Christchurch is not just a church

Joanna writes:

Well, it's been a bit of a while, hasn't it? And it's a bit late here right now, so this will have to be an abridged version of the past 2.5 weeks. I believe when we last left you, we were staying waaaay down south in Riverton at Granma's Growers, the small but productive farm of semi-retired couple Lindsay and Debbie. It was an interesting week we spent with them. They are not the type of people you'd expect to have an organic farm, and in fact only began farming organically after Lindsay had a cancer scare and his doctor told him he needed to stop working in agriculture. At the same time that it was really encouraging to see a different sort of folks getting into organics, it was not so fun to have the television on every waking moment of the day and eat devastatingly lifeless, limp, soggy, boiled (but organic!) vegetables every single night for supper. We did learn a good bit from them about the cancer-related reasons to go organic, though, and it was cool to be on a farm that was producing a regular harvest.
During our time there, we took some lovely walks along the southern coast (including part of the Hump Ridge--yes, snicker--track in Fiordland National Park). Ben also turned a whopping 25 years old (wow!), and we went to a local open mic for his birthday. This open mic was not your standard Cambridge event of 50 folk singers with their accoustic guitars and deep original feelings, but rather a whole rock band set-up that various folks took turns with and played almost exclusively covers of blues and alternative rock. Ben's prowess with the accordion, the guitar, the rock and roll, and the song writing (and even, briefly, the drums--watch out Abester!) was much appreciated, and it was a fun night overall.

After Riverton, we headed east along the south coast into an area called the Catlins. We visted the southernmost point of the South Island, saw a gorgeous waterfall, and did various other little hikes, before we finally finally finally saw PENGUINS! YES, REAL LIVE PENGUINS! IN THE WILD! COMING HOME TO FEED THEIR REAL LIVE BABIES! Well, we didn't see the babies, but watching the adults come surfing onto the beach and waddle-hop up a path to their nests was really fantastic, a dream come true for me. And, despite the fact that I've just spent the last year teaching children that penguins do not only live where there's ice and snow all year round, it was still very surreal to see them on a sandy beach. (For all of you bionerds, these were yellow-eyed penguins, a very rare and endangered species.)

After the Catlins, it was back inland and a long way north to see Mt. Cook, NZ's tallest mountain, as well as the other mountains of the Southern Alps. Wow. These were the most platonic mountains we have ever seen. Gorgeous. We also saw real live glaciers, which, according to some American geologists we met at the campground, are the only glaciers in the world that are actually growing. Try that on for size.

Now we've just completed our ten-day holy-cow-we-must-sell-the-car stay in Christchurch, which is NZ's second-largest city and second-best place to sell your car. And, yes, the car is sold! We weren't sure it was going to happen, but at the last practical moment, someone bit. Whew!

Christchurch itself is okay. We thought that we'd have tons of time here to catch up on our reading, journals, and, of course, this weblog, but in fact we've been incredily busy. We've been staying at a gigantic hostel on a work-for-accommodation scheme, so we work every morning from 9:30-1:00 in exchange for a bed in a dorm room (WWOOFing is a much better deal!). We have made so many beds and cleaned so many things and probably inhaled enough chemical cleansers to destroy all the good we did ourselves on the farms. We have also met some cool people, though unfortunately our roommates are the types to stay in the room all the time watching television. Like all the time. It's amazing. In the city, we've walked around a lot, seen the lovely botanic gardens and a cheesy but entertaining free play in them, gone to a fun karaoke bar, and visited the COCA--Center of Contemporary Art. It turns out that modern art actually does make us want to rock out, so we did! Ben, in his ever-diligent quest to play music as much as possible, managed to get us not one, but two gigs at a nice little venue called Al's Bar. Last night we opened for a cool little band from New Mexico and an awesome local group of youngsters. Righteous.

Tomorrow we get up wicked early, hop a train and then a bus, and meet my parents in Nelson for another circuit of the South Island. Woo-Hoo! Happy Birthday, Dad!

PS--photos coming soon, hopefully!