The Great Kiwi Beer Festival & The LU Rec Center

I'm just combining two posts into one here :)

I went to the Great Kiwi Beer Festival (let's just call it the GKBF) in Christchurch yesterday which was super fun. There were 40 different booths selling beer and cider, and that's not even including the multiple beer gardens and food stands. I only got cider, but I don't really like beer. The stands I went to (and cider I got) were British Beer & Cider (Honey Milford Cider), Harrington's Breweries (Brotherhood Cider Three Berries), Mike's Organic Brewery (mike's Wicked Cider), Mussel Inn (Freckled Frog Feijoa cider), Old Mout Cider (Passionfruit & Cider), Sprig and Fern Brewery (Berry Cider), and Tuatara Brewery (Zeffer Cider). I know it sounds like a lot of drinks, but they were all $3 tastings. My favourite was actually one that my friend Erin tried at Old Mout Cider. She got a really good Boysencider. My least favourite was the Mussel Inn cider (what the heck is feijoa?!) which tasted like a mix of beer and cider. Of the beers I tried sips of, my favourite was from British Beer & Cider and it was a dark smoky beer.

There was loud music, and everyone there was mid/upper 20's and older (probably because the young crowd can't afford it;)). We got this AMAZING food for lunch from a booth called Flavours of Europe. It was a "potato cake with Manuka-smoked honey cured bacon, cheese, sour cream, and a cheeky dash of sweet chili sauce". Seriously the greatest thing ever. That might because we're used to tasteless NZ dining hall food, but it was to die for <3 Overall I had a fantastic time!! It was pretty pricey, but a lot of fun :) Here are our pictures!

Me (Washington, USA), Peter (Germany), Erin (Minnesota, USA)

Our awesome new shirts :)

The gym here is weird because you have to pay for a membership, but all the classes are free. So that's been super nice once I paid the $85 fee! They do all of the BodyPump, BodyVive, etc. classes, so it's a good variety. Our schedule for gym classes goes like this:

Monday - BodyBalance at 7pm (yoga + strength)

Tuesday - BodyCombat at 6pm (combo of karate/boxing/tai chi, etc.)

Wednesday - BodyBalance at noon

Thursday - BodyVive at 6pm (Zumba but more workout-y) OR RPM/cycling at 7pm

Friday - Zumba at 5

Saturday - free day :)

Sunday - BodyCombat at 3:30pm unless we're out adventuring

I once tried a 6am cycling/RPM class. Never again. Hahaha. So it's been awesome getting a good variety for workouts, especially for one who hates running! It also helps when you have awesome gym buddies to go with. So shout out to Holly and Erin for that :)

Class Style in NZ & Random Updates

Classes here are SO HARD. Not because there's a bunch of work, but because there is absolutely no structure. Our grades consist of maybe 3 projects, and 1-2 tests. And that's it. So we basically don't have homework, then out of nowhere we have a giant project due! The biggest problem is that our rubrics for projects are ridiculously vague. Or the teacher will add something right before it's due. So communication is definitely an issue, but we are much more independent here! It'll be weird to go home and actually have homework and tests every week. :) Oh, and 50% is a C, 60% a B, and 70%-100% is an A. The problem is, the class average on everything I've done so far is like a 55%. My first test, the highest grade was an 85%. Crazy!! Hopefully I can pass all my classes...

UPDATES:

I have fallen in love with cider. And wine is growing on me...but beer is still terrible. So that's exciting? Luckily I live in states where cider making is pretty popular :)

I finally joined the gym (for $85), and have a lovely fitness schedule with some ladies in my pod! We do a class every day Monday-Friday. They teach BodyPump/BodyVive/BodyCombat etc., and some others, so we're trying a bunch of stuff out.

Our two week break is coming up!!! April 2nd-April 19th :) We're going to Auckland, Cathedral Cove, Hobbiton, Waitomo glow worm caves, Lake Taupo (skydiving), Tongariro Alpine Crossing, Wellington, Queenstown, and Milford Sound. So it's going to be packed, but we're renting a car which will be super nice. SO PUMPED!

Joined Christian Fellowship (club), their bible study, and found a church I like and go to with my pod-mates!

Went to my first ever rugby game!! Go Crusaders!

Also went and saw Cinderella in theaters which was SO CUTE OMG. Highly recommend it <3

This Saturday I'm going to the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Christchurch, so that should be fun! I'm also going to make a caramel apple pie, and my friend Lizzie and I are going to make Harry Potter cocktails.

That's it for me! Weather is getting cooler, and leaves are changing colours! Pretty strange that it's going to be fall for Easter :)

Lake Tekapo & Mt. Cook

This weekend we had a FABULOUS weekend camping adventure!! There were five cars packed with (mostly) international students heading out to Lake Tekapo for hiking and camping. My car left first, and we had another car following us, we were planning on meeting the other three cars there (it was a three hour drive). Well our driver, Richard, got the highways mixed up and we somehow ended up at Lake Coleridge instead, which is northwest, when we wanted to go southwest. So after that nice three hour detour, it took us another three hours or so to get to Lake Tekapo! Here's Lake Coleridge:

Well when we got to Lake Tekapo it was already 4:00 or so, so we decided to camp by the lake instead of hiking up to the campground. We ended up with two of the cars, the third was who-knows-where. In total there were close to 20 of us hiking at the lake. We went swimming in the world's clearest water (even though it was freezing!) and I got to play around with my GoPro some more :)

Carl - Norway

Me, Haley, and Sydney (WA, WI, CA)

As we ate dinner we got to watch the sunset which was BEAUTIFUL.

Then the stars came out which were absolutely unreal. I'll post a photo of what they looked like, but we didn't take this. You clearly see the ENTIRE Milky Way, and the tents were silhouetted, and it was unforgettable. All 20 of us, representing seven? different countries, watching the stars for hours.

Photo credit: Derek Rowley

Most of the crew! Photo cred to Carl

Photo cred: Carl. Probably the best shot we got :)

Then it got super freezing cold, and since Holly and I don't have tents yet, we spent the night huddled under two blankets, freezing our butts off. Most people slept outside with their sleeping bags in a big pile, but that wasn't going to happen for us hahaha. We all woke up before the sunrise and got to watch the sunrise together.

We were out of camp by 9:30 and headed off to Mt. Cook, stopping by Lake Pukaki on the way.

At Mt. Cook we did a short walk/hike to Hooker Lake, which was gorgeous. Very Lord of the Rings-y. :) It took us about two hours total walking there and back, but we spent quite some time at the glacial lake. The Norwegians, Yoka (Denmark), and Jack (USA) all went swimming, but they're crazy.

Driving up to Mt. Cook

Hooker Lake

A view on our hike <3

The squad!

I had an absolutely incredible weekend, definitely my favourite thus far!! Even though I got no sleep, it was SO COOL. And all the people are fantastic, here we all are!

Left to right (ish): Jacob (NY, USA), Lauren (CO, USA), Sverre (Norway), Clem (France), Richard (CA, USA & Taiwan), Tasia (Canada), Holly (NH, USA), Carl (Norway), Lisa (Germany), Hakon (Norway), and me in front (WA, USA)! Not featured: Ahmed (Egypt), Caleb (CO, USA), Haley (WI, USA), and Sydney (CA, USA)

Check out my video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydhnW0oUje0

ALL PHOTOS BY ME UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

Dunedin

So this weekend I got to travel down to Dunedin and spend some time there. We took NakedBus from Christchurch down to Dunedin, and it was about a 6 hour drive. We took a break in Ashburton and in Oamaru, so that was nice to kind of break up the trip. We left Lincoln at 6:20am on Saturday morning, left Christchurch at 8am, and got into Dunedin at 2pm. Dunedin is like the San Francisco of New Zealand, so it took us like 30 minutes of walking (all STRAIGHT uphill) to get to our hostel. We stayed at Pavlova Palace, and everyone was super cool there! Every single person was like from Germany. Well after we put our stuff down we walked into town and took a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, which was super cool!! They have the largest chocolate fountain in the southern hemisphere, so that's pretty cool. We also got a bunch of free chocolate, including liquid chocolate samples (TO DIE FOR). It was a 45 minute tour, and I'll include some photos below.

These are all chocolate bars!

After Cadbury we just walked around town, admiring all of the super cool architecture!! Most were old churches still being used, but they were all incredible.

When we got tired of walking we found our dinner spot, a delicious Irish place called the Craic Irish Tavern, got some drinks, and shared some Guinness stew pot pie for dinner <3 

We were pretty tired after all of that so we decided to go back to the hostel where we met some pretty cool Germans, and a very lovable cat. We named it "Little Nugget".

The next morning we got breakfast at this AMAZING little hole in the wall cafe, I got a homemade bacon muffin, and freshly squeezed pear-mint juice. Oh, and scrambled eggs. Absolutely incredible.

We stopped by the park after breakfast to enjoy the sunshine and relax a bit before our long ride home.

We boarded the bus at 2:20pm, got into Christchurch around 8:20pm, and got back home in bed around 10pm. It was an incredible weekend, and I had the awesome company of my friends Lizzie (from Oregon, goes to University of Idaho), and Amanda (from Colorado, goes to Colorado State University).

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYUv-aNtO_M&index=2&list=PLzU_b2847hsr8MHsS1AqrDGFvdBSYNrt9

The Night Life

New Zealand has a drinking age of 18, so they have a very big night life, and very different from the States. I am 20, so I'm not legal in the States, and I'm also not a big partier so these observations are based on my very limited observations!

In the States people party mostly on the weekends, like Thursday-Saturday were the big party nights, and people don't start drinking til like 8pm, come home around 2am. Also, since we were all underage, parties were held at houses and apartments. Oh, and no drinking on campus. Here in New Zealand our "drinking hours" on campus are from 5:30pm to 9pm, so people start drinking at 5:30pm in their halls, then take it to the bars in and around town. We have two major bars here, one is within walking distance, and it's called the Famous Grouse, and it's the kind of bar that doesn't have dancing. The other one is called the Springer, and it's insane. That's where you go to dance and be crazy, we swung by at 8:30pm and there was a line out the door!! So I've been to the Grouse twice, the first was really quiet, the second was much bigger. They stop serving shots once it gets pretty rowdy (that was only like 9:30pm), and they don't know the same drink names as we have in America. Also, people here party on Wednesdays. Yeah, I know, it makes absolutely no sense.

I've only been to two "parties" here, parties meaning lots of drunk people ;) Not really my scene, but it's been fun ordering different drinks and finding out what I like! I always thought I hated alcohol, but that's because I've only ever tried the bad stuff hahaha. My favorite thing here has been cider, I've tried three different kinds and they've all been very good. I still don't like wine (sorry mom and dad) but I'm working on it, since I have to make my own wine in one of my classes!! Oh and mom and dad, if you're reading this, no I have never been drunk. I like to think I know my limits pretty well!!

Overall I prefer the New Zealand night life, but once I turn 21, I think I'll like the U.S. night life better. Not a big fan of the whole Wednesday night thing, but I MUCH prefer bars to houses!

Grocery Shopping in New Zealand

This is one of the few "culture shocks" I've gotten while here in New Zealand. Groceries are SO EXPENSIVE!! This is mostly because our local grocery store (New World) is a really expensive one, but even when we take the bus to the cheaper on, the dairy products are crazy expensive. You'd think because New Zealand is a huge dairy producer that the dairy products would be cheap, NOPE. I pay like $5NZD (~$3.75USD) for a 1/4 gallon jug of milk (it's in liters, but it's about the size of a 1/4 gallon jug). So here's what my grocery shopping thus far has consisted of:

• Lowfat milk (they don't have completely fat free) 
• Cornflakes, aka the cheapest cereal
• Eggs (they're brown, not white)
• Yoghurt, which is combined with custard? I don't know but it's pretty creamy
• Cheese, crazy expensive. And all white, they don't have yellow cheese like anywhere 
• Apples, all from NZ (gala)
• Big carrots, I don't I've even seen little ones
• Bacon (we're talking like $7 for 10 strips)
• Hard cider (I recently got pear cider and raspberry vanilla cider)
• Rice
• Frozen veggies
• Juice! They have crazy weird flavours here, stuff like kiwi and aloe vera. 
• I tried hot chocolate, but it's not very good so that won't happen again...
• Bread - I get the kind with seeds, but it's all pretty white bread here, I haven't seen any whole wheat?
• Peanut butter - mine sticks to my mouth really bad. Probably because they don't add salt and oil ;)
• Jam
• Margarine
• Miscellaneous stuff depending on the trip!

Thus far (on the whole 3 trips) I've spend about $45NZD, or $35USD per trip. Sometimes more or less, but it's pretty pricey here. For some odd reason I can't stop eating apples? I've been having like 3 a day. So that't strange hahaha. Food in the dining hall is pretty horrible, but the grocery food is decent. Personally I prefer shopping in the States because we have a bigger variety, and it's much more affordable, but they have very quality food here! I haven't really done any cooking so far, ingredients are just so pricey. I did try making oven baked drumsticks, but our oven is in celsius, which I forgot, and they didn't quite turn out ;)