day three - Nelson to Picton to Wellington to Foxton

After just two days on the bus tour Nate, Melissa, Harald, Michaela  and I headed off on our own to explore the North Island. We bussed from Nelson to Picton and then caught the ferry across to Wellington where we picked up our rental car and headed north to Foxton. 

Nate, Harald, Me, Michaela, Melissa in Picton

Picton - looking back from the ferry

enjoying the sun on and incredible view on the ferry

eating fresh fish and chips on the Waikanae Beach and watching the sunset

day two - Hamner Springs to Nelson

Wednesday morning we set off for Nelson, after only a couple hours into the trip we were forced to stop due to a rock slide further up the road caused by the mass amounts of rain the night before. During the 2 to 3 hour wait for the road to be cleared our we  explored the area before getting back on the bus and heading into Nelson. 

a beautiful drive

taken on our exploration up the road to see the rock slide 

Tahunanui Beach in Nelson 

day one - Lincoln to Hanmer Springs

On Tuesday March 1st around 80 students, mainly international students and a few Kiwi’s hoped on a bus organized bus the University of Lincoln to tour the south island. After about a 3 hour bus ride we ended up in Hanmer Springs where we spent that afternoon and night. 

our buses 

setting up camp for the night 

a few of us decided to go Mountain biking for the afternoon through the

 beautiful forests in the area.. sadly day one and I ended up covered in bruises 

and cuts.. tight turn, me, mountain bike, creek.. what more is there to say?

on the road again

The University has been closed since the date of the quake and is currently closed until the 14th of March. The current plan is to have lectures, registration and oweek begin that day but things are, to a point, still up in the air. Lectures were originally suppose to begin on Monday February 28th. Due to the damage in Christchurch where many staff and students reside and the University being a center that Civil Defense can use, campus is closed for the next two weeks. A bus tour has been set up for international students to take to tour the south island so I will be heading off on that tomorrow with about 80 other students. We will be stopping in Kaikoura and then in Nelson. Once in Nelson myself and 4 friends I have just met will be touring the North island together.

There will be myself, Melissa from the North Island of New Zealand (Tauranga ), Nate from Colorado, Michaela from Colorado and Harald from Norway. We are traveling from Nelson to Picton to Wellington on the first day then renting a car for a couple days until we get up to Melissa’s parents place from there we will use her car to travel the north part of the north island, up to the Bay of Island and along the coast. So here I am off on another road trip and packing everything I need into my backpack again. I won’t have my computer with me so pictures and updates will come at the end of my trip. 

sunday morning

On Sunday morning I got up early and headed to a church I had found online, only about a 15 minute walk from campus and held at a community center. I got to the community center to find it empty ! I wasn’t sure what to do. I really wanted to go to church, not because it is something I have to do as a Christian but something I desire to do to learn more about God. As I was leaving the community center a car with a older couple stopped and asked if I was looking for the Lincoln Baptist Church. I said that I was and they explained that the church had moved buildings and asked if I wanted a ride up the road with them to the new building. I hopped in and we headed to Church. It was the first time I had been to Church here in New Zealand and it was incredible to worship God with people from another nation and to hear their passion to know God more and there prayers for their city and their Nation.  After the service the couple who had picked me up introduced me to Tim and Liz, a young couple in the church who lead the Christian Fellowship group on campus. They kindly invited me to their home for lunch, I accepted and spent the next few hours with them before they gave me a ride back to Campus. 

surviving the earthquake

On the morning of the 22nd I attended the check in for international students where they gave us a tour of the campus and gave us the opportunity to meet other intentional students studying here at Lincoln University.  

After the check in I headed to the grocery store with a few other international students I had met. I was in the grocery when the earthquake hit. It was a different experience and pretty intense.. I don’t really know how to describe it. Everyone, locals, students, staff, absolutely everyone in the building froze when it happened. You could hear the quake coming and then just stood and watched as people ran from everything in the store that crashed to the ground and watched through the stores windows the parking lot of cars dance as the earth shook.  As soon as the earth stopped trembling the staff went into panic mode everyone checked out and the store shut down. Walking back to the University the second tremor hit, it wasn’t hard enough where I was to knock you down but the ground shook and you could see and feel the earth move under your feet. Since then I have felt many aftershocks some of which are more intense than others. 

At the time I didn’t understand the severity of the quake. To be honest I wasn’t sure if it was just a regular aftershock or something more severe. It wasn’t until we arrived on campus to see everyone evacuated, hear the President of the University speech, and then watching the news in the dinning hall while engineers check the safety of each building that I started to understand the intensity what had happened. 

As most of you know from the news Christchurch is a mess, many have died and 100’s are still missing. I am so incredibly thankful that I was not in the city at the time... see the thing was that I was planning to head into down that day but decided against it and I had been in the city just the day before. Many people however are in serious need after the quake. I went into the residential area just outside of Christchurch yesterday (the 25th) to help. I spent the day alongside over a 100 other student volunteers digging trenches to channel water in the streets. Many of the streets have been covered in a gray silt (the material has characteristics very similar to concrete.. its a fine dust when dry but like a liquid muddy material when wet). This material becomes a liquid and comes through the soil and cracks during an earthquake, this is called liquidation. At the moment this silt covers peoples entire yards, roads and is even in some peoples homes. These pictures just show some of the damage along with the people I worked alongside that day. 

Steel and I..you can see how the streets are flooded 

and the characteristics of the silt

Steel, me, Taylor and Melissa digging through the silt

Harald and I digging silt out of the drain

one of many cracks in the streets

everyone at work

another goodbye and hello Lincoln

On our trip around the south island Emily, Alison and I hoped to see penguins but since we didn’t see any in the wild we settled for checking out the little blue penguins at the Antarctic Center in Christchurch before heading to the airport. The 21st was Emily and Alison’s final day in New Zealand! After saying our goodbyes they took their plane off for Adelaide, Australia and Karen drove me to Lincoln University where I will be studying and living for the next few months. 

It was a weird experience being on my completely on my own in a foreign country.. I have to admit it was a tad intimidating but more than that it was exciting and freeing. After Karen dropped me off, I spent the evening exploring the campus and meeting the few other international students who had also moved in early. I also tried out the cafeteria food which was surprisingly good, since I am living in a semi catered residence while I am here I get to eat at the dinning hall for dinner. Yes the dinning Hall, there is one on campus.. 

I guess one thing to mention is that the university I am attending is a, lets just say, a small school in a equally small town.  Lincoln is a nice little town, with one grocery store, a pub, a couple cafes, 3 churches, a hardware store and some other small businesses and is located about a half hour outside of Christchurch.

experiencing an Antarctic storm at the Antarctic Center

the little blue penguins 

Alison, Emily and I at the Antarctic Center