Sunday, April 26, 2015

Rarotonga

WEEK 3 (of the holiday)

I got back from my field trip around noon and began packing, had to get up around 5am make the plane to Rarotonga the next day.

The trip was great. Each day was filled with activities. We saw a few lectures, visited a primary school to play with the kids, snorkeled, walked across the island, biked around it, took a storytelling bike tour through it, visited a brewery, visited a church, paddled, hung out on the beach, went out to a local bar to dance, ate sooo much food, won a dancing competition, made sarongs and other crafts, and ate some more.


All of the above picture are taken form Kelsey Larson and Connor Ebbinghouse. 

Summary of the Holiday

After three weeks of no lectures, time has become a funny thing. I am finding more and more that "time" is but an illusion. Six hours can feel like 10 minutes and visa versa. Time is a relative mistress and she has slipped away from me this break.

Disclosure: I took absolutely no pictures. I was too wrapped up in the present to take pictures.

WEEK 1-1.5
Starting at the bottom and going counterclockwise, photos one and two are taken from Hangdog Campground fb page. The third is from Kirtley Freckleton's fb page. 

Went on a trip up north to Payne's Ford near Golden Bay. We stayed at Hangdog's climbers only campground for four days. It was a blast; good climbing, beautiful weather, good company. Had a fantastic dinner with Rachel in town one of the nights. Watched a lunar eclipse and experienced first hand how weird people get during a full moon... Oh and also saw a glow worm cave.  







Starting from the top and going right: I took the first one, then the following were all taken by members of the tramping club. 

After Payne's, I came back to Christchurch. The first day I relaxed, then the next 5 days I spent tanning/stretching my goat skins with one day of "tramping" in between (it was totally lame, this trip put on by the tramping club was supposed to be more informative then actual tramping. It was only semi-useful, we didn't even hike...) . Tanning skins is a labor intensive project. I literally spent days fleshing, tanning, cleaning and stretching them. I am happy to say the final products turned out pretty well.

A big thanks to Dan and Mercy for letting me use their backyard and tools.

WEEK 2



The picture on the left is from google. The picture on the right is from Laura Tilley's fb page. The bottom one was taken by Silpaa.  

During the second week of break I attended my GEOG 211 field trip to the Cass Basin Research Station. It is a really cool place. The field trip was 4 days and 3 nights long with an project for each of the 3 full days. Each project required very different method's of data collection ranging from sitting in the cold for hour taking temperature measurements to running all over a hill with a special GPS tool that looked like a giant mushroom staff. 

Meet some nice people there. One morning I woke up early and climbed up the alluvial fan of a mountain but had to turn back early for breakfast duty.