And… Done!

It’s now about 7pm here, and I’m stoked to say that I’ve been done with classes for about 2 hours now!

We get a week off, and then head into 2 weeks worth of finals. I don’t finish until the 27th, but I’ve got a bunch of free time until then. For this coming week before my first exam (the 19th), we’re going up to Castle Hill for some sweet bouldering (where I’m going to send a V7 sit start to a V5 problem called Dominatrix), and then after that, some sort of road trip will ensue from Wednesday onwards. Haven’t figured out the details yet (or the big picture really), but it should prove to be good fun. Maybe sometime soon I’ll start posting up some pictures from the mid semester break when my folks were out here. Until then, happy winter to you all out there!

Easter Break P3

Further continuing my story from the second part, the next day we woke up and headed out to Wharariki Beach right at the northern tip of the southern island. It’s about an hour drive beyond Takaka where we’d been based, and then after that you need to walk about 20 minutes, but it’s well worth the walk for the beach, which many people claim to be one of the best beaches in all of New Zealand. It was an absolutely perfect day for the beach, nary a cloud in the sky. Enough words, let’s see some pics…

We even got to see some seals, one of whom was surfing the wave!

We did some dune jumping, which is always good fun, even if not the best thing for the dunes (we didn’t do it that much really, anyways).

After spending a few hours at Wharariki beach that morning, we left and headed off to the sea cliffs at Pohara. We did some pretty relaxed climbs, as we were all feeling quite relaxed and not in the mood for anything really trying. I lead two climbs, a 15 (5.8) and a 16 (5.9). Nothing whatsoever challenging, but a great amount of fun none the less. After that, my buddy wanted to jump on a juggy overhanging 22 (5.11a) called Flexestentialism, and I soon thereafter changed my mind about not doing anything hard that day.  After he got up there, I asked him to leave the rope for me to top rope, as I didn’t think I could fully lead it, being fairly tired from the previous day. Well, I managed to do it in one go, which I was quite impressed with. Anyways, the first picture is me starting a lead on one of the easy routes, while the second one is myself on Flexestentialism.

Climbing until it was basically dark again, we headed back to the Hang Dog campground right next to Paynes Ford. We were originally planning on going off to Nelson Lakes and camping there, but ended up staying at Hang Dog mainly due to the time, so we set our tent back up again.

After spending the night, we woke up early, and got on our way back to Chch, a ~6hour drive that needed to get done that day as we needed to get our rental car back while the place was still open.

There you have it, folks. The final installment of my Easter break journey. Waaay too late, but better late than never! I’ll try to post more and more frequently, but I seemingly always see that. I’ll believe it myself when I see it. Until then, may you all have happy adventures!

Easter Break P2

So, continuing my story from the first part, we finished up at Abel Tasman and Marahau, and headed north into the Golden Bay. It’s only 50km to Takaka, but it takes about 1h to drive it. In short, the road is really ridiculous and twisty and curvy and what not. After going over the Takaka Hill (the crazy section of road), we made our way to the Hang Dog Climber’s Campground. The Hangdog is one of the coolest places I’ve been to in a good while, and a great little hippie hang out. We got there towards the evening, set up camp, ate a little bit, and then hung out with a bunch of friends that we were meeting up with there.

The next day, the climbing began! The Hangdog is conveniently located about 2 minutes walk away from Paynes Ford, one of, if not the best location for some sport climbing in the south island. It’s all limestone, and great quality limestone at that. Sweet as. Did some leading that day, as well as some top roping, and it was a good time for all. Don’t have too many pics from the climbing that day, but here we go.

The first three are from this super fun and pumpy 22 (.11a) that I top roped (as I didn’t think I could lead it, and the first bolt was rather high) called Go With The Flow. As I said, it was super fun, really pumpy, very technical, and had an awesome tufa on it.

Easter Break P1

Howdy folks, sorry for the lack of updates (really this time, I am), it’s just that the past three weeks have been my mid term holidays, and before that I had a work filled week and a half, preceded by the Easter Holidays. So, in order to catch up, I’m going to start back with the Easter Holidays, and go at it from there. The TR from the Easter Trip will be broken up in a few sections to basically get some stuff up as soon as possible. So, without any further ado, here we go…

The Easter Holidays were on March 21-25, and this being a fairly substantial chunk of time, I decided that a road trip was in order. Not having a car (more on that another time), I rented out some tiny piece of shit car with a buddy of mine, and early on the 21st, we were off, heading away towards Abel Tasman National Park. Before even leaving Chch, we picked up a German hitchhiker who was heading towards Hanmer Springs. It was interesting to talk with him, we found out that he was basically doing a round the world trip, and that such trips are fairly common for Germans to be doing. We stopped in Hanmer and get lunch there after dropping this guy off, and then proceeded on our way towards Abel Tas.

The driving is really nice, and quite pleasant, especially as there aren’t that many cars out there on the roads. The road its self goes over Lewis Pass, and travels through some great country with some gorgeous freestone rivers running through it.

Bummer, eh?

So, this weekend I did… nothing.  Yes, nothing.  However, that’s not how it was planned out.

I ended up deciding to go on an overnight tramping (backpacking) trip in Arthur’s Pass, with a friend of mine (as opposed to trying to get to the Wild Foods Festival in Hokitika).  However, transportation basically bailed out on us, and we were stuck in Chch, with our packs, not even heading towards Arthur’s Pass.  So we very reluctantly gave up on that idea, as there wasn’t enough time left in the day, and just went back to our respective flats at the uni.  I do suppose it was a good shakedown for future trips, but at the same time, it was quite a bummer, frankly.  We were both  ready, geared and stocked up, and really wanting to just spend a night out in the bush, but alas, such was not our luck.  This whole event though has pushed me even further towards really strongly considering buying a car here.  That’s another issue for another time though.

After spending an hour or two just relaxing, I spent some time in the late afternoon and early evening wandering about downtowne Chch.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so nothing to show the world from that adventure. We wandered about some of the shops, and stopped at another café, where I got yet another excellent shot of espresso (a short black, as it’s called in the local lingo).  Speaking of espresso, I simply want to comment on the fact that I have yet to have a bad cup of coffee here in NZ, and rarely have I had just a good cup of coffee.  It’s always been great or excellent cups of coffee.  The retailers in the states could really learn something here.

Later on, we ate in a Mexican restaurant, which was the first time since I was in Jackson, Wy (back in late Jan / early Feb) that I’d had any Mexican food.  And boy was it delicious.  I had some vege taquitos and a strawberry Margarita, both of which were delicious (I’m aware that I already said it, I just want to underline the point, so to speak).  Went back to the uni for a bit, and then ended up going out on the towne for a bit in the evening.  We went into some Irish bar called The Bog, and hung out there for a while.  They had a good cover band playing, and a good time was had by all.

Otherwise, life around here is great.  School is going well, I’m about at the point were I’m going to have to start doing some work, as the assignments are just starting to get dolled out, so that’s a bummer, but such is life.  Anyways, I suppose taht after all’s said and done, I’m actually here to study…  Outside today, it’s absolutely gorgeous,which was quite a change from what I was expecting.  It was a bit cool this morning, and the skies were really ominous, with what I thought to be threats of rain, but as the day has gone on, it’s gotten nicer and nicer.  Right now, it’s 23° and sunny, nary a cloud in the sky.  I’d go for a run, but I’m still feeling somewhat sickly, so I might head out to check out the Ilam Gardens, which are only a 2-3 minute walk from my flat.

On tap for this weekend: Castle Hill, with the climbing club.  I’m quite excited, and I’m sure it’ll be an awesome time.

Seriously, Just Try

To tell me that this salad doesn’t look awesome?  Seriously.

That would be: feta and herb cheese, sautéed mushrooms and capsicum (bell pepper), corn, cherry tomatoes and greens.

When In New Zealand

So, today at the beach some people decided that they wanted to try surfing.  I was rather skeptical, but I figured it was only $20 and it couldn’t be that bad.  If nothing else, I’d get a silly picture of myself in a wetsuit.

Well, a few hours later and I was getting it! (Sort of).  I really impressed myself as I figured it’d be a miserable failure, but I was able to stand up on the board a number of times and actually surf.  I have to say it was great fun, and I can see why people become surf bums.  It was a lot of effort.  Here’s a shot of myself on land, I couldn’t really say if anyone took any pictures while I was actually surfing as evidence, but I promise, I did actually surf.  Also, I know, the picture looks goofy.  Yea yea yea.

Cheers!

Towards The Hills

So over friday night and saturday we (the group studying here through IES) went up towards the southern alps to a small town called Springfield and spent the night there. The next day we did some adventuring in the area, or at least tried to though the bad weather.

First Day In Chch

So, on the first full day here in NZ we commenced with the orientation by going downtown into Christchurch and looking around. Forgoing the rain (which at times was not just rain but a downpour) and the fact that I had no raincoat, etc, it was really nice. The city centre is gorgeous, and the botanical gardens, where we had lunch, are incredible. I really want to go down there sometime when it’s not pouring outside. One of the interesting things I learned on this short walk was that trees here have been shown to grow twice as fast as anywhere else.

I only got a few pics because it was rainy and what not, but I’m sure there will be more latre.

Curiously Empty

So here are a few pics of my room here in Ilam Village at the Uni. of Canterbury. So far, it’s been treating me well. It’s a nice place. [Updated with pics]