A week of accomplishment

I spent most of this week doing things that had to be done and just hanging out in the evenings. I purchased a capo in town for my guitar so that I can stop bugging my friend PT for hers. I bought a pair of polypropylene long johns to keep me warm while playing frisbee and tramping. I picked up a pair of cleats at a thrift store so that I can actually be of some use in the frisbee pickups I've been attending.

I finally went to the food store again to stock up on food. I had actually let myself get down to peanut butter and ketchup. That's all I had left. That and a box of corn flakes for which I had no milk. For dinner one night I managed to score an apple of my friend Nora which I then slathered in peanut butter in front of my flatmate Rich's company. Everyone was complaining my ratio of apple to peanut butter was horribly off but I insisted that I needed that much peanut butter for the calories. The next morning for breakfast before my forestry field trip (to be described in the next post) I ate a bowl of cornflakes with no milk and some cheese that was fair game as it was left by one of the old flatties a month ago which was rapidly going bad (or good for those stinky cheese types out there). For lunch I packed a peanut butter sandwich on the ends of my flatmate Alice's bread. She often throws the ends out so I figured she'd spare them to me. Anyway, when I got back from the field trip I went food shopping, something I really needed to have done about four days prior.

Another thing I accomplished was the replacement of a tube on my bicycle after a ride in which I had a few new experiences. We have something called a "secure bike lockup" on campus here in a couple locations. I found out that there is a bike pump in each lockup for student use and I pumped up my tires so that I could go for a bit of a ride.

I headed out to cruise around but realized quickly it was not a fantastic day for cycling. There were wind gusts of what must have been 40 or 50 mph hitting me straight on. It felt like I was peddling up some huge hill. I stuck with it for a while figuring it was a decent workout but made a turn after a few minutes. I then went what felt like the fastest I had ever gone on a bicycle. You see, I'd never had a proper road bike. I had these huge winds hitting me directly on my back, and I was in the highest gear on my ten speed. I was shocked at the speed I attained considering I was riding on a completely flat road. I'm actually a bit scared to find out what it is like to take this bike downhill!

As I got closer to home and slowed I heard a tapping noise a few times and then a huge pow. I'd blown out my rear tire's tube. I walked over to the bike shop and picked up a new tube. After a couple days I got my bike back in shape and now I'm ready to ride!

It is amazing how much one can get out of even the simplest of things. I love having new experiences and on this simple bike ride I managed to have three! I'd never before biked into a wind that nearly spun me around, never before gone as fast on a cycle as I did on that ride, and never before heard a bike tube explode. Cool.

In the evenings I spent lots of time relaxing with my flatmates and other friends I've made here. I met quite a few new people who Rich had over to hang out. One night I went with Rich, Harry, and Katie out to a couple of Christchurch's beaches to check them out. Harry, Rich's friend, was nice enough to drive us around. The beaches were lovely and we managed not to get into too much trouble though I was warned by Jasmine that beaches are not a good place to go at night; "People who go to the beach at night get killed," she said in the plainest voice. She was pleased we made it back alive.

Here's a picture of Sumner Beach. It was a bit dark when I was there so I didn't take any photos.

This one is from: http://www.gunyah.co.nz/images/photos-lg/large/sumner.jpg

We also went to Taylors Mistake. Here it is:

This one is from: http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/NewZealand/Cities/Christchurch/index.html

I can't wait to take my bike down to the beach with the sun up. I can imagine it will be a totally different experience under the sun with the alps visibly in the distance.