Hello From New Zealand

Right now, I'm on a bus heading from Auckland to Mercury Bay. It's been quite a while since my last update, so here is a quick recap. After 2 spectacular weeks in Kenya and Tanzania, I spent a bit more than a month in London with my family, getting to see them on a day-in-day-out basis that I hadn't been able to for quite a while. On October 20, I packed up my things and headed west.

The first stop was Boston, where I hadn't been in almost 7 years. It was really great to explore a city so integral to American history. Before I left the US in September I picked up the HBO miniseries "John Adams" on DVD. It is an incredibly produced, thoroughly detailed account of his life. Much of it takes place in Boston, and after thoroughly enjoying the series, seeing the city completed the picture. My impression of Adams, Jefferson, Washington and their colleagues might be a bit naïve, but I believe they had a purity of purpose that is noticably lacking in their modern Congressional descendants. While they were by no means perfect, they aknowledged this and attempter to account for their humanity in the system they devised.

During my short trip to Boston, I visited my good friend Jamie De Coster, who is a masters student at the Fletcher school at Tufts. We met in our first Political Science Class at USC, and were good friends all through college. After college we lost touch, and were reconnected through the miracle of Facebook.

I also go the opportunity to spend some time with uncle, David Werbeloff. It was great catching up with him and his wife Marina. Our last few meeting have been under much more somber circumstances, and it was great to see them during a happier time.

After Boston it was off to New York city for a long weekend, and to attend the wedding of two friends of mine from Emory. I started graduate school with Justin and graduated with Andrea, and was the beneficiary of what must have been one of their first joint Mitzvahs right after they started dating. Their wedding was fantastic to be at and I really enjoyed being there to celebrate with them, their families, and so many of my closest friends from grad school. I met up with the Greenbergs for lunch, and got to see Melanie quite a bit as well. A final pre-expedition brunch was had with Daniel Aires, whose Southern Hemisphere expedition with his brother Jon (AKA: Puss, Dieter) in 2007/2008 was the initial inspiration for my own trip.

From New York, I headed down under through Los Angeles. I took an early flight from JFK to break up the trip, and headed into LA for some dinner and to see friends. I surprised my friend Stefanie, and got to see her, her husband Dan and her sixth month old daughter Riley. I'm officially Uncle Gavin. I had dinner with one of best high school friends, Jared Kaftel, and his wife Tovah. After a filling dinner at Jeff's, I hopped a late night flight to the Southern Hemisphere.

After a quick couple of days in Sydney to see my cousin Jenna (who will be away when I come back through in a few weeks), I jumped a plane across the Tasman Sea to Auckland. There I began my three week trip through New Zealand, which I am three days into.

That's all for now

-Gavin
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