Blogs from Canterbury Plains, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

Every now and then, I am reminded as to why not everyone enjoys the dorm-room hostel experience.....and at 3.30am when I awoke to a girl next to me snoring, sounding like a cow, on a train, wielding a chainsaw, this was one of those moments. Projectile-throwing, bashful "do you mind turning over" and a chorus of "Can you SHUT UP PLEASE" from the rest of the dormroom failed to quell her efforts. Truly, a champion of consistency, she kept this up for the 3 nights she spent as our roomate. And so after a champagne breakfast courtesy of Quantas on our flight over, we landed in Christchurch, to temperatures reminiscent of Scandinavia. Woolly gloves and hats were out, and since it wasn't cold enough in the town proper, we decided to visit the Antarctic Centre (Christchurch ... read more

Sunday 23rd July 2006 Did more blogging and went to the Arts Centre as they have a arts, crafts and food market on the weekends. There are food stalls from all over the world - I went for a Souvlaki - very nice! Then watched a man with a tiny dog wearing a pink tutu. The dog was very clever! It had its own little scooter and did all sorts of tricks. When someone threw down a penny it would pick it up and put it in it’s owner’s collection hat. But sometimes it would keep it for itself and put it in it’s own mini hat on the back of it’s scooter LOL was really funny to watch! I got the bus to Methven from the Christchurch Cathedral Square, about two hours later we were ... read more

Hi Everyone- Friday was great, we went rafting and enjoyed a soak in the hot springs in Hanmer. Saturday's highlight was the Oxford A&P show which is the NZ version of Fair. We enjoyed the end of cattle judging, watched the hunter jumper class, and took in some Highland (Scottish) Dancing. Don't worry family--we patronized the beer tent too. Saturday night the Hanning family had team members and host families over for a real New Zealand Barbeque. It was A LOT of fun-I had a lamb chop and bratwurst :-) How multicultural. Today we visited several farms in Ashburton. The most novel was the Alpaca farm which has an extensive Alpaca breeding program--and we help mate two alpacas. I have to commend Cindy on her Alpaca herding abilities. We also visited a large mixed use farm ... read more

Hello If somebody hadn't told me, i would've never thought march was already here. It seems like december was yesterday and i was preparing to set off. I hate the unyeilding force that is time. It can't be reasoned with. So, you don't waste it. Hope everyone is doing great. The weather set in. I left Fjordland and explored the west coast of the south island. i explored the glaciers first. I went up to the Franz Josph Glacier first but too many people and way too commercial. I went back down to the Fox Glacier and was able to explore that valley in peace. The ocean is only 7 miles away from these massive glaciers. They are receding but they still snake down from high up the mighty Southern Alps. I rolled north through the ... read more

I have decided that we are doing the NZ farms and gardens a big favour with our travels. Wherever we go, we bring the rain. We arrive in a new spot, bringing rain. It rains while we are there, and everyone tells us it was fine until now. On the day we leave, the sun comes out, and we drive along baking in the sun. But it clouds over just as we arrive. We had to pass by many interesting things, such as the Moeraki Boulders without spending much time investigating them as our schedule kept us hopping. It seemed like two months would be a nice long time to see NZ but it's not nearly enough! Every New Zealand city has LOTS of walking trails all around it, and Christchurch has even more than most. ... read more