Holidays!

it feels so weird to be on summer break in December! but its kinda great! i get 2 months off of school! :D but i've been staying busy hanging out with the family, Friends. Etc.

Last weekend i went to my friends house for the night, and we had heaps of fun, then the following day we went to the tatura horse races. My first horse race! we got all dressed up and went and it was a blast. but it was very hot! and we were out all day! In the evening we went to my friends house and we went swimming the channel for a bit, then had tea at her house. It was a great weekend to start the holidays!

The following weekend i went to Shepparton to visit my friend Lisa who is an exchange student from Sweden . We had lots of fun went around the town, went swimming and just hung out. On that monday we meet up with Anja and Will who are two other exchange students. Anja is from switzerland and Will is a rebound who went to Denmark last year. But he is right now Anja's host family. We went bowling and i did terrible. Absolutely terrible but it was still good fun, and we went on a horse drawn carriage ride, and went shopping a bit. Just hung out. We ran into an outbound who is going to france so she later joined us and we all hung out. Sadly i had to go home, but it was a good weekend.

Kaikoura

Well as you may guess i'm not in Kaikoura any more, i haven't been for over 2 weeks now. but i've been very bad at getting time for my blog and so now i'm writing about it.

well when we were in Kaikoura the weather was terrible and since kaikoura is such an outdoor area, and everything is done outside, there wasn't all that much for us to do. Somehow we did manage to find enough for a days worth. We went on a tour of a cave, we went to a winery tour of a bruery that was built inside a cave. We went to this small house that was turned into a musume. We went shopping a bit in the town. went to a really good cafe! and both night we had dinner we went to this restruant which i cant remember the name, but it was really really yummy! that sunday we woke up early, packed up and went right to the airport. It was about a 2 hr drive to get there. And then when we checked in we had a bit of time so we went to the Qantas club lounge room again! it was great! lots of food and drinks and such. We got home safely, then drove home and by the time we got back it was a bit after 9.

Nelson

Right now were currently in Nelson. Nelson is nice place. much warmer than Christchurch and westport were. Well last few days have been busy. but yesterday we drove from Christchurch to greymouth. where we saw pancake rocks. It was very pretty, but a long drive. and the hills aren't always agreeing with my stomach. but after we stopped there we went to westport where we stayed the night. it was this nice little Bed and breakfast. We took this walk up to the lighthouse when we were there. and ate dinner at the local pub. really nice place where the town meets and gets together. we were there for quite a while and were very welcomed. Today we drove from westport to nelson, where we will be for a few days. we've got quite a few things planned, a few tours, and i'm not sure but a bunch of stuff. Across from where we are staying is a spa, and we went today and booked appointments. So i'm getting a manicure on thursday. then friday were driving to our next destination where we will ahve 2 night, then on sunday we drive from Kikoura to Christchurch then fly out, then drive back from Melbourne to Ky. long day. but should be a good 2nd half of the trip.

Christchurch day 2

So today we got up at about 8. no actually we met for breakfast at 8. I got up at 7:50. haha. but anyways, we had breakfast at the hotel, then we went around the city for a bit of a walk, then went on a tram that gave us a tour of christchurch. after that we went to the market for a bit, then went to the art musume. took a tour there. Then we went to the Gondala and rode up to the top, took lots of photos. but it wasn't a clear day and was raining so we didnt get to see the mountains and such as well as we'd hope. but it was still pretty cool. then we took this super long drive up this other mountain and then on the way down my ears went funny. Having a host father who's an audiologist he knows all about what to do to make them pop, so i used his tricks and it worked! after that we went to whi wildlife place and saw lots of animals, and then we went to this show called Ko Tane. it was about the Maouri people, and at the begining they asked the audiance if one of the males wanted to be the "cheif" and lead our "tribe" to meet the other one. No one raised their hands, and the lady running the first part, asked Lindsay (host dad) if he wanted to be it, he didnt really want to, but he did it anyways. so he had to the the ritual greatings of the other tribe. And it was all really cool. were walking in the bush (forest) and then they pop out and scare us, and it was really cool. then we got speical seats since he was the "cheif" and then in the audiance participation, of course they asked us to be in it. so we got up and learned some dances and such. which was all really cool. then afterwards we went on a Kiwi tour and saw a few kiwi's. After that we drove back into Christchurch, then had dinner at an Indian restruant, and now i'm here typing this. Its been a busy day, and we've been gone all day, but lots of fun. I have tons of photos already! and its only the 2nd day! i'm at 250 already!!!

Christchurch day 1

So today has been a long long day! but its been good, woke up at 5, got to the melbourne airport by 6. then we hung around in the Quantas club, finally we took off, and the flght was about 3 hours. but when we got here since the time difference we lost 2 hours. After Customs and Immigration it was about 3ish. We went to the International Antartica Center place which was really cool, and we saw all these penguines and went on this little tour thing in these weird cars that they use in Antartica. After that we came to the hotel, and we checked in then walked around the city to find dinner. We ate at this Thai restruant and it was really good! Then walked around a bit more and found not one starbucks, but 2! i was very excited. Christchurch is such a pretty city. Its really nice walking and its just really nice. We'll do some more exploring tomorrow, and such, just today were all a bit tired from flying and such, so we didnt do all that much. But it's been a pretty good day!