Adventures in the bush

Last weekend I went on my second official tramping trip with the Tramping Club. There were 10 of us total crammed into 2 small cars, both of which broke down or at least had complications at some point during the trip. Friday night we camped quite literally on the side of the highway. Didn't get much sleep. Up early for a day on the trail along the Huxley River, then we headed up into the bush and passed by a few little waterfalls, over a swing bridge, and along the bush again to a cute little hut where we decided to stay the night. Dinner was a delectable curry with some sort of lentil tortilla, yum! For desert we had timtam slams! Timtams are chocolate covered biscuits, bite off the ends, use them as a straw for hot cocoa, or milo here in New Zealand (their version of ovaltine), and wow, what an experience! A few games of mafia later and we called it a night. Back at the cars we were greeted with a flat. Of course nothing is open in small rural towns on a sunday afternoon, so we drove 80k back to Dunedin for a pretty late night arrival. The trip was fantastic, I met some pretty cool people, ate good food, and the forest was definitely right out of Lord of the Rings, it was amazing! Unfortunately, I got sick on the trip, just a head cold mainly, but I'm beginning to feel a bit better. I just have the annoying lingering cough left.

I joined a local knitting group a few weeks ago. I'm definitely the youngest one there by quite a few years, but it's fun to knit with people and listen to kiwi gossip. They invited me on a trip to a local wool mill that sells discount yarn. So much yarn at such cheap prices. I was in heaven. Nothing super exciting like we have in the States, but still, they were practically giving it away. I definitely want to get back there at some point...but then there might be a problem getting all that wool home...

I'm also learning Maori flax weaving. We started by making flowers, and are learning all the tikanga (rules and regulations) surrounding the art form, from how to harvest the flax to the prayers or chants you need to say before weaving.