in NZ over the next six weeks then I’m signed up for the journalism diploma at Massey. After that it’d be good if I could get a job elsewhere in the country (south?), hopefully through DOC, and save to go traveling (whereupon my $NZ would immediately become worthless so have to start saving again…). I also need to find a new flat by mid February if anyone knows anyone with a vacant room?