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).