Maori Bushtalk

Just like everything else in my life this blog is up in the air and unstructured right now. I know lots of people (Deb) stop reading blogs when people travel because they become too dense with information and too much like a log rather than a diary.. . . So it's been my only goal not to make it like that. Tell me if it gets too much like that. I've been driving around the country doing interviews at a glacier, one in the fiordlands down south. That's all I'll say. Here's a life excerpt:

pictures to follow when I find out how to upload them. I forgot the USB cable for my camera. Oops

Also for those interested, my latitude is about 45 degrees South, so that's neat cause it's the same as southern ontario but in the other direction. Longitude is about 173 East, whcih is neat cause a) it's not West, and b) it's only a few degrees away from the international dateline, which would make it west. If you're a tripper and you've read this far, this'll bake your noodle:
my UTM grid zone designation is 58 G. What happened to 19U and 17T? I feel so lost.

If you didn't care/understand any of that, then read this, and excerpt from an email to Laura, figured why not share...

Today the weather is slightly nicer than yesterday, more patches of sun, less shit wind also. . . The mountaintops were sprinkled with snow when the clouds cleared. It never gets old seeing rainforest with snow on it. Why is the treeline not lower if that's where the snow falls? So weird. They call it the bush line here. how British. There was this one Maori (or Mary as he pronounced it) guide at the glacier place, named 'Ox'. He was a huge Maori dude with handlebars. All the guys there at the glacier are growing dirty moustaches for Movember, the prostate cancer thing. He has this tilly hat and a loud voice with a thick ass NZ accent. There's this moment I keep replaying in my head. I was standing on the bus on the way back from the glacier. They drive this big ass city bus style bus up there, that the guides are licensed to drive, and Ox and I were standing up front. The whole window was fogged up from everyone being so wet, and ox wanted to wipe it for the driver. So he asked in his thick, syrupy slow NZ accent where a's become i's so short they feel like they're hitting a ceiling, he asks for the squigi "Ay, caan yew paas me thet suuwpa moisturoizing windew clearing rubba woipey thung?" The driver (also a kiwi) looks at him and is like "what?" Ox tries again to get the words out because he's just too lazy, not illiterate. "Yew knew, thet thing fo the windews, the woipa. . ." Mike: "You mean this?" and hands it over with one hand while he concentrates on driving. "Sometimes I can't understand a word you're saying man." Ox:"Yeah thet's Mary bushtawk". hahahah There was something so golden and humorous about that moment, I keep replaying the mannerisms and the sense of humour over in my head and I just giggle. Maroi Bushtalk, so good.