Christchurch

After a month of sleeping in bunk beds, I’m finally making it out of the hostels! I found a place to live here in Christchurch only 5 minutes walk from city center. It will be my first time living in the middle of a large city. Hopefully I won’t go stir crazy. ;o) I’ll be sharing a large room in the “Somerset House,” which was built in 1910. The place is massive with 10 rooms! I think there are 14-15 people living there right now, so I doubt I’ll get lonely.

No bites on jobs, but I won’t be giving up anytime soon. I figure I’ve only been in Christchurch a week and although the temp agencies seem to be giving everyone the runaround, I’m confident I will find something on my own. I just can’t be picky! Besides job and house hunting, my days have been relatively uneventful. I seem to be doing a lot of lounging and reading. I’ve started “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and hope to finish it before the last movie comes out. I’m starting to get into rugby, which is a HUGE sport here and everywhere else but the US! Kiwis are far more passionate about rugby than Americans are about any other sport. Everyone watches it and no little boy’s childhood would be complete without playing it. The sport is actually quite comical at times, but that’s mostly because I have no idea what they are doing. I’ll eventually learn the rules of the game.

I spent a weekend in Kaikoura with two friends. The beach was amazing. The mountains descend right into the ocean! There were some cool rock formations and tide pools with surprisingly little invertebrate life. On Sunday, we hiked along the beach. We were supposed to do a loop trail, starting off along the shore during low tide and walking along the hill of the peninsula at high tide. Two hours into it, we encountered a sea lion colony that was pretty adamant about not letting us pass. Unfortunately, it was a little late to turn back because high tide was beginning. Our only other choice was up, so we scaled a steep hill. I’m pretty sure we weren’t the only people the sea lions didn’t like because there was a small trail leading up the hill joining the latter part of the trail that we would have eventually come to had the sea lions allowed us to continue along the shore. Along the way, we saw many sheep, cows, and goats. The goats are gutless! They were walking along cliffs and rocks as if they could fly! Driving in Kaikoura was also my first time driving on the left side of the road. The first time I got into the driver’s seat, I reached over my left shoulder to put on my seatbelt and grabbed a fistful of air. There was also the occasional turn signaling with the windshield wipers and wiper fluid. I eventually got the hang of it.