Fishing

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.

 

 

 

T

Finals

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/

classes are almost over!

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.

T

School? Snow? Labour?

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!

(check fresh quail island pics.)

ski bum practice

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.

T

Journal Entry #2

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.

Rest of break

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.

holiday check in

holiday has been very very good. Wanaka was amazing. The first day there way 15 cm of fresh powder on the mountian. Got up there nice and early and skied great stuff all day. On the last run of the day I hit a wall ride for the second time. The wall was not buried in the snow far enough and my ski went under the wall instead of over. I completely smashed my binding to hell. I was able to get a replacement in town for only 100 dollars. Still it was an expense I was not expecting.

Second day we went for the most grueling hike ever. About 1200 vertical meters. I can still feel it in my legs. It was extremely hard! Lots of steeps and switch backs.

Third day was rainy so we just recovered. We went to puzzle world which was funny.

Forth day was another 15 cm of fresh snow at Treble Cone. Only the front lift was open for most of the day because of wind closure in the back bowl. At 3 they finally opened the back bowl and we got to ski the fresh in the back for a bit. It was awesome.

Then we drove to queenstown. This place is a zoo. Ways to spend money everywhere you turn! The city is super crowded. We are booked here until Sun. but idk what we will do.

Today was another rainy day. We just kind of hung out. One of my friends went bungee jumping. And we all went alpine lugging. Hopefully we will get to go skiing tomorrow. It all depends on the weather. We wake up early every morning. Check the snow reports, then go from there. With all these storms there should be good snow but who knows. We should have stayed up at treble cone where they got 25 more last night.

I will give a fuller report and pics after holiday but now there is to much to do.

I am hoping to go sky diving sometime soon!

ChCh weekend

This weekend I actually stayed in Christchurch. No adventures to be had. The ski conditions are pretty rough right now so I didn't go skiing at all either.
Thurs night I went to the pool with the kayak club to try to learn how to roll. Being that it was my first time I didn't get it in the hour time we had. I did get pretty close. I will go again sometime this week and maybe ill get it. Either way I had a blast and my instructor was real chill.

Fri. night there was a Canterbury rugby match. My 2 flatmates and I went to the game. Canterbury destroyed Waikato so it was a pretty good match. We met up with 2 of my friends from australearn that go to lincon. Went to my flat after the game for some beverages and a quality fri evening.

Sat. I slept in real late which felt great. It was an awful rainy cold day. Tried to work on some homework but just kinda messed around all day. Sat. night was my mate from ski club 21st brithday. Went to his house for a party. Not tons of people but enough. He also had his family there casue 21st is a big even in NZ. It was really nice. My friend Garrett came with me to the party. He left early though. I don't think there were any other americans there. It was tons of fun and I met tons of people. Ended up catching a ride home with some random people which was good becsue the busses had stopped running. It was a real good night.

Sun. I just woke up late again. Again tried to work on homework but was pretty unpoductive. Did go to watch a soccer game which was cool, although it was still cold and wet out.

This week I need to get my assigments finished up before spring break next week. I have started to make some plans for spring break. Going to wanaka for the first 4 nights, then to queenstown for 3 nights. Then to the west coast for a bit of time. We have 2 weeks off so it should be real chill. Just gonna take it easy and get some time on the mountains skiing. Hoping to get out skydiving on the west coast. I'm going with Garrett, Geoff ( an australearner), and Marc (Garrett's flatmate). Should be a good group of people to travel with.

Ohh I think I found something that maybe an option for me once school ends.
http://www.wwoof.co.nz/
check it out

Timmy

What I live in

Heres a bunch of pics of my room. I cleaned it up today for the first time ever, so I decided to take some photos.


Walking in my door

My desk area

Christchurch metro map

Goals list that we made during australearn orientation


Comic I made during 3 hour UC orientation seminar

My schedule

Heater and my boots drying

Ski stuff and kite

my bed and closet. All my clothes are in the wash right now

I dont use the one sheet. It was over my closet before but now its an entrance to my room. On fri me and my flatemates are going to tie dye our sheets!

Where I do my thinking

The kitchen, that was just cleaned too

My flatmate Mady and her BF eating vegan curry

My flatemates Joe and Chris enjoying a beverage and watching tv

Looking off the balcony. And my building is identical to the one it looks at.

That all

Timmy

Cultural Journal 1

Here is my cultural journal entry 1. I have to do 3 throughout the semester for my AU class. I'm not extremely happy with it. I put a lot of thought into it. My ideas are all over the place and I am probably wrong about what I think.

Isolation. I think the isolation of New Zealand is what influences the country and its people. With a population of only 4 million people, the country should not be very crowded no matter how small. Yet, the cities are crowded. Christchurch holds 300,000 people, crammed into one city. Yet drive 20 min out of the city and there are wide open, practically abandoned fields. Why do the Kiwis choose to crowd into cities instead of taking advantage of the room they have to breath. I think it is a way to try to feel less isolated, to feel close to people. No matter what the reason, the isolation of New Zealand has causes some interesting characteristics of the country.
I relate the Kiwis’ sense of isolation to that of anyone’s when they are stuck at their house. Weather it be a child grounded by his parents, or anyone just stuck at home for a day or two. When someone is trapped in a familiar place for a while they start thinking differently. They get a type of cabin fever. Most Kiwis know the country like the back of their hand. Although to them the country may only be the particular island they live on. South islanders tend to stay down in the wilderness of the south island while north islanders will tend to stay in their familiar north island. There are of coarse plenty of exceptions to this. Kiwis seem to be relatively confident in their knowledge of their island. Although the majority of the island is remote and isolated, to them its just part of their playground. They have been around, they know where everything is. A Kiwi sees the island as not being that big, and that you can’t get too far away from home, no matter how hard you try. And because of this you can’t get in that much trouble. By no means are they careless in the outdoors, however, they are quite comfortable in any situation. Kiwis seem to think, they have seen and tried it all and if they haven’t, they’ll give it a shot. To them anything is worth a try, “hell with the consequences, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” type of attitude. Along with Kiwis trying anything, I have found that most of the time, they simply like to see you try new things. They do not care how good you are at something, but rather that you give forth some effort.
Along with an appreciation of effort, comes a sense of self-reliance. Kiwis are very big on self-reliance. This sense of self-reliance is crucial if you are going to try anything. They see it as, if your capable, then do it, if your not, then know your not and don’t do it. No matter what the adventure, if you think your capable of it, then you can try it out, but in the end, its up to you. When I was cave diving, although I was on a guided tour, you are very much on your own. You were shown how to do it, and what to do, but in the end its up to you to do it right. And there are no piles of paper work or waivers to sign like in the states. It’s just understood that you are responsible enough to make your own decisions. Also, in the ski mountains, a sense of self-reliance is very much present. The lifts are there to help get you to the terrain. Once at the top of the lift it’s your responsibility to figure out what to do. You are allowed to go wherever you want. Your hand isn’t help going down the mountain like it is in the states. If you ask a ski patroller if terrain is open, he’ll tell you if you have an avalanche beacon and know what your doing, go for it, if not, stay away. No one forces you to do anything or stops you from doing much. You have to know what you are capable of and make your own decisions. Similar ideals can be seen once in the lodge at mountain. At the lodge you are not catered too all the time. You are given chores to do around the lodge. Nothing major, just little things like helping prep for dinner or clean the bathroom quick. I have been to the smallest of ski lodges in the states and yet never do they do this, instead they pamper you. In New Zealand they know you are capable of doing something, so why not do it. Cut down on cost and lend a hand, in the end everyone benefits.
Back to Kiwis being isolated and stuck at home an. Like some people stuck at home, you can chose to do a few different things. You can explore your little playground you have in front of you and try to discover or make new thing out of what you already have. Or you can except that it’s all the same, and just chill out. I have noticed that a lot of the young people at my university tend to just chill out. They would rather stay in the city during the weekends and party, rather the go explore or do activities. This partying is quite extensive at times and the government is actually in the process of figuring out how to reduce young peoples drinking habits. High taxes on alcohol have already been put in place and raising the drinking age is being discussed. Not all Kiwis choose to be idle, they have done a fantastic job at making the most of every part of their country. Like a little kid rearranging his room or making a fort out of bed sheets when he is stuck in his room, Kiwis have found a way to make there little island more exciting to them. They love to do extreme sports. They invited bungee jumping and just started jumping off whatever they could. The go in every river possible. Weather with white water kayaks or crazy jet boats. The also like to go far. If a road cant take you wear you want to go, they will simply get a helicopter. Not only do they heli-ski to get to those hard to reach snow caps, they will helicopter in your kayak to get on top of class 6 rapids, or maybe just helicopter you in to hike in really remote locations. They are not afraid to invent new ways to enjoy what they already have.
I can’t be certain if it’s the isolation that causes the Kiwis to act the way they do. I have a hunch it was something to do it with it. No matter what it is they have a definite attitude of anything being possible. This goes with the fact that it is only possible if you make it possible. There is a strong sense of self-reliance here, and with that great or devastating things can occur.

Kayak=>Ski=>Tramp

Its been a really busy last few days. The rest of the week went swell. On Wednesday at the tramping club meeting we heard from a guy who is a white water kayaker. He is advocate against hydro power in NZ. He does not want the rivers to be ruined. Some of the videos he showed of him kayaking were amazing. Anyway also at the meeting was the sign ups for snowcraft which I was hoping to sign up for. Well apparently the club ran out of equipment and the trip was full. With that full, I talked to a guy in the club about going skiing down near Wanka over the weekend. After I signed up for skiing I talked with all the australearners and since they couldn't do snowcraft they were going to do there own trip. Well, being that I don’t really have any friends because I never hang out with anyone because I’m always skiing, I decided to take the weekend off from skiing and go tramping with the australearners. I emailed the tramping club letting them know that I wasn't going skiing anymore. I still got a call on Thursday night to be ready to go skiing on fri. morning. I told the dude I had to canceled and he told me he had a feeling I will bail. Pretty messed up but whatever, ill never sign up to go on a trip with him again!

On Thursday I went sea kayaking with University of Canterbury Canoe Club (UCCC). I'm not sure why they're the canoe club when all they do is white water kayak. Anyways, they don't use sea kayaks in the sea, but rather the little play boats for whitewater. Being that its still winter and the water is freezing, I borrowed a wetsuit from my buddy. He uses it to surf in Jersey all year round so it was super warm, I was actually a little hot in it. When we got to the beach the waves were pretty flat. Good for me because I don’t know what I’m doing, bad for everyone else. As soon as I got in the little boats I realized how different they are from anything I’ve paddled before. Super tipsy and not very smooth through the water. I tried to catch a few waves but got knocked over almost every time. Since the boats have skirts on them and I don't know how to roll I had to bail every time I flipped. Then I had to lug a boat full of water back to shore, empty it out, and start again. We did that for about 2 hours. I don't think I got much better by the end but I still had a lot of fun. I have to do some rolling sessions in the pool pretty soon and then maybe I will have better luck.

Thursday night I just couldn't stomach the idea of not skiing over the weekend. I had received an email from a dude in the snow sports club about going skiing on fri. I had already talked to my math teacher about getting the notes for fri. lecture and decided to see if the guy still had room in his car for fri. He did and the pick up was set for 7:30 am. I went to bed early on Thursday night since I was exhausted from kayaking all day and wanted to be ready to go skiing. I even had set aside some sausages to bring up the mountain because my neighbors told me that this mountain, Broken River, had a grill outside that anyone could use to cook something up for lunch. Well at 7:50 am on fri. morning I was awoken by a text from the ski dude saying "you had your chance, im leaving now". I immediately text him back saying that I slept through all my alarms and that I was sorry, he had already waited 20 min for me. He text me back saying he wasn't in too much of a rush and could wait 10 min if I could get my stuff together. I sprinted around getting ready and was in his car in 10 min. We got to the mountain and were skiing by about 10. I asked him if he wanted to take the first run together and we ended up skiing together all day. He was an older guy, 35, studying his PhD in environmental engineering. He even knew what ceramic engineering was. He was lived in Alaska for 7 years before moving to NZ 4 years ago. I had tons of stuff to talk to him about. The skiing was a little chopped up but it was still soft powdery. Some pretty good skiing and way better then being in the city. It was really tiring conditions and we called it a day about 3. We chatted the entire way back and all together it was a really good day.

Fri. night I took it easy because sat. morning we were leaving at 8am to go tramping. The tramping club organized a van for us and we drove 3 hours north to a trail head. From there it was about 5km tramp into the hut. The hut system in NZ is really cool. They're just little huts with some sleeping pads on a bunk, a table, fire stove, and cooking area. No power of coarse. The hut we went to could sleep 10, we brought 7. When we got there 1 pack was already there but no people. Most of us just laid out in the sun and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I set up my hammock and took an amazing nap. Eventually a hunter showed up. He was the owner of the pack. A 34 year old NZ dude. He chatted with us and was pretty cool. Then as evening approached a family of 5 showed up. That put 13 people in a 10 person hut. We said no worries and was going to make it work. The family of 5 slept on the bottom with the hunter while the 7 of us cuddled up on 5 mats.

We stayed up as late as we could, about 11 around a fire outside. The stars were amazing. In the morning we just hung out. Some of us went down to a nearby creek. It really reminded me of home. It was a nice place to just sit and relax. At about 1 we headed back down the van, both other groups had already left. When we got there and all packed up to leave, we turned the key and the van wouldn't start. Dead battery or something. With no cell service it was a bit of a scare. Then after about 5 min Dan jumped in the driver seat to just give it a try. What do you know it worked, Christmas miracle I guess. The drive home was uneventfully.

Its now sun. night. I have my first engineering test on tues. I am going to spend all day studying tomorrow. Mid semester break is only 2 weeks away. I need to make some plans this week! Ill worry about that after my test.

Timmy

check for new pics and ill put up more of me as I get them from my friends.

kite

I went to the beach in New Brighton with Garrett yesterday to fly my kite. With someone else it is a lot easier to fly. It turns out the strings have to be the same length! Crucial detail I did not have the first day. I want to get into extreme kitting but power kites are really expensive.



Check picasa for more sweet pics and some video too.

This week I have quite a bit of homework. My material eng. class is hard and I have a test next week. My Maori test on mon. went OKAY it will be interesting to see what type of grade I get. I got an invite to one of the ski club members 21st b day party in 2 weeks so that should be a good time. I think im going to go surfing later this week. Its only 20 buck for 2 hours. Its so cheap becasue its the winter but they give you a really good wet suit and everything so it should be pretty sweet. One of my friends surfs a lot so he said he can teach me. Thats all for now.



Heres a sweet pic I put together!

Timmy

what you wish for

The rest of the week went well. I didn't get to do any rolls with the kayaks cause all the spots were booked up. There are public rolling lessons every mon. night that I can go to for $5, I might do that sometime soon. Thurs. afternoon I was stuck in my room doing homework on a beautiful afternoon. I got a bit done so I figured Id go to the beach to relax and watch the sun set. I ended up getting there a bit late but it was still nice. As I a sat on the pier I realized how nice the breeze was and that I needed a kite. I on fri after my one class I found a kite on trade me (NZ ebay) for 8 bucks. I bought that right up and waited for the buyer to contact me. I went to the lib to finish that homework. I even asked some kiwis for some help cause I saw them doing the same stuff, they weren't very useful, I don't think they wanted to talk to me, oh well. Anyways I handed that hw in and went back home. The kite owner was going to be at there house for the rest of the day for me to come get it. I jumped on the bus and picked it right up. As soon as I got it I went to the beach to try it out. Its a stunt kite with 2 strings, kind of hard to fly. After about 3 hours of trying and untangling stings, I was starting to get the hang of it. I could use a 2nd person to help me lunch it. Anyways once the sun set I put the kite away and walked up the beach. I walked from the bottom tip of southshore to new brighton. It took a few hours but it was really nice to be on the beach at night when no one else was around.

This is a nice map of the city. I live in Ilam which is left of center.

Sat morning was off to go skiing at Temple Basin again, this time with the Canterbury University Snow Sports Club (CUSS). When we got to the goods lift it was kind of raining which was a bummer. The goodlifter assured us that I was nice at the top above the clouds. I was kind of worried about conditions because a guy I talked to on fri. night said it was raining at temple earlier that day. Anyways when we got to the top of the mountain I soon realized it was going to be a sweet day. It was partially cloudy but there was fresh powder. About 7cm of fresh, the only problem was that it was on top of a pretty slick icy crust. Anyways downhill basin was more or less untouched. I skied back there with one of the other CUSS members for the rest of the morning. Eventually the patrols got done blasting Bills basin which is where I took some good runs last weekend. We took a run through bills basin to get back to the lodge for lunch. Since it had just opened we where one of the first through there. It was some absolutely amazing skiing!! After lunch I headed back out to do some more skiing in bills. Did a quick hike to get more elevation. Had and absolutely mint run but the visibility started to get rough. The weather had moved back in and it was snowing with real flat light. I had no dept perception and was going all over the place. Since visibility was so poor I called it a day about 3:30.


We then just sat around the lodge and hung out till 7 for dinner. After dinner there was some prizes awarded for 80s outfits. Then we went out for some night skiing. It was still snowing so there was even more fresh powder. Only the front basin is open for night skiing but with all the wind blowing there was some amazing snow drifts to jump around on. A super fun night. We skied until 10. Back in the lodge the night was just beginning. The club had brought up a disco ball and sound system just for the party. Besides the 25 or so CUSS members, other people from the top lodge came down to socialize. It was still snowing outside and everyone was just pumped for a mint day on sun, not to mention it was great party!

Sun morning I woke up late to still more snow. All the basins where closed except for the front main one. We built a little kicker into some powder but visibility was just no good. We ended up going in pretty early. It was a bummer that we couldn't ski because the visibility was so poor.

We just kind of slowly picked up and packed up, had some lunch, then hiked down the hill. Because of no skiing on Sun we payed less cause of no lift tickets, but still I would have rather had a day of clear skies and powder skiing. We had to leave the mountains with tons of powder but we just couldn't wait the storm out. It will probably be storming for the next few days. If it doesn't turn into rain there will be some amazing skiing up there come mid week.

I didn't take many pics because I got many good ones last week. On the website there are a few pics of the lodge to check out. I have a test on Mon. but after that I am free all day. I may go to the beach to fly my kite some more. I need to decide what to do next weekend still. Either go skiing with CUSS again, or go with the tramping club for snowcraft which teaches winter survival skills. I promised my roommates that after ski season I will be around on the weekends more. Still we do a lot of bonding mid week.

Oh, on fri night the dude that told me about the rain at temple was at my place and we where discuss skiing with my roommate. I was saying how I liked to ski in the snow because it feel wintry. Nothing like being in the trees while its dumping. My roommate was saying how its better to have blue skis after a heavy storm. I guess I got my wish answered and got do some skiing in the snow, unfortunately it also stopped me from even more skiing. be careful what you wish for I guess

T