St. Patty's, Speed Dating, and Akaroa

This is long overdue, but since I finally got around to updating pictures, its now time to talk about St. Patricks day. So St. Patricks is pretty much as big a deal here as it is in any college in the US, except without the pinching. We went out to the Irish bar near campus where most people were gathering from Lincoln. After a while, we made it to Christchurch where we all had some green beer and heard some live music. It was fairly laid back considering it was a Wednesday. The next day was my friend Kayleigh's birthday and Elyse (my floormate) had heard about a speed dating event at Canterbury (the nearby university). They begged me to go and after spending hours saying "I can't, I'm not social enough" I got convinced into going. We got there and were 3 out of 20 women and 20 men. At first, I was terrified but once I sat down, had a drink to sip on during those awkward quiet moments it wasn't too bad. It was really cool just to chat with some kiwis though I did get tired of talking about my major. As long as everyone was there just for fun and not seriously it was perfect. After, we took one of the kiwis with us that had said his name was Lego on his nametag.

After a fish and chip stop, we ended up at an empty bar. Literally there was 3 men singing karaoke and the really bored bartender. Because it was Kayleighs birthday he gave us free shots which were amazing. Seeing as the bar really only had one thing to offer, we decided to ask for a chance at the mics. Thats when the ridiculousness ensued. We sang all songs from the 90s including Britney, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and then went into musicals singing Little Mermaid, Hakuna Matata, and then a duet between Lego and I doing Summer Lovin. It was definitely one of my most fun and memorable nights out.

Kaleigh's Birthday Shot, including Kaleigh, Elyse, Lego and I
The following day we originally planned on going to my friend Claire's boat in Akaroa. However, our ride fell through and we weren't going to make it in time. It ended up that Lannette (my floormate and fellow EAP kid) was going later that day to hike. I joined up with her and Bronwynn and Blaine to climb Purple Peak. It was a nice hike above Akaroa harbor and towards the top, consisted of a practically non-existent trail. But we were definitely rewarded once we got to the top. We had a view over the entire harbor as we made our way back down during the sunset. After a dinner of fish and chips and passionfruit ice cream, we headed home.

360 of Purple Peak

heres a link to pictures of the Hike in Akaroa
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=159893&id=665896295&l=47d989397a

Rugby and Akaroa

If you didn't know, Lincoln is in the middle of nowhere. When you look at maps of Canterbury, Lincoln doesn't even get listed. That means if you want to do anything, you have to get out of town. We knew we wanted to do something this weekend, but at the last minute decided to start it out with a rugby match.

We took a bus into Christchurch to watch the Canterbury Crusaders. After stopping for happy hour, we arrived at the game. It's an interesting game because it never stops and there are practically no rules. I swear I counldn't even count how many headlocks and pulling I saw. No stopping to restart each down like football and they have throwins that include lifting a huge guy into the air to catch a ball. We ran into friends from Canterbury Uni and had a great time watching the Crusaders win. After the game we really wanted to meet the players (we had seen them earlier in the week practicing at our university). We ran onto the field and immediately saw the really cute one. Val got his autograph and he agreed to take a picture with us which we were really excited about. We got pictures with the players from the other team as well and decided we had to go to more rugby games.

Us with the cute rugby player. Note to self: next time get a sober person to take the picture.

After we wanted to stay later in Christchurch and went to the Yellow Cross bar where we got the bartender to create a drink just for us. We had to name it a soccer (football) term so I named it The Header. It was basically pure sugar and delicious. Once again we ran into friends from Canterbury and hung out all night before heading back to their rooms to sleep.

Our bartenders from the Yellow Cross. After this they took my camera and had a photoshoot.

Once we got back to Lincoln, we decided to hitch hike to Akaroa. Fortunately all of us (Cayla, Val, Alli, and I) were able to get a ride together to Akaroa. It's a beach town known for having pretty cool dolphin and penguin sightings. We coincidentally ran into friends from Lincoln and chilled on the beach before finding our campground high above the town. After that, we went back into town for a fish and chip dinner on the beach. After a fantastic dessert of peppermint cheesecake and a chocolate and raspberry sundae, we were ready for bed.

After tossing and turning (the ground was REALLY hard and it was FREEZING!) all night, we woke up excited to rent kayaks and swim with dolphins. Unfortunately we began heading down to town when we noticed the water in the cove was extremely low and someone told us there was a tsunami warning. The whole town had evacuated and we waited up on the hill where our campsite was. This is when I found out that it was a tsunami from an earthquake in Chile.

If you didn't know, my best friend Heather is currently studying in Chile. I knew she had been traveling in Argentina but was unaware of when she was getting back into Santiago. I ran to the internet room and was extremely happy to see that she was safe and ok. Thank you to facebook for allowing a quick and easy way to communicate. I hadn't even realized that people back home would have heard about the tsunami warning for NZ because it didn't really seem like a huge deal where I was. Thanks to all who checked in! Apparently while I was in there, a tiny wave came in and the cove began to fill back in.

We decided we needed to hitch before everyone left. We quickly got a ride back into Lincoln with a nice french couple and then Lincoln Uni alumni. While the trip didn't really go the way we planned, it was exciting to get out. We now know what we want to do when we go to Akaroa again. Also, I'm extremely glad that Heather is ok and I can say that here, the tsunamis have been practically non existent.