Its pretty sad, just went round town for the last time, and said goodbye to everyone at Uni.
On a side note, Sarah did not make the flan as I said last time, it was Josh and Molly. They were pretty happy when they saw that I'd credited someone else with it! Sarah made some muffiny things
So, this week has been good. Sunday evening was church, and it was nice to see people again there before I left. To be honest I was pretty tired and had trouble staying awake during parts of the talk!
On Monday my accommodation ran out so I've moved in with Maggie and Danielle for a few days. The day time on Monday was taken up with writing up report, and seeing my tutor. We've been turning my work into a paper to be published, and its an interesting process. In the evening we all hung out and played games, such as loaded question. Roger and some of his friends stayed the night (they're at Dunedin, and we're flying to Australia from the airport here), so they stayed in Maggie's room and I slept on Danielle's floor.
Tuesday as much of the same, albeit it was Emily's birthday. This involved a lot of drinking on her behalf, and playing beer pong, which I actually quite enjoyed. I'm always sceptical about all of the things the Americans obsess over, but this was good. Also this evening I went to Navigators (Navs for short) which is a Christian group on campus. A lot of my friends were there, so it was nice to see them one last time. We prayed in a circle holding hands, and it was very moving.
The weather was still bad on Wednesday, and on this day I worked some more. I went to my last Christians on Campus meeting in the afternoon, and in the evening went to Don and Karen Pearce's house for tea. Don runs the group, and I've been there a few times to eat. We had a big rice dish, and 5 different sorts of vegetables, it was awesome.
Yesterday (Thursday) the weather was lovely, so I got up early (before 7!) and took a bus ti Lyttelton and a ferry to Diamond Harbour. I was intending to do a hike up Mt. Herbert, but first I accidentally did a cliff walk for 2 hours as I missed the Mt. Herbert path (in my defence it wasn't signed!). So, I got back and then did the hike. The mountain is 919m above sea level, and about 7.5km to the top. I got there in 2 hours and back in 1.5 after a half hour lunch at the top. Most of the trail follows a river which is all water from snow, and beautifully clean. After looking closely at it and tasting it I drank some and it was delicious. Then, about 500m up the river head starts from a large wetland, and in the middle of it there was a dead cow. I was not best pleased to say the least after just drinking the water downstream! I got back after that and slept a lot, then played more beer pong. I got in fairly drunk at about 1.30am, and slept for a about 5.5 hours before getting up for my last meeting with my tutor.
Today (Friday) has been really nice, after my tutorial I went to the park and gardens with Danielle, Mark, Josh, Sarah and Molly. We played a lot of frisbee, and I was very happy to just wander around in the sun. They went to a fudge 'cottage', i.e. a mini fudge factory in the arts centre, and whilst they were doing that I went to the art gallery for an hour or so.
So, this brings me to the end of my time in Christchurch. I leave early tomorrow morning, and will be travelling for a few weeks before coming home. The general travel plan is as follows; go to Kaikoura Saturday, go up to Picton on Sunday and spend 4 days doing the Queen Charlotte track. 2 of these days will be spent couchsurfing with a guy who owns an eco lodge on the trail, I'm really excited about it! After that go to Wellington, where I'm meeting Sharon, Danielle, Brady and Mark and from there spend 10 days getting to Auckland. After that I've got another week by myself to explore above Auckland. And them home, will be back in Bridport June 24th. Oh, if anyone is selling a car/knows someone who is for £1500 or under, please let me know.
Tonight we're going out again for Emily birthday, and I'm quite looking forwards to being with everyone for the last time.
I won't be updating this for a while I imagine, so don't expect much!
See you all soon,
Rob xxx
Friday, 29 May 2009
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Nearly leaving...
Winter is coming, and its scary! Its been raining for over a week now, and its very reminiscent of England - awful! I've pretty much finished all of my work, so am trying to get out, the weather isn't giving me much motivation though.
So, after putt putt we spent a lot of time getting to a burger bar called Wisconsin burger, which was good but not overly amazing, then came back. We hung out in Marks flat, and had a great time just messing about and being immature I think the highlight for most was the Chug of War between Teddy and I. It basically involved eating a lot of bun, very quickly with your arms linked. Teddy is crazy strong, and an awesome wrestler, so very daunting! Its easiest just to watch the video; http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=798853783588&subj=204504202
Needless to say, it was very messy, and very, very entertaining.
Two weeks is a lot of time to remember stuff for, so I can't exactly give a day to day run down of what happened, can give a guesstimate though! We probably did a pot luck at some point (everyone makes a dish and we have a group meal - normally themed, i.e. world food, breakfast, etc), and I probably didn't do much work. I finished my experiments before the Easter break, so have spent my time after writing up my project, and writing up sections for a paper that will be published on mine, and others research. I'm really happy about this, it means I'll have a paper published with my name on it before I graduate.
Danielle's friend Ryan came on Thursday some of us went into town for some drinks, and after Dan (Maggie' boyfriend - a Kiwi) drove us up the Port Hills, where we looked down at Christchurch at night. It was so beautiful, I hope not to forget it for a long time.
Danielle and Ryan had decided to drive to Queenstown that weekend, and not having anything else to do, Teddy and I grabbed a lift to Wanaka, which is a town about an hour from Queenstown. We'd stopped there for an afternoon on our travels over Easter, and it was lovely, hence us going back. We'd planned on camping, but it rained all weekend, so we ended up staying in a hostel, the more expensive yet far drier option. Friday night was taken up with pool, ping pong, and some beers at the hostel.
We awoke on Saturday to find it still raining, and decided to go for a small hike and then on to Puzzle World, where there's lots of puzzle (go figure!), a two level maze and lots of things that are world unique or world first, such as a hologram room, uphill room, etc. We got ready for the hike and realised that Teddy had left his boots in the car and only had loafers with him. As Teddy's H-core (what we've coming for hardcore) we did an hour or so hike in the rain up a mini mountain, and trekked into Puzzle World. Puzzle World was a lot of fun, and we spent the most of the day there, until eventually walking home in the pouring rain. That night was spent in the same manner as the one before.
The next morning it wasn't raining, so we did a small walk around the lake before getting on-board our bus home. On the bus we joined Emily, who'd gone to Queenstown with Danielle and Ryan, and we settled in for out 6 hour ride home. About 45 minutes in we got to Tarras, the start of a pass through the mountains to Lake Tekapo, only to find the pass was closed, and that we had to take a huge detour. This seemed to be a recurring theme; at least two other roads were closed due to rain either causing landslides covering the road, or swelling rivers and flooding bridges. 10 hours later we got back to Christchurch - a bit of a long day!
This week I work fairly hard - my tutor had read through my 60 page report over the weekend, and had gone over it in detail, so I had a lot of improvements to do on it. I was really pleased he'd done this, as its improved my report a lot. We did a pot luck on Tuesday, and did world foods; I did a tagine.
After the world Foods a few of went to the casino, which was quite daunting at first, but a lot of fun. We all played $5 blackjack, Teddy came up $47.50 up, I was $50 up, Dan $80 and Luke $100.
On Thursday I had a meal with Dan and Maggie. Friday was my birthday, and we were doing a dessert pot luck and they couldn't make it, so we made tea and had ice cream together - very nice! After that we played beer pong until bed - around 1am.
The next morning Danielle, Ryan and I went into town and spent the morning at the art gallery. I especially liked these quotes I took from paintings;
'Tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is'
'Nothing else. And then. The oracle speaks: take one step'
'as there is a constant flow of light we are born into the PURE LAND'
These are from a New Zealand artist called Colin McCahon, asides from the second one.
After that we met up with the others, and went to the Foundry (the campus bar) and played cars, and then proceeded to Hells Pizza, which took forever as it was Friday evening and the traffic was awful.
Then the desserts began! There were a lot; cheesecake form Jon and I, fudge by Brady, more fudge by Danielle and Ryan, Flan by Sarah, peanut pie by Mark, cupcakes by Mel, and a whole lot of other things by everyone else. Lisa and Sharon made a particularly memorable one; 4 Boston buns stacked on top of each other, and covered with icing and jelly sweets for the cake, it was spectacular!
After that we played card games, and Brady and Jon did a chug of war, which was very intense. Then we realised there was a massive puddle outside, and a few of us decided to go jump in it. About 30 minutes later everyone had been persuaded, and everyone donned their ghostbuster uniforms from the Twalk, and went outside into the freezing cold. This next part was probably the best part of the night; 15 of us jumping and sliding in a massive puddle in the middle of uni with a load of people watching. A random guy then got naked and dove in, which was hilarious, made even funnier by him falling over whilst running back to his house! We then crammed about 5 of us into each shower at Emilys house and warmed up a bit. A few more games, and we ended the night.
Yesterday (Saturday) I began to pack up my room, as my accommodation runs out tomorrow (Monday), which is very weird (I'm moving into Maggie and Danielle's for a few days before leaving Christchurch next Saturday). Saturday evening I went to Dan's for food, and we went to some of his friends and then to the casino again. I lost $20 this time, even after being $40 up at one point. This sounds pretty dumb, and most likely is, but its weird when you're there and you hold plastic chips - it doesn't feel like real money. I put down two $20 bets at the end and lost both - you win some you lose some I guess! Its weird, I feel like I lost $60, but I only put $20 in... A very interesting experience anyways, and overall I came out positive. Think that will be my last time going to a casino, its easy to see why they're so addictive.
Anyways, its still raining and the hike I was going to do with some others has been postponed - I've got all of next week with not a lot to do, so will do it then. I'm going to finish tidying my room today, and go to church in the evening, really looking forwards to it.
I'll be back in a month, so see y'all soon!
xxx
So, after putt putt we spent a lot of time getting to a burger bar called Wisconsin burger, which was good but not overly amazing, then came back. We hung out in Marks flat, and had a great time just messing about and being immature I think the highlight for most was the Chug of War between Teddy and I. It basically involved eating a lot of bun, very quickly with your arms linked. Teddy is crazy strong, and an awesome wrestler, so very daunting! Its easiest just to watch the video; http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=798853783588&subj=204504202
Needless to say, it was very messy, and very, very entertaining.
Two weeks is a lot of time to remember stuff for, so I can't exactly give a day to day run down of what happened, can give a guesstimate though! We probably did a pot luck at some point (everyone makes a dish and we have a group meal - normally themed, i.e. world food, breakfast, etc), and I probably didn't do much work. I finished my experiments before the Easter break, so have spent my time after writing up my project, and writing up sections for a paper that will be published on mine, and others research. I'm really happy about this, it means I'll have a paper published with my name on it before I graduate.
Danielle's friend Ryan came on Thursday some of us went into town for some drinks, and after Dan (Maggie' boyfriend - a Kiwi) drove us up the Port Hills, where we looked down at Christchurch at night. It was so beautiful, I hope not to forget it for a long time.
Danielle and Ryan had decided to drive to Queenstown that weekend, and not having anything else to do, Teddy and I grabbed a lift to Wanaka, which is a town about an hour from Queenstown. We'd stopped there for an afternoon on our travels over Easter, and it was lovely, hence us going back. We'd planned on camping, but it rained all weekend, so we ended up staying in a hostel, the more expensive yet far drier option. Friday night was taken up with pool, ping pong, and some beers at the hostel.
We awoke on Saturday to find it still raining, and decided to go for a small hike and then on to Puzzle World, where there's lots of puzzle (go figure!), a two level maze and lots of things that are world unique or world first, such as a hologram room, uphill room, etc. We got ready for the hike and realised that Teddy had left his boots in the car and only had loafers with him. As Teddy's H-core (what we've coming for hardcore) we did an hour or so hike in the rain up a mini mountain, and trekked into Puzzle World. Puzzle World was a lot of fun, and we spent the most of the day there, until eventually walking home in the pouring rain. That night was spent in the same manner as the one before.
The next morning it wasn't raining, so we did a small walk around the lake before getting on-board our bus home. On the bus we joined Emily, who'd gone to Queenstown with Danielle and Ryan, and we settled in for out 6 hour ride home. About 45 minutes in we got to Tarras, the start of a pass through the mountains to Lake Tekapo, only to find the pass was closed, and that we had to take a huge detour. This seemed to be a recurring theme; at least two other roads were closed due to rain either causing landslides covering the road, or swelling rivers and flooding bridges. 10 hours later we got back to Christchurch - a bit of a long day!
This week I work fairly hard - my tutor had read through my 60 page report over the weekend, and had gone over it in detail, so I had a lot of improvements to do on it. I was really pleased he'd done this, as its improved my report a lot. We did a pot luck on Tuesday, and did world foods; I did a tagine.
After the world Foods a few of went to the casino, which was quite daunting at first, but a lot of fun. We all played $5 blackjack, Teddy came up $47.50 up, I was $50 up, Dan $80 and Luke $100.
On Thursday I had a meal with Dan and Maggie. Friday was my birthday, and we were doing a dessert pot luck and they couldn't make it, so we made tea and had ice cream together - very nice! After that we played beer pong until bed - around 1am.
The next morning Danielle, Ryan and I went into town and spent the morning at the art gallery. I especially liked these quotes I took from paintings;
'Tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is'
'Nothing else. And then. The oracle speaks: take one step'
'as there is a constant flow of light we are born into the PURE LAND'
These are from a New Zealand artist called Colin McCahon, asides from the second one.
After that we met up with the others, and went to the Foundry (the campus bar) and played cars, and then proceeded to Hells Pizza, which took forever as it was Friday evening and the traffic was awful.
Then the desserts began! There were a lot; cheesecake form Jon and I, fudge by Brady, more fudge by Danielle and Ryan, Flan by Sarah, peanut pie by Mark, cupcakes by Mel, and a whole lot of other things by everyone else. Lisa and Sharon made a particularly memorable one; 4 Boston buns stacked on top of each other, and covered with icing and jelly sweets for the cake, it was spectacular!
After that we played card games, and Brady and Jon did a chug of war, which was very intense. Then we realised there was a massive puddle outside, and a few of us decided to go jump in it. About 30 minutes later everyone had been persuaded, and everyone donned their ghostbuster uniforms from the Twalk, and went outside into the freezing cold. This next part was probably the best part of the night; 15 of us jumping and sliding in a massive puddle in the middle of uni with a load of people watching. A random guy then got naked and dove in, which was hilarious, made even funnier by him falling over whilst running back to his house! We then crammed about 5 of us into each shower at Emilys house and warmed up a bit. A few more games, and we ended the night.
Yesterday (Saturday) I began to pack up my room, as my accommodation runs out tomorrow (Monday), which is very weird (I'm moving into Maggie and Danielle's for a few days before leaving Christchurch next Saturday). Saturday evening I went to Dan's for food, and we went to some of his friends and then to the casino again. I lost $20 this time, even after being $40 up at one point. This sounds pretty dumb, and most likely is, but its weird when you're there and you hold plastic chips - it doesn't feel like real money. I put down two $20 bets at the end and lost both - you win some you lose some I guess! Its weird, I feel like I lost $60, but I only put $20 in... A very interesting experience anyways, and overall I came out positive. Think that will be my last time going to a casino, its easy to see why they're so addictive.
Anyways, its still raining and the hike I was going to do with some others has been postponed - I've got all of next week with not a lot to do, so will do it then. I'm going to finish tidying my room today, and go to church in the evening, really looking forwards to it.
I'll be back in a month, so see y'all soon!
xxx
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Picutre Post
A few pics from Twalk, Easter, etc.
Me, Lisa, Maggie, Dan at Taylors Mistake
Franz Josef glacier. The tin dots are people.
A lake where we camped a couple of nights.
Part of Milford Sound.
A wetter day on the Routeburn.
Queenstown at Night.
Drinking teapots in Queenstown. From left to right; Mark, Josh, Mel, Sarah, Luke, Molly, Brady.
On the Stewart Island trail.
Moeraki Boulders.
A lake on the Twalk.
Will write stuffs up some other time.
xx
Me, Lisa, Maggie, Dan at Taylors Mistake
Franz Josef glacier. The tin dots are people.
A lake where we camped a couple of nights.
Part of Milford Sound.
A wetter day on the Routeburn.
Queenstown at Night.
Drinking teapots in Queenstown. From left to right; Mark, Josh, Mel, Sarah, Luke, Molly, Brady.
On the Stewart Island trail.
Moeraki Boulders.
A lake on the Twalk.
Will write stuffs up some other time.
xx
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Hey everyone, how be?
So, another weeks come and gone crazy quickly, and I thought I'd blast out a quick blog entry. I'd like to firstly say I put a lot of pics up on facebook if anyone wants to see where I've been, some of them are awesome, some not so much! I'm going to get all my friends before I leave and make a best of at some point. I'd also like to point out that no pictures really give this place justice, the camera can't capture the colours anywhere near as well as they'd like. For example, I watched Narnia 2 this week, and the rivers really are that blue, its rediculous, my camera just won't pick that up.
Anyways, my week:
Last weekend we did the Twalk. This is a massive 24 hour orienteering/rogaining type of event, and a lot of fun. It started off with a 16.8km first leg, and 14 checkpoints to find. These checkpoints are marked on a map and a clue goes with them, but are still really hard/impossible to find in some cases. We completed the first leg in 7.5 hours and got 12/14 checkpoints. And walked a lot longer that 16.8km!
Everything was set up in a massive sheep hut on a farm, and there was food (and beer!) for the full 24 hours which was awesome. An hour and a half after checking in at the hut we went out on a leg at a night, which turned into a bit of a fail! We spent 5.5 hours getting very lost and found 2 checkpoints... not so good!
I went to bed around 1.30 am and got up at 5.30am for another leg. Teddy, Mel, Brady and I went out for another leg and got 7/14 checkpoint in 4 hours, pretty happy with it. The morning was so beautiful, walking on a hill crest and watching the sun come up over the mountains - sweeet! In total we walked around 40km in 16 hours or so, a pretty good effort I'd say. Oh, and we were all dressed as Ghostbusters as it was themed. The winners did around 80km I guess in the 24 hours and got a lot of checkpoints, some people are rediculously fit here. And seeing as one of the winning teams were over 50 probably, its bloody impressive!
That night we just had a takeaway and nursed aches and pains. Possibly went to the pub as well? I forget.
Monday and Tuesday were fairly un-eventful, I worked on my report in the day, saw friends at night.
Wednesday was Lisa's 21st birthday, so we went to a Mexican restaurant which was nice, and then to a really cool little pub called Cartel, where they played dub and latiny style music. They also has connect 4, I love pubs with games!
Thursday and Friday have been spent writing up my report for my project. I've now finished all of the writing up, its now just going to take a long, long time to correct all of it.
Yesterday (Friday) was Mels 21st birthday, so we went to a rugby game in town and watch the Crusaders hammer the Reds (a good thing). It was a lot of fun, and most of the game was spent messing around rather than actually watching it. Afterwards we returned to Mels for a dance party, had a bit of a boogie, and then slept.
It's now Saturday, and Marks 21st. We're going out for lunch soon, and then to 'putt putt' - what Americans call crazy golf... (All my friends here are American, kinda odd, but also great as they always want to get out and see the country).
So, that's whats happened to me of late, not overly exciting. I've got two more weeks in Christchurch, then around 5 weeks of travel coming up. I'm going to head to the north island which I can't wait for. Then back to England, which I'm sort of looking forwards to, but also very much not! I love this country, its definitely a place everyone should come to at least once in their lifetime.
Rob xxx
So, another weeks come and gone crazy quickly, and I thought I'd blast out a quick blog entry. I'd like to firstly say I put a lot of pics up on facebook if anyone wants to see where I've been, some of them are awesome, some not so much! I'm going to get all my friends before I leave and make a best of at some point. I'd also like to point out that no pictures really give this place justice, the camera can't capture the colours anywhere near as well as they'd like. For example, I watched Narnia 2 this week, and the rivers really are that blue, its rediculous, my camera just won't pick that up.
Anyways, my week:
Last weekend we did the Twalk. This is a massive 24 hour orienteering/rogaining type of event, and a lot of fun. It started off with a 16.8km first leg, and 14 checkpoints to find. These checkpoints are marked on a map and a clue goes with them, but are still really hard/impossible to find in some cases. We completed the first leg in 7.5 hours and got 12/14 checkpoints. And walked a lot longer that 16.8km!
Everything was set up in a massive sheep hut on a farm, and there was food (and beer!) for the full 24 hours which was awesome. An hour and a half after checking in at the hut we went out on a leg at a night, which turned into a bit of a fail! We spent 5.5 hours getting very lost and found 2 checkpoints... not so good!
I went to bed around 1.30 am and got up at 5.30am for another leg. Teddy, Mel, Brady and I went out for another leg and got 7/14 checkpoint in 4 hours, pretty happy with it. The morning was so beautiful, walking on a hill crest and watching the sun come up over the mountains - sweeet! In total we walked around 40km in 16 hours or so, a pretty good effort I'd say. Oh, and we were all dressed as Ghostbusters as it was themed. The winners did around 80km I guess in the 24 hours and got a lot of checkpoints, some people are rediculously fit here. And seeing as one of the winning teams were over 50 probably, its bloody impressive!
That night we just had a takeaway and nursed aches and pains. Possibly went to the pub as well? I forget.
Monday and Tuesday were fairly un-eventful, I worked on my report in the day, saw friends at night.
Wednesday was Lisa's 21st birthday, so we went to a Mexican restaurant which was nice, and then to a really cool little pub called Cartel, where they played dub and latiny style music. They also has connect 4, I love pubs with games!
Thursday and Friday have been spent writing up my report for my project. I've now finished all of the writing up, its now just going to take a long, long time to correct all of it.
Yesterday (Friday) was Mels 21st birthday, so we went to a rugby game in town and watch the Crusaders hammer the Reds (a good thing). It was a lot of fun, and most of the game was spent messing around rather than actually watching it. Afterwards we returned to Mels for a dance party, had a bit of a boogie, and then slept.
It's now Saturday, and Marks 21st. We're going out for lunch soon, and then to 'putt putt' - what Americans call crazy golf... (All my friends here are American, kinda odd, but also great as they always want to get out and see the country).
So, that's whats happened to me of late, not overly exciting. I've got two more weeks in Christchurch, then around 5 weeks of travel coming up. I'm going to head to the north island which I can't wait for. Then back to England, which I'm sort of looking forwards to, but also very much not! I love this country, its definitely a place everyone should come to at least once in their lifetime.
Rob xxx
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