Wildfooooods!

Alright a special thanks to Mom#2 for reminding me to update this thing! I'm getting quite bad at it already. But in any case, last weekend was my friend Alli's 21st birthday so that was quite a fun 4 day stretch. We made our first west coast trip to the Wildfoods Festival which was exactly like the title implies- full of wild (gross, disgusting, but wild) foods. Yours truly didn't get anything crazier than a potato fritter- that whole vegetarian thing really saved me from some of that gross stuff!

Oh yeah- and you're supposed to get dressed up ridiculously for the festival. So we tried to do jungle themes animals.... but we just turned out... um.. ridiculous! So it was ok. I was a tiger, as you can tell by my awesome paws in this first picture with the birthday girl, Kevin, and I.And here are the only jungle cats in the herd... Malia and I.
Close up of animal face awesomeness! Allie that I visited in Dunedin made it up to the festival to celebrate with us and be a super cute bear.
On the way to the festival through Arthur's Pass- couldn't complain much about the scenery.
Mmm crickets for dinner anyone?
Another short one but I think you got the general jist of the fun that was had last weekend. This weekend on the other hand is going to be a lay low and catch up on school .Hoping to fit in a day hike tomorrow and break in some new hiking boots :) Can't wait to get outside for some great weekend trips!!

Love to all and sorry about bad communication skills. I actually have to work on school during the week thanks to all these weekendly adventures. All this "school-responsibility-business" follows me across the world... figures.

Field Trip Days Rock My World...

Hey guys so this will probably be a short update since it's way past my bedtime (alright it's only 11:55 but still, usually try to make bedtime 12 when I've got school to wake up for). But anyway this past weekend was awesome since it started on Friday when I got my first field trip day! With my nature and heritage interp class I went into Christchurch to the Antarctic Museum ,Christchurch Museum, and then up to the Port Hills which overlook Christchurch.
So the antarctic museum was just plain fun. There was a room that imitated a "summer" storm from the Antarctic where the winds were a mere 26 mph in the snow! In the winter apparently they can reach up to 200 mph, so that was a light breeze. Despite all this though, I still want to make the Antarctic a place to go visit now. (In the summer, obviously).So for picture 1, I'm not sure why my girlfriends are smiling- clearly it is serious business driving a snowmobile around the Antarctic!
And picture number 2 is my buddy Orlando, she's blind in one eye but they do a rescue mission at the center so she get's to hang out there! I thought she was pretty darn cute.
The Christchurch Museum had this place called the Paua Shell House that was originally made by these 2 kiwis Fred and Myrtle. Apparently they really liked these shells, and made their house into a type of sharing place for them until the passed away, and the museum tried to replicate their house as closely as possible- so this is what their living room actually looked like. So Fred and Myrtle definitely look like people that were fun to meet!
















The Port Hills were amazing, just a gorgeous view of Christchurch, got to speak to a park ranger- made me miss Tahoe days! And lots of day hikes to conquer in weekends to come.


Then I got to go to my first Rugby Game on Saturday! Christchurch Crusaders vs. the Auckland Blues.They reeeeeeeeally enjoy the Wave there. I mean, kiwis clearly think it is THE coolest thing since sliced bread. Or something. Although I really didn't have a clue what was going on for most of the game, I did rush the field with Malia after the game so we could get signatures and pictures with the players- since they're pretty much the equivalent of a Hollywood celeb in Christchurch. I think the little kids trying to get their autographs were a littlleee confused by us being there in the mix...



And this week it's off to the Wildfoods Festival to celebrate Allie's birthday, one of the girls from UCSC- the big 2-1 for her! I'll be sure to post pix of that next week. Love to all

A Scarfie Weekend

Scarfie is the nickname universally given to Otago students because of how cold it gets down there in the wintertime- lots of scarves. So yes I was hanging out with quite a few Scarfies this weekend! My friend Allie was gracious enough to let Nick and I stay with her for 2 nights and she showed us around the city- which was kind of nice after living in a town where the grocery store closes at 9 and if you're hungry/ want to go grocery shopping after 9 then that's just unlucky for you.
Woops ok so getting there on Friday. Way easier than I anticipated it to be! We took a bus to Hornby, which is the closest city-esque place to us. So 20 minutes on that bus and then we were out on the road standing with our saweet home-made (hmm spelling on that?) sign to Dunedin. The picture below is from Sunday on the way back, but you get the idea.
So anywho we got there Friday after only 2 rides (Dunedin's about 5 hoursish from Christchurch/Lincoln) and met both of them were ladies. Well, one was a girl about our age and she invited us to go wine tasting with her this weekend and the other was a lady- but both awesome people. Met up with Allie, dropped off our stuff and went out for some delicious Asian food right down the street from her. By the time we were done with that it was about 9 o clock so we got ready to go and then we hit the town! Dancing to the kiwi version of American pop songs is definitely not something I will tire of anytime soon. Also, I can now openly sing the 'Party in the USA' song without getting dirty looks from everyone else in the room- even though they all know the words and just wish they were cool enough to sing them with me. Representin the states and Miley well!

Saturday morning was a late start, but after a delicious breakfast we went out to explore in the daytime too. Saw some of Otago's campus, other pretty parts of Dunedin, and toured the Speights brewery! It was a gorgeous day, as you can tell from the picture of Dunedin's train station. We keep getting so lucky with the weather! (Sorry for all you winter folk back in the states!).






Sunday morning we had to go out for breakfast again- it was just too good to pass up! Left to find a pick-up spot about 2, found one at 2:20, and were on our way back to Christchurch at 2:30! Found a guy that took us all the way there in one stop AND stopped at these tourist attractions called the Moeraki boulders. Aaand yeah- they were pretty darn round! Not sure if there was much else to say except that I wanted to jump in the water. It is all so pretty and inviting when it's not a windy day.

And now I'm back in Lincoln! Had first meeting of "Food Appreciation Club" last night and must say that New Zealand's fake veggie sausages are a delight! Keeping up with the vegetarian thing isn't an issue at all here I've met quite a few of veggies in addition to myself. Looking forward to our first Field Trip day on Friday, unfortunately I can't make it a 3 day weekend because I actually do have a field trip to attend but it's in Christchurch so it should be fun.

Cheers to all!