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Gondolas, Earthquakes and Beaches, Oh My!

Monday January 22, 2018

On Friday some of the Canadians and I took a hike up or took a gondola (cable car) up Mount Cavendish located near Port Hills. The majority of the Canadians decided to hike up the steep Bridal Path to the top of Mount Cavendish. I, on the other hand, took one look of the mountain and realized I was not in shape  enough for that and took the gondola for $28.00 NZ (return trip). At the top of the mountain is a viewing deck and café. If you look West you can see Christchurch.  To the South and East there are views of Banks Peninsula, Lake Ellesmere and Lyttelton Harbor. I’m hoping by the end of my year in New Zealand to be able to hike up the mountain.
Mount Cavendish

Me and Lyttelton Harbour

Lyttelton Harbour

That night around 12:35 am I felt my first Christchurch earthquake. I was lying in bed looking at my phone and it shook the whole building. It only lasted for a couple of seconds. Michelle (my newest roommate) messaged me, “What was that?” Me, “I think it was an earthquake.” Sure enough it was a magnitude 4 earthquake. If you go to this website you can keep track of the earthquakes in Christchurch: www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/recent

This is a poster on the back of my residence door

Saturday morning I went to Sumner Beach which is an hour’s car ride from Christchurch. We were there from 10:30am-4pm. I love swimming but the waves were very rough and there were small crabs that pinched your feet when you stood up in the water. It didn’t hurt that much but it was a bit startling at first. I hiked down the beach where there were a lot of owners playing fetch with their dogs.
There are some nice cafes near Sumner beach and I went into get a cold drink and lunch. Also, I just wanted to get out of the sun because it was frying me alive! I ate my meal slowly so they wouldn’t make me leave right away. Then I returned to the beach for more swimming and started to get to know some of the others in my program better.
On Sunday, we celebrated Carly’s birthday with a potluck in the common room. Carly is a vegan so I made two small vegan pizzas for her. She told me it was the best vegan pizza she had ever had, so that made me feel really good.
Today, I didn’t do too much. I was invited out by three girls from Cornwall and we all talked about how spread out Christchurch is. There aren’t too many stores or restaurants clustered in a main area of the city. They are all scattered across the city. It would definitely be handier to have a car for getting around.

One of my goals for my time in New Zealand is to get in the best shape of my life and eat healthy food. So far I have been getting a lot of exercise by just walking around Christchurch. I’m back to making zucchini noodles instead of eating pasta. I’m hoping exercise can be an outlet for any stress around studying and being so far from home. I really want to get back into running and it looks like there are some beautiful parks and gardens to run in here.

Keep Shining Bright,

Nora 

Comments

  1. jbomm27 January 2018 at 19:04

    What a PERFECT spot to start running again! Sounds beautiful, but REALLY hot. I know that can be tough on us whities... so I feel you trying to elongate your lunch break to hide out from the sun for a while LOL.... make sure you wear sunscreen 24/7!!!! PS. I think you'll climb that mountain sooner than you think :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown31 January 2018 at 03:03

      Hi Jess,
      I put sunscreen on everyday and wear a big funny hat. Many of the other Canadians have some severe sunburns.

      Delete

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