The internet is a fascinating place, concept, product, technology. Just as easily as I can youtube “goat yells like a man” I can download a program to mix music or I can do research on my third favorite sociologist George Herbert Mead the father of modern day symbolic interactionsism. Not a big deal but really big thanks to Al Gore for giving birth to this beautiful tangled web of data packets flying wirelessly around the world.

So yeah that’s the internet rant for today.

Back to the natural tangible world that I live in.

I bought a knife the other day. Its called the drifter, presumably because it is best suited for skinning drifters?

I feel like I probably wont have to skin any in the Abel Tasman back country which is nice. Today was my last day of classes before the “mid-semester break” aka spring break. Yeah that’s right I get two spring breaks be jealous.

Tomorrow being Saturday here in NZ, Doctor Lee, Big Baby, Ball Zack, Deadliest Catch, Pube Beard, Peter Pan, Samuel Jackon and my self M. Stillman arch Duke of Flannel will be driving 12 hours north to the Abel Tasman national park. It is the smallest national park in NZ but arguably the dankest. On the tip of the south island Abel Tasman is littered with pristine beaches and babbling brooks. Which is why I have also decided to invest in a collapsible fishing rod chicha bow chica waaaa.

Its gonna be the bee’s knees meets the cat’s pajamas times 4.7 percent chance of awesomeness.

My only skepticism is in the food realm; while we have outlined what were going to eat each day I remain doubtful as to how delicious they may be.

Just got a text from Sitting Bull Lee, its time to gather the supplies.

If im not back and blogging by next Monday it means I have drowned or suffocated in noxious fumes created by 4 men trapped in a 93 Caldina.

this and that

very important news.

Lil wayne is going to be a dad. Again.

I almost think that some one should step in and say "hey mr. "little" wayne, if that is your name, how are you going to take care of a child when your sippin that lean and lacing up fresh tracks all day? whos going to be there for little little wayne when he needs help tying his diamond shoe laces? What about on the first day of school when he has to explain why he needs desks for his whole posse? Who?"

On a lighter note this song is bonkers!

Takes me back to easy living. Back when it wasnt all about gang banging and blog nonsense.

oh wait....

Its a Friday in Dunners, you know what that means, actually you probably dont which is great because ignorance is bliss.

Looks like VT but its really just a drive to the beach.

Skyped the fam for the first time today, awesome. Hopefully by the time I get back that demon cat will be long gone.

There is an excess amount of really sick stencil work in the streets here at some point Im going to spend a day walking around documenting it. NAHMEAN?!

Lots of good new music today this one if from a band called Volcano Choir, it is pure magic.

Im currently perched up in my spot in the library over looking Albany St.

I go all the way around the world and Im still stuck looking at Albany.

Its fun to watch the different people strolling around below me. Theyre all so serious wearing different states of frowns and grimaces. Must be all the buildings making them feel insecure. Not a day goes by that I dont see a different random Asian person taking a picture of themselves in front of a famous building. Love it.

Strangely enough as I wrote that last sentence a fully clad monk of some sort just floated past me. Enlightening.

The kids here in Dunners also pay no mind to what ever sort of weather it is outside, if they want to wear shorts and jandals by golly they are gonna wear them. Its not uncommon to see a dude in a puffy coat walking next to his mate who is sporting board shorts. Seriously stop being so hard and just put on shoes!

The other crazy thing is I frequently see grubby weirdos going barefoot around the city. This is mind numbing because there is more broken glass than pavement in Dunedin. If I was in charge of renaming this city I would call it The Smashed City, for obvious reason.

It also is politicly correct to call gay persons "queers". I was really taken back the first time I saw in print that Otago offered "queer support" which is their polite way of saying the gay and lesbian alliance.

Dang after spending a week outside of Dunedin it really makes you want to spend another week or 3. Its alright though only one more week of class and then we have mid semester break. Were still a little bit in limbo as to where we are headed as more people keep joining the crew.

Its time for me to get out of the library as its causing me to look more and more like this

Hot dang

Shoot. I dont even know where to start with the last two weeks. They have been mindnumbingly awesome in so many different ways. Alright Ill try anyway.

So two weekends ago a crew of America's finest headed to the Silver Peaks region to get dodgey in the bush for the first time. Needless to say it was breathtaking and sweet as.

Zack checking out the lunch time view.

The first day's trail wasnt too bad however

certain parts were overgrown and difficult to see your footing. There was one uber steep section that no one was looking foward to hiking back up the next day. The first day had no casualties and Dave only fell 3 times. Good stuff.

We made it to the Jubilee Hut where we would be staying for the night at around 3ish so we decided to explore the surrounding area. Half the crew hiked this neato mini peak behind the cabin and half kicked it down on a pristine alpine stream. After making sure the peak had no mullets lurking in its vegetation we felt heaps safer about the evening.

Note to any eager bush wackers, dont eat chili for dinner while hiking. Im just going to leave it at that.

After a

tantalizing dinner of flatulence

fuel we enjoyed a little post hike ukulele sess. If your lucky

enough someday you might get to hear the beloved national anthem of our favorite little country, Old Zealand. It was discovered in 1904 by the Dutch and only recently gained a national anthem. The last census showed a population of 12 if you count the dog.

Carrying on.

It was a full moon that night and Im still kicking my self for not snapping a picture of the bloated lunar spectacle. Life goes on.

Note DR. Squatting Bull Lee seated on that crazy rock. Highly Spiritual.

So obviously it wouldnt be a weekend in NZ with out seeing the sunrise. Here is the obligatory picture to accompany the morning. Im thinking of changing the name of this blog to stillman sees sunrises but that doesnt really have the same ring or manly connotation.

Yeah the interweb is being real slow so I dont know if Im going to upload more hiking pictures.

Fine just one more because the tree was so magical and the picture looks like I was shooting a tropical L.L. Bean men's wear catalogue.

So out we all made it home safe and sound except for some girls we met at the hut we took a wrong turn and had to be rescued by the police. I will not even make a joke about this one. It speaks volumes by itself.

Which brings me to my next serious adventure. The 2009 Burton New Zealand Open. For all the newbs and elderly it is part of the Burton global open series meaning anyone can enter it and certain pros are invited to it. AKA its a big deal. There is one in Europe, The states and I think there is some sort of Japanese version that may involve a samurai component.

So yeah my old Saint Mikey's mate Colin "Dances with wolves" Boyd sent me a text about a month ago proposing that me and friend could work at the NZ open. 5 days free tickets, free lodging at the Boyd Motel and all the memories you could make!

So obviously I said hell yeah and roped Dr. Lee into the plan. We set out at about 7 on Monday night with fresh Caldina mix tapes and many southern gold's in the trunk. 3 and half hours later we were being greeted by Colin's French flat mate Antown. At first I was bewildered by this heavy accent telling us that we should come with him. I quickly verified that he lived with Boyd and then found out the disappointing

news that Colin had injured his foot the night before playing indoor soccer. Aye dios mios!

Colin sporting his usual facial hair.

Injuries aside Boyd was in good

spirits and we quickly set up our gypsy camp in the living room. Much to our delight there was a wood stove in the living room and ample couch space. Easy living at its finest.

So yeah the only downside of this week of carnage and glorious snowboarding was the wake time. We had to be on the hill at 6 am every morning so that meant waking up at 5. Piss.

The good thing about this cycle is that our bodies really wanted to be in bed at about 10 after a day of labor, Arctic temperatures and standing on a slope. So we would fall asleep as soon as our heads hit the make shift pillows.

I really dont have the time or energy to explain all of the things we did or the people we met. Suffice to say: snow fences are the devil, snow drills are sick, a 20 ft. inflatable beer bottle is glorious but a terrible pain in the ass, people named Jerimah do no work and are total wankers, neon vests are sexy as, getting free gear is what its all about, not falling in the half pipe makes the day much smoother, playing your ipod at the NZ open is a great feeling, watching a slope style course get slaughtered by a pro is better than any video and last but not least even if Shawn White can do back to back double corks he is still really awkward and a ginger.

Hot dang. That almost gives you a feel of the week. Oh except for one little addition. And his name is Kevin "space ghost" McClory. Kev is currently attending the university of Canterberry up in Christchurch. He caught wind of the NZ open plan and knew it was time to join the wolf pack. Friday night was space ghost's 17 birthday so I decided to bust out the mustache party pack I had purchased at the dollar store.

Dashing no?

So we got a little saucey and headed out on the town. Wanaka

did not even know what hit it. It was still laughing the next morning from the tickling of our mustaches.

Nick and I awoke the next morning to the sound of eggs scrambling and Colin saying "its 7 o clock you guys &$%@$# up"

It would seem as though we had. We ate breakfast and headed to Cadrona to receive our verbal spankings. However much to our delights everyone was already too busy to scold us or really even mention our tardiness. Well that was just fine with me as I settled into watch some epic half pipe and re-hydrate my mustache.

And epic it was. I bore witness to the first ever double cork spin in half pipe competition from Louie Vito who is a total jerk. Shortly after Mr. White decided to blow everyones mind by sending the double cork back to back. It looked like a video game.

My personal favorite rider was Luke Mitrani who was going the biggest and had the most style by far. Luckily he got second behind the flaming tomato.

Frenchmen Arthur Longo was uber smooth all week. Plus he had a mean natural stache. -------------->

Note that the picture to the right is about half as high as some riders were sending it. I was dumb founded.

So all in all the week was a smashing success, no one was deported, scolded, jibbed, apprehended, de-mustached or even cranky.

The high light for me came on Friday when I decided to ditch my vest for a couple runs on Captain's (side of Cadrona with mean runs) and then headed back to the slopestyle. I made it back right in time for lunch and sat eating my noodles watching the world's best snowboarders destroy a course I had helped to prep. Shortly after Kier Dillion came over and hung out about5 ft. to my left. It was just too much.

This girl had the nerve to hit the jump and ruin my self portrait. After consulting with the shadow to my left (Nick) I decided it made the picture better. Good on ya yellow pants!

Oh yeah and I saw the sunrise 4 maybe 5 times? Pretty standard.

Yeah so after that whirl wind week I came home and got some grocers and made a sick pot of chili. Then I rearranged my room so as to maximize the flow. Everything is looking proper. Flat mate Whitney even made signs for everyones door. Under my suggestion she added several others to areas like the kitchen "yo clean up after yo self!", right behind the toilet "watch yo aim bro!" and on the bathroom door "clean yo self!". Im glad she drew them and I just ghost wrote them, the blood is on her sharpie stained hands.

Word up from the other side world.

Got the skype flowing too so hit up mstillmanthefourth

Peace.org

Cant complain

When I first began to realize that I was actually going to be spending 6 months living, learning and exploring a new country on the other side of the world I really started to wonder what on earth it was going to be like? Im not sure what I pictured in retrospective but I dont think it ever occurred to me how rare of an opportunity this was and how fortunate I am to be able to do something like this. I know realize what an insanely awesome country this is for so many different reasons. One thing that was strange for me initially was actually living in a city. At home in the ole 518 I can be in a forrest in 5 minutes at almost any given time. At school its not too different but its also by no stretch of the imagination a city, Burlington is great but its a town lets be honest. After about 2 weeks I realized that I had never spent more than a few days in an actual city. I have to be honest I think Dunedin has the best set up possible in terms of city life. You can spend as much time as you want in the streets or downtown dodging cars and avoiding rubbish but you can also be driving right next to a beautiful harbor flanked by lush green peaks in less than ten minutes. Give it another ten or twenty minutes and you can be walking down a beautiful beach watching the sunset (or rise). ------>

So this weekend we took the half hour or so drive to long beach and camped/partied in a cave on the beach. I was lucky enough to wake up and catch the first rays of the morning sun as it sauntered its way into the Sunday morning sky.

The cave itself is pretty sweet, big enough for a bonfire and for 25 kids to sleep comfortably. Much to my dismay there were no secret passage ways or treasure chests. To my disgust there were 2 dead sheep who had tumbled down from the hundred ft or so cliff above the cave, RIP lamb chop.

Lets see what else is new?

Yeah I have to do school work now

so thats pretty beat but its all good because every weekend brings new adventures. We all know life is all about the balance of work and adventures because if we didnt have to do some work then how could be appreciate how great adventures are? Little bit of Maori world view right there.

self portrait

Met my kiwi neighbors last week, what a bunch.

My first impressions came from their blasting techno and dub step at all hours of the day and night. I have to say I was not disappointed when I met the owners of these prolific beats they are equally loud and energetic. They were real excited to met Whitney, Colleen and I which was has really been the overall sentiment from the Kiwis here; just super friendly and real curious to know about things like American music and the differences between our college experiences.

One difference Ive been noting is the library usage, here they use it from a

bout 3 to 6 or so then do god knows what. I feel like at st. mikes we have kids in the library mostly past 8 up until close. Sweet as library though. The gym here is seriously small for the size of the student population though. They also dont even have a pool but for the amount of time that st mikes lets you use the pool we might as well not have one either.

Oh yeah I got an email today that wifi is now in all residential buildings on campus. Good hustle st. mikes! Didnt really want to jump on that trend, good thinking waiting it out and seeing how the whole internet thing took off.

I do miss the summer that is for sure.

Especially because of little buggers like Thomas here.

That and the relaxing aspect.

But mostly the family time.

Treasure it.

Thanksgiving is going to be the best holiday/meal/time/AMERICA ever.

Alright enough mindless dribble

be safe

be awesome

wear respects

hahaha

Matt