Rocking with the Kiwis

After such a great weekend in Sydney, I was still super pumped for my next weekend... in New Zealand!!! The week went by pretty quickly: had class on Monday, work training for my new job as a social science interviewer (I'll explain later) on Tuesday, Pub Crawl for Ekka holiday on Wednesday, then struggling through class on Thursday before hopping on a plane to Christchurch. I was bummed that I wasn't able to get a window seat but it was dark out anyway so there wasn't much to see anyway. Best part of the journey was getting through customs to see Phillippa, Tessa (two of my fellow blueshirts from Dson), and Tessa's sister Georgia waiting for me.

It was rather late but we went back to Tessa's house for a couple beers and played in a park, then watched some crazy NZ tv show called "Outrageous Fortune" before passing out. Tessa and I spent Friday checking out downtown Christchurch and the local museum with the infamous Paua Shell House. Paua shells come from abalone and when shined have a beautiful iridescent blue, green, purple color to them. Back in the 1960s, Myrtle Flutey got tired of her husband leaving his shiny paua shells lying around the floor of the house so she started hanging them up on the wall. Next thing they knew they had over 1200 and they opened their house in 1963 to tourists for free. They started collecting other "Kiwiana" as the kiwis like to call their local knick knacks and after they died a recreation of their house was made and the entire collection moved to the Canterbury Museum for our viewing pleasure :)

After the shiny shell house, Tessa and I got some delicious souvlaki before meeting up with Phillippa for a ride up into the "hills" surrounding Christchurch. By most Americans they would probably be termed mountains but by kiwi standards they apparently didn't quite make the cut. In any case, the views were absolutely beautiful. It was a foggy day but we could still easily see the ocean on one side, the Canterbury Plains, the neighboring bay of Lyttelton, and off in the distance a vague outline of the Southern Alps. Wasn't quite LOTR territory but it was amazing nonetheless! There are a few hiking trails running through the hills, most notably the Bridle path which the original British settlers used to cross the Port Hills.

Friday night took us downtown again for the local pub scene and to see some band that Phillippa's friend was lead singer for. Very chill (and chilly) place, the music wasn't quite my thing, but there was a delicious organic brew on tap which I'm kicking myself for not remembering the name of but so it goes!

Went into town again with Tessa intending on actually checking out the Botanical Gardens. Seeing as Christchurch is nicknamed the City of Gardens it would make sense to check them out right? Instead we got sidetracked and went down to New Brighton Pier to get some ice cream and check out the ocean. After that I went with Tessa's family to a couple malls (very similar to American malls). Tessa's dad made us some delectable homemade pizza. Kiwis scoff at American pizza and our happiness to have just cheese or one/two toppings and so instead we had some three really good types ranging from shrimp with brie, peppers, etc to a simpler bacon and veggie pizza. Super good!

Even though the legal drinking age is 18, kiwis (and aussies) still like to celebrate 21st birthdays. Phillippa had turned 21 a few weeks earlier but had only just managed to organize her bday party that night, lucky for me! It was a really cool experience, its traditional to invite both family and friends to a 21st bday party and to have a few people give speeches about the lucky birthday gal/guy which can range from sweet anecdotes to embarrassing stories. Somebody asked me if we did anything similar in the states and I couldn't come up with anything similar aside from maybe at weddings or perhaps at someone's graduation party. One way or another it was very cool to hear more stories about Phillippa as well as to get to take party in this kiwi tradition.

I've only barely settled back in here at college but I've actually got a basketball game in about 15 minutes so I'll have to continue my tales later. Never stopping!