Dunedin Updates coming soon

Here's a little sneak peak.

grizzlies and chocolate

I'm off to Dunedin in about 4 hours...which is 3 AM.

anyways.
Here's my new favorite song:

http://www.grizzly-bear.net/media/cheerleader.mp3

I'm cool!

I met the shocking pinks (one man show) at a bar that smelled like grandmas! And apparently pitchfork approves.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/7767-dance-the-dance-electric/

two week recap

Ok! Sorry for the lack of postage.

Sooooo Last weekend, Kathleen, Alex (our friend from Cali), and I took the old Corona out to Hanmer Springs, which is about a two hour drive through the mountains (or very very very large hills). BEAUTIFUL DRIVE. and the old grandma car didn't give us any problems.

HOWEVER! While we were on the open highway, we began to here this faint Tinkerbell noise coming from the dashboard. We didn't know if it was a polite warning that the car was going to blow up, or some other quirk. The bell came on and off for about another 15 minutes, until we realized it was a warning that we were going 5 km/hr over the speed limit. so anytime we go 105 km/hr, which is like 65 mph/hr tops, we have to deal with the most annoying bell I have ever heard in my life.

The front doors also unlock when you close them. So! We have to close the front doors, lock the front from the back door, and then finally close the back doors. (I hope that makes sense).

Nevertheless, I love that car.

Anyway, we headed up to Hanmer Springs on Saturday and then went for a hike to a waterfall in the mountains. Kathleen, Hailey (a kiwi girl), and me tagged behind a bit, and we eventually got to a fork in the path where the two signs said "to waterfall: 5 minutes" and "Dangerous Pathway: Beware of unsafe ground and boulders." So, we continued straight assuming it was the right path. 45 minutes later, we were at the top of the stupid mountain with no waterfall!! I scuffed up my leg a bit when i fell of this edge, and the rest of the pathway was sooooooo unstable! Hailey said this was a good path compared to some other tracks in New Zealand....can't wait for that .

Here's the beautiful view at the unexpected top and the final destination of the water fall:

Later that same day, we headed off to the hot springs and sulphur pools, where I accidentally oxidized all my silver jewelry. :(

We were planning on sleeping in the car, but some of our friends from the dorm rented a cottage for the night, so all the Americans (all 13 of us), slept there.

The next day, we enjoyed a casual walk along the wetlands, and stopped at brewery on the way home. We had a little trouble finding the trail, and ended up driving up this mountain. Not even kidding: the road was smaller than an alley and had a complete drop off at the edge. very stressful driving to say the least.

This weekend was the wild food festivals on the west coast, which consist of eating really gross parts of really gross animals. So I decided to pass on the festival and explore around my university.

My window in my dorm faces the mountain range that separates Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. I decided to find the bottom by bike!

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride: low 70's and barely any wind. I found a couple cute cafes and only one dead hedge hog.

Here's me!

I also finally made it out to the downtown area on Saturday night! yippeee!

This next week coming up is going to stink. I have an organic farming debate. I'm representing the social bonds created by organics. Then, I have to present a poster board for landscape architecture, and finally finish my first lab for my GIS course.

The grading system is really goofy here. There's only 2-3 assignments the entire year, and the final count as 70% of the entire semester grade. No pressure.

Once I get through this week, I will be heading down to Dunedin where my friend kiwi, Hamish, lives. Our weekend goal is to find albatrosses, penguins, and run down the steepest street in the world. I'll have plenty of stories when I return, and I am so happy we have a personal kiwi guide :)

Surfs up!

So this is my second week, and things have been shaping up!

Here's a quick recap:

1. I officially have a bike now. I had to take a bus ride to the north side of Christchurch to pick it up, and I was planning on taking it on the bus ride home.

Problem #1: no buses allow bikes on the bus unless there is a bike rack.

Problem #2: no buses have bike racks.

So I had no choice but to bike the 1.75 hour ride home. Plus, it was my first experience riding in a city, AND a country road. The country road was not so fun. Very windy. All the horses in the pastures ran up to the side to greet me....all the sheep ran away. And I found six hedgehog road-kills.

2. We took a weekend trip up to Akaroa, which is a huge peninsula that is about 50 minutes out side Christchurch. The weather is pretty bad, but we managed to get a kayak ride in before the rain started.

We stopped at the shoreline further down the harbor, and found lots and lots of starfish, crabs, and this fossil looking creature. They're huge bird all along the side too. They seemed to be equivalent to our king fisher, but looked more penguin like!

We also took about a 3 hour hike, which was by far the oddest hike I've ever been on. It started up a mountain that was definitely a sheep and cow pasture, judging by the massive amounts of poop. Plus, we had to jump five barbed wire fences to continue on the path.

Best part: Sheeepp!!!!!!

Sunday morning, we took a bus ride back to the beach, and went swimming all day in the ocean.

Needless to say, it was a successful weekend.

This week, we bought a car! It's a 1984 Toyota Corona. We nick-named it El Corona Abuela. She's beautiful. And the despite the car being older than me, it has really good gas mileage, or rather kilometerage....and runs smoooooooth. We bought it from this place called the Backpackers market, which serves as the middle man between backpackers buyers and sellers. Which means we can sell our car back for the same price when we leave.

3. I had a field trip into the city for my Landscape Architecture class, which basically was a free tour of the city.

4. My favorite class so far as been organic farming productions. I have a debate team of about 4 people for my next project, all of which are kiwis. We got to find some cultural differences today. Such as, They asked me if Americans walk around barefoot and in board shorts. I obviously said no, and they were really surprised. Everyone walks barefoot here. In class, in the city streets, in the grocery store. It is a cleaner country, but I don't know if it's THAT clean.

Here's some quirky things that you might find interesting.

1. The majority of the country's firefighters are volunteers. Every time there is a emergency call, they ring a siren (sounds like a tornado warning in the states) and the volunteers from all over town respond.

2. The majority of toilets have two buttons: half flush and full flush. It took me a week to figure this out.

3. Fall out boy is huge.

4. New Zealand has no native mammals. It once had a bat species, but died off when peoplez came.

5. mullets dominate.

6. Kelp (the seaweed) is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen.

Besides that, I am very much enjoying it here. The weather has FINALLY turned around and it has been sunny and in the 70's daily. Today, I went to organic farming, and then drove to the beach in our little Corona blasting the Beach boys. I don't think I've ever appreciated Surfin' USA as much as I do now.

Life is good.