Around Town

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Hey everyone! I’m done with classes for the next two and a half weeks! Hooray! Tomorrow morning I’m going down to Waitomo Caves area to work on an organic farm for a little less than a week. : ) It’s through a program called Wwoof - Willing workers on organic farms. www.wwoof.co.nz Someone recommended it to me (thanks, Shelly!), and I thought it’d be a great way to experience a little of the culture and the agricultural community that is so important to New Zealand. I actually think that the people I’m staying with are English instead of New Zealanders. Oh well, they’ve lived here for long enough. I’ll tell you all about my experience when I get back Tuesday.

The next exciting event of break - my dad’s coming Wednesday! Exactly a week from now. He’s living it up and going to Fiji before he gets here - lucky. I’m taking him around Hamilton Thursday, then we’re flying out Friday morning to Christchurch on the South Island. This is the most famous island of New Zealand. It’s where most of the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed - it has amazing mountain ranges, and has a much smaller population than the North Island. We’re starting and ending in Christchurch, and the plan is to see Dunedin, Invercargill and Stewart Island (the southern most points of the country), Queenstown (the adventure capital), and Milford Sound. It’s going to be a jam-packed week.

I don’t have any major adventures to tell you about that have occurred since the last time I wrote. Well, actually…last Thursday night all of us were pretty energetic, and Esther and I decided that we wanted Wendy’s frosties and fries. The only place to get Wendy’s is in Auckland, a little over an hour’s drive away. So we called Brett and he drove us to Auckland at 10:00 Thursday night. We weren’t really planning on staying the night, but that’s what we ended up doing. We got Wendy’s, then drove around Auckland doing random things since Esther had never seen it. It was a pretty fun night. Around 3 in the morning we decided that sleep was more important than driving back to Hamilton, so we parked by the beach and slept in the back of Brett’s car. Had yummy breakfast, saw lots of art galleries, had yummy lunch, then finally drove back to Hamilton. I spent the rest of the weekend writing a paper. Saturday night I took a break, though, and attended the Night Glow, the celebration of the Hamilton Balloon Festival. They had concerts going on, and then they light up a few of the hot-air balloons, then have a fireworks show. Erin and I went with one of my friends from kickboxing and her friends. We set up a picnic and watched the show from across the lake - the balloons were awesome. Unfortunately they couldn’t go up in the air because the wind was too bad. But the fireworks were still good.

This week I went to a production of Seussical the Musical by Hillcrest High School. It was actually really good - I would definitely recommend it if anyone gets the chance to go. I was surprised at how well they did. The performers had really good voices, the costumes looked great, and the orchestra that accompanied them was wonderful. All in all a great show.

Time to go start more adventures now : ), I hope everyone at home is enjoying the weather! It’s getting colder here now. Happy Easter!!

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Comments

[Jan Dodson]

Visit with your Dad
Dear Katherine, You sound as if you are having an amazing time.....I am so happy for you. I spoke with your Dad this morning....he is so excited about seeing you and New Zealand. It will be a grand adventure for the two of you!! Have lots of fun, be safe. I send my love, Jan