How should I cheat death?

Most of the group is going bungie-jumping this weekend, but bungie-jumping just isn’t my cup of tea. This has gotten me thinking on how I would like to get my adrenaline rush, and thanks to the omnipresent travel brochures in this tourist mecca of Queenstown, I think I’ve come across some viable options. Hang-gliding? Parasailing? Both sound awesome, but it seems like Hang-gliding is a lot more dangerous than bungie-jumping, a lot more. I’d like to figure something out, and Paragliding is definitely a viable alternative. But who knows? Thats all for now, tomorrow we do a day on the Routeburn track – a Great Walk – so pray with me for good weather.

UPDATE: If I do make a jump, it will be paragliding, but if and when I go is anybody’s guess. Later in the semester (when I’m back in Queenstown) I shall see what my budget’s like.

Off to Queenstown!!

I’m leaving in a few minutes to head to Queenstown with the rest of my Arcadia group – sweet as! I look forward to checking out some Lord-of-the-Rings quality scenery. Pray that the weather does’nt turn too bad, because I’ll be doing a day-hike on the fabulous Great Walk, the Routeburn. Cheers!

Looking N. from Allan’s Beach

Looking N. from Allan’s Beach

Originally uploaded by A-Boy.

As part of international orientation, Uni Otago held a field trip to the Otago Peninsula (postponed from the actual orientation week). On this beach, we experienced heavy sleet, then clearing, then heavier and heavier rain and wind as the sun continued to come out! In return for enduring this awful weather, a perfect rainbow formed, with one end over these hills, and the other over the sea (my camera died just before this, but I will have others’ photos soon). Take a look at my Flickr! page for more sweet photos.

Mt. Cargill is mine!

Now that’s what I was thinking of when I picked New Zealand! The best part about this – its about 3 miles from central Dunedin! The photo above is the view East towards the Otago peninsula from the top of Mt. Cargill (elev. 2200′). Another perk to this hike was the strange rock formation known as the Organ Pipes. Thousands of these hexagonal cylinders cover the hillside as seen here:

Take a look at the rest of the photoset to see more of the hike and surrounding Otago.

A semester under way, with a bit of excitement

I’ve started to settle into the routine of the semester here, but today was not part of that routine. I left for my papers (AKA “classes”) this morning, and when I returned to the flat three hours later, our sliding glass door to the kitchen was shattered, and the 160 bucks left by our departing flatmate was gone. Hopefully we’ll get compensated by our student insurance, but that will be a long story, I’m sure.

As for the rest of my time here, nothing too exciting yet. Before my flatmate, Josh, left for home, we attempted to climb the nearby Mt. Cargill this weekend. Unfortunately, we lacked any truely useful maps, and subsequently missed the road to the summit (we were on foot). It was a nice hike anyways, as we climbed out of the city, through farmland, over the ridgeline and down to Otago bay. Here is the view from the other side of the ridge looking over Otago bay and the peninsula:

We were prepared to get a very expensive taxi ride back to the city (on a short trip, the meter seemed to go about 10 cents every 10 seconds, regardless of speed), but before we could even dial a taxi, a city bus came around the corner. That defenitely saved us 30-40 dollars. As it stands now, I still have not climbed Mt. Cargill, but sooner or later (especially if/when I get a car) I will climb that mountain.