Pictures for previous post.

here are some pictures from our first leg of our trip.

The tour begins... and is almost halfway done.

Well, the first leg of our New Zealand journey has come to an end. Today, we are leaving Wellington for Christchurch. During our stay in Wellington we visited the Te Papa Museum. The Te Papa Museum is the national museum of New Zealand. It is home to many different artifacts and exhibits that show New Zealand’s rich history. The best part of the museum was seeing the colossal squid they had on display. Fisherman in Antarctic waters found the squid attached to their line in 2007 and donated the squid to the museum.

On day two of our Wellington adventure we visited the New Zealand parliament chambers. Parliament and government buildings were spread across three different buildings that had all been refurbished and connected together over the years. It was pretty cool to learn about New Zealand’s form of government and to see where policy making takes place. We also visited the U.S. Embassy; however, we weren’t allowed in… or to take pictures. Even though we didn’t get to go in, we did find a Notre Dame fan all the way in New Zealand. The guard behind the window motioned to my Notre Dame cap and gave me the thumbs up. After that we just enjoyed the city and had fun by the harbor.

Monday, we flew into Christchurch from Wellington. Upon arriving at the airport we were greeted by Brother John O’Shea, a Christian Brother that our John had been put in contact with. Brother John was such a nice man and he greatly enhanced our trip to Christchurch. He collected us from the airport and we went to the International Antarctic Centre. There we learned all about the animal life and scientific research that is going on in Christchurch. We got to see rescued penguins up close at their habitat there and even got to ride in an arctic vehicle called a Haggland. The Haggland is a specially designed vehicle to be able to traverse steep hills and gain traction on any terrain. It was pretty neat driving up and over huge, steep mounds of earth on the track.

After finishing at the Antarctic Centre Br. John picked us up and took us up to the top of a mountain for us to gaze upon the city from. That was pretty cool; however, I thought on several occasions that Br. John might not be the best driver for navigating the narrow mountain roads. Luckily, we survived. Afterwards, Br. John dropped us off at our hostel and we said goodbye. I think it is safe to say that Christchurch would have been much less interesting without his help and guidance.

Thursday, we took a bus from Christchurch to Dunedin. In Dunedin we stayed at the “Hogwartz” backpackers. I guess they were going for some Harry Potter theme, but lets hope that J.K. Rowling’s copyright litigators don’t find out about this place. We did know about the Harry Potter Theme, but what we didn’t know was that the backpackers was at the top of the steepest street in the world. It was quite a hike up the hill with all of our gear.

After settling into the hostel we headed to Cadbury world to take a tour of the famous chocolate factory. The tour was really really cool. We saw how they made their chocolates and even got to sample many different types that we don’t have in America. We were also lucky enough to see them manufacturing the Easter eggs; however, the Cadbury eggs here are much larger and ornate then the ones we eat at home.

Afterwards, we walked down to the local university to experience what college life is like in New Zealand. The University of Otago reminded me of a lot of state schools in the United States where old, ornate looking buildings meet 60’s/70’s architecture and then late 20^th century glass structures. After touring the campus we went to our tour of Speights Brewery. It was the best thing we have done so far on this trip. We got to learn all about the history of beer and how they make it in New Zealand. Our tour guide was really funny and had a wealth of knowledge about not only his company’s beer, but about beer around the world. Also, as a side note, we learned that the cable cars in San Francisco came from the city of Dunedin. Where they not only one of the first cities to use cable cars, but the first to invent a cable car that could turn corners. Oh the things you learn while on a brewery tour. At the end of the tour we got to sample all the different types of beer they had on tap, and even operate the tap ourselves. I would like to point out that beer direct from the brewery tastes much better than any thing you can get out of a bottle or can.

Wednesday, we left Dunedin for Queenstown… the adventure capital of the southern hemisphere. After the 4.5 hour bus trip we found or hostel and then proceeded to take a Gondola trip to the top of a mountain to see the landscape. Queenstown is in the mountains so it is quite a bit colder here/there is some snow. The best part of the Gondola trip was the luge car track at the top. We raced down the track in little carts that had what was essentially bicycle handle bars on them It was a lot of fun. After that we had dinner and went back to the hostel. However, the most exciting part of the day came later that evening. As I was watching T.V. in the lounge, Queenstown and all of the south island experienced one of the strongest earthquakes in decades. It was pretty exciting. Apparently they evacuated the opera house in Sydney for fear of a tsunami; however, the tsunami only ended up being about 20cm in height.

Today we were supposed to go Skydiving; however, the fog didn’t clear in time and we pushed it back to Saturday morning. Hopefully it will be clear enough to go then.

That’s all for now. Sorry there are no pictures. The bandwidth here won't allow pictures to upload in a timely fashion

Tp

Final weekend

Well friends, I am in my final week here at Lindisfarne. The international boys school coalition conference is getting underway here this week. The Americans and I are helping out wherever we are needed here throughout the week. Not the most exciting stuff; however, it should give us a good amount of time to finalize our trip details.

The past week has been fairly eventful here. Thursday we went to a Maroei, an ancestral house of the native Maori. It was a really cool experience. We were told all about the house which represents the Maori father and his offspring. Each offspring is linked to every Maori alive today and is represented by a carving on the wall. It was really neat how the house, which is a huge meeting area, showed the family heritage of the Maori.



Thursday evening we had a concert with some youth orchestra from America. It wasn't the greatest experience, but I won't go into detail.

Friday through Sunday was a three day weekend for us. Saturday we celebrated the 4th of July by going to Alexis' host family's or dinner. We played with sparklers and watched youtube videos of fireworks.

Sunday, John took us to lake Taupo and showed us many of the sights that we missed. We went to the hydro electric dam and watched the spillway open up to fuel the turbines.




That was pretty neat to see this huge gorge fill with water within minutes. After that we went to Huka Falls to look at the waterfall.

That was neat; however, it was raining all day so it kind of put a damper on things. From there we went to watch Bungee jumpers jump into a gorge. It looks pretty cool, I might just have to try it. Then we went to a honey shop and looked at Bee's and sampled a bunch of different honey products. After that we went to look at some steam vents and then headed home.



Tp

P.S. The movie is of the gorge filling with water.

Final Week

Hello Friends,

This past week has been fairly eventful here at Lindisfarne college.  Last Wednesday was my most fulfilling/rewarding day here yet.  Not only did I teach 3 lessons to students who were actually interested in playing and not just trying to get out of class, but I also directed the jazz band rehearsal.  After getting the  boys under control we had a lot of fun playing and learning about jazz.  

Friday evening we went to Matariki, or the Maori new year celebration. We got to see several school groups performing Haka's and other traditional Maori songs and dances.  It was an interesting event to say the least; however, it quickly digressed from the Maori groups to a reggae band, then to a Chilean rapper, and then a group of dancers from the cook islands.  All in all it was a very interesting evening however.  

It has essentially been raining non stop since Saturday.  As a result, the past weekend was pretty laid back and relaxed.  

I have been working fairly hard on several arrangements for concert band and for the chapel services.  I also had the opportunity to conduct the concert band here at the school for about 20 minutes yesterday evening.  That was a lot of fun; however, half the band was gone due to illness so the sound was a bit sparse.  

Well that's about all from here.  Tomorrow is my last day teaching at the school.  Next week we are helping with the international boys schools conference, and after that we are off on our trip. 

Tp