Been a while...

I guess it's been a while since I have updated this. So let me rap at ya. I arrived in Christchurch (chch for short) after a ricockulously long journey. 5 hours to LA, 12 hours to Auckland, and 1 hour to chch. After I arrived I made my way to the hostel that I booked and got set up. The hostel turned out to be one of the best that I have ever stayed at. Huge kitchen, garden, 2 lounges, movies, very helpful staff. After getting settled I started exploring my new home for the next year. There is a great downtown with all sorts of patios and outdoor cafes. There is a huge park with the Botanic Gardens and Canterbury Museum. And low and behold, there are Indian restaurants and Sushi restaurants everywhere. I thought my last plate of sushi was going to come from LAX. Phew! I also did some exploring around chch. Lyttleton is a tiny port town nearby. Akaroa is a French settlement on the Banks Penninsula.

I found the College that I will be attending. The first day that I went out to see it there was a Air show at the airport nearby so there were all sorts of planes doing fly-bys and sky-divers jumping out of planes. The college is near the University of Canterbury in a quiet little suburb.

I also found a place to live. I called a bunch of places and all were taken already. I found 2 that weren't full-up and checked out both. The first was in a sketchy student ghetto. There were 2 houses on the property. The first (which I thought was the one) had all the windows broken out and plaster was falling off the walls. Needless to say I didn't stick around to check out the second. The second place I checked out was a find. It was new and clean and in a lot nicer area and right beside Hagley park. So Iam living there. My roommates are a German, a Malaysian, and a New Zealaner. It should be fun. Now I jsut have to find a bed and a space heater (because this house, like most in NZ, doesn't have heat. Luckily the coldest it gets in the winter is about
-1°C.

Now I am killing time by doing a little traveling until I can move in and school start. I am currently in Timaru and I will head to Oamaru tomorrow. Oamaru is known for it's penguin colonies that you can see by just walking to . After that I am heading to Dunedin and Queenstown.

Anyway, If anyone is actually checking this for updates, there you go. The room I am in is covered with writings from various backpackers who have stayed at this hostel. I'm going to add my name to it now.