Cave Stream and Narnia

Dec 27: We went back to Castle Hill because my friend Erin had never been there. On the way we passed through Springfield. Yes, they used to have a giant Simpson's Donut, but someone thought it was ugly and burned it down. So Erin and I took pictures with the giant tire that the town put up in its place. The plaque below the tire said that it was the baby donut and would remain unnamed until the Mom donut came back. We climbed around and I banged my knee so hard that it pooled blood underneath the bandage. Then we drove to Narnia. Well we drove to the place where they filmed the big battle in the huge field against the White Witch. We couldn't see the area because it's on private land but we could barely make out the edge of the valley. I took some pictures in front of the valley where I was pretending to hold a sword.

Then I donned a wetsuit, my vibram five finger shoes, a headlamp and my camera in a dry sack. Erin and Gordon just put on old shoes, old clothes and headlamps. We wandered down to the entrance of the Cave Stream. This is the under a mountain walk where you enter one side and walk all the way through a 362m cave. The water was a little chilly, but I would have been fine even if I hadn't been wearing a wetsuit.

When we first entered the cave it was a little intimidating because the stream drops down a waterfall. You have to crawl along the edge with a chain to hang onto and then you get to a ledge. There are metal bolted rungs that you have to climb down and then slide into the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. It's pretty dark at this point, but you still have a little light from the entrance. Then you can follow the stream to the other end of the cave. The water level varies from ankle to knee high. There are pools in some some areas that are about waist deep. You can also climb into different caves that shoot off in all directions like left, right, up and down. Every now once in awhile I'd lose everyone and mildly freak out by myself. Once their light is gone and your headlamp is the only thing you see, it's a little eerie and makes you feel completely alone even if they happen to be just 5 feet around the bend. It's pretty loud and sounds like rushing water and you have to almost yell to hear each other because the rushing water just echoes on the cave walls.


At one point there was a tiny little opening that Gordon said Leyla, our other housemate, had climbed through and gotten out at another point along the stream. So of course I decided it would be brilliant if I tried it. This was a very tiny hole, just small enough to fit my shoulders through. Erin decided it was too small for her to get through. I really should have thought a little more about the situation before I literally dove head first down the cave. Leyla is super small and skinny and very flexible. She does yoga and has been climbing for 6 years. I contemplated all of this while I was worming my way through a cave that seemed to be growing smaller and smaller as I moved forward. After climbing into the hole, I made Erin wait at the entrance while I crawled forward in case I had to back my way out. This would have been nearly impossible because at one point I had to crawl down a 1 foot drop. I can't imagine trying to crawl back up it backwards. At the end I saw Gordon's light and was slightly relieved until I realized that I couldn't move. There was a really tight spot that pinned both my arms to the sides of my body. I had to hold my camera/dry bag in my teeth like a pirate as I shimmied forward. There was also a build up of mud and sand which freaked me out because it made the end of the tunnel very very tight. Then the crux of the crawl came after I had wiggled my arms free. The very end required you to crawl forward and follow the tunnel in a complete 180 around a thin rock wall. So at one point my feet and arms were pointed in the same direction with my torso bent in a U shape around a rock barrier. I yelled to Gordon and Erin a lot while I was crawling through this tunnel because my biggest fear was getting stuck and having them not know I was stuck. Eventually I made it through, completely covered in mud and slightly shaken. I decided not to go solo caving anymore after that. We all climbed up a bunch of different tunnels and explored as many as we could reach. 

We made it to the end and had to wade through water up to our chest. It was really shocking and cold so I yelped. Outside was a rock valley and a continuation of the stream into a river. The wind had picked up and kept us made us cold so we turned around and went back through the Cave Stream. On the way out instead of climbing up the metal rungs we decided to climb up the waterfall. It was scary, but it was a more challenging and more interesting feat. The Cave Stream was a lot of fun and a unique experience. Every now and then we'd all stop and turn off our headlamps   in the hopes of seeing glow worms. We didn't have any luck, but it made me feel like an intrepid explorer. I didn't see anyone else in the caves nor did I see any evidence of humans other than the metal rungs and chain at the entrance of the cave.

It was cool to have a new sensory experience. My hearing was overwhelmed by the sound of rushing water and my sight was limited by the strength, direction of my headlamp and my feet were slightly numb from cold. Even with a headlamp it's difficult to see the rocks under the swiftly moving water so every step was little adventure. After we exited the cave, we ate a bunch of food. We had apples, cookies, crumble bars and Gordon had salami. It was a good way to recharge because the physical activity and dealing with the cold had taken a lot out of our bodies. My whole body was pretty sore the next morning. I give the Cave Stream two thumbs up.

Christmas in the Antipodes

Dec 25: Christmas was a low key affair. Gord and I went into town and found an open Chinese food place and bought a ton of food. Then Briony, Colin and Warric came over. We all ate food watched X-Files, played cards and hung out on the back deck. It was nice, but it didn't feel like Christmas and we don't have a tree or any decorations. Christmas day was warm and sunny. Eventually Sam and Erin stopped by and then we watched movies and The West Wing until it was about 3 AM in the morning. For some reason Erin was confused on the time difference and ended up calling her family at about 3:30 am USA time. It was pretty hilarious. This was 9 am back in the states so Gord, Erin and I all called our families and wished them a Merry Christmas. That was about it. I think New Year's Eve is going to be low key as well.

So if you must spend a major holiday away from family and friends: I say get together with some people you like, have a meal, play some games or watch a movie and just have a chill time.

Hector's Dolphins

Dec 24: Christmas Eve day we decided to hitchhike to Akaroa and swim with the dolphins. We caught a bus to Halswell which is on the other side of Christchurch towards Akaroa and began walking/limping with our thumbs up and our smiles out. Our first ride was from a guy from Holland who had moved here several years ago. He had a really nice and spacious car and he took us to Taitapu. We chatted about NZ, Holland and being American. Then we got picked up by a Kiwi named Chris who was in a hurry and late for his job as a chef in Akaroa. Chris drove a lime green truck. He was very talkative about his partner, her kid, the traveling he wanted to do and his life in general. He said the secret to life was to "drink a little, don't smoke and [find someone to be with]." He was a really nice chap who was interested in interior design. Chris even offered us a place to crash and suggested a job opportunity in another part of NZ. Once in Akaroa we wandered around and I got my first flat white, which is steamed milk and a shot of espresso. It was tasty and we got it from a shop where Chris said the owner was "bent as bent can be."

Then we suited up into full body 5mm wet suits. Getting my suit over my knee bandage was a difficult project. There were 8 swimmers total on a little Blackcat boat with two guides and the one who spoke the most was named Hamish. We slowly puttered out of Akaroa Harbor and then took off leaping over waves. Hector's dolphins are the world's smallest and rarest dolphins. We weren't allowed to touch them, but just swimming near them was fantastic. Hector's Dolphins hang out in pods of 2-4. We were told if they were feeding or had calves with them, we couldn't stop and would have to find more. In the end it wasn't a problem. We lucked out and had about 4 pods of dolphins, about 12-16, swimming around us. When I first got in the water, my breath caught because it was so chilly, but soon the thin layer of water in my suit warmed up and kept me feeling quite warm. The dolphins were playful and seemed to be having a lot of fun surfing the waves and investigating us. They would catch a wave and flash by us, but turn around and come right back. They really seemed to like the back of the boat. The dolphins would swim in 2's and 3's around us. Every so often Hamish or the girl would call out to us to turn around and there would be a dolphin right there. After we got out of the water another boat of swimmers came and we had a chance to take pictures and movies while the dolphins played with the new people. I have always loved dolphins so this was an amazing experience.

After swimming with the dolphins we were given hot chocolate on the ride back and then hot showers. I had to dress my wound after the shower because I promised my doctor and I didn't want an infection. Then we began our trek back to Christchurch. The first ride we caught was from a man and a woman from the UK. The woman did research on the dolphins and the man was just visiting over the holiday. They drove us to Barry's Bay where they were stopping for cheese and wine. Then we were picked up by a nice old kiwi man named Stewart/Stuart. He drove us all the way to Christchurch. I had to fight to keep my eyes open. Gordon was sitting in the front so I didn't really need to stay awake, but I felt that I should because it's polite to talk with your driver. Don't worry, Gordon and I were safe while hitchhiking. If it was a male driver, Gordon sat in front and if it was a female driver, which it never was, I was going to sit in front. Stuart was a plastic surgeon who was fixing up one of his rental houses in Akaroa and needed a part from a hardware store in Christchurch. We had a nice ride with him because he had a very spacious 4 seater truck. We spoke of his life in the army, his kids, our college careers and pretty much anything that came to mind. It was a lovely ride because he dropped us off near the bus centre and the number 12 was just about to pull away. This is a bus that goes right by our house so we can get it to literally drop us in front of our house.

It's Hanmer Time

Dec 23: Our plan was to travel to Hanmer Springs, mountain bike for a couple of hours, then soak in the hot springs for a few more, eat some dinner and then drive back to Christchurch.

I traveled to Hanmer Springs with Erin, Sam and Gord. Hanmer Springs is famous for its thermal pools and drug addiction center. After falling asleep in the car on the way to Hanmer, I woke up just in time to watch us roll into town. It was a gorgeous, hot and sunny day. We changed into our biking gear and went off to rent some mountain bikes. Each of us saddled up on a mountain bike with decent suspension, snapped our helmets into place and took one last look at the trail map. Then we all took off down the road towards what we hoped was the start of the Dog Stream Trail. Apparently none of us can read a map and we weren't sure if we were heading the right way for the first 10 minutes. The gears on my bike were a bit cranky at the start, but eventually I showed them who was boss. When we got to the head of the trail we were surprised that it was at a 45 degree incline. None of us could ride up it so we had to push our bikes up a serious hill. There were actually a lot of really steep points where I'd be riding and come to a halt because the incline became so intense. We were also trucking it because Gordon and Sam were leading. Erin and I were somewhat less enthusiastic about the ascent. Once we reached the end, I was unsurprised to note that the 1 hour ride had taken us 34 minutes.

The ride down was a lot more fun because we got to go fast! Flying down the rocky hills popping up over roots and protruding rocks was exhilarating. Stopping wasn't an option because your back tire would spin out and then you'd skid down a steep rocky decline. Every now than then we'd lose sight of each other and then the leaders would wait for everyone else. After awhile they stopped waiting which was bad for me because I have a terrible sense of direction and I didn't have a map. I went down several wrong trails and biked for a a good 20 minutes up and down different trails trying to find my way back to the Dog Stream Trail. I stopped and took a picture of myself in case I got lost and died. Later they would find my camera and see that at least I died seemingly happy. After awhile I thought I had lost my sunglasses at the end of the trail so I was going to backtrack and see if I could get back to the end of the trail and then bike correctly back down it. However on my way back I found where I had diverged from the trail because there was a big honking sign with an arrow saying dog stream trail that way. At the same place, I took off my helmet only to discover my sunglasses were on top of my head and under my helmet the whole time.

Once I was back on the Dog Stream Trail I quickly ran into the group. They had started to backtrack wondering where I was. My first thought was to justify that I had gotten lost and was not that slow. After that Erin and I kept changing positions behind Sam and Gordon. One of us would do something silly and have to slow down and the other would just pop by. I was flying through the woods on a track that had become dirt instead of rocks. When I charged through a left curve in the trail and my left foot and pedal were in a down position. It was here I clipped a rather large rock in the ground and flew off my bike in a huge crash. Erin was behind me at the time and heard me yell "AGGGHHHH." I knew she was coming up fast behind me and I couldn't move myself or my bike fast enough so I yelled "DANGER!" This was really effective because Erin came up really slowly until she found me lying on the ground. It turns out that she hadn't known if it was a good yell or a bad yell. Once Erin got there, I pulled myself together and freaked out because I thought I broke my camera. We tested it out and took a picture of my leg to make sure everything was copacetic. I ripped up a bunch of my knee and packed in a bunch of rocks during my skid. My hand and thigh were a bit scrapped up, but were doing a lot better than my knee. Erin was worried about the leg and wanted to go back to the village, but I wouldn't have any of it. We still had a good half and hour of mountain biking time so by golly we were going to have a good time. So after I pulled a few rocks out of my knee we took off again to fly down the mountain. Except right after we got on our bikes, I ran into a tree. Not so much with my bike but literally my left upper body, chest and shoulder ran into a tree. I ignored Erin's suggestion that maybe I shouldn't be biking and I went flying down the trail a little more reserved and less cavalier than before. So we rocked the Dog Stream Trail for awhile longer and then went back to the village. After finishing the ride, we realized that we had approached the Dog Stream Trail the wrong way and had ridden it up the back way. So not only did we ride it the wrong way, but we did it in 34 minutes. Erin was fairly certain that I would need stitches and I was holding in the negative position. The lady at the bike shop was helpful and dialed the local medical centre for us and I was given their professional medical opinion "I should come in so they could clean it and take a look." So we went to the library to print out my insurance information which turned out to be useless. We met up with Gordon and Sam on our way to the library and they didn't realize anything was amiss and continued riding around town. Then we walked to the medical centre.

I filled out my forms and eventually got called back. Erin came with me to film and document the medical process. My doctor, Gina and nurse, Sharon gave me a local anesthetic directly into the wound. I also had to get a tetanus shot which in NZ comes with the Diphtheria vaccine. Erin had to interject and say "ahh, the tetanus shot is my least favorite shot." However, I was happy to have her in there for comic relief and for documentation purposes. At one point Sharon started singing Christmas Carols. She removed a lot of the debris, scrubbed the bejeebus out of the wound with a special sponge. If I hadn't been anesthetized, I would have been screaming, passing out or throwing up. Then she used a bunch of syringes and irrigated the wound. After that it was a cake walk and she sewed it up with three mattress sutures. The whole time we were all chatting and I was trying to cajole them into giving me a medical okay to go swimming with the dolphins the next day. I was given antibiotics, a little tool to cut the stitches after 12 days and a green light on the dolphin swimming. At one point the front desk lady came in because Gordon and Sam were enquiring about me and I told her to say that I had passed out. I'm not sure why I thought that was a good idea. Erin and I were in good spirits during the whole ordeal. Afterwards I got to spend $2.00 for the spectator fee at Hanmer Springs. Erin said "that's farther than I've come" when she meant to say that's "nearer than I'm come." I don't know why, but at the time I could not stop laughing. I might have been suffering from loss of blood or something. Everyone else got to have a lovely time soaking in the waters while I sat in a lawn chair and fended off black flies/sand flies. Sand flies are the bane of New Zealand. They look like a cross between a gnat and a fly and bite the heck out of you. They are worse than mosquitos. The bites are itchy and if you itch them, they get infected and will fill with pus. So this is why I were I got my first stitches and a Diphtheria shot.

Spiritual Center of the Universe

Dec 21: Briony, Colin (her father), Gord and I went to Castle Hill or as his Holiness, the Dalai Lama, called it, the "Spiritual Center of the Universe." Castle Hill is a breathtaking place. This is also a place with world class bouldering. These rocks are gigantic and insanely fun to climb on. We didn't do any real bouldering, mostly we just clambered up rocks. There is a bouldering problem rated v -1 that's just a hole in one of the rocks. The challenge is to climb through it, so naturally we all had to give it a shot. After Castle Hill, we stopped for some award winning fish and chips. It was a really nice and low key day.

No more posts until the 26th

We used up all the internet that we are allotted. So in order to not incur ridiculous costs I'm signing off for the next few days. I'm at the library right now. I'll have a big story about my Christmas adventures. So stay tuned in.

Time to get a watch

This is on the front door of the house. While it is such poppycock, it is also hilarious. America is behind in security measures for the safety of valuables in one's home.

I went downtown on a library excursion and saw 3 kids river dancing in Cathedral Square. "Their legs were flaying about as if independent from their bodies." The Wizard was also at the Square today. He was yelling how women were causing global warming. His reasoning is unfathomable. I also got a spicy bratwurst with honey mustard. There are all different types of food vendors in the square along with a little market.

They don't have plain corn chips here. It makes me sad. I love chips and guacamole or the standard chips and salsa. Avocados are ridiculously cheap here, sometimes they are 39 cents a 'cado. The purity of chips and salsa is lost when you have chips that are cheese, double cheese, nacho cheese or salsa flavored. I'm not kidding around, these chips are intensely flavored. You would think that the Kiwis are afraid that plain corn chips because they are so hard to find. I even asked the checkout lady at the Pak'N'Save if they had plain corn chips, but alas, they don't. I miss plain corn chips with their deliciously simple flavor.

Update: I found plain salted corn chips. It only took 10 days and many food stores.

A few days ago, we went to an indian restaurant and there were different categories of hot that went something like: Mild, Medium, Hot, Kiwi Hot, Indian Hot, English Hot. I thought their menu was misprinted because I didn't understand why English Hot would be hotter than Indian hot. So I asked and yes, English hot was the hottest. I went with Kiwi hot because I was little worried, but it turned out that Kiwi hot, pshh, was not very hot. I'm excited to try English Hot next.

Do you ever scrap the ice cream off the lid? Why do I feel like I'm extremely silly or that my love for ice cream is extreme? I don't think I should have to feel that way. I bought the ice cream. I should get to eat it all. Maybe I'm just feeling sensitive because I definitely scooped the ice cream off the lid today and judged myself in the process. Bah! I say we've all been there and I am not ashamed. Well, maybe a little.

I know I'm always complaining about my towel, but this is truly the unwritten reason that Douglas Adams urged everyone to always keep track of their towel. He knew that buying them in other dimensions, galaxies, planets or countries was a poor decision because towels from other places cannot compare to tried and true home towels. That or I need to shell out a few more bucks and get a nice NZ towel that does not fuzzle everywhere.

Heath, one of my roommates, told me that the sun is up at about 5:30 am. This is funny because I haven't been awake that early so I never considered when the sun rose in Christchurch. I know the sun sets at about 9 pm which totally throws off my internal clock because back in Chapel Hill, I was used to the sun setting at 5:30 pm. So my body thinks that it is 4:30 pm when it is actually 7:30 pm or 8 pm. It probably doesn't help that clocks are unnecessary at this time of my life. I used to have a clock on me 24/7 via my cell phone, but now I no longer have a phone. We have an oven clock in the kitchen that is set incorrectly and can't be changed. There is another clock in the dining room that has been shot straight through the middle so all the hands fell off. This apparently occurred because it was always telling the wrong time so the previous tenant got angry and shot it with a gun. Gordon has a clock in his room that I never really go in and look at it.

I also have a computer clock. I actually set one of my dashboard clocks to Washington D.C. time, so I will always know the time in Chapel Hill without having to do any moderately difficult arithmetical calculations in my head. I find it a little strange to not have any measurement of time, it's kind of like losing a one of your senses. If you couldn't smell, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be strange. I used to make a mental note right before I went to bed, so when I woke up I'd have a general idea of my length of sleep. Don't ask me why, but I found it comforting to know approximately how much sleep I got a night. When I got 6 hours of sleep, I knew exactly why I was tired and when I got about 12 hours of sleep, I knew how awesome I was going to feel that day. I now feel a little lost not knowing how much sleep I get a night. It was almost a compulsion to calculate it every morning, but now I don't have the means or the urge to do it. Though sometimes I'll catch myself counting backwards from the time I woke up, only to realize I don't know what time I went to bed the night before.

A few days ago, I was on the bus when the coolest thing happened. It's actually cooler in retrospect. A guy with the most beautiful eyes got on the bus. It took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to describe the color. They were honey colored. It also took me awhile because I was trying not to be creepy and not stare at the guy too much. Later when I told my mom about the eyes, she was like he's a vampire! Anyone who has read the Twilight books will know that vampires have red eyes when they survive by drinking human blood, dark eyes when they are thirsty and "liquid-topaz" eyes when they survive off of animals and abstain from drinking humans. So yes, there was a vampire on my bus! I have geeked out enough for one day.

This was just a random collection of thoughts. Sometimes I will write things in here purely because they came into my head and I thought I might want to remember it.

Cattle Stop

Flat mate John came home after a week long climbing trip with his girlfriend Briony. However, the first thing he wanted to do the next day was go climbing. So Gord, John and I piled into Briony's car and headed off to Cattle Stop. Which is a climbing spot up in the huge hills near Rapaki. We had an epic time while climbing. Yes, I wore a helmet the whole time (mom!) even though helmets are really only for the belayers in case of falling rocks knocked loose by the climbers. I was mostly top roping and the boys were lead climbing.

Check out the mountains in the picture, off in the distance. The clouds made everything look cooler.

Quick climbing lesson: Top roping is where you feed the rope through an anchor at the top of your climb and then you're belayed the whole climb. So if you fall, your belayer can catch you right away by holding the rope tightly.

Lead climbing is where you climb with the assistance of bolts that have already been placed in a rock wall. You climb up and clip your rope to each bolt with a quickdraw (climbing gear made up of 2 carabiners and a sewn loop of webbing). Every time you clip into a bolt, you have a bit of belay security and if you fall, your belayer can stop you from falling too far past the last bolt you clipped. Lead climbing is more difficult than top roping because once you clip into a bolt, you have to climb up to the next bolt and if you fall, you'll fall to the last bolt you clipped a quickdraw to and that can be  several meters depending on the distance between the bolts. John and Gordon both fell today while lead climbing. John fell about 2-3 meters and I didn't see Gordon's fall, but he messed up his hands a bit. When John fell it was pretty scary because it was a long fall. Gord was belaying and he went swinging up off the ground and flew into the rock a bit. This is one reason I'm scared to belay while they are lead climbing. They are bigger and when they fall I don't have as much counter weight.

They top roped 2 for me and one was a 17. This is pretty awesome because 17 is a much higher grade than I can normally climb. I had to get a little help at the crux, but I made it.

I also had my first lead climbing experience on a 13. It was an intense rush because clipping into a bolt is great, but then you have to climb higher to get to the next one and it's a bit terrifying. In comparison, top roping now seems less scary. I successfully made it to the top during my lead climb and then I learned how to abseil! Abseiling is rappelling. You don't have a belayer and are in complete control of your own descent. I felt very SWAT while I descended. I also cleaned the quickdraws as I lowered myself. Cleaning the equipment is important because you want to have all your gear when you get to the bottom of the rock. This means I unclipped the quickdraws from the bolts as I abseiled down the rock face.

While we were on the rock we were all unfortunately a part of a humorous event. I don't feel like writing it in this blog, but I can explain it to you if you care enough to ask.

Also "Sweet Home Alabama" came on itunes while I was typing this blog and it made me miss pulled pig BBQ with hot tangy sauce, coleslaw, hush puppies and sweet tea. Oh man, I miss the south and Carolina basketball.

Flowers are powerless

I will concede that flowers are pretty, but I still argue that they aren't as useful as horses. Horses can pull things, carry you and let you reenact the Lone Ranger. Flowers will let you reenact the 60's. Flowers smell pretty and look nice. Horses are great companions and usually live longer than a week. Enough arguing that horses are better than flowers. This is a photo of one of the 104 types of roses found in the Christchurch Bo Gards.
I went to the Riccarton Bush which is a special piece of land in Christchurch with a predator fence. It keeps the predators like me out of the area, except I got in because I can push a button and open a door at the same time. In the picture, I was reenacting Jurassic Park and pretending to be a Velociraptor. There is a cage with two doors at the entrance to the area and you can only open one door at a time. This cage system is to ensure that feral cats and other predators cannot get in to the protected area. Riccarton Bush is a "kahikatea floodplain forest" and "is probably the oldest protected natural area in the country." It has many native plants, trees and was full of birds. It was nice to walk, but it was quite small. We left Riccarton and went to get pizza from Hell. I picked my pizza because of it's name. I got the Mordor. It was BBQ-ey and delicious.
Then we walked to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. I liked the Bo Gards, but now that I think about it, I might have a natural preference for any place with Botanic Gardens in the name. These places are usually green, beautiful and peaceful. It's hard to dislike places like that. Gordon likes roses so we stopped by the Rose Garden. I took a few pictures because they were very pretty so I'm officially conceding to S.B. that flowers are awesome and don't need to be useful. I really enjoyed my time wandering around the Bo Gards.

This picture reminded me of a place I saw in London. There was a similar lovely walkway shaded by trees. This was a huge park with large grassy fields, lawn tennis courts, lawn bowling and streams. Christchurch has the neatest places to wander, read and hang out.

Housekeeping

This blog is going to be an amalgam of random thoughts that I've had in the past 2 days, some of which pertain to being in New Zealand and others are just a product of the dust bunnies in my head.

Remember how I take baths because the shower is broken? I came up with an old school solution. I use an empty ice cream tub to create a whole makeshift shower and take the bath element out of bathing. I fill it up with hot and cold water and then I pour it on my head. It is crude, but effective. The ice cream was delicious, but it feels even nicer to be clean. My personal cleanliness meter sometimes points to slightly obsessive compulsive. I think there are worse things to feel a compulsion for and until my desire to be clean impedes my normal life, to me clean means keen.

A Sumner note, the wind was really cold on that day at the beach. It was so chilly that Gordon and I were both in physical pain from the wind whipping into the ear that was exposed to the offshore wind as we walked parallel to the shore. It's a stinging inner ear pain that I hadn't felt before on any beach or mountain. Next time I go to the beach, I'm bringing my winter hat. I just thought it was odd that it wasn't the sand or the water, but the wind that hurt my ear.

There are convenience stores all around Christchurch and most likely all of New Zealand and they are called Dairies or the singular form Dairy. They sell the same stuff as most gas stations in the states, like soda, chips and candy. They also sell cheap pies of the meat variety. These pies only cost NZ$1 a piece. It's a delicious deal. I can safely declare that I have found love in New Zealand and it is with these pies. While they tantalize my taste buds, I'm fairly certain they go in the category of foods that will probably kill me in less than a fortnight if I don't exercise moderation. In this equation, taste and health are inversely proportional to each other. The better this pie tastes the more I am certain that this pie has the same caloric and fat content as 3 big macs. This might have been an exaggeration, but individually wrapped pies that sit under a heat lamp all day at a Dairy cannot be good for someone's health.

What is with Zed? The Kiwis pronounce "Z" phonetically as "zzz-ed." Most NZ websites end in .co.nz so they say dot co dot "en zed". I was going to rant about how we say "zee" even though it sounds like "c", "v", "e", but as I was typing my rant I realized that we don't use "z" nearly as often as they do. Most of our websites end in dot com, dot net, dot org or dot gov, but most of their sites end in dot nz. We, Americans, hardly use "z" in our daily lingo. If we used it as often as the Kiwis do, we would probably also use another sound for the letter "z." Rant self denied!

Speaking of keen, we say "keen" here. I like it. I also like the word neat. They don't say it, but I do.

I think I look up at the sky a lot more than I used to at home. I'm not sure why. I feel like the sky is some how bigger or the clouds are some how much interesting. It's hard to say, but I can climb a hill and see for miles. I think it is simply because I can see so much of the sky that I notice it more. I wish I could capture the feeling of expansiveness that the sky gives off because it makes me pause every time.

Today, I was lying in the grass of the neighborhood park and reading "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." The sun was out and it was warm with a little bit of a cool breeze. I ended up drifting off to sleep. I succumbed to the moment that everyone is familiar with while reading outside. You're in the sun, reading and suddenly your eyes start to get heavy. You begin to struggle with the your focus on your book, but then you realize that you don't have to fight it and you can just give into the nap. So you rest the book on your chest and close your eyes. Yes, I took a nap in the warm sun and yes, I woke up to a ladybug crawling on my arm. I named the ladybug, George. It's a wonderful thing when you can have a nap in the sun and just go with it.

My super spidey sense has been off since I got here and so I've been slightly spider paranoid. I had been told that there were only two spiders in New Zealand. I heard one will bite you and it will be painful, but the other will bite you and death will ensue. One is the white-tailed spider and the other remains unnamed, but mainly because I forgot the name. I went to the bathroom the third day after I had gotten to the house and freaked out because there was a spider on the back of the door so I ran out and told everyone. They called in spider expert or rather just all clustered in the bathroom, only to find out that it was a daddy long legs. In my defense their daddy long legs look different from ours. Then I saw a spider on my bed, freaked out and spent the next 20 minutes googling the white-tailed spider. Then I realized the white-tailed spider looked nothing like the spider I lost in the bed and that white-tailed spiders aren't really very poisonous and won't kill you. I'm still paranoid, but I'm keeping it a secret from my flat mates because I just end up looking foolish.

This isn't going to make sense to a lot of people, but E.P. I found a place for your brother to live. You may have to click the picture, but it's a beautiful garage.

I just wanted to say that even in New Zealand I am plagued by Nights in Rodanthe.

Indian Sumner

Dec 4: I went to the seaside town of Sumner. It was gorgeous, but extremely windy day. We took a bus from Christchurch all the way to Sumner. Since we were the last folks on the bus, the bus driver turned around and asked us where we were headed. When we mentioned that we were visiting Sumner and didn't have any real plans, our bus driver offered to drop us by the beach, so we readily accepted. She gave us a little tour of the surrounding hills on the way to shore. Once we got to our stop, she directed to the beach by saying "if you walk down this street you'll pass a lovely little chocolate shop and then a little further, you'll reach a clock tower and then practically be on the beach." We had to stop by the chocolate shop and I bought some chocolate covered caramels. They were delicious. There was a quiet old kiwi man sitting inside the shop, making chocolates. He put a complimentary coffee chocolate in the bag.  This is a picture of me inside the clock tower.

There was a surf school having lessons out in the ocean. Everyone was wearing a wetsuit and I think it was mainly to protect them from the wind chill. To surf here I'd need a board and a wetsuit, definitely a wetsuit. The waves were very small and messy. I didn't see any good rides and I've seen better waves in Atlantic beach. There was also a lone surf kayaker. They seemed to be having a good time even though there wasn't much to ride on.

The beach was beautiful. There were huge rock formations to climb on and many cavernous areas. I clambered up to the top of several rocky outcroppings and through a few caves. I thought one of the cave openings looked pretty cool and kind of like a state. In retrospect, it doesn't really look like a state. The sea was nice to visit, but I would like to get into a few more sporty things involving the sea, you know, get out there sea kayaking or surfing.

Walking along the beach, I was almost bowled over by the wind coming from the sea. It was extremely gusty and the air temperature would have been fine if not for the icy wind. So I was somewhat reluctant to test the water, even with my hand because I was already chilly and assumed the water would be just as cold. However, once I worked up the courage and stuck my hand in the water, I was amazed that it was so lovely and warm. The water felt almost like a bath. Then we walked away from the beach towards the little town of Sumner. Nature was nice, but it was time get some food and to explore the shops and restaurants. I also noticed that there was a nice little library.

Gordon decided that he wanted a pie of the meaty variety. So we ended up at a gourmet pie shop with meat pies and dessert pies. It was quite a cool little shop. We sat down so Gord could eat his pie and I could enjoy my delicious Ginger Beer. It had the strangest pull tab top. I was reminded of Asheville because they gave me a mason jar glass. When we sat down, one of the pie shop workers took a seat at an incredibly out of tune piano and started playing a Disney song which I quickly identified as the Lion King. Gordon incorrectly identified it as Aladdin King. Sometimes he says things quicker than his mind can process them, but for the most part it's ridiculously amusing. The guy then asked for requests. I asked for another Disney song and he apologized because he didn't know anymore Disney and proceeded to play "My heart will go on" from the Titanic soundtrack and he even sang a bit of it. We got to talking and found out that he was going to Uni for Mechanical Engineering and Music Composition. He played us a three part composition that he composed in high school and then went on to talk a bit about the rock opera that he was writing. The pie shop guy and the bus driver lady are just two pieces of anecdotal evidence that exemplify how friendly and personable Kiwis are.

Cautionary Tale #3: If you hang your clothes out to dry, be very wary of the weather. In Christchurch, it can go from zero to sixty in about 1 minute, meaning no rain to rain. This is a lesson every person who previously relied on dryers will learn the hard way. On another note, my towels are still fuzzing off on me.



Listen to that wind roar and watch those waves roll.

Towels and baths: A cautionary tale

Nov 3: Doh. I left home and forgot what Douglas Adams called "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have," my towel. So here I was in a foreign country without my towel. I went to a store similar to Walmart and bought two subpar towels because it was convenient and cheap. I knew it wouldn't be great, but I didn't know it would be annoying. My first step was to wash my towel so I could use it. Little did I know it was going to shed about 1/4 of it's fluffy bits onto my brand new jeans. Most of my other clothes were unscathed during the wash incident of NZ09, but the jeans definitely bore the brunt of the attack. The two items, my jeans and my towel, actually came out of the wash tangled together. So I hung up everything to dry and lamented the transmogrification of my jeans. Later, I mounted a calculated counter-attack on the jeans with tape because I didn't have a lint roller on hand. This took care of most of the fluffy pieces, but there were still unfortunate remnants of the towel blitzkrieg. I had foolishly assumed that the pants party in the washer was the going to be the only towel incident. After my bath this morning I was drying myself with the towel and I realized it was attacking me like the jeans. It turns out that I was sloughing off skin and replacing it with blue fluffy towel bits. It was really annoying. So I threw both the towels back in the laundry for another wash, but this time I knew that they shouldn't be washed with any other articles of clothing. I can only hope that two washes is what it took to remove the fuzzies. I'm never skimping on towels ever again, no matter how desperate I get. So cautionary tale # 2: Never leave home without your towel and if you do, buy one quickly, but spend the a respectable amount of time and money picking out a nice towel and spend a tidy sum on it or else your towel will get get offended and slough fuzzy bits onto you and your togs.

When I was younger I used to take baths, but then I grew up and didn't take them anymore. I don't really enjoy sitting around baths or I don't want to waste time lollygagging in a bath. I guess I just feel that showers get you cleaner and take less time. As Chandler said "you just sit there stewing in your own filth." I don't think that phrase bothers me, but it's always been in the back of my mind since I first saw that episode of Friends. Background: Flatmate John fell through the wall of the shower one evening and broke it. So the bathtub is the only place to wash these days. It's annoying because I don't feel clean and there are two faucets, one for cold and one for hot. There is no middle ground, the water will come out of the left faucet and be really cold or the right faucet and be scalding hot. That means I can't wash easily via the stream from the faucet. So I've been bathing reluctantly, but often and throughly, in a bath for the last week. My fingers are crossed for the day when the shower is fixed. Though I suppose it could be worse and we could have no running water and have to bathe in a river behind the house.

Just to clarify a point, I'm living in the house, but I'm not actually renting the Room of Doom. I'm splitting electricity and internet, but I don't technically have a room yet. While flatmate John is off vacationing, I've been given leave to crash in his room. So my faithful sleeping bag and I are now in John's room for awhile. I have decided to name the sleeping bag Tauntaun. It's a good sleeping bag and I thought it ought to have an awesome name. When I'm cold I can get inside my Tauntaun!

Addendum: I just looked up tauntaun and the first Google hit was a sleeping bag that's shaped like a tauntaun called the Tauntaun sleeping bag, complete with a plush light saber zipper. My original thought was apparently not so original.

For those of you lacking the Star Wars background, a tauntaun is a beast that the Rebels use to ride on while stationed on the planet Hoth. Visually they look like a cross between a ram and a t-rex. Han Solo was riding a tauntaun while running patrols and looking for Luke Skywalker. Eventually he finds Luke Skywalker, but his tauntaun dies from the cold. Without the tauntaun, Han can't get back to the base and thus they are both stuck outside in a blizzard. So Han Solo takes Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, slices open the recently dead tauntaun and puts Luke inside the beast so he won't freeze to death.

On another side note, I was listening to my itunes on random while writing this blog and during the Star Wars paragraph, the song "Main Title and Ice Planet Hoth" came on from the Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back Soundtrack. Coincidence? I think not, I think the force is with this blog. It's really late and that's why I feel I can get away with that last statement. I'm leaving before the song ends!

Phrases here are pretty Sweet-as

Dec 2: It's hard to pick up the lingo and distinguish it as New Zealand speak. The flat has 1 New Zealander: Heath, 1 Columbian: Leyla, 1 Aussie: John and 2 Americans: Gord & Me. John's girlfriend, Briony, who frequents the flat is from England. So I'm learning heaps of new phrases and different verbiage, but I have no idea if it's kiwi/aussie/or brit speak. A very kiwi thing is to say sweet-as. It almost sounds like sweet-ass especially with the kiwi accent. It's the equivalent of cool or awesome. They also like to add "as" to other words to emphasize the word. For example, that climb was easy-as or that whale is beached-as. That would be a really easy climb or a really beached whale. They also call sausages, bangers. I have no idea why. Crook means sick. Like Gordon was so crook last night.

Speaking of Gordon, he had too much to drink the 2nd night I was in town and created cautionary tale #1. We were at some random dude's house celebrating someone's visa. I was ferrying him home in a cab and he yammied all over the place. Turns out there is a $300 fee for "soiling" a cab. Later we found out that it can cost upwards of $500 in fees for vomiting in a cab. So word to the wise, do not, under any circumstances, get vomit in a cab. Vomit in your purse, backpack or take the shirt off your back and throw up in that. If you mess up their cab, they have to get it cleaned and can't work that night or the day it's getting cleaned, so you have to pay or they'll call the cops. Are we more lenient in the US or have I just never been in a cab during a regurgitative episode?

Back to kiwi-speak, they also say keen when they're really into something. Instead of sandals, they call them jandals. They call them jandals because they think of them as japanese sandals. I kid you not.

The flatmates have gotten into their heads that I have an odd fondness for broccoli. So much that I have been nicknamed Moccoli. Go figure. Also I think my lactose intolerance may have been all in my head. Yesterday, we demolished some ice cream and then we had an incredibly rich chicken alfredo and I felt fine. Hooray. Also NZ ice cream is a bit different from US ice cream, but the general principles are the same: cold, creamy, sweet and dairy. The taste is a bit different, but it's delicious. I would recommend avoiding the Goody Goody Gum Drop flavor. The vanilla ice cream is great, but the first bite reminded me of a marshmallow. They also call gummy candies, "lollies." There is another strange chewy candy called Pineapple lumps. These have been nicknamed Plumps. They aren't very good, so feel free to not eat these if you visit NZ.

The Room of Doom

Dec 1: So the room that Gord told me about is in reality, scary and now I have the pictures to prove it. First of all there are two ways to get into it. There is a scary half broken door that is padlocked shut or you can go through the garage. Since the back door is padlocked, I'll take you on a tour through the garage. When you open the garage, which I don't think can be locked, you walk into a your typical garage. It's filled with things that haven't been used in years and are just collecting dust. If you strain your eyes, you'll notice a green tarp hanging at the rear of the garage. This is the entrance to the room I laid claim to before I'd laid my eyes on it. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect I don't think it was a brilliant thing to call dibs on. Once in the room, I think this is where the bed would go or it's where you would tie up medieval prisoners. I've been complaining the whole time, but it does have it's amenities, it has a window. Though I haven't mentioned New Zealand's complete lack of understanding and use of insulation. I don't think any of the houses have insulation and yet they all have huge windows. They don't seem to have any insulation in the walls or the roof and the huge windows aren't double paned. So when it's cold outside, it's cold inside and when it's hot outside, it's hot inside. This is a picture of the roof and you can see sunlight between the brick at the top and the roof. Visible proof that the ceiling hasn't been sealed properly. So in conclusion, this room is unfit to live in and I'm crashing at Gord's flat in my sleeping bag. My Mountain Hardware sleeping bag was probably one of the smartest things that I brought to NZ.

A night at the museum and the Roxx

Nov 30: We were at the Canterbury Museum just poking around and hoping the rain would stop. When we went, I didn't know what kind of museum it was and I thought it was the local Christchurch history museum. Little did I know that it was was the Canterbury Museum of Natural History and Human Heritage. There were dinosaurs, local NZ history, petrified wood, an Asian exhibit, a British history exhibit and a plethora of other exhibits. There was a really old school bicycle that you could climb up and pedal on. A nice museum worker came up and asked if we wanted him to take our picture so obviously we couldn't refuse. Unfortunately, these bikes don't lend themselves to tandem riding. I did have bit of fun emulating the dinosaur. Since I thought this museum was just local culture, I was a bit surprised to find a dino, but I recovered well. We also looked at costumes of the first female pilot in NZ. If the mannequin is relatively sized to her then she had ridiculously tiny feet. Though the silliest and scariest moment in the museum came during a photo-op.

I asked Gord to take a picture of me posing as the dinosaur. Neither of us knew that he was going to unwittingly back into an exhibit of a piece of petrified wood, but he did. He set it rocking precariously forward and backwards. Had he not been able to steady the stand, he would have smashed a "Log of Late Cretaceous petrified wood (80 million years old)." The exhibit would have been glued back together with a new sign. "Was a Log of Late Cretaceous petrified wood (80 million years old). Unfortunately, unable to withstand the Gordon period." After that incident, it was definitely time to leave, rain or no rain.

We headed to the indoor climbing gym at the edge of the city called the Roxx. We met up with another flatmate, John. It was a lot of fun. I did a few climbs and belayed a few times. At the end, we did some speed climbing, which has to do with going up a fairly easy route over and over until you can no longer stay on the wall. I went up 3 times before my hands stopped being able to close.

Rapaki Peak

Nov 29: Strode up to Rapaki. There's a good climbing rock there and also a separate peak that Gord and I climbed up. A few streets down from the house is the start of a pretty wicked bike trail. It's all gravel and almost 45 degrees uphill in some places. After ascending the trail we reached the base of the peak. Then we had to clamber up and beat our own path through the brush. Once at the top we were greeted with gorgeous views and a stone monument. We took a bunch of photos at the top and then decided to climb down, as it was a bit nippy at the top. Our climb down was interrupted by a really sweet crevice. I decided that I wanted a picture of myself pretending to climb up it. After getting that photo, I realized that climbing down it and back up would probably be a fun challenge and victory would be sweeter if I actually completed the climb. So we climbed down the crevice and then back up. Life wouldn't be any fun if nature wasn't full of challenges. We had a little difficulty climbing down at a few places because there was a lot of lichen and moss. This created really slippery footholds and my hiking boots don't have the best grip. Even though it was cloudy, windy and a little rainy, this spot still had beautiful views.

Why so expensive?

Nov 28: Went downtown to open a bank account. There isn't much competition in NZ for banks so every single bank has a ridiculous number of fees. Transactions fees for everything from transferring money to paying bills. There are ATM fees, using your Eftpos card fees, depositing money fees and withdrawal fees. Basically if you go into the branch to make any sort of transaction in person, you'll pay a fee. However, there are also lots of fees if you do all your banking online. NZ uses the Eftpos card, which is the Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sales. It's exactly like a debit card and has a pin, but you can't use it online or over the phone. You have to be physically present at the "point of sales."

Also everything in New Zealand is more expensive than in the US and this is while keeping the currency exchange in mind. My face wash is about $7 in the US, but about US$10.50 in NZ. While that's not a huge difference, it adds up once you realize that everything is a bit more expensive here. I just find it annoying and it makes me reluctant to spend money. Sporting gear is a huge industry here because there are so many fun outdoorsy things to do, but the price is ridiculous! By buying in the US instead of NZ, you'll be able to save hundreds of dollars. I want a climbing harness, shoes and a helmet and it'll probably be about a $150 difference. Riddikulus! (HP spelling)

Downtown Christchurch

Nov 27: Walked around Christchurch City. There were cool side streets with little stores, cafes and bars. One of the buildings had about 15 bikes hanging as decoration.

There was also a mini cooper hanging on another wall. It seems that New Zealanders enjoy hanging vehicles on city walls. I also went to the main square and snapped a picture of the cone sculpture, it seems to be a fairly well known structure.

There was also a strange man with glasses who was dressed up as a wizard and climbing on a stepladder in the middle of the square.

He was preaching about the wickedness of women. The crazy wizard man said that women are superb liars and are very wicked. We walked by the main square several times and at one point, he had a map out and was gesticulating wildly at it. The Wizard man was probably pointing out the most concentrated areas of wicked women in New Zealand. He is apparently very famous and very crazy. Some NZ guidebooks mention the Wizard man. He also drives an interesting Volkswagen Beetle. It's actually two front halves of two different Beetles that have been welded together. After watching the wizard man rant for a bit, we went to the library.

I have a universal love of libraries. I checked out "Of Love and Other Demons" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers, "Silas Marner" by George Eliot and "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas. A life without reading would be a sad life indeed. Walking around Christchurch was fun, but it's not all that different from any other city.

Apples

Nov 24 to Nov 26: I got on a plane in RDU and headed towards Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas. I was seated between a Duke student and a UNC student. Needless to say I talked to the UNC student almost non-stop on the way to Texas. She had just returned to Chapel Hill, a few months ago, after living in Nelson, NZ for a semester. She gave me lots of advice and suggestions. My particular favorite was that I should go surfing at some nice little surf spot that she couldn't quite remember the name of it. At first she said "it's a great place to surf, my friend surfed there and really liked it because there weren't a lot of other surfers." We sat there for a while in silence and pondered why there wouldn't be a lot of surfers if there were good waves. Then she exclaimed "Oh, actually people don't surf there because are a ton of sharks!" Thus ended my interest in surfing this particular spot. However, I was very excited to hear that I could buy sweater pants in NZ. This is an item that Emily P and I have hypothesized about for quite sometime. I'm very excited about pants made out of a sweater material. It was pretty uneventful flying while in the United States. I got a little ill while landing on every plane, but there was no upchucking. Victory!

While waiting for my long flight from LAX to Auckland, I was contemplating if I should try and switch seats to get a row to myself. I sat there for 20 minutes and had an internal struggle on whether or not it was worth getting up and trying. Finally, I manned up and went to ask. It turns out there was one row of seats at the very back of the plane open. It was probably open because of it's proximity to the bathroom. I was worried about the distance from the bathrooms, but then I decided that sleeping quarters were worth any smell. It turns out this was a good choice because there was no smell and it was really comfortable. I flipped up all the armrests, spread out some blankets, propped up the pillows and passed out for about 8 hours. I don't think I'll ever want to fly any other way. I reached Christchurch on Nov 26, NZ day and time.

I'm glad mom warned me not to bring apples with me while flying. Even though they're a delicious treat, they aren't worth hundreds of dollars in fines. Whew. Apparently Australia's fines are worse.

Journey to the other side

Nov 24: My name is Molly and I grew up in North Carolina. I'm on my way to New Zealand for a year long adventure. My first stop is Christchurch. Maybe I'll try working in a vineyard or try climbing my way around New Zealand. I just needed a break from the job I had and some time to figure out a direction in life. Wish me luck!