It's Back!

Where's Wetzler has been dormant entirely for too long. I've still been traveling, I just haven't really been writing about it. I sometimes write about it in my phone and I sometimes take a few pictures also using my phone, but mostly my travels since the demise of the original Where's Wetzler have gone undocumented. However, thanks to some recent life decisions, that's all about to change. I'm currently in New Zealand in a place called Stewart Island. It's at the southern tip of the South Island, about as far south as you can go. I live in a town that has 300 people, most of them semi-alcoholic fishemran who not so secretly despise non-locals, and I work at a restaurant waiting tables, doing dishes, and getting yelled at by the cooks for forgetting to bring out bread with the steamed mussels or for accidentally asking for horseradish with the oysters. It is awful, and I hate it. The other day I hit rock bottom. I was sitting on the couch in the semi-decrepit house where I live, playing the broken three-stringed guitar we have (I don't play guitar) when I looked up at the ceiling and noticed two small holes. These are bullet holes. A guy committed suicide in our living room about 10 years ago. His name was Billy. Anyway, at that moment I felt the saddest I've felt in a long time. The next day I took a 30 kilometer walk and about 20 minutes into it it all became clear: I needed to get the fuck off the island. So that's what I'm doing, and in relatively grandiose fashion. This Monday I will take a ferry to Bluff, where my 89 Subaru is waiting for me. From there I will drive it to Invercargill or Gore or Dunedin and sell it to wreckers for 200-300 kiwi dollars (a travesty). From there I will get on a flight from Dunedin to Auckland and then on Tuesday morning I will fly to Honolulu where I will be for three days before flying to Seattle, Miami, and finally San Jose, Costa Rica. All these flights cost just under 800 dollars in an admittedly genius scheme in which I bought the Dunedin to Honolulu flight on Air New Zealand on super sale and then used Alaska Airlines frequent fliers to somehow get from Honolulu to CR using only 17.5 thousand miles despite the fact that flights from Hawaii to the mainland all cost 20 thousand miles one way. A fortuitous oversight or glitch in the system on their part, cleverly seized upon by a wayward American soul in Oceania who spends several hours a week eagerly scanning the internet for sick deals (sick deals).
So that is where things currently stand. The woman who hired me was entirely too nice about my ill-timed departure. Her name is Diddel and she is a wonderful woman. I will be sad to not see some of the people here any longer, but mostly I will be glad to get out. There is a concept discussed in "The Alchemist" about "following your personal legend", and this basically means following the path your are supposed to follow, or destined to follow, or that God or the universe wants you to follow or something like that. When you are on this path the universe will conspire to help you, people will help you, and you will be filled with joy. I am filled with joy right now, in part because I feel confident in my recent decisions but also because I'll never again in my fucking life get yelled at for forgetting to bring out a "steamed cod papiotte". Work has suddenly become bearable. I know I'm doing the right thing, even if it means disappointing a few people. Even if it means giving up on being here. I know it's the right decision, and I'm thrilled about it. And also thrilled that Where's Wetzler is back. Stay tuned for more. --Wetzler