This weekend was a little more relaxed in terms travel. So far I’ve been going somewhere every weekend, and sometimes even in between. Saturday was spent as a study day, and on Sunday I went to explore Godley Head park with Heiko and Kristina. It’s just past Taylor’s Mistake, so we got to see that area again as well.
When I was still in Canada looking at coming to Christchurch, everyone said that Christchurch is a city that has the feel of a small town. So far I think that’s proven pretty true. There are about 400,000 people in the city, but everyone is really nice and friendly. As we were walking up the hill for example, a lady pulled over and asked if we were headed to Taylor’s Mistake and if we wanted a ride. “There are easier ways of getting there than what you’re doing.” So she brought us to the beginning of the trail, where she was also headed. And earlier that day, Heiko missed the bus that Kristina and I were on. A man saw him running after the bus and pulled over to ask if he needed a ride to the city centre, since that’s where he was headed anyway.
Things like that would just not happen in Alberta.
The rest of the day was pretty chill. We walked around Godley Head from Taylor’s Mistake to Breeze Bay (for those of you who like maps, http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/trck24349/Godley%20Head%20Walkway/Canterbury ) and we saw the remnants of one of New Zealand’s coastal defense areas for WWII.
The rest of it was just lots of beautiful scenery.
Sheep!
That’s about it for Godley Head. Once again I’m going to insist on telling you how wonderful it is to live in Christchurch, less than an hour’s bus ride from cool places such as this. 🙂
Now for some tales about New Zealand. So far I’ve been only blogging about my adventures in the bush, but there’s lots to say about living here too. I don’t think I had much culture shock – although I did get a little bit homesick in the beginning. I’m over that now, thanks mainly to the start of school and the making of friends. And the travelling with the friends. Living here is great. The university campus is pretty, although not as big as the UofA. The tallest building on campus is the James Height Library with its eleven floors.
It’s a great view to have while procra—I mean studying.
Palm trees grow here and there, which was weird at first, but I’m starting to get used to it. The first time I went exploring in the Ilam Gardens though, I walked off the path to ogle at this huge palm tree that was growing by the side of the stream. Two kiwis who were sitting down watched me for a minute, before one guy called out, “What are you doing?” I had to explain that palm trees don’t grow where I’m from, so that I was just taking a closer look, and being a bit weird… “Being Canadian,” he said understandingly. (facepalm)
Oh, and the people here are called Kiwis, as you might imagine from me calling them such. The fruit is called kiwifruit, and the bird is called kiwibird, and the people are called kiwis.
The temperature isn’t that cold, once I got over the shock of coming directly from summer. Everyone says that it’s a mild winter and it should be colder than this though.
I did feel an earthquake already – it was maybe the second Saturday after I got here. I was lying in bed and realized that things were shaking. It ended pretty quickly, maybe after 15 seconds, and it was a pretty gentle shaking. I probably would have slept through it, if I’d been asleep when it started. My roommate Kristina also said she felt it, so I know it’s not just my imagination.
Some other things that I’ve learnt so far:
– Aotearoa is the Maori word for New Zealand. Literally it means “the land of the long white cloud.” It’s being used more and more, even by Pakeha (non-Maori people) instead of “New Zealand.”
– People here love longboards. Bikes are all over, but so are longboards. I guess when you never have snow, they’re pretty handy for getting you places faster than walking.
– The standard paper size here is different. It’s about an inch longer from top to bottom, which is really annoying when you brought your own clipboard from Canada so you wouldn’t have to buy one here, and the paper keeps sticking out the bottom and getting crinkled, and it’s annoying… sigh. First world problems.
– Kiwis like to burn couches.
Apparently, the thing to do at parties is to take your old couch outside and burn it. Apparently, sometimes it escalates into a house burning down. O.o (I did go to a houseparty at one point where there was a half-burned couch. And the next day we walked we saw a house on fire, and it was about in the same area…)
– Kiwis often go barefoot.
Everywhere. Outside when it’s a nice day, outside when it’s raining… And if you’re a guy, you also often go in your muscle shirt.
– Kiwis are probably hardier than Canadians when it comes to the cold. Heating is expensive here, as are insulated houses. Most just go without either to save money. Imagine seeing your breath inside your house in winter, and having to wear a tuque and sweater to bed. No thanks. I’ll stick with my nicely heated Canadian buildings, thanks. (Luckily, my room has its own block heater, and good insulation. So I’m fine.)
– Kiwis really like onesies.
All the cool parties are onesie parties. The coolest student clubs sell them. One of the tramping club hikes that I’m going on is called “Bushball,” where everyone hikes in, changes into their onesie, and gets tipsy off the keg that we will also bring in.
Some kiwi slang:
– Pakeha
– sweet as.
“as” is used as an intensifier. For example, we would say “sweet,” and they would say, “sweet as.” (Not “sweet ass,” like I thought I heard the first time.) chilly as, hot as, etc.
– they also shorten everything. Examples: cuzzies = cousins. Rellies = relatives. Flattie = flatmate. Sunnies = sunglasses. Prezzie = present. Uni = university.
– cheers (it means thank you, goodbye, you’re welcome, etc.) you can even shorten it to just “chur”
– dairy = convenience store
– Jandals = flip flops. (the Australians call them thongs)
– “Kia ora” means hello in Maori, but it’s used commonly in English as well.
– knackered = not doing so well (person? tired. thing? broken)
– togs = bathing suit
– Tomato sauce = ketchup. (Did I tell you about the pizza? Oh yes I did.)
– chilly bin = cooler
– I’m gonna go have me a feed = I’m gonna go eat
– “How’re you going” is correct, and “how’re you doing” is not. (don’t be surprised when I come back to Canada saying this)
– Chips = fries
– Pissed = drunk (not angry)
– Crunk = crazy drunk (I even saw this on a billboard sign advertisment for a cell phone company… it was something about “crunk texting.”)
– Yeah-nah = Yeah. No. (as in, “Yeah. No, I agree, I don’t like [X] either.”)
– Muesli = granola. Although the Europeans also use the word muesli, so technically it’s not really just a kiwi slang.
There’s so much more, but those are the ones that stand out so far.
One last thing I will rant about is this: Canada is a mess when it comes to measurement systems.
I find myself hanging out with a few Americans as well as other nationalities, so we’re constantly trying to convert back and forth between metric and imperial to figure out what is what. Turns out though, that Canadians use almost everything (at least I do), but not everywhere. Like I said, it’s a mess.
For example:
– We use kg and grams to weigh food in the store… but lbs to weigh ourselves. (I haven’t got a clue what I am in kg…)
– We use metres to say how much elevation gain you’ve hiked, or to measure how tall a building is… but we use feet and inches to measure our personal height.
– We use Celsius for temperatures… but every oven that I’ve used is in Farenheight. My Grandma’s house thermostat is only in Farenheight too.
– We use both km and miles to measure distances. (although miles usually only come in for short distances)
– We use acres to measure small land areas, and km2 to measure bigger land areas.
– We use ml and litres to measure liquids, but teaspoons and cups to measure out things for recipes. I’ve also had to use ounces, gallons, and pints before.
– … and last of all, we use both the 12 hour clock and the 24 hour clock… if you’re French Canadian of course 😉
Although this mix of stuff may sound pretty normal for any Canadian, it’s actually really weird. Just when you think you’re good in one system, (like metric, because you’re talking in kilometres with the Europeans), someone asks a question like, “how tall are you?” and you realize that you really don’t use the metric system as consistently as you thought you did, because you have no idea how many centimetres tall you are. Or you think that it’s totally normal to know that one litre is made up of 4 cups, and that a cup is 250ml, but then everyone who isn’t American or Canadian blinks at you and asks how much that is when you say “measure one cup.” Or when you’re talking to an American and they start converting feet into metres for you, because they’re so used to having to convert measurements for people, but you reassure them that you know what they’re talking about. Because we use feet too.
The one thing I can say that I consistently do not use is mph. (miles per hour)
Whew. At least there’s one thing.
(Oh, and I guess shoe sizes are always the same in Canada. That’s nice. Here in NZ it seems they usually know US, UK and European sizing)
New Zealand Travel 