Dunedin

Each weekend I come home saying that it was the most fun I have had yet, but this weekend definitly was. Nicki, Alex, Hamish and I went down to Dunedin, which happens to be Hamishs hometown.  We had our very own tourguide.  Some of the highlights include seeing penguins, albatross, seals, and  a cool town.  Hamish knew all the best places to see wildlife and the first spot we went he stuck his head in a ditch and sure enough a baby penguin was there.  I was 2 feet from a blue penguin! Also in this same spot there were albatross flying overhead, which was unusual but it was very windy so we were lucky.  They have the largest wingspan in the world, 3meters! After that we went to another secluded beach area and climbed down army style to see the yellow eyed penguins coming home from sea.  It was pretty amazing. 

Other highlights include seeing the factory that supplies me with much happiness, The Cadbury factory.  I was expecting a willy wonka-esque tour but we actually didnt get to go in...oh well we got free candy it smelled delicious.  We also went to the Speights brewery tour, which was also interesting...it is the oldest brewery on the south island. We also had a great home cooked meal from Hamishs mom! SO.... I am very happy that we went and it for sure the best trip yet....

Now I have a couple projects due for class, so nothing new or exciting planned yet....

Check out new pictures too!

Hanmer and Kaikoura

Hanmer Springs

We took our first trip with our new car last weekend to Hanmer Springs! It was so nice! It is only about 2 hours from Christchurch and they are known for their hot springs! The drive was fine but still a little nervous about driving on the left.  We took a hike up to a beautiful waterfall and were the only ones there.  Afterwards we went back to take a dip in the hot springs.  They had about 10 pools some of which were heated natural mineral pools.  It was very refreshing! we drove back the next day and enjoyed the hills and mountains in the background.

Kaikoura

Today I just got back from a fieldtrip to kaikoura with my wildlife biology class.  It was so much fun and definitely the best fieldtrip I have been on.  We drove up there on Friday and the sunset over the mountains was amazing.  We stayed in a marine research station right on the ocean with mountains right across from us.  The next morning we woke up and were dropped off in different areas along the coast to observe whichever animal species we picked for our research project.  We were observing 2 different coastal bird species, the pied shag and first fronted tern.  We had some luck at first watching the terns but they were just sitting there and not eating, which is what we wanted to see.  It was still awesome to just sit on the rocky coast and look at lots of different animals all day.  They have lots of seal colonies there and you can walk right up to them, but they bark if you get too close.  There was one seal even chilling on the side of the parking lot.  Later in the day we drove to another location to try to spot our other bird species.  When we got there we looked off into the distance with a telescope and saw about 100 dolphins jumping out of the water and feeding! We found our birds and were lucky that they were so active to watch. All in all I learned that watching animals in the wild can take alot of time and they never do what you want them to when you want them to.  Also our teacher is great and I learned alot about New Zealand wildlife and got to see most of them in person.  

Weekend and Surfing

So last weekend we went to Akaroa.  We were trying very hard to make our plans work and leave early but the buses were not until the morning.  So instead we went to Christchurch city and stayed there overnight to leave early in the morning.  We had delicious Indian food!

The ride to Akaroa was beautiful through the hills.  It is really close to Christchurch but the roads are very winding and you go up over the mountains so it takes about 2 hours.  The drivers here scare me sometimes, the winding roads and whatnot, and they get really close to bikers.... Anyways we walked around the city which is very small and found a place to rent kayaks.  We kayaked around the bay for a little and saw some cool birds.  There are also endangered dolphins there that are really small but we didn't see any.  After that we went on a small hike which we were very confused on.  It started in the city and the signs were nonexistant.  Eventually we even went through actual pasture fields with sheep and had to climb over fences.  It was actually pretty cool because we were up in the hills and we got to see farms up close.  It started to rain and after that we went home to warm up.  We didn't stay too long the next morning and decided to go to the beach since it was really warm and sunny! Sumner beach is a suburb of Christchurch and the beach is really pretty.  

Today we went back there and went surfing! We couldn't stand up but we will get better. It is still really fun to try!

In other news I bought a bike and Nicki and I bought a car! It seems crazy to buy a car but since there are not many people here the buses are not the best way to travel, plus they are pretty expensive. We hope to go on another trip this weekend with our car which will be very nice because we can go and stay whenever and wherever we want.  

Look for more pictures too!

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