Stoked For Saturday

 This week was full of new discoveries. We discovered weekly 5ks in the park for $5, which include a free sausage at the finish line; I learned what a "busker" is and attended the world famous Buskers Festival right here in Christchurch; and finally we discovered an amazing New Zealand travel blog, stoked for Saturday and enjoyed an amazing Saturday of hiking, dining, and dance-partying.

There isn't much to say about the 5k except that we ran it, so I'll start with the buskers festival. CPIT, a university in Christchurch, actually has a circus school, so the busking/street performing culture is really big here. Once a year all the top street performers from around the world come to Christchurch for 10 days to perform. There are many free acts all day in the park, but the headliners cost $10-$20 in venues at night. The prices are really reasonable considering that when the performers have shows in London they charge anywhere from $40 to $80/show. On Wednesday a group from the office went to see three standup comedians and a hilarious Australian MC at the casino. I believe they were all British, and they were pretty funny. The first comedian had a joke about the way kiwis say "eh?" at the end of their sentences as if they're asking you a multiple choice question. Example: "the weather's great today a)?........ Or b) the weather fucking sucks" I ran this one past Cam, my resident kiwi expert, and he said that is, in fact exactly what they mean. Good. Thought so.

The comedians were so good, we decided to go to another show. We had heard that one performer, "the boy with tape on his face", was particularly good and wins this festival all the time -- this was also verified by my resident kiwi expert-- so we bought tickets to see him. His show, which here costs $15 NZD, goes for $40 pounds in England. That's $82 New Zealand dollars! He's essentially a mime with a production team so there's a good amt of music and lights that go along with his act and the show is 90% audience participation. It was really entertaining but I think I preferred the stand up comedians.

Those two buskers events kept the week moving really quickly. The last thing I wanted to do early Saturday morning was to get out of bed and go on a massive hike -- but hey, when in New Zealand.

We found a blog this week called Stoked for Saturday- written by two engineers who moved to New Zealand, work during the week, and explore the country on weekends. Sounds pretty familiar eh? (Or b) not at all). This weekend we didn't have a trip planned but couldn't let a gorgeous weekend go, so in true #stokedforsaturday fashion we had a really epic Saturday. Mike and I met Jen and Keith at their house Saturday morning and we drove about two hours in the the center of the country.

The hiking crew -- Same group minus Nick who did the Routeburn

The New Zealand Southern Alps run up the middle of the country, but you can pass through them by using either Arthur's Pass or Lewis Pass. I drove through Arthur's Pass early in my time here and had been wanting to go back for a hike, so was thrilled when my coworkers suggested doing Avalanche Peak this weekend.

Arthurs Pass back in October

The hike is meant to take 4 hours to get to the top of what is called "Avalanche Peak", so five minutes in when I was climbing a nearly vertical rock wall, I was nervous. I had expected a much more well maintained track, like the Routeburn we went on in November, but if I've learned anything in NZ, it's that nothing is going to go as planned. We continued on and made it to the top in two hours. DOC time estimate crushed again :) .

The first thing you see coming out of the bushline

The views at the top were amazing. I couldn't believe we were on top of the mountains and we could see the tops of all of them as well as the Devil's Punchbowl Falls. 

Found a Kea!

Avalanche peak actually had has two paths to the top. The first, Avalanche Peak Track, which is steep and rocky is the one we took up. The other one is Scott's Track, longer and less steep but with better views. We took Scott's track down, as as promised the views were awesome.

 

By the time we got to the bottom, all of us were exhausted and so we quickly got in the car and rode home. 

It's rare for us to come back to Chch on a Saturday night after being away, so we were all in group-travel mode and wanted to keep hanging out.

Kentucky Sours making us feel right at home

We went to Boo Radleys, the bar above Tequila Mockingbird (Get it?) for a cocktail and Keith put a $2 coin on the table in case anyone wanted to play pool. Instead, I suggested we save the coin for the Dance-o-Mat that I had been to with Cam and his friends the night before. All of my friends said they had seen it but never tried it,so we decided Saturday was going to be the night. After some amazing mexican food we went down to the Dance-o-mat. 

What's a dance-o-mat? Just another reason to love Christchurch. (Skye, I wish we had gone!!)

In one of the abandoned lots in downtown Christchurch, right next to the partially collapsed cathedral, there is a dance platform with a laundry machine and when you put a $2 coin in, lights come on to light up the dance floor and you can play music from your iPod for half an hour! When we stumbled upon it in Friday, Cam's friends didn't go for my tswift suggestion, so my friends and I started the dance party with some "Shake It Off." Jen DJ'ed for a few more songs until the Christchurch curfew turned off the dance-o-mat -- definitely not the city that never sleeps. 

After a busy day and a busy evening, I was ready to walk home and fall asleep. Pretty awesome week if I do say so myself. Can't wait for the next one. #stokedfornextsaturday

Just one more thing... Christchurch and it's port hills/mountains were beautiful this week.

Christchurch from an early morning run in the porthills

Hagley Park

Sumner Beach

Lyttleton

Summer is for Swimming in the Ocean -- and Having Visitors!

2015 is off to a great start so far, and gearing up to be a really great, really warm year. After two days in Pittsburgh, two weeks in New York, and one week in Irvine, I have arrived back in Christchurch, New Zealand for #TTNZ Round 2.

80 and Sunny in Southern California -- Not bad for January.

The decision process was a bit of a whirlwind, but through conversations with coworkers in both New York and New Zealand, I'm now committed to staying in New Zealand until May 1st! See what I mean about a warm 2015?

My first week back has been great. There's been a lot of time spent with friends, and a lot of time spent in the ocean -- or trying to get to the ocean.

I'll start, though, with my very last day in New Zealand in 2014. On my last night here, I told my kiwi friend, Cam, that I wasn't sure what to do before my 7 pm flight the following day. Cam suggested we head over to the Lyttleton markets. Lyttleton's just on the other side of the port hills that run along the south side of the city, so you either have to go up and over the hills, or through a tunnel. There are alcoves in the port hills that create smaller bays, and Lyttleton is located in one of those.  Lyttleton is, in my opinion, the closest you can get to "classic New Zealand" without leaving the greater Christchurch area.We had a great time looking at the markets and and ended up getting juices and enjoying the views by the harbor for a good part of the afternoon.

View of the Lyttleton Harbor from the top of Rapaki Track in the Port Hills

When I landed in Christchurch last Sunday, it was nearly 80 degrees and pretty sunny, so Cam and I went back to the Lyttleton area and went for a swim in one of the other alcoves. The water was pretty cold (because we're so close to Antarctica), but the 360 view from the edge of the swimming area was amazing. It was the perfect welcome back to New Zealand.

The weather was less than ideal this week -- cloudy and windy, as is unfortunately typical for Christchurch, but this weekend, the sun came back out in a big way. It was over 80 degrees with hardly a cloud in the sky, all weekend long!

Cam loves to swim and I wanted to hike, so on Saturday we decided to go to Bottle Lake Forest Reserve, just northeast of the city. Bottle Lake has a series of horseback, mountain bike, and running trails, leading through a forest and out to a beach club. We decided to go out there for a swim, but unfortunately we got a little lost in the forest reserve and never found the ocean. The trails were really nice though -- I think I'll go back for some training runs, and maybe then I'll find the ocean. We eventually gave up on the swim, and Cam settled for showing me a classic kiwi summertime treat - Goody Goody Gumdrop ice cream. It's weirdly green but tastes like bubble gum and has chewy lollies in it. Kinda weird, but apparently all kiwis love it, so I had to give it a go. 

After our little walk, I still had some energy to get out, so I went for a long run up in the port hills. I had never gone on any of the port hill tracks except Rapaki, so I was a little nervous about finding my way. I ended up running up the top of the hill, and unexpectedly finding a really cool hiking path overlooking the Lyttleton side of the hills.

Once again the classic New Zealand feel amazed me. If I weren't halfway through a long run, I could've stayed there for ages. I felt so lucky to be all alone, near the top the port hills, with this gorgeous view that I had just stumbled upon. I went back to the city to spend the night with friends, feeling so refreshed.

Another View of the Lyttleton Harbor from the top of the Port Hills

On Sunday, I didn't have any major plans, but since it was 90 degrees and BEAUTIFUL out, I had no choice but to go to the ocean twice. I first drove out to Taylor's Mistake beach.Taylor's Mistake is a small bay with the most gorgeous water color. I had gotten to the beach on one of my first weekends in Chch, but by way of a hike starting from the top of the port hills.

Taylor's Mistake Beach from the hike I did back in October.

That day I was the only person on the beach, and it seemed so remote. Today I drove directly to the beach and it was PACKED. I found a spot and relaxed for a couple hours until I was really hot and starting to get nervous that the hole in the ozone layer (over Australia/ New Zealand) was going to give me too much of a sunburn. The drive there and back had gorgeous views of both Taylor's Mistake bay and Sumner beach, but unfortunately the road was narrow, windy, and full of cars, so I wasn't able to take any pictures.

Only picture I took today... really should've taken more of the actually scenery since it was so beautiful!

After a little rest, I met up with Cam and we decided to go for another swim. We went out to Sumner Beach, where I had also been early in my time here, but that day was actually cloudy and not so nice.

My first time at Sumner when it was cloudy and cold.. so much nicer this weekend!

Today was an entirely different experience-  The tide was low so we were able to swim way out in the ocean. With the sun nearing sunset, the port hills and the cliffs looked absolutely beautiful. I really need a waterproof camera so I can capture our swims. Cam started diving for Pipi, which look kind of like clams, but they are found exclusively in New Zealand. Apparently you can bring them home and boil them and eat them -- so we should do that soon. Cam made sure I dove for a few as well so I can say "I went diving for Pipi in New Zealand". We jumped a few waves, threw the pipi so they skimmed on the water, and just had heaps of fun. 


Being back in familiar territory also came with a familiar face from New York. One of my best friends from study abroad in Sydney was traveling Australia and New Zealand with her sister and her mom, and they decided to stop in Christchurch for a night.

Skye and I on a Sheep Traffic Cone - basically the epitome of Christchurch.

It was so nice to welcome someone I love to a place I love. I took them to C1 - a really cool cafe where they serve sliders in a pneumatic tube. The sliders get delivered to the closest tube to your table. It's a really fun way to get your food and the food is really delicious. After dinner Skye's mom and sister wanted to go to the botanical gardens, so I drove them over there and showed them a few of my favorite parts.

Fountain at the Entrance of the Botanical Gardens

They all just kept saying, "I can't believe you get to live here and run here every morning". It was so nice to have someone see Christschurch and love it as much as I do.  I wish you could've stayed longer, Skye, but thanks for taking the time to see my little city!

So, needless to say, it feel great to be back. I'm really happy I came back and that I get to stay a few more months. If this first week is any indication of the rest of my time in New Zealand, I think it's going to be an amazing few months Can't wait for more visitors and more adventures. Stay tuned...