Trip

Started out on the trip with Amelia and Trixie today. We had a great day driving away from Christchurch. The traffic wasn't bad, but people were panic buying gasoline when we needed to fuel up. It was awful that people felt that they needed to do that because many gas stations are open in Christchurch. We made it through the line anyways and got back on the very scenic road to Kaikoura. We made it there by about 12 and ate a VERY expensive lunch. It was only expensive because it was a tourist town too! Well, after lunch Amelia went surfing and Trixie and I went hiking for 3.5 hours. It was a pretty walk around a peninsula, with a short stint through a cow field. The cliffs reminded me of Maine and we checked out he tide-pools. We found small fish, red and green seaweed, many different types of shellfish attached to rocks, snails, and inverted sea anemones. The anemones were inverted and looked like small squishy black balls of slimy jelly that had a hard end on one side where they were attached to rocks. They had a small circle on the top where they were inverted that reminded me of a belly-button.
We got done with the walk an had a dinner of a cold pasta salad. I was taught two more card games today: frog juice and ratatatcat. They were really fun games, and I will teach them to everyone when I get home.
The next day Amelia and I slept in until 9:30 to recover from the sleep lost when the earthquake struck. We decides that we would spend a few says at Punakaiki later in the trip, so we booked he best hostel there! It is the Te Nikku Retreat, the same one that my mom and I stayed at before. We woke up early to get most of the driving sone so that we could have some of the day for adventures. We got to stop at the swinging bridge that my mom and i hit before, the flat rocks/blowholes and the beach. The beach was the most exciting part with tons of jellyfish washed up on the beach for us to examine and prod with a stick. We also discovered our love of bouldering! It was so much fun to climb the giant sandstone rocks and cliff walls! The last thing we found was fossils! I realized that the sandstone cliffs and boulders was once part of the ocean floor, and at closer inspection saw many many many shellfish fossils in the rocks. There weren't any that we could pry from the rocks, but is wS fun thinking about how they were millions of years old and we were looking and touching them! Before I get too tired I need to write about our day in Abel Tasman yesterday!
Again, I think I am extremely lucky with the weather down here! It was pouring the whole night before we signed up to go kayaking/tramping the whole day in the park! Even at 7:45 while we were in the van going up there, but magically it cleared up by the time we got in the water taxi. We had a slightly cloudy kayak to the seals, and a bright sunny hike to a giant beach. We got so hot Amelia and I went swimming! It was so nice to be in the ocean again!!!
Tomorrow is a day filled with a three hour hike along a river an two swing bridges, a twenty minute walk around the blowholes at Punakaiki, and potential surfing at a new beach. Tuesday we go underground rafting! We go in tubes down a river (after hiking there through a rainforest). The river goes through a natural tunnel to a series of caves in which we see glow worms!!!! I don't get to take my camera (it sinks) but we get a series of digital photographs taken during the event and burned onto a disk for us to bring home! ;). Everybody is excited to go!!!! Well, time for bed so that I can be well rested for trekking! Goodnight!


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Location:Punakaiki

Run

Yesterday the supermarkets opened up like nothing happened in the suburb that i live. This is great because many people could not get food for 1.5 days. Now they can go to the store and get what they need, including bottled water.

Many people are without water or power. They go to friends and family to recharge their cellphone batteries and stay the night in a warm place. Today I leave the city with my friend to head north. We managed to secure lodging in a series of hostels in Kaikoura, and Nelson. I feel like we are running away and abandoning the city, but it is the best thing to do with water supplies so low. We will have q brief vacation and when we come back we will help where we can. Probably removing rubble from homes, but I'm glad just to help. Pictures will be uploaded in Kaikoura of some damage.

I love you all.

Me
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Update

I am fine. It was exciting but fortunately I was near an exit and made it safe outside! School is cancelled for at least a week so I'm going on vacation with a friend to the North Island so we'll make the most out of the situation. The aftershocks still rumble the buildings and it frightens people. Don't worry about me, but pray for the safety of the people in the city in Christchurch! They spent the night in tents in the local park in the rain after being displaced from their homes! Send support! New Zealanders will need all they can get!

The ground rumbles, text messages only to communicate, and boiling water are many of the things we so here to cope with the state of emergency. We are lucky 89% of the city was without power last night. The airports open today, and Amelia and I might catch a 50 dollar flight somewhere else...I would volunteer but they flew in 3,000 emergency workers today. I don't know what I can so to help, but I want to be safe too...we'll see with time and I'll let you know.


Love,

Me

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Safe.

Dear All,
I am safe at Michelle's with running water, internet, power and everything. We have plenty of food and everyone is alright...Christchurch is destroyed, but the suburbs are alright.


I love you,

Grace

Awesome.

I just had my first class: Maori studies. It will be so much fun learning about their culture over here. The professor seems nice and I met a girl from Dunedin who is very nice. It should be a great class to have on mondays. It is my only class on mondays (4-5pm) so....I get a LONG weekend! :) Yipeeeeee! Tuesdays I have two classes before noon, and wednesdays I have three classes before noon. All in all, I'll be done with class early in the afternoon which will allow for some nice adventures. Unfortunately, Antartic studies is an 8 AM class, so I have to be at the busstop at 7 AM. Early mornings...but I'll be able to go to bed early. :) I am all smiles today. I don't have to buy as many books as I thought, my schedule is all set, and I am happily making friends. It is a goooood day in the sunshine.

Update

Hello everybody, I am sorry that I didn’t write about my week sooner. I have been busy with a lot of things and haven’t been spending a lot of time inside. :)
Monday was a full day of orientation. This could have boiled down into “Classes are hard and don’t be stupid in Chirstchurch because it is dangerous”. They told us that the driving was different, drugs were bad, there are murderers out there, and drinking in excess was bad. I made a friend in orientation. Her name is Amelia and she is from Montana. She goes to school in Portland and knows how to surf. She and I have very similar interests and hang out all the time now. She is actually in the Marine Biology class with me! Its nice that I have a nice study partner. :)
Tuesday I went to the “half” day of orientation. It was another session on how not to die in New Zealand. This day covered the city smarts section. Not very interesting and I laid outside for the second part of the afternoon. The sun was shining and I had started reading “The Da Vinci Code”. I actually fell asleep and it was magical that I didn’t get sunburnt again.
Wednesday I went surfing with Amelia and a girl from Holland at Sumner. We had so much fun and surfed for about 2.5 hours. The surf was great and I got up consistently. Amelia also taught me how to catch green waves (waves that weren’t quite breaking yet). This allowed me to stay up longer and ride farther. Afterwards, we went to the fish and chips shop and ate ourselves silly. We then went back to the backpackers that Amelia stayed at and just hung out. We played a new card game that Amelia taught us called palace. It was fun and I ended up taking the bus home at about 10.
Thursday I spent getting ready for school. I didn’t actually have class, but I had enrollment. I managed to be the first one in line and get through the whole process in less than a half an hour. I also got into all the classes that I wanted: Marine Biology, Evolution, Aotearoa: Introduction to Maori Society, and Antarctica:The Cold Continent. I also looked for books to try and save some money. I got all the books that I wanted and saved about 150 NZ dollars. :)
On Friday I meet Goody in the city. Goody is the Taiwanese girl that we met at the Bug backpackers in Nelson. She told me that she was going to be in Christchurch and that we should meet up. She had just gotten her mom, sister and 20 month old niece from the airport. We ate dinner and caught up on the adventures that we have been having. I took the group around the city and showed them the rose carpet in the Chapel. We also went to the grocery store which was quite the adventure for Goody’s mom. They had never seen so many food items in one place! They also had never tried cranberries or apricots, so we got them a few to try while they visit the lower part of the south island. It was interesting trying to communicate with them because Goody’s mom didn’t speak any english. Goody’s sister spoke a little bit of english, but not too much. It was a good time filled with gestures and smiles all around.
Saturday Amelia and I went surfing again but the waves kinda sucked that day. I had upgraded boards (that I’m renting), and that made it a little harder to catch the waves, but I’m up for the challenge. There was a ton of people out in the surf! It was about 100 people on the entire beach and most of them were surfers. I met this really nice older man who told me I was doing a great job for my fourth time out! Its nice to know that I’m making progress.
Today is Sunday. Amelia came over and we played a TON of poker games (not for money). We hung out at Michelle’s house and at leftovers until she could check into the next hostel. We both went over to check her in, and played soccer golf afterwards. It was fun kicking the ball through and around obstacles. We also found this super awesome bouncy mat (like the kind that are at carnivals) at the place she was staying. It was supposed to be for little kids, but we had fun bouncing on it too. We also juggled around for about an hour, it was great to pass the time in the shade. Now I’m home and Michelle is making a pasta dish for dinner. Amelia is staying, and we’re trying to find a used surfboard for me on trademe.com. Well, thats EVERYTHING that I’ve done. I’ll upload pictures tomorrow after I get done with class. Bye!

New Phone

I have a new phone on the way...it will arrive by Friday of this week. The number is 0212079374 you have to use the NZ country code of 64! so the full number will be 640212079374. Don't ask me to remember that. :)