First tramping trip - Otehake hot springs

This weekend marks my first tramping (what they call hiking) trip in New Zealand! It was a blast, totally made me want to do way more backpacking trips while I’m here, and was generally very satisfying because it’s something I pictured myself doing while I was here.

Me and a number of the other international students I’ve been hanging out with signed up for an overnight trip out to some hot pools with the university tramping club. We drove up to Arthur’s Pass, which is a national park in the mountains about two hours from Christchurch. The drive was very scenic, and it was great to get out of the city and see some more of the surrounding area, but nerves were also running high among novice hikers like myself because we didn’t really know what we were in for. We knew this trip contained of a number of river crossings, which is scary because they could be as deep as our waists and it’s winter here so we knew we were in for a cold few days and hoped we wouldn’t be miserable the whole time.

Gorgeous Arthur's Pass on the drive in (unfortunately it was cloudy all weekend)

The trip started off with some river crossings right off the bat – and that water was cold! It wasn’t too bad though, we kept moving and everything but our feet dried pretty quickly. We wound through woods and fields, heading up the valley to the hot pools. Let me tell you, these Kiwis (or maybe it’s just experienced hikers in general) are beasts! We didn’t really stop at all, even for water, in our first three hours, and we were walking much faster than I would have on my own, so I tired out pretty quickly and it became a mind game to keep up and not be crabby. The trail got more difficult as we went up and down rugged trails that can’t even really be called trails through the forest, and the worst of all came at the end when we had to zigzag up the river for the last few miles. At this point we were freezing with sore ankles from walking over so many rocks and really not pleased about having to get in the deepest water yet again and again. My feet have never been so cold, but just when it was getting unbearable we finally made it to our destination after 7 tough miles – the Otehake hot pools!

A smaller river crossing

And a more accurate representation of most of the river crossings - although there were still plenty deeper and faster than this! 

There were really no trails to speak of for much of this tramp

Some of the ladies, and an example of the nasty rocky terrain most of the hike was on

My poor cold feet upon our arrival (you can't really tell but they were purple)

I camped with my friend Dahlia (in a one person tent, which was cozy) and we headed down to join the others in the hot pools soon after setting up camp. It was just one small, shallow pool of very hot water (no major destination you’ll find in guidebooks or anything) but very satisfying after such a long cold hike – the water was so hot you could just sit in the one foot of water and be totally warm. Everyone stayed in the water more or less the rest of the night and I talked to some interesting new people. Very fun, very worth the trip.

Probably about half of the group enjoying the hot pools

It was super painful to put my cold toes in at first, but soon enough I was in all the way like everyone else!

Camping was not too cold, which was reassuring, but it was still pretty miserable putting on those soaking wet boots again in the morning and setting off for home. We went an easier, flatter way on the way back and I think return trips are always easier anyway since you know how far you’re going. The walk back was nice because I wasn’t so preoccupied with just keeping up and not passing out so I could enjoy how pretty the mountains around us were. We had some well-earned hot chocolate on the drive home, and though I was sorer than I’ve ever been that night I’m fine now! It wasn’t easy—I’m not used to carrying a pack and that makes things much harder—but I’m stoked that I survived my first tramping trip because it means I know I can take on more. And I must say, all those deep river crossings in the winter (it was even snowing for part of the time) make me feel pretty intense! 

Concerts galore!

The weekends here are the best, there’s always a ton going on and people going to all these cool places. It’s great to have options, I feel like I’ll never run out of things to see while I’m here.

As I’ve probably already mentioned, most of the nightlife in Christchurch is shut down, but I was pleased to find there are still some music venues open and so I went to two different concerts this weekend. The first was a rock-type band that’s big here in New Zealand and they’re really good, you can check them out here if you’re interested: http://www.facebook.com/Six60
The usual venue is closed the earthquake so the concert was in a big circus style tent in the parking lot, which was kind of fun, and we had a great time dancing all night and making some new friends. The buses don’t run very late here so most people take taxis home from these things and it was chaos – we had to wait an hour and a half for ours to come but luckily we found a Denny’s (salvation!) for a midnight snack while we waited. We pretended it was my birthday and got a free ice cream sundae.

The next day the apartments we all live in was putting on a free trip out to Hanmer Springs, which is 2 hours away and closer to the mountains. That was the first time I’ve really gotten far out of Christchurch so the bus ride was great to just soak in the scenery. It’s so beautiful here, we were all quite excited as we went through farmlands (tons of sheep) and then up into rocky hills to the foot of the Southern Alps. It was very Lord of the Rings looking. We walked around the town a bit, enjoyed soaking in the hot springs, and then headed back to get ready for the evening. We couldn’t really get good pictures from the bus but here are a few:

The second concert was called the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party so it was Alice in Wonderland themed and had a lot of bands and weird entertainment on stage. I don’t think it was quite as crazy or cool as we were expecting but it was still really fun, lots of great costumes and weird dancers and stuff. I’m really glad all the friends I’ve made here like dancing just as much as my best friends do at home because going somewhere with lights and loud music is so fun! Here are some pictures from that concert:

People on the bus ride there with various crazy costumes - we all tried to wear the brightest clothes we have but we're unprepared living out of suitcases!

Luckily Phil and I found some sparkly hats on the floor.

This girl had a crazy light up hula hoop

A taste of the kinds of performers they had

Hard to see but this was an acrobat doing that thing on ropes!

And some happy/sweaty concert goers.

Now I’m in the library trying to not spend a fortune on internet; needless to say it’s a little hard to buckle down and do schoolwork but so far it hasn’t taken too much time. There are a lot more Winterlude events this week (it’s their two week start to the semester where the student association puts on a bunch of cool stuff) and I think one of the girls I really like and I are going to go backpacking next weekend. One more week and this will be the longest I’ve ever been out of the country, pretty exciting to keep feeling more and more like I live here!

Beaches, friends, (school)

Pleased to report I’m feeling 99% settled in and having a blast! Boring necessities like groceries the bus are no longer a problem, although finding classes is still quite a challenge and the constant changing of rooms because of closed buildings doesn’t help. It’s a relief to have some people to hang out with that I really like – all of my Kiwi flatmates are very friendly, and not surprisingly many of the international students have banded together since we all have similar interests and want to go see lots of things while we’re here. The downside of this is that almost all my new friends are American, and of course I want to meet some locals while I’m here, but the upside is that I’m here to meet new people and enjoy seeing the country and I really like a lot of the other exchange students I’ve met. A handful of us have also joined the tramping (calm down, that’s what they call hiking) club, which does multiple trips every weekend, so hopefully that will be one way to meet some locals while still getting out of Christchurch and continuing to get to know some of my friends.

We’ve been spending a lot of time lately checking out some of the area surrounding the college – downtown, some other neighborhoods, and some small towns nearby. By far the best of all of these was a day trip out to the coast (about half an hour away) to explore some beaches and the hills nearby. My favorite part is that this trip was the first time I really felt like I was in New Zealand because it looked like what I’d imagined – rocky coastline, green hills, all around gorgeous. The college is just in the suburbs and really could just as easily be in Washington except for a few weird kinds of trees. Our beach trek was also fun because we didn’t really know where we were going and just ended up following some random trails and finding some really fun places to climb around. Pictures:

As you can see, this end of the Pacific actually looks very similar to my end, which I found quite comforting.

Commencing our wanderings up into the hills

View of Pegasus Bay

 Just like home :)

Aside from that we’ve been out to a few other neighborhoods/towns out along the coast, not nearly as scenic though. The school has also been having a ton of events since it’s the first week back so we’ve gone to things like a rugby watching party, wine tasting, comedy show, night market, and gotten loads of free food and drinks. Unfortunately most of the nightlife is no longer because all of the clubs are in the area of downtown that’s closed from the earthquakes, but there are still a few bars near campus we’ve checked out and plenty of flat parties. Here is some evidence that this aspect of studying abroad has been going well as well:

And of course, I am studying abroad – how could I forget? School has been good so far, all of my classes seem like they’ll be interesting but not too much work. They focus a lot more on essays and a lot less on tests, which at least for me is much harder, but I only have 9 hours of class a week instead of the usual 15 (plus I’m used to working 15 hours as well so I have a ton of free time on my hands). The classes I’m taking area: New Zealand History Since 1940, Ethics Politics and Justice (a philosophy class), Intro to Globalization (a sociology class), and then a special class just for this semester called Rebuilding Christchurch. I’m especially excited about that last one but we haven’t had it yet so I don’t know what exactly to expect other than that we’ll get to do some community service and learn more about all the student volunteering that went on after the earthquakes.

So all in all, things are excellent and only looking up as we’ve got a ton of fun stuff planned for this weekend. I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures!

Earthquakes

As most of you probably know, Christchurch has endured a series of major earthquakes this year that destroyed the heart of the city and forced me to do a lot of thinking before deciding to come here anyway despite what’s happened. Last September the first earthquake (7.1) happened, which destroyed a lot of the city’s infrastructure and weakened, if not destroyed, many buildings. Another earthquake/aftershock (6.3) came in February, which made the existing problems worse and brought the total death toll to 180. The worst part is the worst damage coincidentally happened right in the center of downtown, so it truly destroyed the life of the city—the whole area is still fenced off, see pictures and more below. Aftershocks have continued since, and the people here are beat down because their homes have been destroyed and they rebuild in the fear that everything will come crumbling down again. If you want to learn more about the earthquakes start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2011_Christchurch_earthquake           

Aftershocks are common, and though they think it’s unlikely another earthquake the scale of the first two will happen soon, aftershocks ranging from imperceptible to large enough to cause more damage do and will continue to happen. I didn’t know before I got here, but there are actually small shakes happening all the time – most too small to feel, but a few times a day you can hear buildings creaking, and I assumed it was wind until one of my flatmates told me it was a shock. Twice so far there have been shakes big enough for me to feel, which is still a little surprising and scary, but people who live here say you get used to those very quickly and it’s quite obvious when a shake is big enough that you should actually be scared and take cover. They’ve been having those sorts of moderate shakes (things might fall off shelves but no real danger) ever few weeks, so it’s very likely I’ll feel some while I’m here. I think I was in pretty comfortable denial about all of this before getting here but now I’m fascinated and want to learn more about what these people have been through and how to help. Of course it’s a little scary, and there’s a chance a bad quake could happen while I’m here, but that possibility exists anywhere and everyone here (now including me) is extremely prepared.

My college hasn’t been too affected by the earthquakes because it’s a few miles from downtown and this neighborhood didn’t suffer much damage. Even so, after the February earthquake the school (along with the entire city) was shut down for weeks while power and water were slowly restored and buildings were checked. A lot of the buildings closed—a handful still are, including the student union building—so students had to have lectures in big circus tents. A fair amount of services and such are still in tents, but the kids here seem to have a pretty good sense of humor about all this. All of this background is so you can understand this picture ("another friggin tent"):

Today I headed downtown for the first time to see for myself what the damage is like. I followed the news after the quakes and had seen pictures then but I really had no idea what to expect, how much of the city would be accessible, and how much damage would still be visible. I was expecting the worst, and I was still shocked to tears when I saw what’s happened to this city. Everything looked normal as I walked towards the city center along the scenic river and historic bridges. I started to notice cracks in roads and sidewalks that looked new and pink spray paint on the doors of buildings with a date in February apparently indicating they had been checked. On my left a driveway was closed off with “danger” tape but the house looked normal until I ducked under, peered around the corner, and realized most of the roof of the house was piled in the front yard.

This devastated house was shocking because the first damage I saw was so extreme, but also because so many clues were left behind about these people’s lives and the obvious truth that they had simply left their home behind. Through the windows I could see possessions scattered; I could almost picture what it looked like before it was so abruptly torn apart.

And on the peeling door of their backyard shed, they left a request ironic and tragic enough to break your heart.

The closer to the city center I got, the more eerie it became. The number of people around dwindled and then the crowds were replaced by men in orange and yellow vests. It looked as though the people had just vanished from one second to the next and the neighborhood they left behind turned into some kind of war zone. The entire city center is fenced—everything beyond the you are here on the map below—and closed to the public. It’s hard to see how bad the damage is inside but even around the edges, 6 months later, ruined buildings are still there seemingly just as the earthquakes left them.

I walked past one church with the roof caved in and much of the sides falling down. The scaffolding on the top shows that this church was damaged in the September earthquake and was in the process of repair when the February earthquake knocked the whole building down. I’ve learned enough already being here that this is how the people of Christchurch feel – every time they dare to have hope, another blow brings them back down, and many have given up completely. A lot of people have moved, some even deserting their wrecked homes like the first one I saw. This thought, and the visual example of the church, was really moving because I can’t even imagine having my home destroyed so thoroughly that I was ready to give up on it completely. Signs around the city urge, ”Rise up CHCH!” But this is a lot to ask.

But Christchurch will rise up. The sprawling park that earns the city its nickname of Garden City is alive and well, more timeless and untouchable than buildings. Perhaps the most staggering thing of all was the realization that among all the rubble, signs of recovery are everywhere. For every damaged building two stand strong on either side of it. A flag waves gently in the wind in front of a high rise that’s nearly restored to what it was. An open sign still hangs on a café door, and a teacup still stands on a table though the stools around it are splintered on the floor. You can imagine the streets humming with shoppers, the floral banners on street posts bright instead of tattered, even as birds sing from the red zone fences. The fences, whose purpose is to say “danger! keep out!” are instead littered with notices of businesses that have reopened elsewhere, prayers and memorials, and messages of joy and hope.

(PS – most of my blogs will not be this long or serious! This particular topic was just very moving for me and I wanted to do it justice. I hope it gives you all a better understanding of my new home and the things I might learn here.)