Summer July in Winter July - Abel Tasman National Park

Hello again, and sorry for the long-ish layoff. If you've been holding your breath for a new post, I'm sorry on at least two levels. Then again, you've managed to hold your breath for like, 4 whole days, so good on you for that. A real accomplishment if you ask me.

There are, however, a few reasons why the posts have been a little thin on the ground lately. Firstly, I'm back in school, so I don't have a lot of exciting things to write about. Oh for the halcyon days when I was wandering the New Zealand countryside, seeing the sights, eating the food and drinking the beer. Now, I'm just in regular ole Dunedin, toiling away on a seemingly never-ending pile of work. Which brings me to my second reason: I'm back in school, and thus have assignments, unit plans, personal reflections and resource files due almost non-stop until I go out on my second placement in mid-August. And as doubtlessly exciting as my writing can be, I don't have much faith in my ability to thrill you, the reader, with how I stayed shut in my room all weekend writing "Learning Objectives" and "Success Criteria".

Nevertheless, there is a point to this post, and as I'm sure you've inferred from the title, it concerns my trip to the Abel Tasman National Park to walk the Coastal Track, one of NZ's ten (and my second) "Great Walks". I have alluded to this adventure before, and here I will attempt to expand, ever so slightly, on the sheer adventure of it all. There's more blather, if you'd care to continue, 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!

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.