Spring Break Sept ‘10

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Don’t know how many times in my life I’ll have spring break in September.  I’m guessing not too often.  I did a little sightseeing on my week off in New Zealand and travelled around the south island a bit.  Even went skiing for the first time ever. 
Lucky duck Megan got to go to Australia on her first week off but then hopped on a bus down to Dunedin to spend the second week with me.  I owed her a date so I thought it’d be nice to ride some bikes to the beach and see some penguins.  Little did I know the beach was 25 km away and uphill the entire time.  Needless to say, she was not very happy by the end of our bike ride. 


We were so tired from the uphill ride that we scrapped the beach that day and came back the next when we had a rental car.  Sandfly bay lived up to its renowned reputation for penguin and sea lion watching.  We even met a Dept of Conservation volunteer who was shooting facts at us the whole time and took Megan’s camera up for a close look into a penguin’s nest (highly against the rules). 


That night we took off for Mt. Cook and enjoyed a nice rainstorm throughout the drive.  The next day wasn’t much different and we didn’t get to see all the great views as promised.  We did manage to squeeze in a quick hike to see the Tasman Glacier headwall, the longest glacier outside arctic regions in world.
 
The next day we drove to Wanaka and hit up Puzzling World where they have all kinds of trippy illusions and art.  Megan convinced me that night to ski instead of board the next day.
 
 
I felt like a baby deer who had just been born and was doing his best to stand up and walk.  I got the hang of it by the end of the day.  But don’t count on me investing in a pair of Volkls anytime soon…

-Tyler Grubb