Happenings Around Christchurch and Kaikoura

This past weekend, I had a relaxing time just hanging out around the apartments in Christchurch.  My rock climbing class was supposed to have a field trip to go bouldering on Sunday, but unfortunately there was a rain storm so it got cancelled.  It was kind of nice to spend a weekend relaxing instead of traveling for a change.  Since I don’t have any pictures to share from this past weekend, I figured I could do a miscellaneous post from some from the past weeks that I haven’t shared yet.

There’s a whole section in the museum in Christchurch City Centre for graffiti.

A panoramic I took on a tramp

Paua shells are popular here. This is a whole room filled with them in the museum. I found a whole one on the beach in Kaikoura last week!

Speaking of Kaikoura… Here are some pictures from my adventures there last week. A group of us took a bus over and went sea kayaking to see the seals!  It was a lot of fun and really beautiful there.

One of the seals sunbathing

One of the seals swimming

The view from my kayak

Me and my friend Nicole

Rachel and I, representing our home school with our mascot, Rocky

Baby and Momma seals

Playing on a playground… redefined

The hostel we stayed at had a hot tub! (called a “hot spa” here)… we spent a lot of time debating what exactly a hot spa was until we saw it

Sunset

I can’t believe I’ve been here for a month now.  I feel like time is flying.  I’ve already done so much but there’s still so much more to see!  Classes are good here, though I prefer traveling to school work.  My two favorite classes I’m taking are rock climbing and kayaking (yes, you heard me right, those are real classes that I’m enrolled in).  I’m also taking some real classes:  Evolution, Rebuilding Christchurch (which is a community service class) and Music History.  These classes are much less fun than the first two, obviously, but they’re interesting all the same, and also much easier than what I’m used to.  I can’t say that would hold true for all classes here, but I’m used to spending all my free time studying in the library at home. Here, I’ve only been going to the library when I have time to kill between classes. It still requires studying here, but less than I’m used to.

I miss home a bit, but mostly the people, not really the place.  If I could pick up my family and friends and move them to New Zealand, I would stay here forever.  It’s amazing here.