Hey from the land of movie shoots! Saw the location where they filmed the final battle scene in Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and drove through where the capital of Rohan was set in Lord of the Rings! You can see some of the photos in my last Album. Classes have definitely gotten underway here as we approach the mid-way point for the first half of the semester. I'd say my classes are moderately hard on a whole some more so than others. I'm taking SOSC 629, Soil Physics which is a graduate level class here but required for most of my classes next semester at CSU so i've been taking that. Its a very hands off kind of class with a lot of the learning reliant on me, which has been a little interesting to say the least, just not so used to it. I'm also taking RECN 215, Recreation Sport and Adventure in the Outdoor Environment which is just a fun class where we get to learn about adventure all over New Zealand. Not too heavy of a work load which is nice. Lots of reading for most of my classes though as a whole. ERST 310, GIS computer class so nothing that i'm not used too. Lots of time on the computer though which hurts my head after 4 hours of it every monday, lol. And Finally QMET 204, Stats for Buisness which is just your average run of the mill stats class. I have to say for not taking stats since high school it seems to be making since pretty well. Got a test next week in that so time to study. Enough about school though. Last week for my field trip as I mentioned went out to Akaroa with my friend Isaac, which was an awesome day. But this past weekend we went up to Arthurs pass for an international student ski trip. We stayed in these two little houses at the top of Arthurs pass, one which has a wood burning stove which we took full advantage of. Drinking some beers and wine by the fire both nights was just great after a long day of skiing. I am now officially the T-Bar master. Both Ski Fields, yes fields, they don't use slopes or hills or resorts out here, were all T-Bar lifts. Me and Nora, a friend from Norway tore it up on Friday even though conditions were less than ideal. A 3 week dry spell and a large rainstorm has hurt the snow pack by a considerable amount. However we made the most of it finding the soft snow where we could and making funny videos, pretending we were in some big mountain ski comp. They also had a GS course set up so we took laps on that and even had our pictures taking by this random guy once, haha. Saturday we skied at Porters which is a slightly more commercial field and has snow making so on the main runs the coverage was much better. Met up with this girl Rebbeca from Idaho and we jammed on the T-Bars all day, listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Possum Kingdom, etc... the good stuff. Also learned this new spin trick you can do with two people which was fun! Made the rides go by a heck of a lot faster. Even got to jump off some little rock we found too. Sunday went to devils punchbowl, which is a 131 meter waterfall on the side of a mountain. It was really cool, we went up and stood by it but the wind was blowing so hard and the mist as we'll that we were soaked in a matter of minutes. After we got back away from the falls we decided we might as well jump in. So we undressed down to our boxers because by no means had this been planned, getting several whoops, and cat calls from the viewing platform below. Needless to say it was probably along the lines of no more than 10 C, ya thats right learning the metric system. The water as well was probably right around 1 or 2 C. So we climbed over the terribly slippery rocks and made it to the water fall, I just was like ok LETS DO THIS and ran into the big pool at the base of the falls, It was SOOOOOOO COLD. Johanas from Norway, quickly joined me and grabbed a quick picture before we decided we might as well go all in if we were there and proceeded to dunk ourselves in the pool of water. I came back out and couldn't breath it was so cold and I had the worst headache for about 3 minutes, which made me feel very delusional. We snapped one more quick picture with tyler and then briskly walked back up away from the falls to change back into our dry clothes. It was definitely an experience to remember! Then after passes a lake which was probably the stillest i'd ever scene, it was just like a mirror. And then it was off to Castle Hill where I met up with this lady with a pad and did a V3 problem on Spittle Hill before i went exploring the never ending boulder field. Adam and Owen if you read this you have to go there. There are at least 5 areas that I know exist at Castle Hill for bouldering and at Spittle hill and Qunatum field alone there are more than 2000 named problems. All limestone boulders with the coolest moves. Hopefully i'll get to go back! Well probably time to hit the books! I'm going out to New Brighton Beach tomorrow morning and then Wanaka to go skiing this weekend! Its going to be keen for sure!
Cheers! Austin
No comments:
Post a Comment