Climbing, Climbing, and more Climbing!

After about a week of being in NZ, I started to get a bit impatient to get climbing outside. Before I left, I had told most people that I was going on a climbing trip here, with some studying on the side, and I think I convinced myself of this as well. So I was a bit disappointed in my lack of climbing in my first few days here. My arrival seemed to bring bad weather, as rain continually dampened my climbing plans, and not having access to a car also proved difficult.

However, my luck began to change about a week ago. As more people moved in on campus, people kept finding me, saying that they'd heard that I climb. In one day, I met at least 6 or 7 people who seemed really excited about climbing.

I also had the fortune of meeting the UC Climbing Club president, Peter, at the climbing gym in town. He took my friend Paul and me to Castle Hill for the first time a few days ago.

Castle Hill was named the "Spiritual Center of the Universe" by the Dalai Lama in 2002. Take a look at some of my pictures and you will understand why. This is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Castle Hill is one of the world's best bouldering spots and is only an hour from Christchurch!

I'll admit, I was nervous about climbing at Castle Hill. The climbing there is dominated by slopers and mantles which are not my strong suit. A lot of the moves and reaches are big, maybe too big for me. I fully expected to get my butt kicked on V1's.

However, things went much better than expected on my first day there. Peter proved to be quite a helpful guide, pointing Paul and I to all the classic problems. I sent a V4 barefoot, which was pretty fun. And I worked on a ton of mantle problems, as I am determined to get better at them! I'm now thinking about working towards my "Bachelor of Castle Hill," which is a list of classic problems that one needs to complete for the "degree." Four months doesn't seem like a very long time to finish the list, but it'd be quite a good time trying.

Check it out: http://castlehillbouldering.blogspot.com/2006/08/bachelor-of-castle-hill.html.

And with that, I think I'll call it a night and go nurse my bruised and scraped body from many days of climbing and get ready for the first day of classes tomorrow!

Behind the Wheel

I've now seen what it's like on the other side of the road...

The other day my friend Diego offered to take a few friends and me to a place called Hanmer Springs about 1 1/2 hours from Christchurch. On a chilly, rainy day, nothing sounded better than soaking in 105 degree water for a few hours.

So we hopped in Diego's van and off we were. A few minutes into the ride, Diego turned to me and said, "You want to drive?" He pulled over and I climbed into the driver's seat. Everyone in the car was looking at me like I'd never driven before. And I kind of felt that way. Everything in the car was backwards, the shifter was on the left of me, I was sitting on the right. I tried to switch on my turn signal before I pulled out, but I turned on the wipers. I made this mistake many times on the drive as the wipers and turn signals are on opposite sides of the steering wheel than usual.

The drive was pretty hilarious at times. I had a tendency to drive too far to the left of the lane and several times Diego yelled, "Move to the right! Move to the right!" as he saw his side-view mirrors nearly brush against a cliff. And for the most part, I didn't have too much trouble staying on the correct side of the road (except when I tried to make a u-turn).

We all survived and the drive was beautiful. I had been getting anxious to explore outside of the city, and this drive gave a little taste of what NZ has to offer. We passed tons of sheep, cow, and deer (!) farms. It's pretty interesting seeing a deer farm considering how many deer we have running around (and into our cars) at home.

So now I've learned all about NZ driving laws such as giving way (yielding) to traffic that is turning right, even if it is crossing over other lanes and no turning on red lights! And apparently they're pretty strict about all these silly laws they have. Throughout my driving lesson, Diego rattled off all of the pricey fines that NZ traffic cops love to award lucky winners.

Sidenote: Police officers do not carry guns in NZ! This is basically the safest country in the world! So for anyone that was worried about my safety here, hopefully this fact will appease your troubled mind.

So that's it for now. Chances of climbing several times this week are looking good, so there will be more to write very soon!

Metric, Ozone, and Voltage, Oh My!

So who would've guessed? NZ is a tad bit different than the states. So needless to say, I've learned a thing or two in the past couple of days.

As soon as I got here, I tried to fully immerse myself in the metric system. I was introduced to the world of grams, meters, and celsius years ago in chemistry class. Basically, I know that 0 degrees is freezing, 100 is boiling, and 25 is about room temperature. Not terribly helpful for understanding weather reports. And I know that my rope is 60 meters, roughly 200 feet. And my Nalgene holds 1 liter of water. So for the most part, these are my reference points. Ha, kind of lame I know.

So on my first day here, before I succumbed to jet lag, I armed myself with a list of handy conversions and ventured to the grocery store. I never imagined it'd be so hard to just figure out how much apples cost. First I needed to convert the kg price to lbs and then divide by two for the exchange rate before I could compare to US prices. Kind of silly. My other option is to just hand over my NZ dollars without asking any questions. But where's the fun in that?

So does anyone remember in the 90s when there was talk of this "hole in the ozone layer?" Everyone was pretty worried about it for awhile and we stopped using CFCs in hair spray, but 10+ years later, I think most people have forgotten about it. To tell you the truth, I kind of forgot about it as well, or at least where this hole is. So guess where it is? Yup, over NZ. So I probably chose the worst possible place in the world for my ghostly skin with the exception of maybe Antarctica. Ha. I'll live.

You know that advice that you received before going abroad about checking what voltage your electronics can handle before willy-nilly plugging them into foreign outlets? Yea well I forgot. I suppose I didn't completely forget, I just assumed that my ipod dock would be alright. But the smoking and burning smell coming out of the outlet made me think otherwise. Oops. At least I didn't get electrocuted, that's never fun, I would know.

I believe that is all for now. I will post pictures soon.

peace

An Epic Journey

And so my Kiwi adventure begins.

As I was forewarned, the journey to New Zealand was indeed epic. Three plane rides and 30-odd hours later, I arrived in Christchurch, my home for the next five months. After the cab driver crammed my massive amount of luggage into the car (I insisted on bringing my crashpad!), I proceeded to be quite wierded-out by driving on the "wrong" side of the road.

The University of Canterbury campus is lovely, with old willows framing a stream that runs along the school buildings. And there are plenty of ducks!

My apartment looks like an Ikea showroom, just a bit more bare-bones. As I'm trying to be frugal with my money, hopefully the next few months will improve my ability to live simply (like not having more than one pillow!)

I quickly learned that Kiwis are very warm, kind people. Usually when I travel, I try my best to blend in as much as possible. I hate looking like a tourist. Though here, I don't hesitate to ask people for directions or ask silly questions like what is capsicum. (capsicum is what we in the states call bell peppers. wierd, I know.)

I will return shortly to write some more, but for now I am sleepy! So goodnight.