December 30th It most definitely did not feel like Christmas here in Wellington. All of my life I have been used to the small town, snowy, cold Christmas. Here, it was almost the opposite. Aside from the small Christmas tree in the downstairs foyer, there were no decorations, no Christmas carols, and no presence of family and friends. Well, maybe there were friends, but not the familiar faces that I would normally see at the Christmas party back in Maine. Walking through a busy city on a warm and sunny Christmas day is not a typical Christmas for me. However, no day here is really "that" bad. Of course, I had to work the bar on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but it wasn't too bad. We just sat back and drank a little and had ... read more

Arrival - September 29th It is a sigh of relief to be back here in Wellington. Traveling around for a while, and working at the Military Base was fun, but it is definitely good to be back here with my friends. I got back a few hours ago. Met up with Richard and Yash, saw some other friends, and made some dinner. I missed cooking so much. When I was traveling around I didn't cook that much. Before, when I was in Wellington, I was cooking all the time, so it was fun to get in the kitchen again. I made us Seared Chicken Thighs with a Mushroom Cream Sauce, Mashed Pumpkin, and Asparagus with Grilled onions. Weird Wild Stuff... I had to say bye to the friends I made at the Military Base today. I ... read more

September 7th We took a bus to Christchurch from Wanaka. The ride passed by Lake Tekapo and Mt.Cook, so we had some great scenery along the way. It was the amazing. I really wish that we could have taken that trip with a car so we could stop and get some pictures, because they probably would have been the best scenic pictures taken. There were places where the lake water was a bright blue, with surrounding ice capped mountains. It would have been great photo opportunities. The bus ride was about 7 hours from Wanaka, and we got into a hostel as soon as we got here. We spent one night here about three or four weeks before, when we were traveling from Wellington to Dunedin. The city seems much different than what I remember. ... read more

August 24th Today was a day to remember. We woke up and it was extremely nice out, so we decided to use the opportunity of good weather to have a little tourism day. Considering the fact that we hadn't wandered far from the hostel since being in Dunedin, it was great to get out into the fresh air and experience the different aspects of the city that had since been unseen by us. Our afternoon started with a relaxing walk along St. Clair’s Beach, where there were many photo opportunities. Getting there was an easy 5-6 minute bus ride which brought us directly to our destination along the beach walkway. We spent just under an hour walking around, looking at the ocean, and appreciating the excellent weather that we've been missing. When we made our ... read more

August 8th Well, I'm in Christchurch at the moment. Today I got up and rented a car, and we took the Ferry from Wellington to Picton. Then we drove about 5 hours down the east coast and ended up in Christchurch. Now I am just sitting in an internet cafe relaxing. It's about eleven o'clock. We just had dinner in a Korean/Japanese restaurant. It was pretty good. Also, we walked around for a while and scoped out some possible things to see tomorrow. There was a box that we walked by earlier that said something like "chess can be played from 9am to 6pm" or something like that. It looks like you can play chess on the cement, so that looks cool. I am about to go to bed now. We are staying in a hostel ... read more