Hey All,
So, I had planned on video blogging (vlogging) again from New Zealand, but it's proving to be more difficult (both expensive and technically challenging) than I had planned since I don't have my own computer. Hence, I will have to settle for typed words.
My flight over was pretty good, though long. I ended up next to a very chatty Iranian woman who is a Ph.D. student at Stanford in chemical engineering. It was both good and bad in that, when I was awake I had someone to talk to, but anytime I was awake, someone was talking to me. I did get about 6 hours of sleep on the plane, 2 decent meals, and got a bit of work done on my last paper for the semester. All in all, time well spent.
Since getting to New Zealand, life has been full of many logistical challenges, and involved a bit of hurry up and wait, but it's all good. Johanna and I successfully met up, procured a car, procured kayaks, built a roof rack, did some kayaking, met some people, and went our own ways. She is currently spending a week in the back country near Arthur's Pass, and I am chilling on a farm with a new friend of mine, doing a bit of kayaking, and having a pretty darn good time. I have to switch out boats on Wednesday night in Christchurch, so I'm sticking to the local area for now and doing a bit of kayak surfing in the ocean. I did run part of the Hurunui River earlier this week, and I'm going to run the main portion of it on Christmas Day with some people from the club. Saturday I plan on heading up to Murchison to meet Johanna and do some kayaking there. This is about as far as current plans go.
I know I said I would try to update pretty frequently, but what with camping out of the car most of the time and spending heaps of time in the back country, I'm not sure how much that will actually happen. I'll do my best, though.
I hope everyone is having a good winter and enjoying the holiday season.
Merry Christmas!
Alex
