Saturday, February 28, 2009

So I have been in Christchurch now for about two weeks and I believe am settling in nicely with the university and the city. I have seen a show, Liam Flinn, a cricket match, India vs New Zealand, adopted a new hobby, slack lining, and am generally enjoying myself. I have also purchased a bike which with the exchange rate will hopefully be a good deal, it hasn't actually arrived yet and should be here some time this week. It is a trek 69er. I know most of you are turning your noses up at the thought of both a trek and a 69er, but it has a very good component spec, xt and xtr with mostly carbon components and nice fox 29er fork. This was all purchased for a very reasonable price in US dollars, and the purchase was compounded by the fact that there was really nothing else in my price range that would have sufficed. So if all else fails i will break it down for components and maybe put together a full 29er back home. But who knows maybe it will be my dream bike? In any case it will certainly see me through the next 4 months, knock on wood. I particularly wanted a hardtail because I am planing for my oddly long fall break, three weeks, to slap some slick tires on the bike and ride around the country stopping off to do as many mtb rides as possible along the way. I have my tent and sleeping bag here, and with a pretty lax policy in regards to where you can camp, i don't foresee finding a place to pitch the tent should be a problem. I have gotten a good guide to mtb in the country, and i really want to make my way to two places in general, Queenstown and Whakarewarewa mtb park in the north island. Obviously they will not be doable in the same fall break unless i fly to the north island or bike up there using the ferry to cross between the two. Oh well i suppose i will have to start formulating some sort of plan...but for now i just cant wait for my bike to arrive and my gear to get hear, from home. I think tomorrow morning i will be doing some bouldering on the rock wall at the rec center here...i'll let you know how it goes.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Well...thats all she wrote folks. Our field camp now being finished i am back and settled in to my room back at the university of canterbury in christchurch. The field camp was on the whole an amazing experience, and although we didn't get to do quite as much sightseeing as i would have wanted i was certainly able to get a feel for both islands which is fantastic. So...it turns out that to have my bike shipped down here from the us would be about a thousand dollars...wow. This is a problem. With the exchange rate at the moment this really isn't my best option being that my money would go about twice as far down here. So i guess we will see what happens there...but hopefully it is soon i am really missing riding and with what seem like good trails so close i am getting a little impatient. Hoping to post more regularly now that i have a constant internet connection. J