Easter Break

Tomorrow morning I leave for the North. Our mid-semester break is next week, and I'm taking advantage of it by roadtripping around the South Island with two other Arcadia kids, Mitch and Noah. Tomorrow we're headed to Christchurch, and then on to the northern end of the South Island. We plan to spend some time up there in the sun, then work our way back down the West Coast, checking out the sights along the way and hopefully getting some tramping in as well. Due to the shortage of easily accessible, free internet in New Zealand, I will probably be out of contact for the next 10 days. My computer also crashed again -- I honestly cannot believe it -- on Tuesday, so I won't even have that with me if I did find internet.

Though I can't put up pictures easily from last weekend, I can write briefly about it. Andrew, Taylor and I drove out to Fiordland to meet up with Andrew's parents and sister. It was a different style of trip than we have taken, and the change was nice. It was certainly strange staying in a motel room and eating out for dinner, though. It reminded me of joining my family for trips at the end of a semester.

Because of the constraints imposed on us by the demographics of our party, we didn't do any terribly difficult outdoor activities. Over the course of the weekend we took three multi-hour hikes that were good exercise, but not particularly noteworthy. You just can't get very far three hours from the road. We did, however, take a cruise on the famous Milford Sound, which was really cool. Milford Sound is actually a fjord (misnamed by the English) on the northern edge of Fiordland. Our cruise was two hours long, out the fjord to the open ocean and then right back in. The scenery is dramatic -- 1600 meter mountains rising straight from the water, sometimes at an 80 degree, glacier-carved pitch. The end of the fjord gave me my first view of New Zealand's west coast as well. And we had a pod of dolphins surfing our bow wave for a good portion of the ride out, which was honestly one of the coolest parts. I had never seen it in person before, and I was standing right on the bow when they came over, meaning I was able to watch them roll about from about eight feet above.

Also this week, I've been trying to get my third paper of the semester done, and it has been a challenge. It's 3000 words, arguing for or against compulsory Maori language education in New Zealand schools. I have an about half-length rough draft at the moment which I hope to improve on over break (though it will have to be by hand). It's due the day school restarts, and hopefully will be done the day school restarts, given that I have another paper due the following Friday.

For now, though, it's time to go pack up for the roadtrip. I'll talk to everyone again in 10 days!

Reid