Howdy everyone. This week has been a relatively quiet one. You may or may not know that I keep a calendar not for future events, but for past events. It helps me see/remember things that I've been up to. Anyways, my point is that the calendar isn't as full recently as it has been in previous weeks. That's not to say that I sat in my flat all day long watching tv. But, as you'll see from the weekly pic blog, I'm not getting out to see NZ as much as I'd like. Ok, enough mini-venting. Here are the pics!
We have a very loving flat where flatmates work out their differences through discussion and expressing their deepest feelings. Actually, they just 'rassle a little like Lily & Stuart are doing above. I can't even remember what prompted the tussle. Oh, we love each other so! No flatmates were injured in the process of taking that pic.
This Saturday, being good friends, Stuart, Ryan & I hiked across town to watch Lily's final club rugby game. [I'm waiting to get pics from Stuart] It was a long walk and we were able to make it for the last half of a tough game (that Lily's team lost by the way). We left before the game started and each half is 40 min (so you get an idea how far the walk is).
On the way, Ryan borrowed his flatmate's skateboard for a bit of fun. This is the result. Rolling down the Princes St sidewalk, Ryan was fortunately unharmed, though he got his clothes dirty.
Here are some oldie pics that I'm stealing from Cat. Thank you very much!
More fun from the Cadbury Chocolate Carnival. Cat is posing with this bee with some serious bling. The sunglasses and peace sign just complete the ensemble. I can't even make a guess as to what candy this bee was created to advertise for but he sure is entertaining.
Here's that amazing face painting at the Chocolate Carnival. Kids were loving it despite the girl in the pic having a less than enthusiastic expression. Just remember that she had to hold still for a really long time while the artist drew the graphic. I think Punahou Carnival's face painting booth could learn a thing or two.
Alrighty folks. That was basically all that happened this week. Plans are in the works to leave Dunedin sometime during the month of August. We'll see if any of that comes to fruition. If not, at least there's some good old rugby to watch on the weekends. Go the All Blacks!!! Oh, and before I forget. I saw this vehicle in a parking lot the other day. IT ISN'T MY CAR:
If I do get a car, I'll post it here for sure. Until then, this isn't it.
*edit*
This was dinner on Sunday night. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and stuffed mushrooms. Mmmmm...tasty.
This post is a tribute to Lily. In addition to being a cool flatmate & fullback for her club rugby team, Lily is now bound to crutches. Some sort of knee injury (no broken bones according to the x-ray) has sidelined her and reduced her mobility. But give her credit. Her injury did not dent her enthusiasm or willingness to go out, hear the Gladeyes (local band) perform and watch the Springboks thump the Wallabies. Cheers to you Lily and best wishes from everyone for a speedy recovery!
First off, this entry is dedicated to James Doohan, better known to the world as the Enterprise's Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott on the Original Star Trek. He passed away today at the age of 85. His character was an inspiration to many and the mark he made will be remembered for generations to come. In fact, "Scotty" was one of the many role models I looked up to and probably influenced me in some small way to choose Engineering as my major. He now joins DeForrest Kelley & Gene Rodenberry up there somewhere. May you all rest in peace.
Continuing on, there was a fire in downtown Dunedin yesterday. It was pretty crazy walking out onto the main road outside my flat and seeing billowing smoke rise from the Octagon area. Ironically, the fire began, I think, in the "Toast Bar." Toasty alright...
And here we are at the main topic of today's post: the Signal Hill Lookout. A nice, high 300+ m above the lovely town, you get a beautiful view of the harbour, the town and everything else in the vicinity. Ryan did it two days ago. Stuart did it yesterday. I did it today. Not sure if the other guys got pics, but I'm fairly certain that I had the best weather out of all of us.
Here's the monument that stands at the center of the lookout. Not sure what it's for, but the rock that is right below it is from the ground that Edinburgh Castle is built upon. It represents the connection that Edinburgh and Dunedin share since Dunedin was primarily settled by Scots. Also, a bit of trivia, Dunedin is the old Gaelic name for Edinburgh.
And here I am at the lookout with Dunedin behind me. I must say, it was a spectacular view. Quite refreshing after the gruelling climb to get up there. It was good to go out and stretch the legs and I'm sure it'll help me judge my physical condition as we try to prepare for some serious tramping later this semester. The real indicator will be how sore I am tomorrow...more on that later.
For now, I think that'll do it. I'm off to my physics lab and hopefully tonight will also have in store a Nobel Laureate lecture (*edit* Just got back from the lecture. The speaker was 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics Award winner Anthony J. Leggett. He spoke about quantum physics and how they may relate to macrosystems. Professor Leggett, who was knighted for his achievements, gave a good talk with a sprinkling of "scientists' humour." I just wish the mic was clearer in the back...where I was sitting.) and Open Mic night at the Jam Jar (*edit* Pic below). Take care everyone!
Please pardon the limitations of the cameraphone in low light conditions...Anyways, here's Ryan doing his singing/guitar playing thing at the Jam Jar's Open Mic night. A modest 3 song set that, considering the conditions, equipment and occasionally indifferent crowd, was quite a good performance and well received. He even got an invite to join some Kiwis for a jam session later on!
Two noteworthy events occured today. The pictures should somewhat illustrate what has gone on...
Event 1: "The World's Steepest Jaffa Race." Part of the week long Cadbury Chocolate Carnival, the Jaffa Race was a much safer idea compared to rolling children dressed in Cadbury Bunny suits down Baldwin St in a shopping cart. Basically, you take 15,000 Jaffas (little orange candy coated chocolates) and roll them down Baldwin Street (the world's steepest street - click here if you're confused).
I walked all the way to Baldwin Street from campus (about 1/2 hr), in the rain (which was just a little more than a light but constant drizzle) and I was shocked to see so many people there to see the event!
Here's a closer look at Baldwin St and the steepness of the hill that the Jaffas will be rolling down momentarily. You definitely know a street is steep when they replace the sidewalk with stairs!
I neglected to take any still pics of the race because I was too busy filming it. If I could figure out how to upload video, I would put that up. Until I do, here's a pic of the finish line with a bunch of Jaffas (those red balls up against the barrier - what the kid in the red/orange sweater is grabbing at).
If you were curious what a Jaffa looks like up close, here you go. Each ball was individually numbered and spectators could purchase raffle tickets with corresponding numbers. The person with the number of the first Jaffa down the hill won a trip to Fiji. Since I didn't title this post I Won a trip to Fiji!!!! OMG!!!, you can probably tell I wasn't the lucky winner...
Lunch was a good old Kiwi sausage. That is...not the Kiwi birds but Kiwi "style." Just wanted to clarify so I wouldn't be fined thousands of dollars for eating an endangered bird.
And last but not least... Event 2: Lily came good on her promise to make Vege Lasagna for the flat tonight! Spinach, mushroom, tofu, pasta sauce and copious amounts of cheese! Choice! Good on you Lily for being the best flat mate ever!!!
And there you have it folks. We do get to do things during school nights...every now and then...and, of course, only after we've finished our homework. *wink* I better get off the computer before I get in trouble. See you folks later, take care and Au Revoir!
By the way, here are just a handful of pictures to whet your appetite. Not too much planned for this week other than classes. Since the Chocolate Carnival runs through the whole week, maybe we can try to catch the Decadent Chocolate Factory tour. I'll keep you posted. Anyways...
Voila! My dinner from the night before last! That's Ham stuffed Lamb cutlets, cheese & bacon potatoes and a Mac's Ginger Beer for dinner. I forgot to make the salad so I had that for dinner last night instead. Tasty stuff. Tonight, Lily is supposed to make vegetable lasagna. I can't take the anticipation...
And here are a few pics from before that I forgot to upload for yawl to enjoy.
Ryan, Stuart and I went on a short hike last week trying to get to the Signal Hill Lookout. Following Ryan's directions, we wound up the mountain side, hit a high point between two peaks and then ended up by the sea on the northern shore of the Otago Harbour (at or around Ravensbourne for those keeping track). As it would turn out, at our closest we were just below the Signal Hill peak. Oh well, at least we got some good exercise and some nice views.
After finally getting to the other side of the hill, we saw some sheep. This particular fellow is rather dark compared most of the other sheep we've seen so far. How unusual.
And here's some sort of monument (what to, we're not really sure). Ryan & Stuart pose for the sake of having some sort of visual evidence of our journeys.
Okey dokey people. Back to class and all that school stuff. Send me some emails if you'd like (I'd REALLY appreciate hearing from some of you...any of you) and I'll keep you all posted as to my activities here in the deep, deep south. Au Revoir!
This weekend, we didn't go on any crazy adventures or anything remotely wild. We did, however, stick around Dunedin to try and soak up the cool stuff that's in our city here! Here are the pics for your viewing pleasure!
We've been eating NZ$3 lunches at the Clubs & Societies building for most of the week (M-Th) and decided that maybe we should spice up our lives with a little variety. So, after waiting for SOMEONE to finish blogging, we ended up at the Flying Squid where they have some tasty fish & chips! The kumara chips, in particular, were a big hit with everyone so we most likely will end up at the Squid more often!
Ryan Bailey...Animal lover?! He buys a brand new Kathmandu fleece and helps to keep a panda (and her baby) warm. We know he's got massive love for the veges but how nice is that?
At Kathmandu, Ryan also bought a balaclava (the ski mask like head warming thing). For the rest of the evening, the balaclava became a favourite photo object (as you'll see in the following few pics). Here's Cat posing with her new headgear.
Here's Ryan rocking the balaclava AND his nike dri-fit headgear. So that's how all yawl UNC Balla's supposed to do it. Fa sho!
So we went around to a couple clubs for a bit of the dancing thing (admittedly, not really my favourite activity) but it was pretty fun times. My cousin Nat played guide as she led my friends and I around from place to place. Thanks Nat! After all the dancing, we decided it would be good to get some dessert. Take a guess as to what we got (answer coming a little later in this post). Anyways, we walked over to the Night&Day 24 hr convenience store and bought our dessert. There, we ran into Nat and invited her for some dessert as well. We also took this pic with the balaclava. Cat the culprit holds up Jen the innocent shop-goer with her white glove gun.
If there was any doubt, we bought Hokey Pokey ice cream...surprise, surprise! Anyways, moving on to saturday, we decided to go down to Tunnel beach. Unfortunately, as is quickly becoming a routine, circumstances arose making the journey to Tunnel beach a little too difficult (namely we were unable to figure out which bus to take and when those buses come). Luckily for us, Stuart, Ryan and myself, we were within walking distance to Saint Kilda's beach. It took us over an hour of walking there and back but we made it to the beach and had quite a treat. We even bought a cheapo rugby ball (they two guys talked me out of buying a Gilbert Super 12 Match Ball which was 50% off) and played American Football with it. We also tried a little rugby passing but that didn't last very long. Anyhow, the above pic is of St. Kilda's beach which looks real nice and has some good waves. Too bad it's still way to cold for me to even put on my boardshorts and wade in the water...
We had an eventful walk back into town during which we were presented with two opportunities to interact with Kiwi girls. Observe: 1) The 3 of us were walking in a row, with Stuart & I flanking Ryan, when a girl yelled in our direction "Hey guy in the middle, you're hot!!!" We looked over in their direction in amusement when the girl asked Ryan if he had a mobile number. He replied no. 2) We were waiting at a crosswalk when a car full of girls pulls up to the intersection closest to us. They are sitting in the car bobbing their heads while listening to music when they see us standing on the side of the road. They sorta look our way and we sorta look their way. We sort of bob our heads a bit. They roll down their window and say "Hi" and we say "Hi" back. The light changes and they drive off. I don't know why i just spent this much time mentioning all this but it was somewhat amusing. It's even more amusing when you take into consideration that whoever is the first guy to get a date with a Kiwi girl gets hokey pokey ice cream from the other guys. Aren't we mature...
Anyways...here's what we ate for dinner when we finally got back into town. Filadelfio's gourmet pizza restaurant came with a pretty good recommendation from my cousin so we decided to try it out and see if we'd like it. It really is quite tasty stuff! Cat & Jennifer split a medium Italian pizza while us guys split a large Four Cheeses pizza. We'll have to try them again sometime...when we have more money and all that.
Afterwards, went to see Batman Begins with some of people in Flat A on Moat street and it was quite enjoyable. Beyond my expectations really. After the movie, Ryan & I returned to the Captain Cook tavern in order to enjoy some live coverage of the Tour de France. It's pretty cool for me to watch the Tour knowing that I was able to see it in person a year ago. The only unfortunate thing was that we had to wait over 30 min to get into the Cook. Apparently they're really busy on a Saturday night because some people like to go there to drink & dance? What's up with that? They're just getting in the way of people who are there to watch sports!!! Go figure.
This Sunday morning marked the start of the Cadbury Chocolate Carnival and we celebrated by going to the Octagon, downtown, and getting some tasty treats!
The above is a Chocolate covered crumpet! My first crumpet in a LONG time! How I miss you so Golden Crumpets!
And here we have a chocolate pikelet with fresh whipped cream, raspberry jam and chocolate chunks.
They even had some entertainment including a climbing wall, a band, face painting (amazing stuff...I don't have a pic but hopefully Cat will post hers in a little bit), a guy in a bee suit and these clowns (pictured). Such balance & grace!
They even made a giant Moro bar that they were cutting up to give to people!
So, that's all for the time being folks. I've got to check on my hanging laundry and also go buy some groceries so I can cook me some dinner! If I can cook a tasty meal (Salad, Lamb Cutlet & Mashed potatoes are the plan) then I'll post a pic of my first successful cooking adventure in NZ. If not, just assume I went to the local supermarket and bought pies to eat. Take care everyone and I hope to talk to some of you online sometime.
Thanks to Cat, who FINALLY uploaded her highly anticipated photos, I can show you guys a few more pics from the last week or so. Enjoy!
Cat's wearing my ultra warm Kathmandu Goosedown jacket (oh so warm!) and I'm wearing Cat's ultra white jacket (oh so white!). It was a bit tight in there, but somehow I squeezed into it without damaging the jacket. Now I know if I'm ever somewhere and I'm really cold and Cat has her jacket, I could possibly keep warm...uh...yeah.
At the albatross colony, there was a very Makapu'u like view of a lighthouse & cliffs & the ocean. As you can see in the pic, the day started out miserably overcast.
Jennifer and I on the bus ride to the peninsula. Or was it from the albatross colony? Uh...Cat, can you remember? Those of you observant enough will also notice the camelbak big bite valve I'm holding in my hand.
The rest of "the team" on the bus.
Our buddy Karel (sp?) doing a baywatch-esque romp through the water. He's hardcore.
On the way over, our bus driver jokingly got in the way of another bus driver. The other guy gave us the "two finger salute" (in jest of course). I explained the meaning to the group and we decided to take a group picture. Observe.
Here you get an idea of what other sort of weather we had that day. While at Allan's beach, it really cleared up and became sunny. You can see plenty of blue sky in the pic and some lovely sea mist as well. Ah New Zealand...
And here's how it looked at the end of the afternoon/early evening. Not only can you see the sheep in the foreground, you'll also notice the storm clouds in the background. These storm clouds proceeded to dump lots of rain, hail and lightning on the peninsula. So we really got a taste of almost everything in one day!
Ryan strikes a Heisman-like pose next to one of the Moeraki boulders. That's probably as close as anyone at UNC will get to the Heisman. I'm expecting someone from USC will be bringing back the real thing this season. Good luck Matt & Reggie!
Cat being semi-Atlas like with the Moeraki boulder. Or, what was the name of the Greek guy who kept on having to push the boulder up the hill in Hades?
The photo we've all been waiting for: BLING BLING MOTORS! Holla atcha Boi! Thanks a bunch for posting this Cat cuz it's probably the coolest pic on the whole ChCh trip (well, in that bizarre sort of cool way). We had a lot of time to kill and this is one of the places we stopped by to check out. We just couldn't resist. I don't know if you can see in the pic, but I'm spelling out "blood" with my hands. Very gangsta like!
Cat taught us how to play "This is Fun." Basically it's a game about trying to keep a straight face. Here, Ryan the "Zen Master" preps for a showdown against yours truly.
Another pic from Moeraki, this one is from the sign that tells you the story of the formation of the boulders. And that's all I'll say about the pic.
In celebration of my laptop finally getting connected (thanks to Jennifer for letting me borrow your ethernet cable), let me put up some pics that have been on my laptop and, until today, I have not posted for all to see. Enjoy!
Here I am chillin' and watchin' Auckland Waitakere advance in the semifinals of the National Basketball League on my last night in Auckland. It seems like so long ago...
The next few pics come from my first day in Dunedin. This is the Sew Hoy building. I've been told that if I ever want a good home cooked meal here, I should go knock on the Sew Hoy's door. It's good to know us Chinese look out for each other...or something like that.
Here is the former Municipal Building located in just near the center of the Octagon. Such old world charm!
And here are the pics you've all been waiting for...my flat! Actually, it's just my room. Here it is in all it's glory. The bed above is much bigger than I expected and that's a really, really, REALLY nice, warm duvet (goosedown!) that's resting on top of the bed. And below is my messy desk & closet-ish area. It still looks about the same now. I don't really sit at my desk too much since I'm always here in the library!
Otago bussed us all out for a day on the Peninsula. I had a fantastic time and it was all great fun. We visited the albatross colony, Allan's Beach, Seal Point and they cooked us a barbie. There really were only two problems: a) We had 3 season all in one day (clouds, sun, lightning & hail!) b) I ran out of camera batteries.
Finally, here's dessert from last night. Very Berry Boysenberry Ice Cream with Pavlova (a traditional Kiwi dessert) and a Kiwi Gold slice. Gotta love the Tip Top ice cream and the other goodies!
And there you have it. I still have a few more pics to collect from everyone else. When I finally do, you'll all be the first to see 'em. Then you'll be all caught up on my adventures! Woo Hoo! Hehe. So far classes have been alright. I'm managing and I really hope I can do well this semester to get my academic frame of mind back on track. Gotta keep the momentum going from last semester so let's see if I can do it! Also, I'm looking forward to having a good time this weekend doing who knows what. I've been keeping an eye on trademe.co.nz (NZ ebay) to see if I can score a cheap(ish), yet reliable motor vehicle that my friends & flatmates can share. Then we can let the real adventures begin. Until then, we're playing things by ear and trying not too freeze to death. I hear there's a snow storm coming in over the weekend and if that's the case, you'll all have some lovely, fresh snow pics to enjoy come next week. But for now, I'm outta here! Take care and peace out homeys!
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