Right now I am between classes sitting once again in the library but this time on a sweet bean bag!
It was a pretty good week overall. Exploring campus mixed with classes and free sausages. There was also the club fair on Tuesday and Wednesday which was intense. There was tons of loud music and join our club get ___ free! But unlike American clubs, here you have to pay money to join the club. So I joined the kayak club and the tramping club. Hopefully they’ll both be worth it. But I think so.
Thursday we had a Butler activity. The scavenger hunt part was pretty lame, but the dinner was pretty awesome. We went to a really nice Thai restaurant. It was great; they just kept bringing out plate after plate after plate. It was family style eating so we all got to try a bunch of dishes. It beef curry was amazing as was the prawn pad Thai.
After I got back to my flat around 9:45, my flatmates accosted me saying that we were all going out. Apparently the one bar in town, the Yellow Cross, has a bus that goes around and picks people up for 2.50 and drops them off right by their bar with a free drink coupon. So off we went with a throng of people running to catch this ‘magical’ bus. The Yellow Cross was actually really cool. There was the main floor where they had a restaurant type place and the second floor had a fire place, porch and dance area with a live cover band. The bar was nice, but there were some people trying to make trouble so we left and went across the street to a bar called Fat Eddies. Fat Eddies was heaps nicer atmosphere wise and music wise. There was a great jazzy band with a killer front singer. We spent a majority of the night there until the band ended around 2.
Friday was a day off for me, I didn’t have any classes which was awesome. So I decided to go pick up my bike. This is where the day gets interesting. I got there alright, but the bike was not what I expected. It was advertised as a refurbished mountain bike with new paint job. What I got was an old 80’s bike with mud guards, 4 speeds, no suspension and its new paint job was acrylic paint. Awesome. Not really though, so I road back to Christchurch getting lost on the way. But no big deal, I still finally got my bike. I took an hour and walked around the square and finally made my way to the bus exchange to meet up with some people for another day at Taylors Mistake. While waiting for the bus, a nice middle aged Maori woman started to talk with me. Turns out she knows my profs at uni because she has her masters in Maori and Japanese. Very cool.
Then the Number 3 to Sumner finally pulled up and I walked up with my bike. The driver looked at me and said ‘you can’t get a bike on here, meet me at the next stop’. I asked him and was hardly able to decipher what he mumbled at me. I must have looked awfully forlorn because the lady I was talking to said that she would just walk me to the next stop. Luckily she was with me, because the stupid drive told me the wrong street and I would have been super lost because he was 4 blocks off with his directions. Needless to say, I couldn’t walk 12 blocks with the lady faster than a bus, so I had to wait for the next one. I eventually got to the beach. It was a great day weather wise, but we ended up not going swimming. So back we hiked.
Getting back on the bus was way easier, but once we got to the exchange, the drive told me to get off and meet him at the stop after the exchange! Why did no one tell me this rule of no bikes in the exchange?! I even asked the lady at the bus info desk. Sigh. So once again, off I rode into the distance. I will have to say that it is fun riding on the street with cars and busses; I was actually keeping pace with cars at time! But this joy was short lived and I got very very lost. I must have asked a half dozen people where the bus exchange was. Either I was asking the wrong people, or people from Christchurch have an awful sense of direction. But finally I saw the crazy wheat statue and realized that I was neat the exchange, now to find the next stop.
Then I started to feel my rear tyre rubbing against the mud guard. It was getting worse and worse with every meter I travelled when finally it jammed jerking me to a sudden stop. There was no moving that wheel, I had no idea what had happened nor did I possess the necessary tools. I looked at my watch, 10 minutes until the car came to Ilam to pick me up with other people for this international student dinner. I sat for a few moments looking at my sad bike when I just threw up against the Christchurch hospital sign, chained it, wrote a quick note which I weaved through the spokes and headed off down the road towards school. I finally got to where the dinner was at 6:10 in all my sweaty bathing suit glory. Outstanding.
Started off Saturday nice and early for my first tramp! I had met a bunch of Kiwis at a picnic earlier in the week, and we were all invited for a tramp which we readily took up. The group ended up to be 18 people! Crazy. So Saturday morning we all piled into a few cars and a huge van for a two and a half hour drive north to the outreaches of the Canterbury region. The drive was beautiful and there were a few times where you really felt like you were in the Lord of the Rings movies. We were headed up to the area around Lewis Pass to the Nina trail. The plan was to hike to the Nina Trail Hut, dump our gear and then continue up to Devilskin Saddle.
Over the entire tramp was a great first tramp. Moderately difficult at time when we were climbing up the side over trees and boulders. But very enjoyable indeed. The forest appeared to be a secondary birch forest, and there were so many varieties of moss and lichens. It had the appearance of a very old forest that you could find in the old country. There were many streams and small waterfalls. In New Zealand, even the high streams are clear and teal. The one river was seemed to be at least 14 feet deep in places. Some of the group were jumping and swimming in the water holes. It was a bit cool for me, but it looked so nice. I believe that there were some trout in the river which surprises me, people must fish here.
Once we got to the hut, I decided to hang back with two other girls to take our time up to the Devilskin. A bunch of the guys decided they were going to trail run it. Insane! The trail ended up being almost straight up and took them 2 hours, I don’t know how they did it, but they did. I really enjoyed being able to wander, take pictures and generally enjoy myself. We never made it up to the saddle, but it was fine with us. We did have a little friend though, 'Peter' the bird was a little bird that followed us a lot while we were hiking.
We returned to the hut before everyone and I was very pleased with my first tramp, thinking that I had done very well. But as we went into the hut, we saw that there were two other families there. A 5 year old girl had just finished the same trail I had. There went my ego, straight down for sure. There was also a 7 year old, a 2 year old (carried in a pack) and two 10 year olds. I had been showed up for sure.
The next day the hike down was pretty simple, we made it back much faster. This was good because I had my first cricket match that night at 6! It was a twenty20 game of the New Zealand Blackcaps versus the Australians. Can anyone say rivals? Apparently, cricket is to Australia as hockey is to Canada (as we all saw at the Olympics, crazy hockey match I must say). To top it off, the Aussies were undefeated and NZ was only ranked about 5th in the world.
I went into the game not really knowing anything, but with the help of the guys, I had it figured out mostly by the end. The game was absolutely insane! I sat in the student section which was called the Tui section after a very very popular beer. So you can imagine how insane it was. People we dressed up, and the chants they had were certainly not the most child appropriate. But in New Zealand, swearing is as common as saying hey. Even the 12 year olds in front of me partook in the chants. But anyway, the game. It was crazy! We were up to bat first with the Aussies bowling first. We scored 215. Then the Aussies were up. And we tied! Ties are not common in cricket at all, very rare indeed. The Aussies were up to bat first; we only need 7 to beat them. And we did it! The Aussies messed up giving us an extra bowl, but we didn’t need it because we scored 8 by the 3rd bowl! It was a spectacular win and upset. The stadium went absolutely crazy. So much fun. I don’t’ think that there will ever be a cricket game like that ever.
This weekend I’m going to Auckland vs Canterbury Rugby game followed by the lantern festival. Hopefully I’ll find something else to do on Friday and Sunday. Kinda stinks that the Rugby game is in the middle of the weekend. Oh well. Time to go do my course readings!
Ka kite!
PS, you can see all of the pictures that I wish I could post on my Facebook. I made it so everyone can see :)
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