Tonga

Giant fruit bats (flying foxes)

Hiking through crops of 'Eua (coconut, taro, papaya, casava, kava)

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Wild horses of 'Eua

Tonga was not really what we expected, although we didn't know what to expect. It's the only pacific island that was never colonized, and the monarchy still plays a major role in politics. The people are extremely friendly, and the whole country (169 islands) is very rural and only has a population of about 100,000. There are pigs and chickens running around all over the place, even in the main city (Nuku'alofa). Everyone shares everything- so people don't buy things their neighbours already own, they just borrow them (including animals for eating). The main and biggest island (Tongatapu) is only about 20 km across. At this time of the year, humpback whales are breeding all around the Tongan islands (then they spend their summers in the Antarctica) and we could see them right from the beach at both the places we stayed at. We also went whale watching with a local fisherman. We went to the island of 'Eua (which is a 2 hour ferry ride from Tongatapu) as well as Tongatapu and spent 4 days at each place. 'Eua is mostly jungle with a few plantations and a handful of villages all on the same side of the island. In Tongatapu, the snorkelling was excellent right in front of the place we were staying! The whole island is surrounded by a coral reef (as most of Tonga's islands are).

Bridle Path

Castle Rock- A volcanic dome

Until 1857, the Bridle Path was the only route available to Canterbury settlers travelling from Lyttelton Harbour over the Port Hills. Another one of the dozens of beautiful walking paths right in Christchurch.

Wellington

Cuba Street (one of the most prominent streets in Wellington)

Succulent Garden (in Wellington Botanical Gardens)

The Parliament House (contains the the debating chamber, speaker's office, etc.)

The Beehive (contains the PM's office and other offices)

View from the Botanical Gardens entrance

This weekend we went to Wellington to see the city, and to go to a concert (Broken Social Scene). The concert was 2 hours and 20 minutes of pure musical magic. Two weeks ago we went to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club here in Christchurch which was also really good, so it seems that New Zealand, for it's small size, still attracts a lot of bands on the back of their Australian tours.
Wellington is a really beautiful city that seems bigger than it is- and has really nice architecture and a vibrant arts scene. It's very hilly though- and they don't call it windy Wellington for nothing. There is lots of free stuff to do- namely the Botanical gardens, the Museum of New Zealand, and the Parliament. They were all excellent. The Botanical gardens was different than the one in Christchurch- it's on a hill- and has quite different plant species. At the parliament, we had a free tour- which included entry into the House of Commons. It was really neat to see the places in the buildings that we always see on the news. Their political system is very similar to ours (since they too are part of the Commonwealth), but there are few differences. They have no senate anymore. Also, in 1996 they had a referendum and now they have "proportional representation" rather than the "first past the post" system (electing MP's in constituencies) that we still have. The new system (modelled after the German political system) allows for a much more diverse parliament. Hopefully someday Canada will do the same.

Campus Pictures

Brad in his office.

The School of Music. The University buys up all the houses that go up for sale in the area around it and converts them into office or teaching space. Much better than ripping them down!

University community garden.

River and waterfall next to the Staff Club.

The Staff Club. It's one of my favourite buildings on campus. Another old mansion, converted into a pub/restaurant. Occasionally profs and grad students congregate there for drinks. Perhaps professor Brad will take me there sometime.

Snowcraft Course

The snowcraft course is an introductory mountaineering course- the goal being to gain skills and build confidence walking through an alpine environment. We learned how to use crampons and ice axes and spent several hours sliding down the mountain (forward, backwards, on our fronts and backs) practicing properly stopping ourselves with our ice axes (self- arrest). We also built snow caves. The university tramping club ran their course at the same location this weekend. I almost did the course with them rather than with the Christchurch tramping club- they built giant snow caves and slept in them- I heard it was a little chilly! (We stayed in the warm club hut in the town of Arthur's Pass). The 2nd picture is a Kea- one of the few alpine parrots in the world. They are amazingly intelligent. Like a lot of NZ birds, they are very unafraid of people since before humans arrived (which in the scheme of things was not that long ago) they had no predators.

Port Levy

Banks Peninsula (Christhcurch is right next to Lyttleton on the top)
Port Levy is the 2nd bay from the top

These trees just grew this way due to the prevailing wind!

Thundercat Boating

Kayaking

This weekend I went to Port Levy with the tramping club. Although the weather wasn't perfect, it was nice to see what the bay was like. Port Levy is one of the many bays in the Banks Peninsula. The Banks Peninsula is of volcanic origin (you can tell from the map), and it is just south of Christchurch. All the bays are very calm and great from kayaking (and swimming- in the summer. The water feels really cold at this time of the year!) Someone from the tramping club brought along their Thundercat boat and we each got to go for a ride. It can go really fast- and if there weren't straps for your hands and feet you'd surely fall off! A crazy sport is Thundercat racing over giant ocean waves. It's really dangerous though- it's not uncommon for boats to flip over.

Cameron Hut (Arrowsmiths)

The Arrowsmith mountain range is one of the mountain ranges in New Zealand that has been glaciated, and it looks a bit more like the rockies. Cameron Hut is located in a glacial basin, and the Cameron glacier and Douglas glacier are just behind it. Unfortunately they have retreated a lot in recent years (the hut has been around since 1952), so nowadays only the very base of the Cameron glacier can be seen from the hut. The hut has 9 beds (as bunks) but it is pretty tiny- and uninsulated, with no stove! It went down to -12 at night, but surprisingly, after cooking supper, it stayed fairly warm in the hut- although a few people woke up to find their hiking boots frozen solid. (Just to be sure, I had kept mine practically under my pillow!)