Pre-Flight
Thanks to Josie I arrived safely at LAX where I ran met up with Dante and Megan. We also ran into Mira which turned our 747 into a mini Skidmore campus.
Dante, Meg, & I shortly before boarding our flight. possibly the 3 most excited Americans on the flight...in part due to the complimentary beverages.
a view of the Pacific between Auckland & Christchurch.16/02/07 - 17/02/07
IES Orientation: Day 1
After a quaint party hosted by the Ilam Village RAs upon arrival, all the IES students stumbled back to their rooms in an attempt to reclaim the loss of time. The next morning we got on our bus with tour driver, Jeff, who took us on our 2 day adventure. We headed towards Springfield and stayed at Smiley's Hostel which was luckily in crawling distance of Bona's (the town's pub). On the way we stopped in Darfield to view a sheep auction. The locals told us how to decipher who had the best wool while we meticulously cleaned the sheep poop off our sandals. Then we headed to a sheep farm where they fed us an intense meat-filled lunch: steak, sausage, and lamb.... so much food and so good. Then we went off-roading, jet-boating, sheared sheep, and got to feed and pet some alpacas, goats, and merino sheep. That night we ate an amazing dinner and headed off to the pub.
IES Orientation: Day 1
After a quaint party hosted by the Ilam Village RAs upon arrival, all the IES students stumbled back to their rooms in an attempt to reclaim the loss of time. The next morning we got on our bus with tour driver, Jeff, who took us on our 2 day adventure. We headed towards Springfield and stayed at Smiley's Hostel which was luckily in crawling distance of Bona's (the town's pub). On the way we stopped in Darfield to view a sheep auction. The locals told us how to decipher who had the best wool while we meticulously cleaned the sheep poop off our sandals. Then we headed to a sheep farm where they fed us an intense meat-filled lunch: steak, sausage, and lamb.... so much food and so good. Then we went off-roading, jet-boating, sheared sheep, and got to feed and pet some alpacas, goats, and merino sheep. That night we ate an amazing dinner and headed off to the pub.
we stopped by a sheep auction on our way towards Springfield. lots of sheep + small square footage = sheep jumping over each other.
there was even a spotting of the North American Narva.
after a short jaunt in a the 'unimog' (massive off-roading vehicle) we end up a 1000 ft or so up on the ridge. Dante pensively captures the scenery.
there are up to 9 meters of loose fertile soil laying on top of bedrock and glacial deposits across the country.
this is one of the nimble jet boats we rode in which are designed for high speeds in extremely shallow water.
action shot...shred the gnar!
the water source would be the snow melt from the southern alps, so clean you can drink from it.
360 spin time!!!
alpaca anyone?
this would be the stud of the herd...and i just kissed him.
our guides giving us a demonstration of the amazing control he has over his dog to herd sheep.
typical tourist shot, but hey, it's New Zealand (sheep out number humans about 14:1).
Traci's birthday @ Bonas with the IES kids... and Bones18/02/07
IES Orientation: Day 2
Everyone fortunately made it to breakfast the next morning after spending a long evening celebrating Traci's birthday and mingling with the locals, especially Bones (the self-elected mayor of Springfield...). Our first stop was Castle Hills which is a beautiful scenic area littered with hundreds of limestone boulders left by the glaciers. There are over 3,500 boulder problems marked in guidebooks... and that doesn't even cover all of them which have yet to be logged and/or discovered. You could say I felt more or less somewhere between a deer in headlights and a kid in a candy shop. Then we ate lunch in Arthur's Pass where we watched some cyclists ride from coast to coast raising money for cancer. The Pass is extremely windy, narrow, and not cyclist friendly. One of New Zealand's major fault lines runs directly through the continental crust of Arthur's Pass and has been active in the past several decades. Our last stop was further into the Southern Alps where we got to spend a little bit walking through the trails checking out the rainforest and got a nice view of some snowy peaks.
castle hills... Jeff, our bus driver, only gave Mira & I two hours to play... clearly not enough time.
the first boulder (i couldn't resist)
the final scene from the chronic-WHAT-cles of narnia was filmed just around the corner.
happy narva -:)
speechless...
there is a fence encircling the area behind me which the DOC (department of conservation) protects. i am sitting in an area which is private property but used publically and well-respected.
a local told me i was working a v9 with a v4/v5 standing start variation... i'll have to come back to this one.
still trying to work it. perhaps next time i'll bring my shoes.
a fun little ditty.
nice view from the top.
a satisfied dante.
a very elated narva.
a bit of the rainforest in Arthur's Pass.
the Devil's Punch Bowl.
1 comment:
i miss you. come back. the rock is calling you.
or, not. since New Zealand is kick ass.
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