So now that the dust has settled and I'm getting used to putting on my jandals (sandals) and going out with my mates (friends) for tea (dinner). To clear up any confusion about the URL of this blog, sheep and speights, I wanted up pay tribute to the two most common things in this fair country, sheep and beer. Speights is the favorite local brew of Dunedin. And according to a bus driver in Rotorua...
"Sheep outnumber people in NZ 40 million to 4 million. For the moment they're scared of us, but is they ever turn on us we might have to call the US army."
Starting this post off right, below is a picture of me shot right outside our flat on a Sunday night. Those shiny spots to the right of the fire were a group of Campus Watch officers doing what they do best... watching.
On Saturday, we took a walk (a hike) up one of the local mountain, Mt. Cargill. There was about 11 of us that walked out about an hour to the start of the track (trail) and hiked up about 3 miles through some very diverse scenery. Initially, we made our way through some very tall pine trees, as you can see below.
The fairly rapidly the surroundings became much more jungle-y, somewhat like Jurassic Park and definitely something I've never seen hiking around NH. Finally, we made it into the fog which cast an eerie feeling over the group. Not too long later we reached the summit and were greeted by a giant television tower, not my ideal summit.
On the way down, my friend Pete and I decided to do some free climbing on a clearly out-of-place boulder because we're hardcore like that. You can really see the fog effect in this one.
Going a little out-of-order, on the way to the mountain we passed Baldwin Street, which is famous for being the World's Steepest Street. The maximum slope is 35%, which may not sound too impressive until you see the pictures.
Of course, being the ambitious, able-bodied international college students that we were, we could think of no better way of marking the occasion than by running up the street. So we just started running, running of course being a relative term considering the extreme angle. With tourists cheering, taking pictures, and shouting words of encouragement, most of us made it up without stopping, myself included. Thanks God there was a water fountain at the top, it was a lot tougher than I thought!
Today, my flatmates and I headed out to Tunnel Beach, fittingly named. Here are some of the best pictures...
Thats all for now, stayed tuned for another fun-filled episode sometime soon!
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