This past week was just finals. My philosophy probably went okay while I studied a lot for my only engineering class. Still not sure I passed. I will just have to wait to see what the curve makes it out to be.
On Halloween me and a few friends went down to the beach for the night. We didn't go down till late and wanted to have a fire. We really had to search for drift wood but got a small fire going and slept under the ski. I was hoping to get up and watch the sunrise but the 3 hours of sleep the night before studying for that final didn't allow me. Oh well.
With those 2 finals out of the way I had time to play. I went and bought my fishing licence. Me and Joe went once last week with plans of a full week this week. We went to the west coast and fished some rivers their. Joe was kind enough to let me barrow a bunch of his gear. The weather on the west coast was wet and raining. It's still pretty early in the season so the fishing wasn't the greatest. I managed to catch 3 trout, all of good size for me but small on NZ fish standards. It was nice weather that day for most of the day. That evening a dog from a near by farm came around and wouldn't leave us alone. He kind of ruined that night fishing with all his splashing. Even when we slept in the tent he was outside whining for us. We came home early because of poor conditions and weather. Its beautiful back here in Christchurch. Might go out and do some more fishing. I lost a few of Joe's lures so I bought some new ones to replace them. Things are mighty expensive here in NZ which is a pain but nothing you can do about it.
Next week I just have 2 more finals which should both be easy. Then all my after school plans fell through partly due to my late planning but mostly due to Australearn and STA giving me false information of moving around my plane ticket. I will be home on Nov. 14th. Going to get a job and make enough cash to buy some new skis.
I guess I will just have to enjoy my last few days here and enjoy whatever comes my way over the long winter break I have back home. I will get to do some great skiing on the east coast now.
So lectures came to a close no worries. I handed in my philosophy paper and enjoyed the end of the year festivities with all. Pretty much all classes are cancelled on the last fri. because everyone parties all day instead. The following sat. I went to the HuntSoc Hangi with my flatmate Joe. The Hangi is a Maori way of cooking when the food is buried with hot rocks. All the meat was from the members hunts. It was really delicious food and an all around good time.
In between lectures and the start of finals we get a study week to prepare. The best preparation is obviously to clear your head so that when you need to cram for finals you will be ready. To do this Garret, Pete and I went on a 4 day tramp at the Abel Tasman Track. This track is one of NZ's great walks. We rented a car and a tent and drove up on Sun. We stayed in the town at the base of the trail. There is no camping allowed on the beach there which is stupid so we had to pay just to tent in some hostels lawn. The next day we began our tramp of only 4 hours that day. The trail was pretty much handicap accessible and filled with day trampers so it was kind of annoying. We stayed at one the popular sites where a hut is. Lots of cool people around and we harvested and cooked fresh muscles which were delicious. The next day was also an easy day. Just another 4 hours of hiking. We took a little side route to some pools which are actually glacier run off. We went for a dip in water which couldn't have been much warmer then freezing. It was refreshing to say the least. That afternoon we got to camp which was again at a popular location. This time since we were farther away from town there were much less people. The other 2 napped during the afternoon while I climbed around and explored for hours. I guess I should have napped too because I was obviously tired when I didn't get out of the tent the next morning to watch the sunrise with them. The third day was our biggest day of like 6 hours of tramping. It all had to be timed properly because of the tides. A lot of the track is along beaches and must be crossed when the tide is low. In this region of NZ the tides are huge, like 4 meters which means the water goes out 100s of meters. Its pretty cool. While waiting for the tides we had plenty of time to relax on the beach and take in the sun. The third camp was far a much smaller and only one other couple was there. Since no DOC officer would be around because we were far away we bent the rules a little and camped right on the beach. We also had a fire on the beach but had it bellow the tide line so that it cleaned itself up. The 4th day was just a quick 1hr hike which we did in 30 min. We met up with our water taxi which took us back down into town to get the car. I did all the driving home but not before we stopped for a good feed at KFC and parked by an airport to watch planes fly around. It was a good time around. The tramp was really enjoyable, the weather was beautiful and the track progressively got worse the farther from the start and the tourist trampers you got. The three of us put on a good pace when we actually moved which allowed us to just relax and take in the finally nice weather which we have all been deprived up. Ohh and I remember to charge my camera battery but forgot to bring the battery, had the camera. No worries Garrett took heaps of pictures which I will post later. He also mandaged to break his camera which has the same battery as mine so I'll post the second half of the trip now.
Its now time to study up for finals. I have 2 finals this week. My hardest classes final is on Sat. morning (Halloween). The holiday isn't that big here so I guess no costume for me this year. I think a bunch of us are going to go to the beach at night and have a fire, then enjoy it until the sun comes up. Should be a really good time. After that I have another full week off until my next final. Since I need to do more unwinding me and Joe are planning a fishing trip. Should be an excellent time. I got my fishing licence the other day and me and Joe went to a local river for a few hours. Conditions where unfortunately no good and we came up dry.
I have new after school plans. Nothing definite yet but I'm hoping it all works out. Unfortunately my travel agency is not co-operating with me so that is going to be a battle to get my plan ticket extended over the next week. If not I will be state-side on the original Nov. 14th which would be a let down. I'll figure it out this week.
T
if my plans work out http://svsereia.blogspot.com/
Last week was pretty intense, lots of school work.
This weekend was absolutely amazing. Started off on fri. night with the CUSSC jib jam at one of the boys house. They brought in a bunch of snow and a box and had a party just around the block from uni. I didn't do any skiing but plenty of socializing. All the boys from CUSSC were there, plus tons of new people. And heaps of girls which is always good. And it had just snowed in the mountains so it was on for sat.
Sat. morning I woke up nice and early to go skiing. Checked the snow report and not only did the storm the day before close the mountain, another one hit over night leaving 50cm of light powder waiting for us. Me, scott and Garret got right on the road to get some fresh tracks. When we stopped in at a rental shop on the way for garret to rent a board I couldn't help myself. I rented a pair of demo skis for the day. These skis were absolutely amazing, way bigger then what i'm riding now. They helped me rip all over the place.
So yeah I was super pumped to have some decent skis to ride and we continued to the mountain. We were a little worried about getting up the access road because scotty's car cant make the journey so we needed to hitch a ride up. And with everyone eager to get the the powder it might be hard. Anyway when we pulled up the chain fitting station was just a zoo. Everyone was parked just waiting for the road to open. They were still plowing so we had plenty of time to find a ride. I just walked around and within seconds had found 2 rides to take the 3 of us up. We got to up there and things were absolutely mint. Fresh tracks for all. And blue skies, amazing day. Might have been best one yet, that was probably because of the skis. Once some of the slopes got tracked out scotty wanted to try my skis. So i gave his tele's a go. Unfortunately a new section of the mountain opened as soon as we switched. So i tried to ski the pow on teles and that didn't work out to well. I got mine back after one run. The rest of day was super amazing and the lifts stayed open till 5 because the road didn't open till 10.
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When I got home i was so exhausted. Skiing all that powder takes a lot out of you. Then my friend erick stopped in and said he was thinking about going skiing on Sun. How could i say no. It wasn't fresh powder any more but it really warmed up. I was skiing in shorts and a flannel. Beautiful day on the hill. The snow was so soft and it was so hot. And super sunny. I did work on my goggle tan this weekend. The mountain closes next weekend and I prob wont make it up but I had one heck of a last weekend for myself.
I was pretty worried because I still hadn't started my philosophy paper due on wed. But when the snow falls you got to go. When I got home from sun. night I had an email saying the due date was extended till next tues. Sweet as!
Next week, from sun. to thurs. me garrett and pete are going to go tramping. We are going to do the Abel Tasman track. Its far north south island so it should be really warm. Should be and excellent time. I just need to finish my philosophy paper and I'm home free except for finals.
The only let down was this morning (mon.) This Friday is the last day of classes. The school host a huge party "the tea party"/"the stien" which has 5 bands and goes on all day. 2 mondays ago 2000 tickets sold out in like 3 hours. Today 700 more went on sale at 8am. I went down about 7:45 and got in the back of a huge line. After waiting till about 10 am and 30 or so people from the ticket counter it sold out. I'm pretty bummed but maybe ill figure a way into it. They're a few tickets on trade me for sale but they'll prob. go up to at least 100 bucks.
So yeah, the weather is so nice today. Shorts and a t shirt. Super sunny.
ohh and I figured out what I want to do after finals. I'm trying to find a way to go to help out in the tsunami relief effort on one of the pacific islands.
So school work has really come down on me hard lately. My math test that I was worried about a few week back I think went okay. I haven't gotten it back yet but I do think I did okay. However, my eng. class has been really terrible. I had another test last week and I though I would do well because I have improved my homework grade. No luck, I along with the rest of the class did poorly. I will be going into talk to the teacher to see whats up and figure something out to make sure I get the grades I need. That class has also consumed me lately. I had a lab report due last thurs. which I put many library hours into. I have spent the majority of the week days these past 2 weeks in the library. And the libs are only open till 9. It crazy though. Go to the eng. library in the afternoon and its packed! All the kids go to class in the morning. Then work on school work in the afternoon. Then around 5 just head home and finish whatever the next day. The run it like a job instead of back home where everyone just waits until night before to do stuff. I've fallen into the afternoon working sessions which is good. And anyways, only 3 more weeks of classes!!!!
So 2 weekends ago I went skiing at mt. hutt. My aprtment complex company put on a bus for us on sat. Free bus and bbq at lunch so that was pretty sweet. It was a beatiful spring day. I just had a flanal and spandex with stubbies on which was pretty sweet. The seasons winding down so no fresh gnar to be had, pretty much just played in the half pipe and terrian park all day. Tons of fun though. Actually I saw a kid in the park rocking 80's skis and still thowing nice jumps. I started talking to him cause, well, that's super legit. Anyways turns out he is a 2nd pro mech. eng. just like me, he is even in my math class. So thats pretty sweet and what not. Good to finally know some peoples in my class. Like i said last week was just school school.
About mid week last week big things were happening. A big snow storm was moving into the mountains. Its pretty uncommon for this time of year but it was looking like it was gonna dump up to 2 feet of fresh pow pow all over the place on thurs. fri. making it perfect for this weekend. Well unfortunately I had already signed up through australearn to go on a volunteer weekend to quail island. And australearn is crazy so if I was a no show they were going to charge me 200 bucks. So anyways not going skiing fresh pow pow, and with my eng. class I was in a pretty bad mood end of the week.
I just got back from quail island and things arn't all so bad. I just kind of got over the not skiing thing, even though I am bummed I have already had some great days. There were 11 of us australearns and 2 DOC workers at quail island. (quail island is a small island only about 40 min from school in Lyttleton harbour) We got on the island at about 10am sat. morning. After we put our packs down the first thing they did was feed us. Then we were unfortunately scrapping paint of an old lighthouse persons cabin to try to fix it up. Everyone got pretty upset at doing such crap work. Anyways we did that in quick time and then it was lunch time. After lunch we painted the light house for a bit. Then we went down to the beach. At 3:30 it was low tide so we where picking up as rocks from the beach, loading them into the tractor, and then dumping them to make a wall. The rocks were all part of wall but the water had washed them away. We did that for about 2 hours, then went and had soup. After soup we had free time. We went out exploring all over the island (only like a kilometer long at most). There is an old ship graveyard in the back of the island. Plus, back in the early 1900's the island was where lepers were isolated. There is a grave and an reconstructed house. It was pretty cool, and the stem of a billions zombie leper jokes. It got dark around 7:30 and that's when it was feed time. They grilled up all sorts of sweet meats for us. A real feast. After the feast we just hung out around the fire. I provided plenty of jokes for the whole gang. I also, had to defend jimmy buffet for being as cool as he is. We went out and did some sweet stargazing as well. It was to bed pretty early because we got up earlish, plus it was daylight savings on sat. night so we lost an hour.
Sunday we did more of the same. Finished the painting the primer on the cabin. Cleaning out the gutters and general maintenance. Then we went and did some trail work by grading out a trail so its easier to walk on. Again not without 2 fantastic meals and plenty of snacks. We only worked till about 2 because we needed to be ready to catch the ferry back at 3:30. All in all, the quail island trip wasn't nearly as bad as I though it would be (plus they feed us heaps!). I really enjoyed myself and showing off my super manly attitude and manually labour that goes with my beard. Plus the mountains only got about a foot of fresh so I've skied better this season. Probably the last weekend of skiing coming up. Then I'll have to find other things to do. Fishing season opens ovt. 1st!
Last week was a bit of a reality check. I spent the majority of the week studying for an upcoming math test that I just took. I realized that for the first 6 weeks of class, although I went to class, I hadn't learned much and I only had a week to straighten things out. After much studying and trips to my profs. office hours I took the test this mon. night. I actually think I did fair and it will be interesting to get my grade. This week will be another academic week with a paper due on Fri. and another test next tues. in my Eng. class.
I had to to do all my studying mid week so that my weekend would be free for skiing. I went up with the club to Temple this weekend. Not to many of us this weekend, just a dozen or so. Real good times though. Temple is a small club field that runs on a lot of volunteers. As a member of the ski club I get the opportunity to volunteer at the field in order to get free food, accommodation, and a bit of skiing. So all weekend I was working in the rental shop. Business was pretty slow since the majority of the people that go to the field have their own equipment. Sat. was clubs weekend when the temple club and the uni club have races against each other. This took place in the back basin. Absolutely no one was in the front basin around the ski shop on sat. afternoon. Just me and one volunteer ski patroller who was stuck at the front basin. We did some chilling and since no one was around, I go to take a couple of runs. Turns out he is from interior British Columbia, strongly suggested I do some skiing out that way.
Sat. night was a bit of a rager with a good feed and all the staff and club critters parting through the night. Sun I again worked in the rentals shop. Same as before, not to much business but a bit. Mid day I got relief so that I got to go out and take some runs. I took a nice long one from the top of bill's basin to the lodge. It was some great spring snow with smooth heavy wet snow. It was an extremely warm weekend. I was pretty sad to be leaving Temple Basin. I'm not sure if ill make it back up there this season. I really enjoyed my time up there, it is by far one of the greatest places anyone could every want to be or ski. Everyone up there strongly encouraged me to take a true season up there and live at least one season there. working up there definitely gained myself some respect among everyone up there. As soon as everyone knows your name, it seems like its time to say goodbye. I may get a chance to get up there in the summer. The club pres. talked to me a bit about coming up over the summer to help renovate the lodge. In exchange they hook you up with food and a bed. Plus you get to be in the mountains, what else could you ask for. I will def. follow up with him on that.
Anyways, spring is in full force here. Shorts and t-shirts type of weather. Everything is growing and its almost always sunny. I will go skiing at least one day this weekend. Just as I worried the following weekend I am obligated to go on my volunteer trip to quail island. It may be the last weekend of skiing and I'll have to miss it. It looks like the ski season is winding down fast with this warm weather, but the kiwis encouraged me that the unpredictable NZ weather may still have another dump in store, guess we will just have to wait and see. Either way I have started to think of other things such as the great salmon and trout fishing that is in store for me.
This is my second journal entry for my study abroad class at AU.
The past 2 weeks was holiday from university.My original plan was to go skiing for the majority of the holiday.Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with me and it rained almost every day.This trapped me in two of New Zealand’s most touristy towns, Wanaka and Queenstown, waiting for better weather.During this wait I did get a day of skiing in which resulted in broken equipment.I went into many different ski shops trying to find a good deal on a new binding.Although most shops felt my pain of needing a cheap but quality deal, few were willing to provide one.I was looking for New Zealand hospitality in a money making tourist town.I finally compromised with one guy who agreed to install used bindings for 100 dollars, I tried to cut a deal with cash, no luck, I tried to get a base tune included, no luck.Nobody seemed to care about anything but making as much money as possible.When I went to get the skis the next day I was pleasantly surprised.I received brand new bindings comparable to what I already had, and he tuned the bases all for the agreed price.I was confused as to why he was so unwilling to compromise before but in the end, really helped me out.Maybe the kiwi’s in Wanaka weren’t as business oriented as I thought.
I though Wanaka was a tourist town but discovered I was mistaken once I saw Queenstown.The city does not feel like New Zealand at all.It is full of ever tourist activity possible.It is considered the adventure capital of the world but at a cost.The streets are just packed with ways to spend your money.It has the high end shopping some people look for.Heaps and heaps of outdoor apparel and equipment shops just waiting to convince unaware tourist that they need better things.And it has more travel agencies and activity organizing desk then I think anyone would ever need.Every hostel can book every activity right from the front desk, or you can just walk out the door and there are at least five different companies that could also organize the same activities.All at insanely high prices.It is very hard to run into any kiwis in Queenstown.Most all the people in the city are tourist looking for adventures.A large majority of the people working in the city are not kiwis either.Many young people take working holiday for a year or longer in Queenstown.I don’t know how anyone could live in a city that seems to be so far away from a real life and stuck in vacations mode all the time.It is no wonder that almost every kiwi I know hates Queenstown.Maybe I am become a true kiwi now that I have been there, and never want to go back.
After giving up on skiing I went on a road trip around southland, the Catlins, and the west coast.I made it appoint to stay out of major cities and try to be off the tourist grid as much as possible.Still, I found that most towns try to have some sort of tourist attractions.Ever since wool prices have decreased in New Zealand, people need to find a way to boast the economy.They do this back attracting as many people from other then New Zealand, because with these people, comes money from other the New Zealand.As soon as I got out of Queenstown I finally ran into the types of kiwi’s I was hoping too.From the nice ladies in the Salvation army, giving us a dollar of the already cheap clothing because we are traveling students who are broke.And the lady who owned a beautiful home in the middle of a sheep farm that was a hostel.This home could have easily been an expensive bed and breakfast, yet she kept some inexpensive dorm beds available for people on a budget.She sat and chatted with us for a good half an hour as we ate dinner.She even apologized for talking so much, she claimed she was just very interested in every traveler she meets.I feel this relates to what I talked about before, in the kiwis are very interested in you because you bring something different to their small little island.I found people on the west coast who also owned extremely nice hostels.They could easily convert them into more expensive hotels, but instead prefer to keep them as hostels so everyone can enjoy them.
I feel that in the smaller towns around New Zealand, although tourist still exist, it is more personal.The people in these towns depend on tourism to stimulate their economy.They know they need you and because of this, they are very grateful for you.They are extremely nice and an interested in you just as much as you them.I feel that places like Queenstown know what your there for, and don’t really need to try to pull you in any more, rather they just bluntly offer whatever you desire.Because of this they have become ungrateful of the tourist and don’t need to strive to be personal.Yet to my surprise I found true kiwi hospitality after all in these tourist spots.At the beginning of my travels I feared that the entire country had turned into a big tourist trap.Now, I know that New Zealand has found a unique balance of utilizing tourism while remaining personal.
The rest of the break went well. Unfortunately the weather never really turned around and I did not get any more days of skiing in. I went to the mountains one day but ended up getting a refund for my lift pass because conditions were poor. After sitting around in 2 different expensive ski towns for a total of 8 days waiting for good snow, it was time to give up. Me Scott and Garrett decided to go on a road trip and out exploring.
We started off heading towards Flordland and Te Anua. We tried to go on a doubtful sounds boat tour the next day, but unfortunately the cheaper one, 140 was booked up. We continued south towards Invercargill and then to bluff. We wanted to take the ferry and stay in Stewart Island for the night but it was 60 one way which just seemed unreasonable. From there we stayed in a really nice house/hostel in the Catlins which we had all to ourselves. It was in the middle of a sheep pasture over looking the ocean. I even got up at 6:30 to watch the sun rise. The next day we continued our adventures, stopping whenever and going on quick tramps to beaches and waterfalls. We eventually stopped in Wanaka for the night.
The following day we drove through the mountains to the west coast. We just relaxed on some beaches and enjoyed the coast. I ended up doing some driving because scott was feeling pretty sick, as where we all. We continued up the coast and ended up staying in Fox Glacier. The next morning was the first really nice day of the whole trip, and of coarse the last day. Me and Scott both went sky diving in the morning which was a real blast. Then I continued to drive us up more of the coast, and then finally through the mountain past back to Christchurch.
A total of 13 days of travel. Althought it didn turn out to be the ski holiday I hoped for, it was still a lot of fun! I enjoyed the adventures and relaxion. Sorry for being so brief, but the pictures will do more justice.
