Freaky shit going on round here. Some of my posts that disappeared into blogger blogger land have reappeared. See below to catch up. If anyone in blogger land is listening, I'm not adapting well to the new changes.

Happy Queen's birthday! No Victoria Day here, Kiwis celebrate their current queen (of England, same as us). I don't think today is her actual b-day seeing as in Oz they celebrate it next week or last week or Wednesday or something. But Australians always prove to be difficult. (Kiwi-Aussie relations are highly comparable to Canadian-American).

Speaking of birthdays, happy 75th Grumps! (Not 75? Must be close!) Hope that you're enjoying it to the utmost!

Long weekend, what to do, what to do... Friday I ended up on bus tour. Sounds respectable but bus tour is just another word for pubcrawl. It was with some friends from work and their friends and was an absolute riot. So much fun to be had. It took us to all these dives around the city and for most of the night I had no clue where I was as I don't know the suburbs at all. Another friend from work kept calling to see where we were and meet up with us but I was no help in trying to inform him. Eventually we ended up in the city centre and I was given a proper tour of some of the local haunts uninhabited by tourists. (Being the only foreigner in the group, guessing my accent was the game of the night. South African??)

Saturday I took a nice drive and ended up in New Brighton, a highly commercialized beach area on the out skirts of the city. Really beautiful views and lovely beach but too commercial. They've built a massive pier extending at least 1000m into the sea which looks like a miniature Confederation Bridge. There was an artist making this incredible design in the sand that was massive and only really visible from the pier which gave it all a little more character. How he could envision what he was doing from the ground is pretty astounding. Still looking for Old Brighton. Feel it would be more natural.

I really have to get off my ass and post some of these pics don't I?

Saturday night was a respectable one. Adrianne VanLunen, another UPEI Co-op student is doing her summer work term in Dunedin and made it to Chch for the holiday, so we went for a drink with a few others from the hostel, Andrea (a fellow east coaster from Kentville, NS) and Emma (N. Ireland) and Anne & Sol, British friends. 2 quiet pints and we were done in for. Or I was!

Yesterday Gemma & I slowly made our way to Akaroa (Sherilyn & I went down way back when she was here), stopping for coffee and meandering about. We met some people in the hostel and had a few drinks at the pub with them and others we met along the way. The entertainment value of a small town local is like no other. The weather was absolute crap down there today which we were disappointed in, but it gave us the chance to do exactly what Akaroa is best known for - lounge in the cafes - and forget this hiking and exercise business! We had a great breakfast, then went straight to the bakery for coffee and to wait for Anne & Sol. Once they arrived we wandered the shops a bit and walked around a little in between hailstorms before being forced into another cafe. It was just lovely. A scenic trip back and we played a quick game of scrabble in the hostel before Gemma guilted me into swimming off at least one latte. And that was my weekend. Another bunch of nothingness that combines into a fab time with loads of laughs. It really doesn't get better than this!