Summer Holidays

It's taken me ages to do this, but I figure it's better late than never.

Over the 2 month long Christmas/Summer Holidays I did quite a lot. One of the first things I did was tramping, backpacking in "American", up in the mid South Island. I went with a group of scouts to the Welcome Flat Hot Pools. It was about an eight hour hike in, with beautiful scenery the whole way. I lost my photos when my computer broke, but there were water falls, swing bridges over rapids, cliffs, walking across rock slides, high peaks, and much more. Not the type of stuff you see everyday.

Rowing out to the motorboat.
Then it was Christmas. Everything was similar to back in the states. The only difference was that it was warm. We opened presents in the morning, I got an All Blacks jersey, and a NZ Flag. Then for a late lunch went over to my host Aunt's house. The whole family on Miranda's, my host mum, side was there.

Me and Ian pauaing

Then just a day or two after Christmas the whole family and my host grandad, Ian, went to Stewart Island. We were there for about a week, which included New Years. In that week we did quite a bit including water skiing and biscuiting (tubing) in one of the small bays on the Island, fishing for blue cod, pauaing, and walks around the island. Pauas are shell fish about the size of your hand, in the States they're known as abalone. You walk around the rocks at low tide when the water is around waist high, and then you use a dull knife to pry them off the rock.

Later over the holidays we went to Christchurch, then Clyde.
Christchurch is the third largest city in New Zealand, and it's where Alex's parents live. We were up there for a few days, and went around and saw the city. It's a very nice place, and it has a nice beach.
Clyde is a very small community in Central Otago, surrounded by mountains, and near a river. Harry and Dudley and I went mountain biking while there. It is a relaxing place, but not very interesting.

At the end of the holidays Tessa, my host sister came home from Argentina. It was nice to have someone my age in the house. She had a coming home party, and it was nice meeting her friends that came.

Far From Home

As I begin writing this it has been exactly two months since I left home, maybe about an hour off (the time it says this was written was the New Zealand time). I've never been away from home and family for more than two weeks before this so this is a huge change for me, especially when I think how much more time I have here. When I look back over the whole time I've been here it seems so long, but when I think about how it's a fifth of the way over it seems too short.

I have already had my spring break here, it just ended last week. It was a two week "study" holiday between 3rd and 4th term. During the break I went on two day trips with my family; first to Te Anau, and then to Curio Bay. At Te Anau we went to the Glowworm Caves. It was a bunch of tiny worms that looked almost like fireflies, just dimmer, and they shone constantly. They were deep in a cave, so it was pitch black, and they were above water so I was in a boat. It was so dark I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face, only the specks of yellow light. This made it impossible to tell the distance they were away from me, making it look like stars in a pitch black night. I couldn't get any pictures of them because any light or sound disturbed them enough to stop glowing. There is some pictures of the boat ride to the island that the cave is on though. Going to Curio Bay during the break was almost exactly like last time (I'll get to that later) except I was better at kayaking.

As well as those two trips I went on three other day trips with my host family before the school holiday. The first of the trips was to Curio Bay were we went to the Petrified forest for a little while, and then just played on the beach. The petrified forest is an old forest that is now a bunch of petrified wood stuck in some rock by the ocean. It's cooler than it sounds. At the beach we borrowed some of our friend's kayaks and went kayak surfing (above), which was really fun.

View from petrified forest.

The other two trips were skiing at The Remarkables, in Queenstown, and going on a trail walk in Bluff. At the Remarkables I went snow boarding, and my two host brothers went skiing. It was a day trip, so we were only on the slopes for probably 6 hours. Because of this I was still warming up and not as good as used to be, but it was still really fun.

The walk at Bluff was a pretty normal walk, but it was very scenic (picture to left). Everyone in the family came so it was nice. It was a long walk, but not too hard, so it was very enjoyable.

All three of these pictures are from the walk at Bluff. Click on any picture to make it bigger.

As of today I have been here a week. I had a meeting on Monday with the school principal regarding the classes I would take, even though I don't start school until next Monday. This is because the school is in exams and it would be pointless for me to come. I'm not sure of everything about my classes but I will find out exactly what I have later today when I get my schedule.

Last weekend I played around a lot on the farm with Harry and Dudley, mainly riding the dirt bike, or jumping on the trampoline. Also the weather was incredible for winter in South New Zealand. It was around 50 degrees and sunny for four days in a row... then it went back to normal weather, which isn't much colder, just wet and windy, and the wind is cold.

This week, since my brothers have been in school, I've done some more farm work. Everyday few days we're buying more baby cows, and it has become a lot to feed, so it takes quite a long time. Also we have sheep, but they eat the grass, except the one in the picture. She was premature and about to die so the Hunters took her in and now we feed her a bottle of warm cow's milk three times a day. Harry has 4 hens that I help him feed sometimes. Last night when we fed them they ate some grain out of my hand which was pretty cool.

So far it has been fun. I start school next week, so we'll see how that goes.

Above from left to right is Lucy, Wooly, and Moon. You can click on both pictures to make them bigger.

Almost Gone

It was over seven months ago when I first started the process to go to New Zealand. I only have three days until I depart and I feel like there is so much left to do. I've been packing and saying my goodbyes, but it still does not feel as though I am actually going. It feels more like a thought or a dream rather than reality.