Blogs from Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 145

Så er rygsækken pakket og klar! Jeg forlod mit værelse på Uni Hall i forgårs og det var noget så mærkeligt. Der er kun gået 2 måneder men en god tilvendingsevne har hurtigt gjort det til et hjem jeg godt kunne komme til at savne her i ferien. Indtil videre har jeg boet i Julies værelse i lejligheden i Ilam Village. Trængt men hyggeligt, og så snart vi har overstået den store oprydning/udsmidning/rengøring begynder den egentlige tur. Planerne er lavet lidt om siden sidst. Da vi alligevel skulle nogenlunde samme vej som Rob, Alex og Alex's søster, som lige er fløjet ind fra England, kunne det være hyggeligt og smart at spare lidt penge ved at køre sammen med dem i "El Commedore". Bare rolig billeder følger snart, for den bil skal bare ses! Første stop ... read more

Who wants to turn 21 in a country where the drinking age is 18! Poor Curtis. But I think we made it a pretty good day. Kate and I made him a cake (I even put in some of my prized Reese's Pieces). We made a picnic lunch and headed out to Summner beach. It was a freakishly warm day in the middle of rain and 10* weather (50'sF). After lying in the sun we headed over the mountain to Taylor's Mistake Beach. I fell in love! This is where I am going to live during some part of my life. It reminded me a LOT of Capitola (one of my fav little places in Cali). The house on the hill, it will be mine someday I swear!! We ended the night by going out to ... read more

Ok, the final verdict was over 50 sandfly bites ( see last entry). I am especially humiliated by the one which came up on the end of my nose ( how did they get away with it?!). Turns out you need DINT in your repellant, not DEET as for mossies. I got it wrong and paid the price. I have a sneaking suspicion they might have even liked the smell of the DEET, if you're gonna do it in style why not just wear an insect attractant...??!! Anyhow, I am now one big walking,talking insect bite which smells of Savlon. Its the only thing which takes away the sting, although admittedly getting easier. I'm now back in Christchurch, sorting out mundanities such as haircuts before I move on to Asia. I had a whistlestop tour of ... read more

Can't believe my time in New Zealand is over :o( Travelled to Mount Cook on Sunday. Would normally have had great views of Mount Cook during the journey, but unfortunately lots of low lying cloud meant we couldn't see much at all. Did the Kea Point track walk and managed to catch occasional glimpses of the mountains. In the afternoon, we went on an organised trip to the Tasman Glacier terminal lake. A half hour walk took us to the lake where we then boarded a small boat. The cloud had lifted so we now had views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman, even if they were against a grey sky. We cruised around the many icebergs floating on the lake. Unlike those in the sea, only ten percent of the iceberg was visible on the ... read more

...well, not quite, sorry. I am in fact in Christchurch, but with my eyes half shut and my head on one side I could have convinced myself I was back: take a look at the pictures. It is not surprising that it is similar; Christchurch or ChCh, as the locals call it, was founded by some Anglican members/fellows of Christchurch (College), Oxford in the middle of the 19th century. I really enjoyed wandering around (and in and out of the Japanese tourists who arrived in swarms) this well-ordered city. It is built on a very Anglican grid system centred around the cathedral. I meandered into what used to be the University of Canterbury, where Rutherford conducted his preliminary experiments into splitting the atom; wandered around the very good Art Gallery; dallied in the Museum of Canterbury; ... read more