Spring Break! (Part 2: Hogsmeade... aka Markets. And Beaches. Though beaches have nothing to do with Hogsmeade...)

Day four!

In Chinese, the word "four" is a homonym for the word "dead." Hotels in the US don't have a 13th floor (at least, not a floor labeled as the 13th floor) because the number 13 is supposedly bad luck. In China, you'll find that there is no 4th floor, 14th floor, 24th floor, or 34th floor. I wonder, though, whether or not they just ignore the 40th to 49th floors. I've never been to a building in China that's tall enough to include those....

But yes. Day four.

The Day of Death.

Which has absolutely nothing to do with by fourth day of spring break. We were still in Christchurch... I believe it was either a Friday or a Saturday. That meant the marketplace downtown was open, so our Christchurch hosts decided to bring us down for some shopping fun.

We had to walk through Cathedral Square again, which was filled up this time.

The marketplace had little cakes for sale, lots of souvenir-type-stuff, crepes, fudge, delicious Greek food, and seagulls. Yes. Even all the way across the Pacific Ocean, those birds still hunt people down for the food in their hands.



And oh! There was a street performer! He wasn't a magician, but he did some magic-like stunts. This is him lying down on a bed of broken glass while a spectator jumped on him.

The stunts were ok, but the performance was really entertaining. He was energetic - exactly what a street crowd looks for in the middle of a marketplace.

Finally, for the Scots out there, a man in a kilt blowing a bagpipe:

Fun as.

After that, we took a bus to Sumner's Beach. It's not a wildly tourist-y location... and you may miss it if you're taking a quick tour of New Zealand. It's definitely not at the top of any lists, but it was one of my favorite places in New Zealand.

It's a beautiful beach with soft, shell-less white sand (unlike the yucky stuff on the Jersey shore). At some points, it's almost impossible to differentiate the sky from the water. What's more - the beach has these giant rock structures that are absurdly fun to climb. There are random mussel shells on them. And this entire beach is the foreground to another beautiful view - there are mountains in the background, white with the winter snow. You will see pictures...

I just wanted to say, though, that I think I missed out on the climbing-everything-into-every-hole stage as a child. I have a Kiwi friend who pointed out the urge to jump into a hole that she saw (we were on a class field trip... this blog entry will come later). I would have loved to do more of that....

But here we go.

Sumner Beach:


My friends decided to take off their shoes so that they can go for a dip in the water. It's winter... not as bad as it is here, but definitely not warm enough to go for a swim. So while they adventured forth on bare feet, my sister and I stole their shoes and ran to the top of the rock structure. I deposited their shoes there and waited for them to come.

Yes. That's right. We stole their shoes.

Then we just climbed around the little rock thingies for a bit. People took lots of pictures... and they all ended up looking like band pictures or something. Strange...


And here's this really tall part that had a path up it on the other side. Most people took that path. Since I was bitten by the climbing bug, I decided to take the risk and brave the climb upwards without any climbing gear. I was joined by another friend, and we had a nice climb up to the top. Didn't climb down though... don't think I could have managed that.



And here's the path that most people took to get up. We used it to get down.


And don't forget the caves.


Here you can see both the entrance to the caves and the main rock structure that we climbed up.

That night, we thanked our hosts by cooking dinner for them. The Auckland group (that's me, my two friends, and my sister) went to the supermarket, bought taco-making things and pasta stuff, and cooked. It was fun and a good way to end our time in Christchurch.

The next morning, we hopped on a plane and headed for Dunedin - home of both the Speight's beer factory and a Cadbury chocolate factory. More on that later... but, in the meantime, a thank you to Brad, Angelica, Shalom, Heather, and Florence for taking all these pictures.

Spring Break! (Part 1: Volcanoes, Chess, Penguins, and Museums)

So it's finally spring (it's September now). Most University of Auckland students spend these two free weeks studying and writing papers... I spent it traveling. No matter. Those two weeks were undoubtedly sweet as.

A side note: Yes. I know it's not really September. And yes. I'm not actually in New Zealand anymore. The semester ended with the end of October, and final exams took place during the first two weeks of November. But oh well. DEAL WITH IT!

Eh... ahem. Spring break.

The original plan involved a couple days in Australia and a week and a half on the South Island of New Zealand. But, as usual, the whiny voice of my little sister decided to stalk me all the way across the Pacific Ocean... and, as the older sister, I was forced to stay behind in New Zealand and wait for her while two other friends went ahead to brave Australia's great Outback.

Since my sister can read what I'm saying... eh... I should probably apologize and say, instead, that I was glad to have her along. Seriously though - yes. It was great to have her along. My parents were going to come and see me at the end of my semester, but she would have classes then. So she persuaded them to let her come earlier... and, though I missed Australia, we nevertheless had an amazing time.

So... Day One: Rangitoto.

You may not remember this... but Rangitoto is the volcano where a fellowship of American students in New Zealand destroyed the One Ring. I mean - eh, it was one of the first day trips that I took in Auckland. Since my sister was dead tired and completely jet-lagged - she had just gotten off the plane that morning - I decided to torture her by dragging her up a volcano.

You've already seen pictures of Rangitoto... but last time, we didn't make it to the lava caves.


My cell phone doubled as a torch (aka flashlight). We were fortunate that we had it... because we managed to stumble into one particular lava cave/tunnel. We went in one end, braved the darkness, hit our heads and tripped on sharp rocks, before finding our way out the other end. No pictures because it was too dark to take them. And also because I didn't bring my camera, and my sister neglected to take any pictures.

Then we climbed up to the summit again and sat down for some lunch. Here's a view of the city from the top... and yes. That bird is posing for us. My sister dropped a bread crumb there as a bribe.


Christchurch

Day two was spent partially exploring Auckland... and partially riding in a plane to the South Island. We arrived in Christchurch, grabbed a taxi, and made our way to Canterbury University where we were picked up by other American friends in the IFSA-Butler program. They brought us out for some fish 'n chips dinner and gave us a mattress to sleep on. My fellow travelers who had gone ahead to Australia arrived back in New Zealand that night.

Day three -
We spent this day exploring the city. It was beautiful... a lot more red-brick than Auckland, had a more British feel... and the place was a lot more like Amherst and Northampton.

We took a series of buses to the center of the city. It was a Saturday morning, so the place was bustling with activity. All the little stores were opened, a town crier dressed in a traditional red coat walked around yelling out random things, and street performers played flutes, juggled torches, and tried to sing.

So the town crier:


Here's some of the random Christchurch 'artwork' that decorated the streets:

There was even a giant chess set in the middle of the square. Think Harry Potter... I wanted to play but two people were already battling out their conflicts on it.

The most prominent feature, though, was the giant cathedral at the edge of the square.

Let's go inside...


Beautiful, eh? Believe it or not... this is the final resting place of Aragon. See?

Ok. Maybe not. But it's cool.

After that, we each paid a dollar to take the winding stairs up to the top of the cathedral's clock tower. There were 134 steps winding tightly around a central pillar. It's designed to give the defender the advantage in a swordfight. All I experienced, though, was severe motion sickness when I went up.



Through the little window there, you can see all the bells.


And, finally, the view of the square from the top.




After the cathedral, we walked down the street pass the Dyslexic Center. The Dyslexic Center seemed to be some kind of center for... I don't know... research on dyslexia or something? All I could get out of it was that it was pretty and weirdly decorated. I didn't get what the figure on top meant, but we took pictures anyway.



Then onwards to the museum!

It was essentially the Christchurch Museum of everything...


After we ate the museum, we had lunch from the random food stands in Christchurch. I had a delicious kebab (think burrito with chicken and random stuff).

Then PENGUINS!!!

Yes. That's right. Penguins. On the afternoon of Day Three, we went to the Antarctic Centre.

The place rescues wounded penguins from the south and cares for them at the Antarctic Centre. Any baby penguins that are born there, though, are returned to the wild. The Antarctic Centre in Christchurch is also the place where the rest of the world goes to prepare for trips to the Antarctic. There's a US base (or something?) there where scientists and south pole people go. From there, they take a plan down to the bottom of the planet.


So we came.


We survived the antarctic weather. This was a room that became colder every twenty minutes or so. They would give us big red coats to wear... then we would go inside. There's snow on the ground, an ice slide, an igloo, a tent, and a motorcycle-thingy for people to take pictures on. Every twenty minutes, it would get colder and darker... giant fans would turn on, and everyone inside would freeze to death.



Yes. You can see my sister and I smiling here. But then the lights slowly disappeared, the fans turned on, and we died.

And thus ends this blog.
Forever.














Oh. Heh. Maybe not. I lied.

>.>
<.<

Some of these penguins are so injured that they can't swim properly. We watched them eat... one of the staff members fed them by throwing fish into the water. They dived and grabbed for the fish. One penguin could only swim clockwise....

We also learned that the penguins won't eat fish without heads. The man who was feeding them ripped off the head of one of the fish and threw it in. The penguins grabbed for it, only to spit it out again.

So... here's the feeding:


And this last one was hand-fed because he was too injured to jump out, swim, and fight for the food with all the other penguins.


After that, we rode on a Haglund. (Think giant tank-like vehicle that drives up and down snowy hills, over giant holes, and into lakes.)

That red one is a fake one... in the room with the freezing cold fans from earlier. Here's a real one. We rode on it towards a muddy track. We went up and down hills, off cliffs, over holes, and into a lake. Yes, that's right. INTO a lake.



Remember... INTO a lake. See the water?


And here's my biggest accomplishment yet: I was in two places at once.

(My right foot is on water from the North Pole, while my left foot is on water from the South Pole).

Yeah... anyway. That's the end of part one. There's at least another day of Christchurch, though, before we go off to explore the rest of the South Island. Stay tuned for more.