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