Well goodness gracious…

So long without a blog, I am just trying to type one up before I head out for the weekend. And I’ve just finished a ton of studying (apparently they DO have that in NZ… boo…) with a few hours to spare before going to sleep, so I will update my web log o’ goodness. First, let me congratulate MYSELF because for the last two weeks I have been going to the gym almost every day!!! I am going to come back even hotter than I was when I left… Especially once I get my tan on in Ozzy land… Now, on to more interesting things for y’all!

Thursday night the Massey University Alpine Club held some CAPTURE THE FLAG at the Victorian Esplanade in town. It’s basically a playground, arena, and walking gardens all in one. Becca, Bri, and I soon discovered that American playgrounds suck in comparison to New Zealand ones. For example, they had a flying fox—one of those ziplines you jump in and barrel forward screaming for a while. Bri conquered her fear and did it (like five times), as did I (like twice)… The weird thing for us was that it wasn’t roped off, or had an attendant or anything—just a warning to not do anything too stupid on it. It reminded me of the NZ ACC (accidental compensation… something), which basically says “if you get hurt, we’ll pay for it” rather than the US system of “if you get hurt, find someone to sue”. There were multiple other awesome parts of the playground, including a human-sized hamster wheel, trampolines, and some massive slides. I forgot to bring my camera but I will get some pics that Becca took (and Bri and I took with her camera) before I leave… Anyways, we played Capture the Flag, and TWICE I almost won it for us, but the mud made me fall on my butt. Plus, we didn’t have any way to recognize which team a person was except by recognizing them—and we were playing at night, so that was a bit difficult. It was all fun and games until one girl tackled a big guy and ended up BREAKING her ankle!!! We all felt really bad and went home after that, but she was really tough. Nevertheless, it was a good night until that point.

Friday morning Bri and I went into town and had breakfast at a little bistro which was decent and later brunch at Café Cuba, which was excellente.

Friday night was in fact my one year anniversary with Tyler (if you didn’t notice from the other 3 times I mentioned it on this very website!). So, of course, I went out to see Concord Dawn and Minuit at the MuBar and drank some Tui… Nevertheless, Bri (as usual) managed to drink more than I.

Note Becca’s expression in the back… I have no idea if that had to do with the photo or not. Bri drank so much that with a little help from me, she got the much desired TUIVERSITY shirt. I am working my way there, and now Bri will help ME!!! Here she is semi-modeling the shirt with Rob looking very British (and comatose) next to her.

Then we were all really hungry so we ordered two pizzas—they had a deal delivering to the student bar. We went through those babies like nothing…

What’s that? You’re sick of pictures of people other than me??? Okay, fine.

On Saturday I went on a trip to Wellington (NZ’s capital), and Bri was able to come along! First we hung out in Te Papa, an awesome museum and we visited…

stop drooling… and we found a wonderful photo op…

The exhibit was fairly fantastic. It consisted of props, costumes, and some of the mini sets from the films. Unfortunately we couldn’t bring our cameras in (which seemed a bit absurd… I have no idea why…) but it included the miniature of Helm’s Deep, and some “life size” orcs, SAURON (that was crazy scary), and lots of video commentary about how everything came together. It was really awesome and as Bri pointed out, helped bring together the movie plot because of all the descriptions of places and characters (and who was who’s son, etc). We almost bought the dvd set, but they would not play in American dvd players, so that was a short lived fantasy.

After that, we spent the rest of the day wandering around the downtown district. We got a long lunch at a semi-Mexican place and also looked at a ton of clothing stores, which made Bri very happy. Then we took a quick stroll on the bay (I’m not sure if it’s actually a bay, but it’s bay-ish). This is what the city looks like:

It’s almost Mediterranean looking from that view. We also found some poetry that had washed ashore, so I got a picture of it… with me on it…

Then, my favorite part of the trip, we found this little “diving board” that went out over the bay. It was more of a huge wooden plank bolted into the boardwalk. Below it (about… 40 feet? 20?) was the water of the bay and one of those floating swim things. Again, like the flying fox, it just said “hey don’t be stupid” and was just there. For anyone to jump on… SO,

and then

AND THEN

It was pretty awesome. An old guy stopped and looked at me sitting there and asked if he could take my photo. It was awesome to think that I was worthy of a photograph. I felt muselike. Then he asked if I was going to jump and I was like, “alright let’s not get crazy, sir artsy man”. If I had had a change of clothes, I might have but as it was, it was a bit chilly to be jumping into large bodies of water. Bri also went out—made it like halfway, which was awesome because she is really scared of heights! I was like “GO BRI!!!” and then she looked like she was going to faint and I was glad to have her back on stable ground.

So, this weekend I am going up to Mount Ruapehu to get an introduction on ice climbing. We’ll be up there all weekend, and Bri will be with me. If this weekend is anything like buying the gear for the trip was…

Then it will thoroughly rock. Hope all the pictures didn’t kill anyone’s internet (dad… mar… jor…) and I hope everyone is doing fantastic. Finally, I’d just like to pass on something that a certain wonderful lady in my (and dad’s) life said: "I pray for you every morning and every night. I know you are like hours ahead, but I still pray for the day I am in. God speeds up the time zone, I feel sure." It is absolutely awesome that I have such genuine and loving people in my life!!!

Oh and if you are bored and want to look at some more pictures, check out my little album here