Sothis weekend I am going up to Arthur's Pass with the tramping club to participate in something called freshers weekend. It's basically the first tramping trip of the year where most of the new members do a relatively tame hike set up camp for the night, get to know each other while consuming beverages and basically hang out. I hope the weather holds out, though if not maybe it will be a good test of my tent.
On another note my bike has STILL not arrived. And since it is now the weekend i guess it won't be coming till Monday (hopefully), although i am not really sure on which days the courier service takes a days rest, Maybe they don't? That would be nice.

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.

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

Hello, bonjour, Gooday, and Kia Ora to you. I guess this blog is mostly an effort on my part to composate for my complete lack of ability to keep up regular contact with those people i need and want to. This should make things easier for both parties hopefully, but i suppose we will see how it goes.
So...over the last two weeks i have been trapsing aroung the south island here looking at enough rocks to quite honestly make my eyes cross. This is all part of a geological field camp that i am about half way through right now, and has been, despite the cross eyed effect of the work, very intresting. The weather has been nothing short of flawless. Sunny and 70 everyday, not bad.
Christchurch, the city where i will be living and studying during the regular term, is a nice sort of medium sized city with a sprawling downtown. I am about 20 minutes from the beaches and 25 from an area called the port hills. The term hills is a relative one i have discovered because the tops of these hills are about equal in elevation to the highest points of the mountains around the DC area.
I think that is all i have for now. I am off to the north island tommorow to do a couple of weeks of field work on volconology and beach sediment deposition. My internet access has been sporadic at best so it may be a week or two till our next chat. J