Guess the Bon Jovi Song!

Today is my New Zealand 5 month-aversary, and give or take a few days, is the halfway point of my time here. Hard to believe that from this day forward, I will be on the back half of my New Zealand adventure. It seems like just yesterday and all that associated reminiscing stuff. To mark this momentous occasion, I figured I'd put together something of a "Clip Show" - looking at my favourite things thus far, what I've liked and disliked about NZ and what I'll be up to over the next 5 months or so. All of those goodies after the jump.

Beer Friday! - Boundary Road Brewery

Welcome to what will hopefully be a weekly series examining the wide range of brews on offer here in New Zealand. Each week I will endeavor to try something new and update you on how delicious (or not) it is. Ratings will be given in a completely arbitrary manner, because really, is there such thing as a truly bad beer? Didn't think so. This week, a look at selections from Boundary Road Brewery.

My original thought for the post today was a recap of my last weekend - the Flight of the Conchords came to Dunedin to play the Regent Theatre, and I was privileged enough to get tickets. But then I thought to myself, "What's the point in attempting to be funny when writing a review of a comedy show, you're nor nearly as funny as they are anyway. And your pictures are shit." So that's that, not going to write about the FotC show beyond saying they were hilarious and were everything I ever imagined and more.

Anyway, back to the topic "du jour", another addition of Beer Friday!. This week I'm taking a look at two selections from Boundary Road Brewery, a smaller operation based in the Hunua Hills south of Auckland. What flavours you ask? What half-assed rating scheme are you using this week you ponder? More flaming furniture perhaps? Read on to find out good people, the answers lie forwards, not backwards, upwards, not forwards and always twirling, twirling, twirling...Ahem. Read on then.

Ice Axes and NZ Snow - Mt. Armstrong

June 16 was certainly a momentous occasion for me. For it was on that day two weekends ago, that I climbed my first mountain. None of this "Roy's Peak" business from earlier, a piddly 1600m at the summit. No, this one was a proper mountain snow-capped and everything, and at a height of 2174m (7132.5ft), made for both an extremely challenging and incredibly exciting weekend adventure. Read on after the jump for a blow-by-blow account of my battle Mt. Armstrong.

Kiss from a Rose

Well, now that the monthly recaps are over, I can begin writing about things that are a little fresher in the memory. Today, it'll be a fairly light post writing wise, just a few pics of my closest brush with some real life, New Zealand wildlife. As always, after the jump.

OaMAYru

As I've said, the first few posts will attempt to provide you, the intrepid reader, with a summary of what's been going on in the first few months of my New Zealand adventure. Next up is the last of my full month recaps, this time looking back at the month of May.

As was mentioned in the conclusion to my previous post, the entirety of the month of May (and the last week of April, but who's counting?) was spent in the wonderful little town of Oamaru, population about 11,000, located an hour and a bit north up the coast from Dunedin. The reason I was temporarily located here was due to my first Teacher's College practicum, at Waitaki Boys High School. As I doubt very heavily that you're reading this blog to hear about my time teaching (if anyone's even reading about this blog at all, which is perhaps even more doubtful), I'll simply say that my time at WBHS was incredible, I learned an absolute ton (tonne?) and the staff and students there were great to me.

In terms of what I actually DID while I was in Oamaru, honestly, it wasn't much. It's a pretty small community with not a whole lot going on, and as such, I mostly focused on my work. One thing I should have done, but didn't, was go visit the Blue Penguin colony. Yes, once again, I do not have any penguin pictures or penguin-related experiences to share with you. Sorry, I'll have penguins up on here someday. I will, however, recount the two major events of my time in Oamaru (both of which, coincidentally, took place entirely outside of that fair city), firstly THE LONGEST DAY EVER and second Road Trip to Rohan. After the jump kiddos!

BONUS COVERAGE - More April Adventures

As I've said, the first few posts will attempt to provide you, the intrepid reader, with a summary of what's been going on in the first few months of my New Zealand adventure. Next up, BONUS COVERAGE of one last set of April shenanigans.

Upon my return from "the SIRT," I had the opportunity to go along to Wanaka on a four-day field trip with Columba College, a school I'm placed at once a week for Classics lectures (for teaching practice). The basics of the trip were as follows: spend four days at Glendhu Bay Campground, just outside of Wanaka, and do a selection of day walks in the area. The Wanaka area, located at the base of the Southern Alps and Mt. Aspiring National Park, was a part of the country I only briefly passed through on the road trip, so I of course was very excited about the opportunity. Read on after the jump for a summary of each day's events.

April Adventures, Part Deux

As I've said, the first few posts will attempt to provide you, the intrepid reader, with a summary of what's been going on in the first few months of my New Zealand adventure. Next up, the second of a two-part look at April, the busiest month yet.

I'll start off by admitting something. I said that I would think of a better name for "the SIRT." But I haven't. So that's what we're going with, and if you don't like it, tough bananas for you. I'm in command here.

Anyway, what follows will be a day-by-day breakdown (with accompanying photos!) of the trip, outlining things we saw and did on the way. Enjoy!

Beer Friday! - Speight's, Pride of the South

Welcome to what will hopefully be a weekly series examining the wide range of brews on offer here in New Zealand. Each week I will endeavor to try something new and update you on how delicious (or not) it is. Ratings will be given in a completely arbitrary manner, because really, is there such thing as a truly bad beer? Didn't think so. This week, a look at the range of beers produced by Dunedin-based Speight's Brewery.

Billing it self as the "Pride of the South", Speight's Brewery offers a range of eight beers, ranging from their flagship, Speight's Gold Medal Ale, all the way to Speight's Distinction, a darker, heavier style. I have had the privilege, thanks to the wonderful Speight's Brewery Tour, of sampling six of these brews, and below I will attempt to review them for you.

April Adventures, Part One

As I've said, the first few posts will attempt to provide you, the intrepid reader, with a summary of what's been going on in the first few months of my New Zealand adventure. Next up, the first of a two-part look at April, the busiest month yet.

Coming off the back off a much more interesting March, I was really looking forward to April. After the first week, school was off for a two week break in which I would be packing in a whole lot of adventure/touring/driving/assorted other activities. It is the first week of April and the first week of break that I will be looking at in this post.

First up was an April Fool's Day adventure into the mouth of an active supervolcano. I rented gear from the local lava surfing shop, hopped on the bus and was off into a truly exhilarating experience...

March of the Penguins (not really)

As I've said, the first few posts will attempt to provide you, the intrepid reader, with a summary of what's been going on in the first few months of my New Zealand adventure. Next up, March, a much sunnier experience on the whole.

No, I did not see any penguins in March. Or April. Or at all. Do not expect to see any pictures of penguins in this post, or any post, for a while now.

Now that both of my readers have abandoned this blog due to the lack of penguin-related news, I'll go ahead and proceed with my recap of the wonderful month of March, my second here in NZ. February, as discussed earlier, was a rather dull month, I didn't get up to much beyond settling in to a new routine in Dunners (another nickname for this wonderful city that seems to have more names than P-Diddy and Aragorn combined).

And the Recaps Begin - February

As I've said, the first few posts will attempt to provide you, the intrepid reader, with a summary of what's been going on in the first few months of my New Zealand adventure. February is the first month to get the summary treatment.


I arrived in New Zealand sometime on February 1st. I say sometime because I'm not entirely sure what  time it actually was, due to the fact I had been on a plane/in airports for the better part of 48 hours, despite having left home three days prior (thanks to the International Date Line for throwing a wrench in my previous mastery of being able to follow a calendar). Touching down in Auckland, my first impressions were: it is warmer here (not hard seeing as I left behind temperatures of -10 Celsius), it smells like flowers (!) and it's dark (very observant). Soon I was boarding connecting flight to Dunedin, the city I would be calling home for the next 10 months.

Here we go...

If you've made it here, I can tell already tell a few things about you. Firstly, you're incredibly bored, but not likely as bored as I am. I, after all, am the one writing posts on a blog about my life that is destined to average about three and half hits per year, all from my parents (or someone else who is irretrievably lost in the depths of the internet). Secondly, you at least have a passing curiosity in what life is like here in New Zealand, or have some type of interest in checking in on me, hopefully not because I owe you money. Thirdly, you know how to use the internet. Well done.

There I am! Look at the ocean and rocks too!

As it says in the column off to the right, this blog will be an attempt to provide a running catalogue of what I'm up to in this tiny country 8 billion miles away from anywhere else. Yes, I realize that I've been here for almost 5 months already, so the first few posts will not be updates so much as recaps of what I've gotten in to. I will post pictures when it makes sense to do so, and maybe some other stuff as well, just to break the general monotony of my forced attempts at humour.  

Whether it's because you're genuinely interested (best case scenario), bored out of your skull (acceptable) or just want to laugh at my pitiful attempts at writing (I'll take it), I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading and looking at whatever I end up posting on here.

Dave