Lazy days and school start

We've had a couple nice days with trips to the beach and the park the last week. We also stopped by school to get some information and to get formal stuff in order. Here are some pictures of the lazy days:

Can't say I miss winter right now!!

We also went to Innvercargill and Bluff on Friday, and it was really nice to be back on the road again, if only for one day. 

Crazy colored houses!

We only stayed for 30 sec, because we were eaten alive! Got 5 bites in that time!! Horrible place... 

It's important to do pit-stops along the road too.

Today, Monday, school finally started, and I got a great first impression of the two classes I had today. Food science is going to be great fun, and Child Development was very familiar and builds on the knowledge I have from HiL. Finally got to talk to someone that I don't know and that only talks English, so I'm looking forward to getting to know my classmates better.

After the students took over the city, the parties have taken over and there is a lot of noise and bad behavior due to alcohol. Our poor car have felt that... The radio antenna is bent down horizontally, and someone have been walking on the car roof (yes there was footprints) and dented it. We managed to straighten it out again, but we are afraid that this is not the last time..

Lovely day down at Sandfly Beach!

We went down in hope of getting a glimpse of some yellow-eyed penguins, but it got to windy and cold, so we didn't stay that long. But even if we didn't see the cute little penguins there was three sea lions sunbathing on the rocks. We were amazed at how good their camouflage is, if they didn't move, they looked like dead rocks!

The view from the top of the hill.

Had a fun time running down the steep sand hill!

Our footprints, Geir to the left, me to the right (looks the same size though!!!).

Down at the long beautiful beach. 

Trying to run from the waves, but not fast enough.. 

School start is coming closer..

This week Geirs friend from his class joined us in Dunedin, so now there are three of us. He doesn't live fare from our apartment, so we went to see how he lives. He is staying with 4 other people, and it was really nice to meet them!

We finished course approval on Friday, and had planned to get our student ID's the same day, but we were to late, and the line was closed when we got there. We need the ID's to get into the gym for free, but now we have to wait til Monday.

During course approval I had to do some changes to the courses I'm taking this semester. And I'm still not sure about one of the courses, so I might change that too. But I have started buying textbooks for one of my courses - Child Development, so now its starting to feel like I'm down here for a reason, and not just a long lovely holiday.

Next week Geir is FINALLY taking the exam - with the discount or not. So either Tuesday or Wednesday we are driving to Invercargill, and while we are down there we want to visit Bluff - the southernmost tip of the main land here. Looking forward to getting back on the road again, even if it is just for a day.

The weather has been a bit gray and cold lately, but now it looks like we are getting some sunny days, so it is time to go to the beach again :D

Eventful weekend

This has been an eventful weekend, some good, and some not so good. On Friday, like I in my last blog post  we went to Tunnel Beach, which was lovely! Yesterday (Saturday) there was an annual market in the town center that we had to check out. Walked around and just had a good time in the nice weather, though there was a lot of junk they were selling there was also some very nice stuff.

Today the Chines new year was celebrated, and there was a parade and stuff, so we decided to go and check that out too.

Here is a picture of the dragon from the parade. 

After the parade there was some entertainment down at the chines garden, but this was really disappointing, so we just bought some food and left.

Next week we hope that Geir can finally get to take his exam!! Stupid system! And course approval starts this Friday, so now we will soon be students. Yahoo!

Tunnel Beach

Hi!

Today (friday 8th february) we went to this beautiful place called Tunnel Beach! We are totally going back. Here are some pictures from today :)

Nice walk down to this spectacular place, but I chose wrong footwear - my flip-flops, so not so comfortable on the way down!

On top of the Tunnel stone.

We walked down to that beach to the right on the picture above, and down there we stayed for a little while. Got to see some sea animals today too. Luckily it was not a giant sea lion that wanted to chase us this time, but a cute little seal.

Geir is testing his luck, and had to climb to all the scary edges!

Perfect weekend, almost..

Friday was spent at Forsyth Barr Stadium where we watched Ride the Rhythm horse show. It was a big event where famous riders from Australia came to compete. Since we don't know to much about this sport we didn't understand everything, but I thought it was a good way to spend a friday!

The wall just got higher and higher throughout the competition, 2,05m was the highest!! CRAZY!

Yesterday (saturday) the plan was to make chocolate chip cookies as evening snack..  but that project totaly failed! The dough looked (and tasted) very nice, but when I put then in the oven to bake, they did not melt down, and they just stayed the same shape as the way I put them in.. When they were finish they tasted like shit... not good at all actually.. So disappointed.

As you can see we didn't even finish the ones we startet to eat ether..

Today we have had a perfect sunday! Woke up late, ate a good breakfast, and decided we wanted to bring our books to a café (I'm currently reading Shadow of Night, the second book in the A Discovery of Witches series). After a cup of not so good coffee we walked further and I ended up buying some clothes (the stores are open on sundays here, yay!). When we came to the Octagon (the city center) we went to an Irish tavern and had som delicious soup and just enjoyed listening to live music and relaxing. So, for me this has been a perfect relaxing sunday..

 About next week and Geirs CCNA exam, he has chosen to postpone it a bit, because he is getting a discount voucher, but there is alot of trouble to get this right.. and the discount is for 58%, so he really wants this to okay before he takes the test, which I can totaly understand - 58% = ca 900 NOK !! So no Jail accomodation or Christchurch after all. Maybe later :)