All done!!! (Well, sort of)

This afternoon, I submitted my thesis! WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I actually feel a lot less excited than I thought I was gonna feel, probably cos I was always imagining how it would feel whilst having a horrible time in the lab, or whilst stuck in the middle of a difficult bit of the writing. Usually finishing a thesis involves a desperate last-minute dash, not sleeping for the last several nights and handing in just in the nick of time. As it worked out, I managed to get it finished 3 days early (well, that's a lie actually, technically it's 362 days late!) and it was surprisingly close to ready when I gave the first draft to my supervisors, which made this month less stressful. The massive booze-up I'd envisioned, surrounded by all my friends, I can't really be bothered to organise, cos it's a monday so not really a party appropriate night. It's cool though, that'll wait til the weekend and tonight I'm going for pisco sours (I've discovered a bar in town that makes them) and mexican dinner.

Turned into an even better day when Norman passed his warrant of fitness without any work needing to be done. Maybe he just needed the holiday too! My eco-conscious took a bash when the mechanic said that he's getting to be a bit smoky, but he's doing about a million miles a gallon so I don't see how bad it can be. I've seen what they allow here in NZ for smoking, though, and its not pretty. They only take your car off the road if it pumps out smoke continuously for more than 10 seconds - mental. And they claim to be clean and green. One day I'll actually get paid and I'll get a hybrid or summit! In the meantime, I just won't drive much.

Anyway, back to the point - I SUBMITTED MY THESIS!!!!!! All 300 pages of it. I'm sure after the fourth pisco sour it's gonna sink in!

So cute!

We just got back from a weekend away near Akaroa (just an hour from Christchurch, but it feels like its a million miles away) and I thought I'd put up some pictures. We went cos it was my birthday on Friday (I'm now officially in my late twenties!) and Sean had organised for us to go swimming with dolphins. And it was SOOOOOOO much fun! There are hundreds of Hector's dolphins living in Akaroa harbour and they are the worlds smallest and rarest marine dolphin. And they're SO cute! Their markings are really beautiful, with black silver and white - they remind of the McLaren F1 cars when they looked awesome, a few years back. There were loads around us at one point, and they kept flying past us - they're incredibly fast. I had one coming straight towards me and it only diverted at the last minute - I got quite nervous, and I suspect that's what he wanted - they're really playful! Anyway, it was an incredible experience and I've put a couple of photos of it below, plus some others from round Akaroa.

Sun, sand and Christmas!

This year I finally experienced a hot and sunny Christmas by the beach! There was beer, there was bbq and there was sun-burn! We spent two weeks cruising round the north island, seeing a lot of the stuff I still had on my 'to-do-in-NZ' list. We spent 5 days including Christmas on the East Cape, which is a corner of the country which is particularly ignored by tourists and indeed by Kiwis, making it a very pleasant place to spend a relaxing Christmas. The East Cape remains very much a Maori stronghold, and there was a lot of great Maori architecture. In this area the film The Whale Rider was filmed. It has gorgeous beaches, a tropical climate and great scenery, plus friendly people.
Next, we went to the Coromandel for the period between Christmas and new year. What we didn't realise was that for new year the entire of Auckland empties out onto the Coromandel, making it really busy. Was still great though. Then we headed down to Mt Taranaki (or Mt Egmont), which is the second most symmetrical volcano in the world (after Mt Fuji in Japan). We walked a bit of the way up, but didn't climb to the top. Then we headed back down to Wellington, via a short stay in a Yurt (a cool Mongolian version of a tipi, which, it turns out, are quite noisy places to sleep when perched on a hill by the ocean near windy Wellington). We saw Charlie again in Wellington (he came with us for Christmas) and then headed back down to chch. Here's a few photos, with stories, where appropriate.

Christmas day on the beach - and might I add I have IRISH skin - ok?!

An ornately carved marae

Gisborne got hit with a 6.8 earthquake just days before we passed through, and we (plus everyone else in town, it seemed) watched the workers pulling down a big chunk of building, cos part of it had fallen off. The building was too unstable for them to go in, so they had to pull this window/roof off with the curtains still attached!


Pahutakawa tree in full bloom


Mercury Bay


And again.


Cathedral Cove


On the way back from Cathedral Cove


A cool statue of Wairaka, who, according to Maori legend, saved her people from losing their waka (large canoe), with all their belongings after they first landed on the shores of NZ by 'becoming a man' and manoevering the large boat (which girls weren't to handle) single-handedly. Girl power! Those who have seen Once Were Warriors will know that this moment of female emancipation didn't last, but she got an awesome statue at least.


Stormin' Norman proves that he's still stormin' after 270,000 km. Good man!


Here he is again next to Mt Taranaki


Mt Taranaki, the world's second most symmetrical volcano (so I've been told).


I can make no claim to this awesome photo which Sean took of a Tui feeding on the flowers of a flax plant.


Another of Sean's photos of Tui's where you can see their beautiful, but subtle, blue colouring.


This sunset was taken as it set over the sea just north of Wellington on the north island, but as the sun approached the horizon you could see the hills of the south island (Abel Tasman region) silhouetted.

The drive home.