The first half of this post was sketched up a while ago, as
such there is a pretty sudden transition of voice. Deal with it (I’m trying to get caught up here)
It’s been surprisingly action packed since I’ve returned to
CHCH. Saturday was entirely filled
with flat searches, which ended up successful! I am renting a sleepout (a pretty standard NZ tradition,
essentially a small room with bath behind a main house), which is pretty near
to uni (university, no I’m not just lazy it’s the phrasing out here). As Tim owned a hotel, he has tons
of furniture and is being super generous and helping me flesh out an otherwise
unfurnished apartment.
I’m also quite stoked with my flatmates 1 student and two professionals-
Gina (Msc geo), Scott (IT god), Gareth (EQC and politician for the ACT party).
Sunday was devoted to my second adventure, as I don’t have a
car, and still haven’t met that many people (and Emily is hanging out with her
mom in the south, the bum) I was not able to get up into the southern alps;
instead I decided to bike around the port hills. It’s kind of hard to plan bike rides as many roads in the
hills are closed due to the earthquake, but the photo’s can adequately describe
why I’m stoked the hills are super near to CHCH. One thing to mention about the hills: I love the views,
solitude, and general wildness of the area, but I really dislike biking over
cattle guards. It’s also
interesting that the area was once covered by native bush and is only grassland
due to the grazing of sheep and cattle in the area.
It’s been a while since my first adventures up into the port
hills. Since then I’ve done
a ton of Uni work. My project is
pretty much on the up and up.
I’m focusing in on methane (assuming Fulbright support) in a variety of
fields. It should be pretty
fun. I’m headed up to Taupo for
the first round of fieldwork on March 18th! Before that I’m just taking care
of details on the uni front.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time exploring the place that I
live. This has included a
couple of excellent bike rides (CHCH is so good for it), and a fair bit of
climbing in the port hills.
It’s all on basalt outcrops, but it makes Wallula gap pretty
jealous. On the downside on one of
my trips out there my climbing partner got her hand twisted up in a draw and
broke her finger in two places.
Time three in hospital since arriving in NZ. She’s on the mend, but out of climbing for a couple of
months.
I haven’t been exploring too far afield thus far due to lack
of car and people who are stoked on driving me around. BUT that all has changed! I has van! Turns out the ever-excellent Tim had an old beater van
hanging around (87 Nissan largo).
I was able to get it up and running. Tim is being super generous and is letting me use
it/extended renting it for the time I’ll be here. I’m pretty stoked, but it was just set up today
and I have a touch of work before it’s truly road trip worthy (needs a bed
built into the back)
My limited driving has actually not been that bad. I think it’s mostly because I have
spent a good chunk of time biking around, so I’m very used to the left side of
the road. The challenging bits are
looking into the mirror and trying to shift with a drive train that comes off
the steering wheel… it’s hard!
For the first venture in van, which has been christened
Betsy Ross (I’ve got to spread the American culture eh?) I grabbed another
American exchange student and headed out to Mount Oxford. An hour outside of CHCH the trail head
starts at 349 m and the peak tops out at 1364m. It’s a steep climb and I’m kind of ashamed how sore I have
been afterwards. It was super
drizzly, but a really enjoyable day nonetheless.
I’m all caught up on the blog now and I’ll try to increase
the frequency of posts, but no promises (see the disclaimer).
