So, new plan. Unfortunately, no Armenia for me right now. Not cool, but was just going to cost a ludicrous amount of money, so plans have been put on hold until the new year (when mon frere & I sort out which direction we are each heading in...).

It's definitely disappointing to not be going to Armenia, but in some ways I'm really glad to be staying here. Really don't think I would be ready to leave here in a month's time as planned! So, the new plan is to stay in Chch until early December doing a combination of hostel and temp work, then go back to the North Island for a few weeks to meet my plane in Auckland on December 19. But ... it's not straight home... I'll have 3 days in LA (not a lot, but am told it's definitely enough when travelling on a budget!) before landing in Halifax on the night of Dec 22. Only 3 months away!!!! Can't believe that ... Where have the past 8 months gone?? It will be nice to have the heat of a NZ summer before heading back to winter though....... I am very excited for that!! The prospect of going from a Cdn winter to NZ autumn/winter/spring to an Armenian winter back to a Cdn winter wasn't overly appealing...

The flowers are starting to bloom here as we see spring coming... the air is still cool, but the sun is so intense that the days reach about 16-17 degrees but go right down to about 5 once the sun goes in (about 6pm now). I'm wearing flipflops today... first time in a lot of months...

But, speaking of winter, went to a hockey game last week! There's one rink in Chch with a number of teams playing out of it - there's actually a couple summer leagues because there's not enough ice time for everyone to play in the winter! It was Chch's top teams playing... they were comparable to high school age players at home. That being said, I would love to see a the skill level of a Cdn Cricket team! The thing that struck me funniest was the lack of checking in the game. They're allowed to, but for the most part they don't! There was only 2 penalties during the whole thing, but thankfully, they saved a little face when a fight broke out!