"Skipping" in Christchurch.Staying with Abbey is nice. I had food that was made in an oven for the first time in a while. I slept in my own room, not a dorm with 7 other people. I don't have to label my food. Abbey works at a bike store in Christchurch and she and her flat mates are all into cycling. One of her flat mates designs women's cycling clothing. It's called "Athena" and there's a website but I can't remember it!
I spent the weekend in Queenstown where I celebrated my birthday. It was really fun! Anji and I went to bed to read before the guys (they were playing poker) on Friday. Around 1am, when we were about to turn off the lights, the guys came in with a piece of cake, a "3" candle, balloons and sparkling wine. We ended up getting dressed and going back out. I think the guys had more fun with the surprise than I did. They had bought little whistles that go in the end of the balloon so when you let the air out it makes a fair bit of noise. On Saturday, my actual birthday, we went luging on the mountain overlooking Queenstown. We walked up instead of paying for the gondola. It was a really nice walk through a forest that reminded me of Kotkajärv. The luging itself was tons of fun, and cheaper than most activities in New Zealand. You sit in this little cart and go down a track and try not to fall out on the corners. While a group of us did that, two of my friends went to do the Nevis bungy jump. A full 134m (?) towards a little river in a deep valley. And Tiina thinks I'm crazy!
Luging in Queenstown.After Queenstown, I went to Mt. Cook Village with a couple of people. It was pouring rain the entire afternoon when we arrived. And the next morning. I was feeling like I might get sick, so I didn't do the 4 hour hike with my friends. I didn't want to get stuck in the rain and cold, so when it started to clear up, I did a few shorter walks near the village. It was very scenic. Even more so the next morning when we were leaving and the clouds had lifted from the mountain tops. The village is just surrounded by mountains! Mt Cook is the highest in New Zealand. The village itself wasn't too exciting. A hotel, motel, hostel, cafe, info centre, guide centre, a one room school, 100 residents and not much else. I've been having some problems with the memory card I was using in my camera so my pictures of Lake Pukaki didn't save! It's a really strange, milky turquoise colour because of the "rock flour" from the glaciers that feed it. Look it up!
The hostel at Mt. Cook (but that's not Mt. Cook in the background).Before I left Dunedin for Queenstown, I met up with Meredith, Abbey and Erin's sister who is studying at Otago. We went out to dinner at a restaurant (!) and then to see a sketch comdey show at the university. It was offensive, rude and very funny! There was one group called the Selwyn Ballet that was quite good. It was a group of guys, who had obviously practiced a lot, doing ballet in see through tutus. They had all worn their most colourful underwear to match their super-serious expressions. There were also a male and a female barber shop quartet type choirs that had some pretty clever lyrics to well known songs. And let's not forget all the bad puns! One sketch was a guy at an easel, drawing and erasing, drawing and erasing. He said, "This is the worst sketch ever!" Plenty of skits like that.
The day after that, I went to see penguins on the peninsula. First, we stopped at the Royal Albatross colony, the only place in the world where albatross breed on the mainland. They are huge birds! At the penguin colony, we saw sheep, seals, blue penguins (world's smallest) and yellow-eyed penguins (world's rarest). They had these trenches and hiding huts to view the yellow eyed penguins. We got to see one coming out of the water! Very cool!
A little blue penguin in a penguin box.Tomorrow I leave for Kaikoura, where, if the weather's okay, I'll go whale watching. Then it's off to the North Island to finish off New Zealand!
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