Easter Weekend - Queenstown Adventure Part II

So I survived Queenstown once again! Easter Weekend was a blast as 7 of us went over to a small town called Arrowtown about 15 minutes outside Queenstown. It was one of the clinicians from the PT clinic, his wife, myself, Dan and Emily.

We spent a lot of time NOT doing anything related to the PhD which was a nice change. Ate a LOT of chocolate and by a lot, I mean ridiculous amounts of sheep's milk chocolate! :)

So being the adventure seeker I am, I decided to forego bungee jumping this trip (been there, done that) and decided to take a little trip down the river on a knee board. They call this Mad Dog River Boarding. http://www.riverboarding.co.nz/ Check it out!!

So basically, you get into a wetsuit because this is all glacier water so it's about 10 degrees celsius. Full on wetsuit, wetsuit jacket, booties, life jacket, helmet, and flippers. They are hard core too because when you sign up to go you sign a waiver saying you won't sue them if you experience death...i'm like, ok....sure...when i'm dead I won't sue you! Anyway, you hit the water with your wetsuit, flippers, and knee board and basically you experience white water rafting, but you are in the water vs. in the boat! About grade 3 rapids but when you are in the water and the waves are eating you they seem a bit larger!! It was hilarious...i'm not sure how much of that water I drank, but i have to admit, probably some of the cleanest water ever, very cold and refreshing...great for drinking! At the end of that, they strap you on the back of a jet ski and pull you around, then i jumped off a 7 m rock into the river, followed by a slide down into the river on the knee board and finally a rope swing!

Lasted about 3 hours in total and I had already run about 7 miles in the morning so I seriously wanted to collapse afterward. Huge amounts of fun though and some near crashing into large boulders!

The rest of the weekend we spent hanging out around Queenstown, grilling out, running down by the river, playing cricket and some tennis. You know, your typical everyday backyard cricket game!!

Back to work tomorrow with our first patient!!

Birthday Kiwi Style!!

So I celebrated my 27th here in New Zealand the Kiwi Way. Not much difference but I'm pretty sure I just turned 27 a day earlier than I was supposed to! Anyway, enjoyed a little Turkish Dinner (which at first scared me but then I realized it was just kebabs and such). Such an American girl, I am.... i'm like, oh..kebabs...that's totally American ..just throw it on the grill and eat with some corn on the cobb and whatever....but OH NO...here it's like a fancy restaurant where I pay good money for meat off a stick...and then they try to pretend like I couldn't have made that myself! But New Zealand is great like that....in a 1 block radius I could have Thai, Seafood, Indian, Thai again, cambodian, turkish, mexican, thai again, some weird deer or lamb burger (GROSS!!), Mickey D's!, Irish pub food, indian...and of course Thai. Have to admit, I've tried lamb a bit but it's just not my style... plus it's like eating my childhood stuffed animal...they are too cute to eat...mary had a little lamb and all and I'm going to eat it....NOPE.

I really need to take some pictures of the lifestyle here....HILARIOUS....for instance, throwing your couch up onto your roof and chillin in the middle of the day....completely normal...no one even looks at you twice unless you are me. Burning couches....another no brainer....and don't try burning chairs, that's just LAME....if you are going to burn, burn for REAL. umm....streaking...yeah, they don't save that for night, it's midday...apparently there is a national nudity day here...what is that?? Are you serious? I need to get into shape before that one! :)

So I figure this much, when I get back to the states I'm definitely bringing back some Kiwi traditions and will try to lift my couch on my roof and sit and drink beer out there...I'm certain I'd be arrested but all I have to say is "It's Kiwi Style" Back off! :)

Off to Queenstown for the Easter holiday and hoping to get myself into some kind of dangerous activity since I already checked bungee over a river off my list.

I think I may try knee boarding down a rip-roaring river and try to bang my head against a few boulders....if I'm not bleeding by the end, I just didn't try hard enough!

Work week and Catlins Weekend 2

Hello everyone!

Haven't blogged since last Sunday so I apologize but work has been a bit busy this week and just now getting the chance to do some blogging.

We are getting closer and closer to our first patient and will actually start assessments 1 week from tomorrow. We have been busy testing out our equipment, finalizing paper forms, and setting things up in the database.

Last weekend, I went out and tried ultimate frisbee and ice hockey. I believe I am better at frisbee than ice hockey as it becomes very difficult to both skate AND flip that little puck around at the same time! I played ultimate again later in the week and also checked out the women's rugby teams. I may actually look into that a bit further! Sounds fun and you could really get rid of some agression that way! They are full contact tackling!

Yesterday, the other PhD student, Dan, and his wife Emily and I took another scenic drive a bit further south this time into the Catlins where we were able to visit McLean Falls and the Cathedral Caves. Both were absolutely amazing! Cathedral Caves was an adventure in itself as it was a bit stormy yesterday so even at low tide it became difficult to actually make it into the caves which lie on the beach. We had to do some dodging and running through the water and let me tell you, that Antarctic current is freezing!!! But pretty sweet once you were able to get to the caves and they probably go as deep as 1/2 football field once you are entirely in!!

Today is a rainy day so I'll probably just stick around home, possibly do some work but that's about it!

Later!