Christchurch

Last night was extremely cold (for summer), and I enjoyed a talk with some British girls at the pub in Arthur's Pass Village. This morning it was rainy and windy and electricity was out in the whole village, so there really wasn't much to do other than hunker down. I spent some time in the cafe talking to a crazy old man from Australia who kept telling me how he was going to make a car run on water, and that the government was hiding all this from us. He also had some very interesting ideas about removing the flying foxes from Melbourne. I finally managed to get away and did some walking as the weather was clearing. The swiss guy that I met earlier returned from his overnight trip as well so I got to see him again too - he has been one of my favorite people that I've met here thus far.

I picked up the train at 4 -- er, 5 because it was running late of course -- and took a very nice trip down to Christchurch. I booked into the hostel and ran to catch a chamber music concert at 8 downtown. It was really nice to be around music again and I really miss it! Being away has made me appreciate it even more and I look forward to get to playing again. It was a mostly vocal concert and was quite good except for the singers' horrendous attempts to sing in French. After intermission they came out in janitor clothes and started singing, which was also a bit strange - the second half was musical theatre... Overall, very nice to be immersed in it again and I enjoyed it very much!

I think I will spend 2 more days in Christchurch because there seems to be quite a lot to do and the city is beautiful with a very British feel. I'll try to move into another hostel though, because the one I'm in is really large and not very friendly - so it goes in the big city though (and Christchurch, by the way, is the largest city in the South Island). Plus the kitchen is dirtier than most college kitchens I've seen. The shower was nice though :)

I'll post pictures from Arthur's Pass tomorrow because it's getting late.

-Brian