He taonga no te whenua me hoki ano ki te whenua

It’s hard to describe how I feel right now. I spent five months in a country I’d never visited before, and I fell madly in love with it. There were good times and bad times, but I can honestly say I wouldn’t change a thing about my time here. I held nothing back, I said yes, and the experience was one of the most rewarding in my life so far.

My last couple of weeks did not lack in excitement; on June 13th Christchurch was affected by a 5.7 followed by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. For the first quake, I was in residence, which was evacuated. I made my way down the street to a coffee shop to meet up with my friends, who were all a little shaken. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside to drink, and after about 10 minutes the second quake hit. The cars in the parking lot were rocking back and forth, the windows were warping, and people were sprinting out of buildings. We were all ok, but a bit worried, and headed to a friend’s place to relax.

Post-quake drinks on the trampoline

The university was closed for three days afterward, which meant the exam period had to be completely re-arranged (it was supposed to begin on Saturday). One of my exams was cancelled; the others bumped back a day. Of course, the earth didn’t feel like settling and we were hit by a 5.5 on Tuesday night. This was the most rattling quake I’d been through yet, since I was walking outside when it happened. The buildings started to shudder like dogs shaking off water and street lamps were waving back and forth. I felt lightheaded and freaked out; after a large aftershock, residences were evacuated and we weren’t allowed to return until 2:00am … not a great way to prep for my first exam, which was the next morning at 9:00am.

Somehow I made it through my exams with my sanity, packed up my things and said goodbye to the wonderful people I’ve spent time with for the past five months. I got up at 4:00am on June 24th to make my flight (which was luckily not cancelled due to ash clouds or earthquakes) and am now halfway through my most intense bout of travel yet: I've flown from Christchurch to Sydney to LA to Vancouver, which took 29 hours, and yet it is still June 24th. Currently I'm on the ferry to Victoria for the night; tomorrow I'll head back to Vancouver, fly to Kingston overnight via Toronto and then drive up to camp Sunday morning after a brief welcome brunch at home.

Friends who will be missed :(

Sadly, my time in New Zealand has drawn to a close. I don’t think that's the last I’ll see of the country, and definitely not the last of the friends I made while there. When I look back on my exchange, it is only with smiles and love. Until the next travel blog, this is your barefoot narrator signing off!

Mt Thomas

The second weekend in June I went to stay with my friends Abby and Lara for the weekend. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal and hang out on a big couch eating popcorn and watching movies … living in a flat never quite measures up to that feeling.

On Sunday we hiked up Mt Thomas and were lucky enough to have a beautiful (and a bit crisp) day. It was a steep hike and we all realized how unfit we’d become since TWALK … none of us had really been up for tramping since then! Just to stay true to our history, we managed to lose Abby and Lara’s dog Jess for about two hours but luckily were reunited with her at the top of the hike. 

That afternoon, I helped Lara feed their seven alpacas. One of them was fond of the food I was giving him, but also fond of sneezing all over me. Needless to say, my puffy vest is a little bit more green and smelly than it was before.

Back up North

At the beginning of June I decided it was time for another adventure (my lack of blogs being indicative of my sedentary school-ridden state) and I chose to head back north to the fair city of Wellington. If you recall, my last visit was immediately after the 6.3 earthquake in February and I was flown there on a Hercules military plane. It was definitely nice to go back under less stressful circumstances!

I spent the first couple of days enjoying the city again; Wellington is a wonderful place. It's right on the harbour, it doesn't feel too big, everyone seems to be dressed fashionably and the shops are really interesting. I went back to Te Papa, the national museum, and explored it for a lot longer this time since I wasn't beckoned to the beach by warm weather. I saw a giant squid, explored a re-creation of what New Zealand would have been like pre-contact and saw loads of physical examples of Maori culture that I've been studying all semester. 

I did a short walk up Mt Kaukau (pronounced cow-cow) and was lucky to have a clear enough day to see over to the South Island (hopefully it shows up in the picture). The weather has been unseasonably warm here lately, which has been bad news for the ski hills but enjoyable everywhere else!

South Island is across the water on the right

But what I was really pumped about that weekend was seeing my first live pro rugby game! I saw the Hurricanes (Wellington's team) play the Lions (a South African team). It was a great game and the Hurricanes won 38-27, so despite the rain fans were pumped!

Hosea Gear gets his second try of the game

The next day I visited Martinborough to enjoy the quaint wine country again before it was time to head back to Christchurch and focus on my studies once more.

Taylor's Mistake

The morning after my birthday party (about three weeks ago) I attended CUBA's Learn to Surf day ... impressed that I was even able to get out of bed? Yeah. I was too. Looks like turning 21 doesn't mean I get awful hangovers! Now that I've said that, 22 will probably kick my ass.

Learning the basics: pop-ups!

Anyway, back to surfing. It was a beautiful day, and the water is finally safe to swim in (it was pretty sketchy for a while after the quake) but the swell was the weakest I've ever tried to surf - it was pretty close to dead calm. Which was great for all the newbies who were learning to surf for the first time, but not for anyone riding anything shorter than 8ft. I'd been invited by my friend Blake who knew I was into surfing and wasn't really there to learn since I was taught to surf by an amazing instructor back north in Canada. Blake and his brother Canning and I shared a long board since they'd both brought boards too short for the swell, and we had a great time goofing around on the little waves and watching the learners slam into each other accidentally.

After a few hours out on the water, everyone headed in to shore to have some snacks before starting the beach cleanup. CUBA (Canterbury University Boardriders Association) teamed up with Sustainable Coastlines to do a bit of good for the coast! I was pumped to be helping clean up the oceans even just a little bit (beach cleanups reduce the amount of garbage in the ocean - check out the Great Pacific Garbage Patch although there's more than just one!).

Finally at the end of the day, there was a BBQ and CUBA gave out a ton of sweet prizes. Somehow I won "Female Charger of the Day" and a sick pair of Arnette sunglasses ... I feel kinda guilty since I already knew how to surf, but I love the shades!

Great views during the cleanup

TWALK

"What is a TWALK?" you may be wondering. It is a twenty-four-hour walk (get it?) where teams attempt to find checkpoints based on vague clues, a map, and their orienteering skills. Did I mention everyone gets dropped off in an unknown location? Yup. You've got no clue where you start. TWALK is an event put on by the tramping club, so I signed up with a few friends. Everyone dresses up for the first leg of the event (unicorns, clowns, Osama Bin Laden, Tron, you name it) and we did a Cat in the Hat theme.

The event started without a hitch, but my team quickly realized we weren’t nearly as competitive as we thought we’d be. We ran into a group of “ladies” (a team of 4 guys wearing dresses, wigs, purses, jewelry, nail polish, the whole deal) who were having a blast – one was drunk, the others hopelessly incapable of finding anything. These guys made us laugh for the rest of the leg, right until we pulled into the headquarters at around 6pm.

Hiking as the sun sets is pretty beautiful

After a break and some food, we headed out on Leg 2 at 7pm (the event consists of 5 legs with about 15 checkpoints each, ranging from 15-25km in distance), somehow still teamed up with those crazy guys. Orienteering is much more difficult in the dark (the event goes all night long and people continue tramping using flashlights), but with some rogaining champs on the team, I felt like we had nothing to worry about. 

“12 hours left! 8 hours till sunrise!” one of the guys said happily.

When it’s dark and you’re tired, you tend to listen to whatever someone says and if they sound convincing enough you’ll follow them. While looking for checkpoint 12 in Leg 2 we didn’t see any torches any more and didn’t recognize where we were. But we kept following the directions of whoever was holding a map and said “This is the way!”

Wishing we were back here!

Eventually it was 4 in the morning and we were aimlessly following farm tracks, not knowing where we were on the map and therefore having no idea which way to walk. The group desire was to head down, not up, but that got us nowhere … Dehydration was taking over and we made the decision to retrace our steps, hoping to end up back near checkpoint 12 (or at least somewhere we recognized). We wandered along tracks hoping to see a notable landmark or perhaps lights that looked like the hash house, but instead we just ended up on some cliffs.

Our eyes were barely staying open by 6am, so we got nice and cozy in a cow pasture; as soon as my head hit my backpack I was asleep and dreaming that I was not lost in the hills of New Zealand. I was awoken 30 minutes later to fat, cold raindrops landing on my face and the realization that we were still completely and utterly lost.

With a bit of light to aid us, things were looking better despite getting soaked through by the rain. We could see farms and walked down a track past herds of sheep toward them, miserably getting muddy and drenched. The first farm we got to was unoccupied, but as we walked along the road toward what we hoped would be another house, we saw a man walking in a field. Nearly simultaneously, Search & Rescue called and they said they’d radio the TWALK organizers and make sure someone would be along to pick us up.

We warmed up by the lovely farmer's fire, and soon enough we were all conked out in the back of a car on our way back to the TWALK HQ. It turns out that during the night we'd walked over 2km past where we'd originally been dropped off; that meant somehow we'd travelled so far off Leg 2 that we'd passed all of Leg 1. I have no idea how we did it, but I'm just glad we all ended up hypothermia-free and safe.

I slept like a baby that night, and am now proud to know that when I need to, I can push my body to its limits and walk for hours and hours on little food if I need to. Not sure if the girls are going to do TWALK again next year, but I'm kind of glad I'll have the excuse of living over 10 000kms away ...

Bay of Islands

Waiting for us on the Paihia wharf at 4:00pm were the crew of The Rock, an overnight boat cruise. We were ferried out to the boat with the 30-or-so other people joining us for the next 24 hours. The vessel itself is a big red ferry-type boat with a lower deck devoted to food and entertainment, and an upper deck full of cabins.

Sunset on the boat

I felt somewhat like I was at Spring Camp at RKY, knowing that the crew does the exact same routine day after day after day to the same bunch of smiling tourists; I hope we do as good a job back at camp as these guys, because they genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves. The fun began with everyone on board taking aim at a plastic duck floating behind the boat with a paintball gun; shoot the duck and you'd win a free drink at the bar. No one managed to hit her. Trailing next to the duck was a fishing line which bobbed up when a fish bit - whoever noticed would yell "Fish on!" and a crew member would pull it in; we managed to catch a couple of fish that way. When the boat was anchored, about 15 fishing rods were pulled out and everyone took their chances at catching some snapper. I got nothing but a couple of nibbles, but wasn't too fazed. The fish contributed to the massive buffet dinner we ate at around 8, which also included steak, potato salad, greens, beets, bread, and more.


Later in the evening we went night kayaking in small groups to check out the bioluminescent plankton in the water (haven't taken oceanography? Youtube "bioluminescence" and there are plenty of cool creatures to see - this video is similar to what we were experiencing). It was pretty cool, but not as cool as when we decided to go for a night swim and suddenly the water lit up bright green with every stroke. It was chilly though so we didn't last long; we warmed up by the fire at the back of the boat before heading to bed. 

Sunrise

Kina

It was a squishy sleep - I feel bad for anyone tall considering my head and feet were both touching the walls! I got up before sunrise, and was lucky enough to see that another gorgeous day was unfolding. After a big breakfast, we went snorkeling. I didn't see too many exciting creatures apart from a school of electric blue fish, but our mission was to collect kina, a spiky type of sea urchin whose innards are popular among kiwis. When they'd been cracked open and scooped out, everyone got a taste - I can't say I'm a big fan of salty brown goo.

Next, the boat took us to a large beach we had all to ourselves on one of the many islands. We walked up to the top of the island and the view was incredible - blue water and green islands for 360 degrees. Back on the beach I played a little volleyball with some Norwegians, an Irishman and some Americans while Kelsey and Drea read. After a picnic lunch we returned to the boat and basked in the afternoon sun while we putted back to Paihia. The boat trip had gone by so quickly but was a TON of fun, I'd recommend it to anyone who is heading to the Bay of Islands!

We took the bus back to Auckland that afternoon, crashed in a hostel that night (our sweet slumber interrupted by two shuffly, angry, swearing older guys at about midnight ... not so fun) and flew back to Christchurch the next morning. It hadn't been a long trip but it was so worth it! Seeing the sub-tropical part of New Zealand really made me realize how insanely gorgeous this country is considering its size. The beauty of New Zealand was confirmed even more by our flight back to Christchurch; the skies were crystal clear so we had an amazing view of the Southern Alps and hills of Canterbury.

View from the plane

Paihia

After an early rise and 4 hours on a bus, we arrived in Paihia. Once again, I've created a high-tech digital image for anyone who finds typing Auckland and Paihia into Google too difficult. They are both located in the Northern tip of New Zealand, which is what the map shows:

Auckland in the lower right, Paihia marked by the A.

Excellent - now we're all geographically set. When we arrived in Paihia the weather was miserable. We explored a bit but were deterred by the rain, so we ended up snuggling in front of the TV in our hostel, the amazing Saltwater Lodge, and watching a movie. Nothing else of any excitement happened that day.

The next morning, I woke up and was incredibly happy to see the sun was shining. Drea had been predicting another day of rain, but my optimism won out (or NZ's lack of correct meteorological data, either one) and it was a beautiful day. I took a few shots in the early morning fearing it would cloud over again, but the day just got even better.

 











Our hostel had bikes that were free to take out for a ride, so we all hopped on enthusiastically. Sadly, they were poor fits and the biking was pretty uncomfortable, but we toughed it out anyway. We rode to Waitangi, the area where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. It suddenly looked like we were in Ireland - the scenery of New Zealand never ceases to amaze me.

 
While Drea went for a run, Kelsey and I hiked through mangrove forests and along boardwalks to Haruru Falls. It was a beautiful walk and the falls were a lot bigger than we'd been expecting!

After biking back to Paihia, we regrouped and spent the afternoon lying on the beach enjoying the sun. Our next adventure awaited us out on the water ...

Auckland

Auckland Sky Tower

After what felt like too long being static in Christchurch, Easter break finally arrived and it was time for another adventure. Drea, Kelsey and I flew up to Auckland on April 24th and spent the day exploring the city. Unfortunately for us, Easter Sunday is not a very exciting day in a city. Needless to say we got pretty bored and ended up seeing an IMAX movie, but not before I tried on a leather jacket in one of the few stores that was open, which turned out to cost an incredible $1500!!! It was made from BABY LAMB wool and skin, and apparently not that many baby lambs die each year, resulting in the outrageous cost.

We went out for dinner after the movie (lucky for us most restaurants were open so we had a lot of choice). We chose a restaurant called Buffalo which had great food but very poor ambiance - conveniently there was good music at the restaurant next door so we tuned out our place's pop beats and listened to the Spanish guitarist instead. I decided to put being a vegetarian on a bit of a hold (sorry Mar) and celebrate Easter with lamb shanks and mashed potatoes - thought about my dad while eating them, hope you're proud! It was absolutely delicious.

In Albert Park

We spent the night at a hostel and got up early the next morning for our bus ride which would be taking us up north (remember, Northern Hemisphere inhabitants, that heading north in NZ means getting warmer!).

What Remains

It's been over two months since the earthquake and I can hardly believe it. I'll be heading back to Canada in less than two months ... I hope the time doesn't fly by as fast as it has so far but in my heart I know it will. 

Earlier this month I finally made the trip to as close to downtown as you can get in Christchurch these days. The city centre is blocked off completely by fences and is patrolled 24/7 by volunteer and military personnel. Still, as you walk toward the CBD the damage is extensive - it makes you glad you can't walk straight through to the heart of it. I wandered about the sealed-off area, and just looking around made me fall completely silent; I was overwhelmed by how tangible the grief was. It hung on every dilapidated building, every fallen brick, and every crack in the road. I felt helpless; what could I do to help Christchurch? Volunteers can't get in, and there's not much left to do outside of the worst damaged areas. It's as though the city's heart has been ripped out and everyone can see the bloody hole that's left behind - you can look at it, take pictures, gawk like it's a museum display and then go home. As long as you have a home to go back to; as long as you're not terrified the earth will shake again and your walls will fall down around you.

Despite the fact that I felt no desire to pull out a camera and violate the exposed innards of my current city, I know people back home have been asking to see it. I only had the nerve to take a few.

What remains to be seen of the cathedral.

One of many destroyed churches

Hope Kiwi Pass

A few weeks ago, the University of Canterbury finally had its Clubs Days, where the school's teams, societies and clubs set up booths and convince you to join the ranks of their esteemed members. I joined the volleyball club (although they have no gym to play in post-earthquake), the Gentlemen's Club (a social club, for Bingo nights and cocktail parties), dance classes (although I have yet to attend one), but most importantly I joined the Tramping Club. Although I may have explained what tramping is in an earlier blog, let me refresh your memory: Tramping = Hiking. And no, Mum, tramping does not make you a tramp :)

Canterbury University Tramping Club (CUTC) runs trips all over the South Island every weekend. It's an amazing way to see parts of New Zealand that are only accessible by foot. CUTC's Freshers trip kickstarts the year, combining new members with past members on an overnight. Normally there would be over 100 people on the trip, but as a result of the earthquake, a lot of people pulled out of UC so there were only 50 people this year. The trip took us to Hope Kiwi Pass, which is in Lake Sumner Forest Park (100 km northwest of Christchurch). Mal and Drea both came, and we met loads of new people.

A few of the TC's members

The hike out was sunny and pleasant, although there were many wasps about and Mal got stung on her ankle, resulting in a 3-day cankle. Arriving at Hope Valley 16km later, we spent the afternoon playing sardines in the long grass. At night, we hung out with our new friends before retiring to our tents.

Playing in the long grass

Not a bad view!

Sunday wasn't quite as beautiful as Saturday, but it was still a pleasant walk back. We were greeted with a BBQ at the carpark, along with a lesson in river crossing (there are lot of drownings in NZ each year so they take river crossings very seriously). The water was frigid so I was thankful to have clothes to change into! We were bussed back to Christchurch and arrived back at Ilam around 7:00. We were exhausted, but we loved the trip and I definitely can't wait to get back out with the CUTC again soon.

Morning light hitting a different kind of tent city

Kaikoura

After the first week back at "school," Derek and I took a weekend trip to Kaikoura (about 2.5 hours north of Christchurch) to enjoy his last few days in New Zealand. Kaikoura is right on the coast and is named for its abundance of crayfish (the Maori name is Te Ahi-kai-koura-a-Tama-ki-te-rangi). The drive there on Friday was gorgeous - sunny and clear - but of course I managed to sleep for most of it, and it turned out that that would be the nicest weather we'd have all weekend. We arrived in Kaikoura around dinner and ate our fish & chips on the beach while enjoying the sunset seen above. We camped at a site that was about 20 minutes from the centre of Kaikoura, but since it was dark we had some extreme difficulty finding it. After about 45 minutes of extra driving we finally rolled into the site and set up our tent. 


On Saturday morning we explored a drizzly Kaikoura before heading out for a bit of surfing. I rented a board, but Derek had brought his from Canada. It was not my best surf, but considering the waves were fairly inconsistent and difficult to read I didn't sweat it too much. Derek had a bit more luck but it wasn't great for him either. After a few hours, we returned the board and drove back toward the campsite. On the way, we stopped to check out a fur seal population; there were easily a hundred seals hanging out on the shore just off of the highway. We did a quick walk along the Ohau Stream to a waterfall, and on the way ran into a couple of adorable seal pups. In the fall, all of the baby seals head up the stream to hang out with each other while their mummies ditch them to hunt in the sea. Pretty adorable!

My new best friends

On Sunday the weather was looking like it would potentially clear a bit, so we opted to do a hike as opposed to surfing again. We chose to hike 1600m Mt Fyffe, hoping for some beautiful views. It was gorgeous for about the first hour on the way up (and when I say up I mean UP - it was switchback central; there was not one flat section on the hike) but after that we were hiking in a cloud. When all you're doing is exhausting yourself by walking a constant upward path and getting no visual benefit, you'd think you'd stop ... but not Derek and I. Being stubborn, we wanted to hit the summit, so we continued on along our soggy trek until we made it. It was not worth it at all. 

Pretty view of Kaikoura on the early part of the hike

Getting a little cloudy ...

Still stubbornly heading up through the cloud

The descent made both of our heads spin and we were practically falling over one another by the time we reached the car 6 hours after we'd started the hike. We rewarded ourselves with dinner out at a delicious restaurant and a movie at the local theatre where they still use film reels and have an intermission during which you can buy more popcorn!


Monday morning, Derek surfed for a few hours while I played photographer. It was pretty gross when we first got to the coast but it managed to clear after a couple of hours. The surf was much better than it had been on Saturday, which made Derek a happy surfbum. After a couple of hours, we hopped in the car and drove back to Christchurch in time for my afternoon class.

Tent City

On March 14th, one of my four classes resumed. It was held in a large, white tent in a parking lot, and the class was seated on fold-out chairs. Sometimes it was impossible to hear the lecturer over the flapping of the tent, or the passing of an airplane. It was hot, uncomfortable and all-around conducive to no learning. But at least classes had started, right? Definitely the oddest back-to-school I've experienced yet.

Some of our tent classrooms

Temporary Cafe

For the classes that didn't get scheduled tent time, all lectures were online as audios or videos. There's a lot of dedication required when it's sunny outside but you know you have 4 Coastal Studies lectures to catch up on ... let's just say I'm not quite caught up as of yet. Luckily, as the weeks have gone by and more buildings have been approved for general access, more and more classes are being held in actual lecture halls. I've never appreciated a hard surface to write on more! All of my courses are back in full swing as of this week, so hopefully the semester continues smoothly.

The Final Stops

After a rainy night, we got up early and took the windy, turn after turn after turn drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound. This seems like a great time for the second edition of Ally's poorly made New Zealand travel maps! Check it out (if you're confused, Te Anau is the lower of the two furthest left pins):

At Milford Sound we did the only thing there is to do ... take a boat cruise! We chose Mitre Peak since they had smaller boats that didn't take buttloads (I mean, busloads) of tourists on board. Since it had been pouring the night before, we were surrounded by unreal waterfalls - it was hard to see where they came from due to the mist/fog/clouds, which made it that much more incredible. On top of all that beauty, our boat kept being chased by dolphins! At one point, the driver stopped the boat and a dolphin was just chilling right next to the bow, and Drea and I stood there staring at it for over a minute ... we were so close we could have touched it! It was a pretty magnificent experience overall.

When the cruise was over, we hopped back in the car and drove to Dunedin, our final stop of the trip. We stayed with Charlie, a friend from UBC, in an all-boys house (a little intimidating, not to mention the odd smell ... just kidding!). It was great to catch up with another old friend. While we were eating dinner, the news about the Japan earthquake / tsunami was on TV. It was terrifying to see a natural disaster of much greater severity so close after Christchurch had been impacted by one ... definitely didn't calm our nerves at all. 

If only they were real ...

That night, the girls went out to experience a good time Dunedin-style, but Derek and I stayed in since he'd accidentally ingested gluten with his Chinese dinner ... not very much fun for him! :( On Saturday morning we drove back to Christchurch, with a quick stop to a berry farm (mmm my favourite). We sorrowfully returned the Dragon to the car rental, and
started to prepare ourselves for the re-start of classes on Monday the 14th.