See you in 3 weeks

Hi All! 

Even though I had much studying to do this weekend, I was still able to find time to have some adventures. New Zealand, with it’s beautiful weather and everything there is to do, makes it very, very difficult for me to force myself to study for midterms. 

Friday night’s weather was beautiful. It was mid-60s and sunny all day, but unfortunately I spent the entire afternoon in the library. There’s an outdoor bar not too far away that I’ve passed by multiple times. It just looked like a really chill place so I decided to check it out on Friday. So a small group of us traveled over there after dinner. It was exactly my kind of bar. It was outside on a beautiful night, there was a small band playing live music, and they had bean bag and lawn chairs. It was a really chill, but fun time. Then, the topic of a tim-tam slammed arose. A tim-tam is one of hte most delicious, chocolate cookies I have ever eaten(they might even be better than oreos). A tim-tam slam is when you bite off the opposite corners of the cookie and drink either hot chocolate or coffee through it like a straw. So we left the bar to go get “tim-tam slammed”, which was the best thing ever. 

Saturday morning I went to the farmers market with a bunch of people. Daniel and I split a cinnamon scone and a raspberry &white chocolate crepe. There were too many choices for us to just pick one. We also bought lamb sausages which we cooked tonight for dinner. After that I spent the afternoon studying until it was time to get ready for the Crusader’s rugby game. The Crusaders is the regional rugby team, and we had awesome seats for the game. We were in the first row behind one of the goal posts. The atmosphere of the game was so much fun. They played music the entire time, even when the game was going, and the crowd did the wave so much. 

Yesterday,  Daniel and I traveled with a girl in my program and a guy we met in the Tramping Club to Cave Stream. Cave Stream is literally just as it sounds: a cave with a stream running through it. You just walk straight through the stream all around the cave. At somepoints the water was above my waist, and it was pretty chilly for an hour hike. I really enjoyed it, mostly because this isn’t something you can find in the U.S. If this was in the U.S, a company would own it, run tours, and develop a commercial area. But here, the cave is left exactly as is, and anyone can drive up and just walk on through. 

I just have to get through the next 3 days that are filled with 2 midterms and a project, and then I’m home free for 3 weeks. My 3-week Fall Break officially starts on Friday, and I will be traveling for the entire time. Daniel and I will be traveling with his family on the North Island for the first week, and then flying back to the south end of the South Island and driving the entire West coast. We’ll be kayaking, hiking, and doing a wine tour. I won’t be able to update while I am away, but there will definitely be a long blog post as soon as I return. 

Until then,

Erin 

Bushwhacking through Cow Pies in a Cloud

This past weekend Daniel and I decided we wanted to visit the town of Akaroa, a French Bay colony about an hour and a half drive from Christchurch. Wanting to make it more of an adventure, we decided to hike there. 

Friday afternoon we took the city bus to Ltylleton and then the ferry across to Diamond Harbor. From the harbor, we hiked for about 4 hours up to Mt. Herbert. We were mostly hiking on farmland through the Canterbury plains, scaring off sheep as we tramped. We had great views of harbor behind us and could see farm land for miles ahead of us. After climbing 900m uphill, we finally reached our shelter for the night. We decided to set up our tent inside the shelter just to stay warmer. We arrived at the shelter just in time to see a beautiful sunset.

I thought we were finally out of the farm lands, but boy, was I wrong. After falling asleep for a few hours, both Daniel and I woke up suddenly to noises outside. All of the sudden we heard feet shuffling around. The conversation went as followed: 

Erin: I think there’s a sheep on the roof

Daniel:There’s no way there’s a sheep on the roof

(something runs across our porch and jumps onto the roof) 

Erin: There’s definitely a sheep on the roof. 

Then, the unfortunate happened. I had to go to the bathroom. Of course, I forced Daniel to go outside with me because if I’m going to get attacked by an animal, I don’t want to be alone. We went outside, and while we could not tell if it was a sheep on our roof, we did see some kind animal but thankfully we scared it away. 

When we woke up Saturday morning, we were completely above the cloud line. 

Above the clouds

We took off on our hike Saturday, hoping the clouds would rise. This, unfortunately never happened. For the first two hours of our hike, we were walking through cow and sheep farms. There were several instances where cows were on our trail. Most of the time, they would move. Other times, I was convinced that they were going to charge at us if we walked any closer. Walking through these farms also meant walking through tons and tons of cow pies. My shoes are currently sitting out on my porch so they don’t stink up my room. 

Daniel, the cow herder 

After avoiding all the cows and and finding the correct trail, Daniel and I found ourselves  literally walking through a cloud the rest of the day. The fog did not help us, as we were just piecing together several trails by following a map. Thankfully, Daniel is a skilled map reader and we were able to get on the right trail. 

Towards the end of the trail, we walked through an area that was just like a rainforest. While we did not get the beautiful views we were expecting because of the clouds, I loved all the different settings we were able to hike through. 

After 8 hours of hiking on Saturday, we finally reached our destination, The Hilltop Tavern. We ate a declicious pizza, and decided we needed to continue on our way to Akaroa. The Hilltop Tavern was 18 km from Akaroa, and neither Daniel or I wanted to hike that much further. So we hitched a ride with a family from Germany down 15 km and then hiked the last 3 km to Akaroa. 

We spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning exploring the town of Akaroa. It was a cute town with lots of little shops, but the weather was iffy on Sunday so we decided to catch an early shuttle back to Christchurch. Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun. I was glad we decided to hike through the Banks Penninsula, as we were able to see the Canterbury Plains and I think it’s a huge accomplishment to say that we hiked our way to Akaroa. 

Sorry for such a long post. Happy St. Patricks Day in the States, everyone! 

Erin 

Beer, Mussels, and Rock Climbing

This weekend has been much more relaxing compared to my previous two weekend trips. Because I had a mandatory fieldtrip on Sunday, I decided to hang around Christchurch on Friday & Saturday. On Friday, after my classes ended at noon, Daniel and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach in New Brighton. It was a beautiful day, and as we are slowly transitioning to fall weather, I want to take full advantage of all the nice weather. We walked up and down the shore, laid out on the beach, and walked around the little stores in town. On our way back to campus, we stopped and picked up some DELICIOUS Thai food for dinner. 

I had a very relaxed morning on Saturday. I tried to get as much work completed as I could while also trying to plan more trips for the semester. Saturday afternoon I went to the Belgium Beer and Mussels Festival. There were lots of booths at the festival with tons of beer, live music, and then a food truck that sold different varieties of mussels. I went to the festival with two of my friends, Nicole and Erika, who unfortunately were into beer and mussels as much I was. I could have stayed at the festival all day. In the end, I did try a variety of mussels which were delicious and a traditional Belgium beer to go along with them. 

Today I had my rockclimbing fieldtrip for the climbing class I am taking. We traveled out to Castle Hill, which is a popular place for bouldering. It was my first real experience with outdoor climbing so I was a bit unsure about how I would do. We learned many techniques for climbing and then were given different routes/rocks to try these techniques on. Overall, I thought I did pretty well, much better than I expected. I was able to get more of a feel for what I’m capable of doing climbing-wise and what I’ll need to work on this semester. My body is so sore from climbing all day, and my feet are screaming at me for wearing climbing shoes 2 sizes too small. I’m excited to go back to Castle Hill in May for our 2nd fieldtrip, though, to see how much I’ve improved through taking this course. On our way back to Christchurch, we stopped at a famous pie shop, where I bought ate a delicious Moroccan lamb meat pie for dinner followed by a cherry pie for dessert. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures this week. Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all,

Erin 

Weekend Tramping Trip

Hi everyone!! 

This past weekend I traveled with a group of 10 people to Nelson Lakes National Park, located about 5 1/2 hours north of Christchurch. It was a very large group of us, but we all had a great time tramping around the park. We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, just in time to start our hike in the dead heat of the day. We hiked up to Angelus Hut via the ridge line on Friday, which was a very difficult hike for the first two hours, but the we were rewarded with beautiful views from the ridge. 

Pictures from our hike on Friday

Friday night, I stayed in Angelus Hut because all of the campsites had already been booked. This hut was about 3-4x larger than the hut we stayed in last weekend at Arthur’s Pass. It had two large bunkrooms that fit about 20 people each and a large kitchen and dining area. The hut was also situated next to two lakes, making for a beautiful surrounding view. 

On Saturday, I woke up really early and ventured outside to read until everyone else woke up. As I walked outside, the other hikers in the hut were racing outside with their cameras. I decided something exciting must be happening, so I ran out with them, only to see the most breath-taking sunrise I have ever seen. 

Picture of the Sunrise

The group decided to take it easy for the most part on Saturday. I read my book while soaking in the views of mountains and lakes. About mid-morning we decided to take an “easy” hike up to Angelus Peak. My legs were pretty tired from the day before, so I didn’t make it all the way to the peak. A group of us stopped about 1/3 of the way from the top and decided to eat our lunch there instead of making the rest of the journey to the top. 

We left Angelus Hut early Sunday morning, taking an alternative route back to the car park. Instead of hiking back over the ridge, we hiked down through the valley. We walked through the trees, along the river, and more importantly, in the shade most of the day. This was a much easier hike than the other two days and thankfully my pack was lighter due to most of my food being gone. Needless to say, I have definitely been pushed myself physically the past two weekends.

This upcoming weekend I have a field-trip to Castle Hill with my rock-climbing class. I plan on taking it easy the rest of the weekend, hopefully going to the farmer’s market or heading to the beach if it’s nice.

That’s it for now! 

Erin