Finally, we arrived home. It has been a very long and enjoyable trip. I would like to make this final blog post about what I enjoyed over this 4 1/2 month trip.

One of the most enjoyable experiences I had while being in New Zealand was the road trips we took. I don’t have a specific road trip I like over the other. They both had different experiences and highs and lows. I especially liked the trip to the most Southern point of New Zealand. I liked that road trip so much because along the way to Invercargill it had things that I could never see in any other country. For example, the huge steep fiords were a once in a lifetime opportunity to see.

One of the next best things about the trip was just going to school in a new country. There were many many differences between New Zealand schools and U.S schools. For starters, just about every school in the country wears school uniforms, where as no public school in the U.S requires a uniform. I also enjoyed the break from all the hard work. The New Zealand school’s work seemed much easier than what we had been working on in America. I can also say that I am the first person in the Salvesen family that has done a sabbatical!

One of the last things I will be addressing in this final blog post is how the whole experience has affected me. I think this experience has only given me positive times throughout the trip. I now have a feeling for what high school is like. I also know what it is like for the millions of people who ride busses every day instead of driving cars.

Thank you for reading this blog over the past 5 months, I hope you have enjoyed reading all the posts about my daily life in New Zealand. 

Thanks

        -Gabriel

This week is my last week of vacation. Soon we head back to California. My dad was out of town so my mom and I decoded to go to the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. We rented a car to get to the fairy at Picton. The waters between North and South island are supposed to be some of the most dangerous waters in the world. Luckily the ride was smooth all the way. 

BEST PLACE EVER!

Wellington is much bigger than I expected. It is a dense city with lots of skyscrapers. On the first night there we didn’t do much. We checked into our hotel at around 7 PM. We then left the hotel to go find some dinner. We strolled around a street called Cuba Street. It was almost 100% restaurants. We finally found a burger place called, Burger Fuel. Little did I know, I would become obsessed with this place. The burgers were too big. They were the best food I have ever eaten. They had creative ways of eating them. It was a 60's decor theme.

After we rolled back to the hotel my mom found something very disturbing in our room. She saw bugs crawling around on the curtains. She googled them and found out they were large bed bugs. She immediately started looking for a new hotel. By the time we packed up it was 10 at night. We left the manager a note on the front desk and left for a new hotel. Thank god the new hotel didn’t have bugs crawling around.

School is out! Finally, term 1 is over. I get a 2 week break until term 2 starts up. Term 1 has gone very well. Like I said in earlier posts, school has been easy. I have made lots new friends and have gotten to know people. What I liked the best so far, school wise, is how easy the homework and class work has been. Another good thing is that the teachers at this school are incredibly helpful Just like at my old school.

 We haven't done much since my last post. So far most of my vacation has been nothing special except a play we went to last night. The play was called “The Women”. It was about a group of women (obviously) that were living a rich life style. The play was set in the mid 1940’s. The play talked about how the women’s friendships were slowly decaying. My ears rang after hearing all of the screaming.

Tomorrow is Anzac Day. A New Zealand and Australia national holiday that celebrates the army veterans who have defended the 2  countries. It is a lot like our Veterans Day. I will report back after the holiday.

Slope Point

Our Epic Easter road trip days  5-6

Today we conquered the Catlins (not the Catalans).  The Catlins is a region in between Invercargill and  Balclutha. We drove from scene to scene. One of the first places we went to was “Slope Point”, the furthest most southern tip of New Zealand. This would be the farthest south everyone in my family would have ever gone. Since the storm over the night in Invercargill was so strong, it brought over super high winds on “Slope Point”. It got very cold as we walked to the edge of New Zealand, the winds were almost knocking us over. After Slope point we took a small drive over to a short hike. There we hiked to go see some small waterfalls. We also ate lunch at the trail entrance. While driving to Dunedin we saw a hitch hiker. My dad decided to pick him up. He told us he had to hitch hike to town because he sometimes has seizures that legally make him unable to drive. We learned he was a fisherman in the small town of Balclutha. After we let him off we had dinner in the small town. Then we drove to Dunedin and arrived late at night.

 Moeraki Boulders 

Baldwin St (worlds steepest street)

In the morning we walked down to a cafe to have breakfast. After breakfast we visited the local Dunedin museum. We learned lots of information about Dunedin. The next museum we went to was the Cadbury Chocolate Museum. There we got lots of free chocolate and we watched several hundred gallons of melted chocolate fall into processing units. I don’t think I ate chocolate for several days after that museum. My mom took advantage of the fact that the chocolate was 1/2 price and stocked up on chocolate. The last thing we did in Dunedin was climb the steepest road in the world! I begged my dad not to drive it as I would have a heart attack half way up. My mom and I braved the road and climbed most of the way up. Believe it or not, many people have houses on the street and drive up it! We left Dunedin later in the afternoon. On the way back to Christchurch we stopped and saw some completely round boulders. It was really strange seeing boulders, completely round in the middle of a sandy beach. Most of them were cracked open and mostly hollow. My dad then made the conclusion that the boulders were slowly being eroded out of the nearby cliff. After we left the unusual rocks we drove to see some more penguins. We stayed in the area for a good 10-15 minutes then gave up. Just as we were heading up the hill, some people pointed out that there was one, lone penguin hopping down on the sand. That was about it for the penguins this trip.

Our epic road trip Day 3-4

Kepler Track

On day 3 we woke up extra early and took a walk on the Kepler Track. The Kepler Track is a path that goes through a rainforest along a river back. The track is 67 km long, but the section we were on takes about 3 and a half hours to complete. We only walked 1/2 way because we stopped to some fishing. We took our fishing rods with us to try and finally catch a New Zealand fish. After 45 minutes or so of walking, we stopped and tried some fishing. We even saw many fish jumping in the water. We fished for around 1 hour then we gave up. On the walk back to the car we saw huge fish just sitting in the shallow water. It made us so angry. The reason we couldn’t get to the fish is that the bank at that point was steep and covered in spiky plants. 

After we finished our walk we hit the road and started driving to Invercargill, near the bottom of the South Island. We stopped on the way there to see some Yellow Eyed penguins. These are supposed to be one of the rarest kinds of penguins alive. Luckily we got to see one, hopping around from rock to rock. Once we got to our hotel we hit the road again to head to to the highest point all around. There my mom took a video of herself saying it was the southern most tip in New Zealand. Unfortunately this turned out not to be true, but you can learn about that in the next blog post. Then we drove back to our hotel. Over the night a huge storm hit.

Our Easter Road Trip Day 1-2.

Last week we began out Easter Holiday road trip. We started our trip. The first day of our trip we took a long drive to the small town called Twizel. That was about it for the first day of our epic road trip. The second day we took a small drive up to a small river. My dad and I started fishing but had no luck. The water here in New Zealand is very light blue colored. My dad thinks the water is so blue from the silt moving around in the water. We have come up with the conclusion that after many days of fishing, New Zealand fish are impossible to catch no matter what. At the end of the day we stayed in a small town on a lake called Te Anau.

Tunnel

Mountains

 The next day we took an amazing drive to a huge fiord. The fiord was called Milford Sound. To get to the fiord we had to take a one way tunnel that had a steep incline. Looking up at the steep mountains was
enough to make you dizzy. I think these sheer rock mountains were probably the best not only in New Zealand, but in the world. But unfortunately no mountain goats, although we saw a heck of a lot of sheep on the way there. At the end of the day we went to a restaurant called the “Fat Duck”. It took us forever to get our meals. My mom and dad were impressed by their food (Green Liped Mussels and Venison salad) , but sadly I wasn’t -_- (Hamburger)

Rugby game

This week was much more exiting than I anticipated it to be. School was normal. Nothing special happening there. This Saturday we went to our first Major League Rugby (Super Rugby) game. We watched the Canterbury Crusaders VS the Souther Kings from South Africa. My dad was in a bit of a knot because he was born very close to the Southern Kings  home town is. In the end he was rooting for the Crusaders. The Crusaders destroyed the Kings 55 to 20. We saw the game in the replacement stadium because the large scale one is being rebuilt due to the earthquake damage. In the upcoming week I get 3 days off of school because of Easter. We are planning another road trip to the other side of the South Island. We don’t know yet what we will do specifically on the road trip but we plan to head to the very southern part of the South Island. 

Rugby game

Today My mom and I went to a local exhibit about “Scott’s last exhibition”. The exhibit was about an explorer named Scott who set off to the South Pole. Little did he know that he would die on this trip. The exhibit was very interesting. The voyage from Wales took 7 months. The team was in Antarctica for 3 years. Scott and 4 others died while getting stuck in the winter of Antarctica. With a large ice patch the ship could not pick them up. They survived many months in an ice cave. They eventually tried to walk back to their home base but died in a blizzard.

This week my dad took a business trip to China over his birthday. We all thought (including him) that he would be miserable on a business trip in China. When he returned we found out he did enjoy himself apart from the pollution. He said that the Chinese people he was staying with him were more than fluent in the English language. He also said that one of the ladies with him had such an American accent you could not tell she has never left China. 

Not only my dad had fun though this week. While he was gone the 2 of us went to a street fair at the local beach town. It was rather strange. It seemed to have no theme. My mom soon discovered a wooden clothes peg on the back of her backpack saying “pass me on”. It took us a while to find the right person to pin it to. We saw a drunk man who seemed very strange. I was moments away from pinning the clothes pin to him when he turned around. We decided that if he found out I did this he wouldn’t be too happy if I bugged him. My mom immediately saw a women in a chicken suit. While my mom used her food talk to distract the chicken I put the wooden clothes peg on it’s tail. Funny enough she didn’t seem to notice.

 The rest of the week was the usual school days, today (Monday) it was very cold and rainy, that means it is a shorts day! We also got are mid-term progress report. I scored reasonably well in every subject. We get a 1 to a 3 for our reports, 3 being good and 1 being bad. I scored a 3 in math, electronics, grammar, French, and history. I scored a 2 in science due to the fact I tend to talk a lot... I scored a 2 in PE because I forgot to bring my uniform 1 day... shame... To my surprise My electronics teacher said I achieve above the teachers expectations... I don't really get this because I have barely said a word to my teacher, I am also starting too think he doesn't know who I am..

Another thing about our road trip. We encountered some sand flies in the West Coast. My dad an I could feel them biting us while we were fishing. About 2 days later the bites started itching like you would never believe. We are still itching after a week. My dad had thought he brought some kinda of a bug back from China. thanks god the suffering has stopped on day 8

This weekend our school had 2 teacher meeting days so we got Friday and Monday off. For this 4 day weekend my family decided to take a road trip to the West Coast. In school we discussed the West Coast a lot. We talked about how rainy it was. I have to say I don’t think it is the rainiest place in NZ... The skies were blue everyday and getting very hot. I pictured the West Coast as more England’s weather.. I was very very wrong. The West Coast is very tropical. The plants and terrain change a great deal. It gets very humid out there. While we were in the West Coast we took a tubing trip out on a local river. Since the West Coast hadn’t had rain in 7 weeks the rivers were VERY low. It seems that us Californians bring drought with us to every river. The tubing trip was fun. They gave us a free zip line ride to make up for the lack of water. I could see the fear in my dad's eyes standing over the cliff edge. After we finished the zip line we got to sit on what was left of the water. The ride was slow but fun.

After we finished tubing we headed into a glow worm cave. The cave was very cold and long. The cave was inhabited by glow worms. The glow worms were not actually worms but maggots. They had silky strings hanging down from them to catch up insects to eat..  We learned that the worms were territorial so they would defend each's property. They also spend months as the maggot then turn into large flies. The flies only live for about 2 days max...

The next day we tried to go find an area to fish. It took us forever to find a good place. All of the rivers (if they had water in them) were stone covered and we kept getting our lines stuck in the rocks. In the end we didn’t get to catch anything. Instead we decided to skip stones. I beat my dad's record of 12 skips while I got 15!  

The next day we took a nice walk through a path alongside a river. While we were driving we came across New Zealand's largest swinging bridges. It didn't look very far though... The walk across it was great. My mom decided to walk both ways while I took a zip line on the way back. After that we did nothing except drive back to Christchurch and stop at the occasional rest area. This weekend had lots of adventures and we hope to do another road trip all the way around the south island.

After my cousins and aunts left, things around here have a gotten a lot quieter. School seems to be flying by. More than 1 month has passed by since we have arrived.. The trip seems to be going much much faster than I predicted. Everything school-wise has been going great. On Saturday my family went to see my dad’s work host, Mark, play cricket. It got a little boring not knowing what was happening, although my dad tried to explain it to me and Mark was scoring over 50 runs. Later  that day we headed down to the mall to watch a New Zealand movie. The movie was a bit weird. After we started to exit the mall we heard the sound of motor cycles. We then saw a ton of people crowding around a 75 foot jump. We stayed in the mall parking lot for a while watching 3 dirt bikers doing 70-80 foot high jumps. Some of them did tricks like backflips while some drove through jets shooting out fire. The show went on for about 1 hour then all of the spectators left. So far this has been the most exiting part of my week. 

I noticed many similarities and differences between New Zealand and California. The weather here is almost exactly like what it would be like in summer back in California. Many of the cars are the same, although they drive on the other side of the road. The hair and clothes styles are a bit different though. It seems that rat tails and mullets are in fashion here, weird...

This weekend has been rather quiet. My mom's side of the family has left back to New York.  One Fun fact about New Zealand is that Christchurch and Florence are on the exact same latitude  as each other (but in different hemispheres). If you could see through Christchurch, you would be able to see Florence, Italy. Italy and New Zealand also have almost exactly the same land area. Now on to what we did this weekend. Today (Sunday) we got to visit the beach side of Christchurch. The beach part of Christchurch is a lot like Encinitas because of the ocean and the weather.

While my family was here we went and did an Adrenaline ropes course that has zip lines, rope bridges, and swings. My cousin and aunt went on it. I have to say that course was the toughest thing physically and mentally I have ever done. The zip lines were the easy part, but everyone had a real problem with climbing over the wire at 13 meters. One of the hardest things about it was that when you were climbing over the single rope the tall skinny trees started swaying making the middle of the rope wobble up and down. When we first got to the course we all gave awkward glances at each other. It was much different than we expected it to be. There was only one supervisor on the sight and the two safety lines you had were all manageable by only you. In America they probably would have someone up in the tree with you at all times. After we left we had planned on going to a play but arrived to late to get in. We decided to go to an improvisation skit. It took us a while to find where it was held. The skits were extremely funny. So far this has been a great long weekend.

My aunt's broken finger x-ray

This week my 2 aunts and cousin visited us here in Christchurch. They have been here for 2 days now. The first 2 weeks of there trip was spent back packing the North and South island. On their trip my aunt nearly fell of the edge of a tall mountain. She broke her finger on the tumble. I get to skip 2 days of school this week so I can spend some time with my mothers side of the family. We plan to visit Quake City, a simulation of the earthquake that destroyed the city back in 2011. We also plan to go fishing this weekend. 

On Tuesday our school had a mufti day which means we don’t have to wear a school uniform. The whole day was spent on the field competing in sports. Our school has 4 houses, Red house, Blue house, Green house, and Yellow house. Each house gets a point when someone wins a sport. In the end my house (Red) won with the mosts points. Some of the sports included an 800 meter race, 100 meter race, long jump, high jump, discus, and shot-put. After the day was over I had a horrible sun burn.

A STROLL THROUGH 2  PARKS

Victoria park /w Christchurch
in the background

On Saturday we went to a Shakespear play called "12th night" in a park called Mona Vail. The park was very English and Hobbit-like. One famous line I learned was "Some are born with greatness, some achieve greatness, while others have greatness thrust upon them". I texted my Aunt Claire, who is traveling around New Zealand right now, and she texted back "keep on thrusting".... go figure!

 Today (Sunday) we took 2 buses up to Victoria Park. The 2nd bus ride was up many many steep hills. The bus clipped a small car on the side of the road, scratching the mirror and denting the side of the bus... Luckily, the bus and the car were not damaged too badly, but the bus driver was really shaky after wards. The walk up to Victoria park was long. After that we went to a cafe to get brownies. School has been going very well. All of the classes seem relatively easy and there is not very much homework. I have made several friends in my form class over the past week. Next week we have a day called "sports day". We don't have to wear a uniform to school that day, instead we have to take part in several sports such as, long jump, 100 meter sprint, and a relay race.

The first week of school went very well. I got to my classes on time. Math seems rather easy. We are studying things like square roots, which I have done before. I am struggling in history though. We had a test about New Zealand history and all the questions were asking what was New Zealand's prime ministers. I asked the teacher what to do since I had no clue on who any of the people were. Eventually I had to skip half of the questions. The other classes like English and science went very sooth. In science we made a chemical mixture that changed colors and heated up when we added powder. In graphics class we learned how to draw 3D squares. We used the squares to draw circles within them. The teacher said this was a practice on how to draw circles at different angles, to give perspective to a 3D drawing. Let’s talk about some stuff other than school, shall we? This week on Wednesday there was another 3.8 earthquake. I was playing computers games while my mom was out shopping and felt the jolt. The earthquake lasted about 10-15 seconds. Today on Sunday there was a 3.6 except I slept through it.

Here is the link to the earthquake site in New Zealand 

http://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/felt

My school uniform!!!!!

Today I has my second day of lessons. I first went to my form class. We had English with my Form Teacher. The other basic classes that we are required to take are Science, Math, Social Studies, and PE. Some differences I have noticed are what they call specific names here. For example a form class in America would be called a homeroom. Some of the electives I chose were Digital Technology, Graphics, and French. All the teachers see nice and very helpful. In PE we had to change into our PE uniform and jog a couple laps around the gym. After that we played some games that include Basketball. After the 6th period we al get to go home. Well, the first 2 days of school have gone great so far and I hope they will remain that way.

Today I had my first day of school. The first day wasn't as bad as  I expected it to be. First we had to watch a greeting dance in the hall. The Maori seniors did a Hakka like dance. Then we all divided up into groups, year 9 students, international, and transferring students. I went with the year 10 transferring students. The head uniform director showed us around the school and told us almost everything we had to know. Later in the day we took some online testing to see which classes to place us in. I am sad to say, but the class room needs new computers....windows 2 and word 2004..... -_- After the testing I had to re locate my back pack. Took me a few tries but eventually I found it. After school was out (2:00 for year 10!) My mom and I bought a printer and took the bus home. So far this has been a great introduction to Papanui High School and I will hopefully enjoy the days to come (school.....)

Re:Start mall shop

After the big 2011 earthquake many buildings were unable to be rebuilt. Some of these buildings were shopping centers. Where would the people get their everyday needs? The Re:Start Mall is a very innovative way to design a mall. The mall is completely made out of huge metal storage containers. The mall has a total of 64 shops. It was supposed to be a temporary replacement for a once standing mall, but since it’s opening it has been a huge success. The mall has a very modern feeling which is probably why tons of people and tourists flock to see this one of a kind architectural achievement. Many street performers come to this mall after the buskers festival to gain some more money.

meh in the places

Sign for the Re:Start mall 

Cathedral 2013 (ruined) 

Cathedral 2008 (intact)

Today we took a bus ride around the downtown part of Christchurch. We got to see the full extent of the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. The downtown of Christchurch looks like a ghost town. The “red zone” is blocked off by chain fences and military guards make sure people don’t get in without permission, because the downtown is still a very dangerous place to be. We took a tour bus into the “red zone”. Most buildings did not collapse, instead they took lots of damage in certain places which made them unusable. The year 2013 will become the year of reconstruction in Christchurch. So far they have been clearing out all of of destroyed buildings. In the “clearing” stage they have cleared out around 80% of all structurally unsafe buildings. While taking the tour through the downtown I felt almost as if I was in Universal Studios. In the cafes, plates were still on the very dusty tables. Some still had food on them. The windows had markings spray painted on them stating a search and rescue squad would have been there. My dad and I were very surprised to see the Christ College, a boys private high school, had not taken ant damage. The college is a very medieval looking building that is made up of stone bricks. Later we learned that in the 1990’s the city earthquake-proofed the building due to smaller quakes. The college was built in 1856. One of the worst of buildings was the Cathedral. The famous Christchurch Cathedral is in a court case right now on whether to restore the building or to completely knock it over and restart.

                               Thursday, January 24th

Papanui student

For the past few days I have mostly been shopping for household items. We usually take the bus down to Northlands Mall. On the 23rd I met one of the head Deans at my new school, Papanui High School. We decided that year 10 would be best for my age, although I have to take some tests when I start school. Since Schools start at year 1 here year 10 would be equivalent to 9th grade in Merica’. For sports in the summer I will be participating in tennis and cricket. The day has 6 periods in it. The school is a closed campus except for year 13 (seniors) :(   The basic classes I will be in are, maths, english, history, and science. For electives I can choose 3-6 classes. I still have no idea on what to choose. I will find out when school starts on January 29th.

Chocolate fish!

The foods here in New Zealand are different from Merica’, but similar to England’s food. One odd food is Chocolate fish. The outside of the fish is usually milk chocolate, while the inside is a flavored marshmallow. The chocolate fish has an interesting history. Many years back the chocolate fish was used as legal tender like money! Some other foods that people here eat are fish and chips. There are many of these shops around. They also have all of the fast food Restaurants like KFC and Mc’ Donald's that we have in Merica

New Zealand flag!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

We start our trip on a car ride to LAX international airport on Wednesday the 16th. My dads good friend Scott dropped us off many hours before our flight was supposed to board. We waited in the terminal for hours. Once we heard the announcer state that it was time to board, we waited until everyone was boarded. We had to wait to the last minute because we were flying standby. Eventually 12 people never showed up to the flight so there was 12 extra seats. Due to a weight restriction we were not able to board the plane, even though there were seats available. My dad then had to scramble to book another flight, but the only one going to New Zealand was leaving the next day from San Francisco. We then took a taxi to a hotel. We checked in at 1:30 AM and finished dinner at 2:30AM. 

The next day we rented a car and drove all the way to San Francisco, because we wanted to save some money. The drive took 6 hours. Finally we arrived and got on our new plane. The flight to Aukland took 12 hours 30 minutes After the flight to Aukland, we connected to Christchurch. We rented a hotel for 2 nights, then moved into our apartment!

Sunrise over New Zealand

Auckland Airport

Monday, January 21, 2013

The spire fell off of this church
at the end of our street, during
the big earthquake in 2011

WOW, what an exiting entry to Christchurch. The day after we arrived a 4.7 magnitude earthquake struck knocking stuff off of the walls in stores. After a magnitude 5 earthquake, schools are closed. The downtown of Christchurch is fairly depressing, from the large 7.1 magnitude Earthquake that struck in February of 2011. Almost every stone building has collapsed, including churches, schools, and other areas. We learned from locals that when the huge earthquake was happening water flooded the town from under the ground, creating cracks in the rode. Shortly after the water flooded the streets, silty sand corroded the black top. 

Today our landlord, Peter, took me to see the world wide Buskers festival. If you don’t know what a Busker is I’ll give you a small short example. A Busker is a street performer who creates and does large tricks/ jokes. They don’t have a regular paycheck, instead you are there source of wealth. After the festival, our landlord showed me the downtown. So far New Zealand has been a great experience, along side with the biggest earthquake I have ever been in, and probably the biggest I’ll ever be in again. 

The climate of New Zealand is also a lot like ours, in Encinitas. The summers are about the same temperature, except for the winds. Every day at around 1PM super fast winds pick up and can sometimes push you. My dad looked this up on the web, but sadly couldn’t find anything. Later in the day our landlord explained to use that on the opposite side of the South Island, the winds from the ocean travel up and over the mountains. After they travel over the mountains they come down towards the valley. Eventually they reach Christchurch. The winters here in Christchurch are a little colder than they are in California. The people here say they get about 2 days of snow every winter. The average temperature in winter is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius - they use Celsius here, I will have to get used to it).