-day 1-
flew into christchurch 11:00 this morning didn't get no sleep last night (see beatles, back in USSR)
after 28 hours of travel, i'm in this reallly cool place, christchurch, nz.
everybody here uses hedges for landscaping and boundary lines; i haven't seen a fence since i left the airport.
umm... other cool stuff... oh yeah, the sheep:
the sheep of these isles are not the docile, domesticated furry mammals that citizens of the u.s. might perceive them to be. in fact, generations of independence in the rugged wilderness of new zealand have bred out any traits which might render these dangerous beasts cute or endearing. bloodthirsty, intelligent, and deceptively quick, the sheep are responsible for nearly 90% of the 2 annual homicides in new zealand. they often hunt in packs, and, as far as modern science can detect, have no natural phobias. this makes for an extremely difficult foe for the brave but often unsuccessful New Zealand Sheep Police (NZSP). the ranks of the NZSP diminish daily, as many are lost to the fierce hoofs of maurading sheep.
not really.
but, they really do have deer farms, and my aunt really did used to have 2 sheep on her land until her dogs chased them around so much that they died of heart attacks.
driving
man i wish i could drive here my dad is sort of incompetent he's almost gotten us in a couple of wrecks... since nz is in the commonwealth, you drive on the left side of the road, all the driver's seats are on the right side, etc.
--1st time my dad gets in the car to drive--
*gets in on left (wrong) side, takes him 3 min to realise his mistake: "where's the steering wheel?"
--2nd time my dad gets in the car to drive--
*gets in on left (still wrong) side, takes him 4 min to realise mistake this time
--3rd time my dad gets in the car to drive--
*gets in the back seat* "oh wait, am i driving?" (my dad is the only person present over 21 years of age with a US driver's license, and therefore the only one "qualified" to drive in NZ)
the toilet paper here is like 8 ply, you could probably go rappelling with it
there are all these grunge hitchhiker people in new zealand; i've seen 4 white guys with dreadlocks (sp?) since i got on the plane in atl. i asked one of them how to get my hair like that, and he told me pretty much the same thing as charles: "you have to not wash your hair for about a year"
i went swimming this afternoon after taking a tour of downtown christchurch; it has a population of 330.000 (thrice macon's size*), but the part we saw was very smalltowny. it was like an open-air mall, bookstores, jewelry stores, (overpriced) outdoors shops, some electronics stores, etc. that was fun. i got maybe 4 pictures. the house i'm staying at has a pool, tennis court (yesss), great big lawn, lots of hedges, a good climbing tree or two, and a trampoline. so that pretty much occupied my time today. that's pretty much it.
*according to my dad; subject to scrutiny
-day 3-
didn't update this yesterday because not much happened; we went shopping in this little flea market type place; i got a yellow corduroy beret and i was going to get chris a well-priced leather beret but thought perhaps a better present would come up later, as it was only my second day in nz. after that we went hiking for the first time, my dad, my mom, my aunt, and me, but my mom didn't make it to the top of this little mountain we climbed. it was a short trail, probably less than a mile and a half, but very steep, and somewhat poorly made, as there were a lot of erosion problems alongside the trail. other than that, it was beautiful; the mountains here look just like some of the scenes from the fellowship of the ring, which doesn't come out in nz until chris' birthday, the 26th. we took pictures at the top of the mountain which my mom has saved somewhere; i'll try to include a link to them as soon as i figure out where she put them. that was pretty much it for yesterday, aside from going to this guy's farm and chasing his sheep around.
today, christmas eve, my brother, my sister, and i all learned how to surf. well, one of us did, anyway. annakate and matthew learned how to bodyboard, which they kind of already knew how to do. surfing lessons were my aunt's christmas present to the three of us. it was the most fun i've had in a long time. i really want to buy a surfboard now, but they're pretty expensive (about as much as a good bass guitar, so i guess that takes precedence as soon as i get the money). right now i'm in an internet cafe in this little shopping area that we're in. there's a kite shop somewhere around here. i'll have to check that out.
- day whatever (Dec 30, 2001) -
Sorry, I've been sort of busy. Here's what I've done recently:
We came to Nelson on Wednesday (I think), Dec 26. Nelson is this place on the north coast of the south island. It's about a six or seven hour drive from Christchurch, over mostly mountainous terrain. My dad drove. He's getting better.
Nelson is a very interesting city. We rented a house from these people who are on vacation (in New Zealand, while they have year-round school, the biggest break is in the summer, from December to February, so a lot of families take a vacation in these months). Whereas we didn't really get to see much of the city of Christchurch besides that little marketplace and a park, we've been all over Nelson. There are a lot of youth hostels and internet cafes here. There's also this outdoors store, Kathmandu, that has some pretty good prices on some camping equipment. Not sleeping bags, though; they run for about NZ$1000, about twice as much as in the states.
We went to the beach two days ago and saw some orcas (killer whales) playing in the surf only about 100 feet offshore. It was really awesome, but the beach patrol people made everybody get out of the water and chased the whales away. The newspaper said it was the first whale sighting from a public beach in like 10 years.
Yesterday, I went with my Dad, my brother, and my cousin on a sea kayaking day trip. It was fun, but my cousin, who was in my kayak, didn't do much work and I came home sore. The winds were pretty strong and we had to turn back a couple of times but it was beautiful and overall a great experience.
I may get to go hitchhiking when my family heads back to Christchurch in a few days. It would be really fun, but now my parents are starting to have qualms about the idea. I had proposed meeting them in Christchurch, and originally they seemed okay with it, but now I'm not sure if I'll go or not. Oh well.
I'm sure more has happened, but I can't seem to recall it here, so I'll have to fill you in on another day. Hope everybody's holidays are going as well as mine. It's New Year's Eve in Macon. I wish you all a happy new year as we prepare for graduation and leaving behind all that has become familiar to us.
- January 1, 2001 *2002 -
Today we drove back to Christchurch; my dad let me drive a little and I didn't get us killed so I was pretty proud of myself. I took some pictures of some deforested land for Mr. Brown because I'm realising that I'm not going to have anything to serve as a presentation for him, and I'd like to take up a whole class period like Kricket after his Russia trip even though I'm not as apt a speaker. Other than that, nothing's happened today aside from going swimming in my cousins' pool and running with the dogs. We didn't really celebrate the new year last night because all the parents were tired and I was tired and there was nobody else who knew how to light the roman candles without getting their eyebrows burned off so we just went to bed. I'm trying to see how much I can read while I'm here, so far I've logged about a thousand pages (LOTR and Big Sur) and I hope to get at least a thousand more; I didn't really read much on the plane trip over here but on the one back I should be wide awake. I hope everyone over there had a safe new year's eve celebration and that you all enjoy your remaining week or so until school wakes us and we drown.
ttyl