South Island Drivin' (and some Scattershooting)

Well, the drive from Auckland to Taupo's reign at the top of my list of favorite stretches of road lasted all but two days. After a lovely three-hour ferry ride from Wellington to Picton, I was South Island Drivin'. And, oh my goodness!

First, let's start with your basic foothills of the Rocky Mountains, with lush pine forests. Next, overlay the meadows with a patchwork quilt of hundreds upon hundreds of rows of grapevines. Then, for good measure, sprinkle in a few wide-open, verdant, rolling fields, dotted with little puffs of white grazing sheep. This landscape then slowly morphs into one of towering volcanic-rock slopes covered in dense tropical forests, with the odd waterfall poking through every now and again. Oh, and did I mention all of this was just what was on the right side of the road? To my left there was the deep blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, crashing ashore no more than 15 meters away.

I only drove 160kms today, as my destination for the evening wasn't too far south. That being Kaikoura. You see it's Thursday, and Thursday night in Kaikoura means trivia night at The Whaler. You know me and my love for trivia. I'll look in and see if I can find Kim and his buddies. Maybe they'll let me join their trivia-night team, The Big Wakas. If I find 'em, Katy, I'll be sure to tell 'em you say "hello."

And now for some Scattershooting.

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Scott Fletcher. Here are some more random thoughts, observations, and general whatnot.

-It seems the defacto uniform of the European backpacker is a Che Guevara T-shirt. I've hardly gone a day without spotting several. I find it amusing, however, to know that intrepid capitalists the world over have for years made a mint off selling t-shirts emblazoned with the image of the iconic communist revolutionary.
-I need a thesaurus. I think I've used "defacto" in my last three or four entries.
-I spotted some fresh road kill, and an even fresher center stripe, on the highway yesterday. The striping crew, apparently uninterested in removing the carcass, simply painted a bright yellow stripe across its back.
-My cap is adjustable. I wear it at two different "settings." Up to the fourth little peg for everyday wear, and up to the third peg under high-wind conditions such as for the Auckland Harbour Bridge climb and the Wellington to Picton ferry. It gives me a headache, but it keeps my cap from flying off.
-On the afore-mentioned bridge climb, our guide pointed out the navy base and said the following: "So there's our navy base. As you can see, it's empty. BOTH our ships must be out at the moment. We'll cross our fingers that Fiji doesn't use this opportunity to invade."
-Shaving no more than once a week has done wonders for eliminating the in-grown hairs that have plagued me since puberty. The down side is that my beard has never been full enough for me to have that cool unshaven look. Rather, most of the time I just look like a scruffy homeless person, which, technically, I guess I am.
-Is there another word for thesaurus?

Cheers!