Back to School

So a Monday in March came and I went back to University, with lots of hours of class and labs. Fortunately
it's not all work and no play - the five flatties (amongst others) have managed to escape a fair bit at the weekends for less boring activities. I also have started rock-climbing through Uni every Wednesday night. Bouldering in the south island inspired me to take up the sport in earnest.
     The first weekend brought us to the Te Atatu peninsula where we took part in a mud run (more of a swim for most) that I did surprisingly well in despite my lack of penchant for balance on normal flat ground. Lots of muddy fun and then blasted with by a fire engine to wash it off. A week later Ella, Danni and I headed out the Matakana Animal Sanctuary with the Auckland University Animal Rights Group and I got to climb trees! Oh and we survived Cyclone Pam.

Muddy people and animal people

In my last few weeks I've injured my arm climbing, sneaked into a surprisingly beautiful hydroelectric dam and gotten very muddy in some glow worm caves close to Ella's awesome grandmother's house. Actually this brings us to the story of Dr Seuss. Driving back from a lovely meal at the local pizzeria with Ella's Aunt and Nana, Danni spotted a pair of eyes on the road, which turned out to belong to the cutest little black kitten. Ella was adamant that he shouldn't be left there and so we (I stood around helplessly for most of this) rooted for him through the bushes and managed to snag the abandoned animal. The search for his buddy was unfortunately unsuccessful, but we got the cat in a hat (hence the name) back to Auckland on the bus.  Unable to take a sixth member of our family in our tiny flat with two allergic humans we have had to adopt him out. I'm sure he's doing better though.

A Cat in a Hat and a Muddy Scott

My five week study period is now over. Time for two weeks of adventures!

Akaroa and beyond!

We left our family in Arthur's pass to go to the "French" town of Akaroa. Everything is "French" there - except the people. The people are Kiwis. We had a gorgeous, civilised meal at the Braserie Kitchen, a nice change from our usual fare. The rest of the day was spent on the beach, taking walks and chatting with Fionnahula, a friend I'd made in Karewau months before. Fi was nice enough to lend us her van to sleep in that night before we headed to Christchurch - our last day of hitchhiking. Marion was to catch her flight to Australia and I was to find a place to stay and, eventually a job in the earthquake-defaced city. At around 4 pm, I began to realise that the first task might be hopeless, with all hostels fully booked for the Cricket World Cup! In a desperate attempt to escape a night in the rain, I consulted the google machine - "free places to stay in christchurch" and guess what? A phone number came up accompanying a very friendly message from a man named Martin. I tried the phone number, and within 20 minutes we were on the way to Martin's via the airport for Marion.

Glimpses of Akaroa

Martin was a generous, gracious, unassuming host. I stayed with him for a week, all in all and began the hunt for employment in Christchurch's rebuild. The various agencies that I signed up to were not particularly helpful. In fact, work came via my Aunt Kristi 12 500 km away in Fairbanks, Alaska. Having discovered I was in Christchurch, Kristi sent an email to Murray - the leader of a church close by - and in less than 24 hours I had a casual job! I also met up with Chris and Ginger from Wales in my time there.

Work and friends in Christchurch

I worked for about a week and a half and then started on my merry way back to Auckland, which involved hitchhiking up to Picton, sleeping on beaches and a 9 hour almost non-stop night drive from Wellington to Auckland with Matej (one of the Gypsy Family). We arrived at 3 am to a new flat and comfy beds. Back to school for the last semester in Auckland and the end of adventures for a while.

A view from a place I slept (Picton)... and back to Auckland