summiting

Last week we finished God and Nature. It was a wee bit stressful considering I had 5 bible studies and 5 reading reflections to do. But three cheers for joy cause its over! All that's left is ISP and Forest Ecology and we're homeward bound.

On Saturday we had our farewell Hangi (sp?) with the Kaikoura neighborhood. Its basically like a Hawaiian luau where the pig and the rest of the food is cooked in a fire pit underground. After experiencing, the Maori, Samoan, and Hawaiian versions of this cooking method I still like Hawaiiain food the most.

After the Hangi which ended at 5 or 6 for I took another stab at spontaneity and decided to climb Mt. Fyffe. So with Sarah and Leah convinced we packed our sleeping bags and made peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches and began our ascent to an altitude of 1090 m in 2 and half hours. Outside of the hut we watched the stars appear and saw the most incredible shooting stars of my life. The shooting stars shot bright across the sky for durations of five seconds each. Bloody brilliant.

The next morning we summited at 1602 m. We rose above the clouds to the very peak of Mt. Fyffe. A sea of clouds awaited us, and the sound of the wind at that alititude mimicked the crashing of the waves on the beaches far below us. Not to be crude, but my ass and legs hurt like hell.

Mt. Fyffe from ground level

summiting. (>_<) the mountains behind are the southern alps. its another gajillion hours to get ontop of that.

In God and Nature we learned that if one dominates nature then they must also support the domination of women. Considering that I raped that mountain (^_^) its concluded that I'm anti-ecofeminist. hah.

sweet as! (kiwi for awesome, cool, fine by me)

post-birthday celebrations

i am officially twenty. it seems to have gone by so quick, it only seems like yesterday that i was blowing the candles of my first "-teen" birthday. but to celebrate before stepping into the doors of adulthood, we had a week of fun and irresponsibility (what was once known as ISP week).

i'm twenty!!!

the weather's warmed up considerably, now that the first day of spring has come and gone. despite the freak wind storm we had yesterday, we run around barefooted and delight in the sun's rays just a bit too much. last week we were given off to dedicate to finishing the bulk of our ISP papers. but in between research and analysis here's a list of stuff we did: slept on the porch, banana nutella crepe's, mickey mouse pancakes, the transformation of the staircase into a super slide, long bike rides, eggs in a basket, skipping stone's past the animal park, labryindth, fort building, paint balling, trips to the candy shop, gas station magnum bars, real life-pac man, mortal combat, mario kart, whale watching, cliff hiking, ultimate frisby...a whole bunch of spontaneous, irresponsible stuff, to commemorate the end of being a teenager.

banana-nutella crepes

the labyrinth

we also experienced our new zealand homestays this weekend. i got placed in a farm family with tommy and matt. my farm family consisted of an elderly couple, 3000 sheep, 150 cattle, 30 hens, 20 dogs, 2 cats, wild deer, wild goats, and a billion sandflys. i actually don't know how else to describe it.

the 3000 acre farm (or part of it)

i've been assessing all the damage done to my body from this trip. after paintballing and the fact that i'm not graceful like a swan i've counted three minor scratches, 13 bruises (i currently have 8 bruises on my body-i look like a battered drug addicted wife), and probably a three digit number of sand fly bites and scars.

paint balling!

on sunday we celebrated my birthday for real. the staff had prepared a spa night in my honor, Los Ramos Spa. ha. full service spa with massages, facials, mani/pedis, haircuts and fun. on monday we celebrate bry's birthday and went paintballing for the second time. and on tuesday we had laura's birthday where we had euro-trash fashion night. lol. today we have a break. but tomorrow is thanksgiving dinner, and on friday we celebrate professor Brett's birthday!

euro-trash runway show

i guess this is the cliffnotes version of what i've been doing for the past three weeks. i'll try to update more frequently, considering that i'll be back in the states in three weeks.

embers

please pray westmont's campus. the fire is surrounding westmont college and there's 1200 students evacuated in the gym. we don't know much about it here in new zealand. but we're constantly praying. so if anyone has updates please email.

westmont college update

failing forwards

three parts to relational excellence:

1) to be at your cerebral best
2) to be at your conversational best
3) to be at your compassionate best

we shouldn't take a part to sum up the whole. agreed?

in other news: i enjoy dandelions way too much

confetti

we came back from our "spring break" (-technically fall according to the northern hemisphere) this afternoon. i travelled around in a campervan around the south island for the past nine days. (^_^) i had heaps of fun. <-- that's a terrible understatement.

for catherine's birthday we played capture the flag in the dark. we also had confetti cake. i don't know why i'm still up...tomorrow we have class and my rooms a mess. i have yet to unpack. i'm ready to pass out.

but here's a list of places we hit up: christchurch, arthur's pass, greymouth, punakaiki, franz josef, fox, wanaka, haast, queenstown, te anau, milford sound, invercagill, the caitlins, dunedin...that's the best i can do for now.

cheers! (mind me...i just want to go to bed)