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Ashley M Graetz's avatar

I stayed in that hostel first time overseas trip 2005. Was full of alot of crazy locals and overseas travellers mostly Sweden and Germany. Yes it's Canada for Australians. Great story. Reminds me of when adventures water not defined by a phone or computer. I always found Auckland weird place to put a city. So many steep hills I wouldn't drive up in a 4WD.

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Loreth Mills's avatar

Of course Kerouac is in there somewhere. I thoroughly enjoy your stories.

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Aria Veritas's avatar

Rad. Thanks for the link.

So glad I had a good camera to document that era. Parents never paid for developing but I always prioritised photos (and books from the op shops) over food or booze. I never print from my phone these days. Seems a shame.

I got up to similar sort of hi-jinx mainly because I felt so invisible nobody would ever see me, and if they did, wouldn't believe it. I suspect it has a lot to do with the exceptional levels of fluoridation in the main centres and exceptional level of boredom because of it.

And finally... writing about Nirvana as I type...

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Obsidian Blackbird.'s avatar

Fantastic. ALl my water came from the Creek above our place in the Coromandle.. no I did not get the calcified pineal :) And so the Third eye was always super open. :)

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Aria Veritas's avatar

Nice!

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Patris's avatar

Enjoyed your entire adventure. Not only because you remind me of my outsider high school friends, or because David Lynch is considered a king in this house of film freaks, but the sheer determination it took.

Always thought NZ was a picture book fantasy place; more respect for it now. Enlightened. And you. Great memories, great telling of them.

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Obsidian Blackbird.'s avatar

Thanks - I'm talking about NZ in the 90s... Its a different beast now. Much more like Canada.

Australia is still a Barbarism though. So thats good.

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Patris's avatar

Good to know - it explains the free spirits that are my cousins there. It was your story that took me further back to teenage years in a country where the kids at my school (some artists like I was) got to live outside the norms, far from parents, where enlightenment gave us all more freedom than we might have otherwise had to experience the world.

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Obsidian Blackbird.'s avatar

Yes! So great :)

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Kryptogal (Kate, if you like)'s avatar

Amazing how actually sweet and wholesome this is. Did you really pencil your face to make it look like you had a five o'clock shadow?! That's incredible. I'd kill to see a photo of what this looked like.

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Obsidian Blackbird.'s avatar

Man that would be great. I have very very few photos of my back then. Due to the fact that in was NZ and only the rich kids hadh cameras and parents that wolud pay to get the films developed.

But Yes I did do the fake beard. And it was passable at at distance. :)

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