Everyone keeps asking me about New Zealand. I honestly do not know what to expect, other then what I've read and researched. That being said, I am not completely clueless about NZ, I just don't know what to expect from the journey if that makes any sense.

When I had left Pennsylvania, and headed NW into Canada on my route up to Alaska, it was a very surreal feeling. I was leaving everything and everyone behind to go off on an adventure trip. (and boy was it!) New Zealand seems like somewhere in between an adventure trip and a vacation. I guess I feel this way, because there is a definite date to come back. It's not open ended like my ride through Canada was. I was just, well…riding where time meant nothing. Not really sure where I'd end up that day or what was around the next corner. Though I guess we never really know. But seriously, have any of you ever been out on a trip somewhere, where, there was no going back? No home to go back to. No Comcast, No TV, No major bills to speak of. I left my "home" knowing I would never set back foot into it again. It's weird. Totally unlike a 1 week vacation to Cancun, which albeit is very nice, but just a minor escape from ones day-to-day lifestyle. This was going to be a super change in my life.

I remember being up in the Yukon on my way to Alaska, and being rained on just about every day. It really was taxing. I think it was definitely the most alone I've ever felt in my life. Pretty small and sort of insignificant in the grand scheme of the world, and all this nature that was around me. I had no means of contact with anyone, no friends around, nothing… no-one. I was scary and yet awesome at the same time. Not to drudge up old blogs about my trip, but when you are in the saddle for long days on end, you start to really become interested in cloud movement, and weather in general. You can actually see storms rolling in, and get pretty good at tracking weather patterns. Or more so. Just having a good intuition about it, and knowing that you're going to get poured on. On days when I didn't ride with my earbuds in listening to my ipod, you just have time to think, and watch, and listen to your surroundings. It was up in Alaska actually that I started humming ideas in my head to my first new song.I would be riding through a very cloudy day, and looking up into the sky to see the sun peak out for a few minutes but then also see a huge storm on the horizon. I would yell aloud. "Bring out the sun!" but then I kept repeating to myself. "It's gonna get worse before it gets better." And that usually was the case. I kept feeling like the wind and the rain were just hitting me like a cannonball on certain days, and I sat down in my motel room in Tok, Alaska, and started to write the first song of my next CD.

CannonballG.Smith 2009

Bring out the sun

I wonder if things will get better

From these days I have learned

That each day I am wandering farther and farther away.

There's a wind from the west

And it's colder the more you get higher

And the rain makes you hurt

But not as much as the thoughts that are aching inside you

And it hits me like a cannonball would

And it's stronger then the mountains beside me

And when it's hard it just hurts

And I scream cause I know that no-one can hear me

And it's gonna get worse right now

It's gonna get worse right now

It's gonna get worse before it gets better now.

There's a flash in the sky

And I hope I'll be able to reach you

Cause as soon as it's night

This storm will be raging harder and higher.

And it hits me like a cannonball would

And it's louder then the rain on the cycle

It takes more then just nerves

When you're so far out that no-one can save you

And it's gonna get worse right now

It's gonna get worse right now

It's gonna get worse before it gets better now.

And it's dark and it's black but you need to push harder

Cause there was no going back from the time that you started

And you cry "I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive."

And it hits me like a cannonball would

And now I'm stronger then I knew that I could be

I am lost in this world

But I know that I've found something better inside me

And it's gonna get worse right now

It's gonna get worse right now

It's gonna get worse before it gets better now.

Here comes the sun

I think things are going to get better.

I think the saddest thing about my trip, is never really being able to portray to you the reader, just how epic and awesome this trip really was, or is. Try as I might, I just cannot explain the wide range of emotions that one feels from being "out there." It's definitely changed me. For the better I think. I hope.Making a few new friends. Having daily chit-chat with total strangers. Riding through lands that I know I will never be back to again. Being out in wilderness that's much larger then I ever experienced before or just being lost in the middle of nowhere. Learning how to deal with what life throws at you, quite literally on most days. Some moments feeling all alone in a strange world, while others just having small talk in a parking lot make you feel human again.

I'd like to borrow a writing style now from Neil Peart.

Tomorrow, you and I are getting the 3:50 southwest flight out of Albuquerque to Los Angeles. You'll notice how much smaller the airport is here compared to Philly. I'll just laugh as I've been through this airport many times. "Don't forget to look for the Kangaroo." I'll say, as I point to the huge statue of a Native American. You'll just shake your head at me as I say dumb things sometimes in hopes to make you smile.We'll get some sort of snack in the airport. It's also only an easy 2-hour flight to LA, but then we have to re-check in with V-Australia airlines at LAX and get ready for our epic 13-hour flight to Sydney Australia. I'll make a few LOST references, even though you hate that show now and have for some time. But I will reassure you that I have a few Office episodes on my ipod, along with a few movies too which will help pass the time. You'll remind me that we do need to get some sleep on this long flight over the Pacific Ocean. I'll agree and follow up with a remark about how hard it is to sleep on the plane, and hope I'm not seated next to anyone smelly or annoying. Isn't that how flights always go? You did remember to pack a book or something, didn't you? I brought a few. "Brom's: The Child Thief." Which I got from Kiwi for Christmas and then my borrowed copy of"Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance." Which I believe I will leave behind in New Zealand, as my friend Michele might just think "that was a cool thing to do." You remember her, the girl from the Hospital. Very nice and always helped me out with so much I just could never thank her enough.So, enough about all that. Let's go eat. We've got a long 2 days ahead of us.

Oh…didn't I tell you? We're going to lose Wednesday all together.

See you in the future…