More pictures...
http://community.webshots.com/user/beckyinnz

enjoy!

If anyone is receiving messages from my old UPEI account DELETE IMMEDIATELY. I haven't used this account since December so it obviously has a virus. Beware the computer demons...

On a nicer note - go see/rent Plots With a View! Hilariously funny.

So there I was, innocently laying on the couch, watching a tv movie (yes, the dreaded evil tv has re-entered my life, but at a conveniently finacially-striken period). Home by myself, all curled up and all of a sudden the whole house moved! What the &*%$?? Why would someone push on the house? That's just silly! How would someone move the house? It definitely moved...

Okay so obviously I'm not a native and didn't have the instinct to realize that it was an earthquake! We just felt the one shake and it wasn't enough to cause any damage at all. It was the worst one I've felt (experienced 2 very minor ones while in Auckland. Minor as in I couldn't figure out why the water was splashing around in my glass minor). This one occured 30km away from Chch, 40km underground. When we were at Te Papa (the massive Wellington museum), there was an earthquake register there, detailing all the dates and degree of severity of NZ quakes. They happen about every second day! Most are very minor, and almost all occur on the North Island. NZ sits directly on a fault line where two of the earth's plates meet which causes the earthquakes & volcanoes and is the reason the land is so diverse & spectacular. All major mountain ranges in the world sit on a line where 2 plates collide.

Did I get that right Mr Ramsay? A+ in geography for me!

Happy labour day by the way. It's not a holiday here... the next long weekend here is in late October, but I forget what it's for.

So, other than experiencing earthquakes, it's been another quiet week. Whoops, thought I got paid every week, but it's not so... another few days off spent wandering and going to the library. I am so cool.

It's been a bit better than that... Sat night Nick & Roz let me sneak off to meet some of my old workmates up at the pub for a few quiet drinks. Sunday (so weird to experience a Sunday morning again...) Cat, her son Sean, her friend Sharon & I went to the markets and enjoyed a day of rinsing about. I caught up with other friends Pete & Veronica later that day and ended up working in their ski/snowboard shop yesterday so that Pete could hit the slopes.

Weirdest thing here - the ski shops also do their own rentals, not just the hills. But the shops rent more than the gear - they rent the clothing too! People here just don't own proper winter clothing because they need it so little, so they rent it when going up to the mountains! I was floored by this realization! Can you imagine never having your own snowsuit? Kids without mittens? It's inhumane!