Leaving Christchurch...

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