I have no creative title

Sorry for the lack of a title, but since I couldn't come up with anything, I thought I'd be straightforward.  Anyway, last week was week 1 of finals, but I didn't have a final, so I had the week off.  Don't actually have my first final until Thursday of this week.  So, here's what I did with my time.

Now, I don't have pictures of all of this, but last Friday I went spearfishing.  I was mediocre, but it's hard to hold your breath that long!  Anyway, I hit one of the three fish I shot at, but it wasn't the right type of fish.  We were going for butterfish (aka greenbone), which is a herbivore, so can't be caught on a hook.  The friend I went with got 5, so he gave me three and I cut them up for dinner.  We also stopped at a beach on the way home and got some clams, so I had clam stew and fresh fish--delicious!!  Saturday I went surfing, but didn't do so well.  Sunday, however, I went back out and did much better!  Then, my friend got Paua (a giant sea snail) and gave me some, so I had that along with some mussels I went out and got Sunday for dinner.  After dinner, a group of us headed to Long Beach to camp out because the weather was beautiful.

While I wanted to go away for the week, the weather in most places was awful, so I decided to hang around

town.  I'm kind of glad I did because the three groups of friends I know that went places were stuck in pouring rain for their entire trips.  Wednesday, though, I did head off to Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, and Mt Cook National Park.  Lake Tekapo is an International Starlight Reserve and the sky was amazing, even though the moon was really bright.  Lake Pukaki is a crazy colour of turquoise blue and was very scenic with the  mountains in the background.  Mt Cook National Park was also amazing--definitely a place I wish I could spend more time in!  Unfortunately, we couldn't get to the hut we wanted to, so opted for a 3 hour day walk.  The weather was awful--pouring rain and driving winds that were literally blowing me across the track.  Anyway, the area was beautiful with huge peaks and glaciers everywhere.  Plus, I saw my first iceberg!

And, finally, last night was the All-Blacks rugby game.  It was extremely fun!!  They played the Wallabies from Australia and we had a great time there!

Now, for the most shocking part of my entire time abroad!!!  I read a book.  Like one of those things with words on the pages.  I read it from left to right, top to bottom, through all 350 pages.  It was the first time in nearly 5 years that I've achieved such an accomplishment.  Now, it's time to study for a few days unfortunately, but I'm sure I'll squeeze some fun in there too! Captions: sunrise on Long Beach, Lake Pukaki, and iceberg, All-Blacks vs. Wallabies scrum