So I have gold equipment... should I start looking around for meteorites and is the best way to find them just to travel a long ways along the surface?
You have to have destroyed a shadow orb beforehand. Unless it glitches out and announces a meteor has fallen as soon as you spawn.
Stuff like that happens.
And fuck shadow gear. Meteor is more practical.
To get to the orb I have to destroy Ebonstone right? I don't have anything that can do it yet and to get purification powder you need to kill a boss and let the dryad move in.
But to summon a boss it seems like you have to be able to make it through the ebonstone, otherwise get lucky with an alter.
I guess I will go looking for some TNT.
Hmm... no and no. From my experience only:
1) You can find shadow orbs in the deepish pits you'll often find scattered around the Corruption areas. All you need to destroy them is a hammer. Since the enemies in the corruption areas are pretty tough unless you're well stocked with maybe gold armor and weapons, I recommend falling into a pit step by step, avoiding enemies, and once you see a shadow orb hammer that thing to the ground. The Save & Exit. I believe you'll be back at your spawn, with a meteorite somewhere.
2) You can fight your first boss (Skeletron) literally as soon as you walk to either edge of the map. Other bosses usually require some items and a demon altar, which are much more easily found in dangerous Corruption pits/caves.
In other news: How do you grow trees? I've planted some but even after a few days they will not grow.