July 14th, 2011 The Lord of the Rings Tour

Sadly, my close friend has passed away yesterday. My brother's G2 pen broke, unfortunately. The part that connects the pen together broke while it was connected so it cannot be repaired. R.I.P. Mr. G2 Pen. May the rest of your days be filled with drawings and words.

Since the tour people didn't cancel (finally!!!) we got to go on this amazing and scenic tour. Our fantastic tour guide was named Paul. Personally, I prefer Katie as my tour guide but Paul did provide us with short (and funny) videos and information about the movie. Even though my family and I aren't that big of a fan, we did enjoy this tour.
We began our little adventure by waking up around 7:30am and then got dressed, ate breakfast, and brushed our teeth. Next, Paul picked us up around 9:00am and then picked up the other three passengers. While we were driving to the mountains, there was this huge roadblock (or should I say sheep block). It was so awesome and the sheep were so cute!!!
Our first stop was this Staveley Cafe where we met up with the other three passengers and had some afternoon tea. We ordered a sausage roll, mince and cheese (meat) pie, a latte, a canned carbonated lemon drink, and two hot chocolates. I have to say, the food was delicious!! The hot drinks were also good but I still think the food was much better.
After some bumpy driving, we arrived at this hill where they filmed a part of the movie (Middle Earth Rohan is the name for all of you L.O.T.R. fans.) which was inhabited by black cows (and their cow pies). After about 10-15 minutes of uphill walking/hiking, we arrived at the top of the hill where it was -2oC or roughly 28oF. At the top of the hill, my brother and I did a "sword fight" with replica L.O.T.R. swords, found some super thin ice, and got to see a great view.
Then, we walked downhill for the same amount of time as it took going uphill and we eventually came to the vehicle and then went to a place where we ate lunch. Our free lunch consisted of a choice of ham or smoked chicken sandwich, orange juice or campagne, and a chocolate cake with powdered sugar on top of it.
After a good and satisfying lunch, we began driving back to the hotels. On the way there, we stopped by the same cafe to drop off the same three passengers. As we continued to Christchurch, there was another roadblock. This time, it was a roadblock created by black cows which wasn't as cute as the lambs but it was good enough. While we were coming back, we watched some L.O.T.R. interviews and behind-the-scenes things. If you want to view the pictures of the trip, click here
Have a nice day!

July 12, 2011 Letdowns, Library, and Lone Star

Today, we were supposed to be on a Lord of the Rings tour but (of course) the "weather was bad" so instead, we explored the city we are residing in.
Our first place we visited was this library in New Brighton that was amazing. The actual amount of teen books available was relatively low but the actually had a lot of manga (basically Japanese style comics) which was a good thing. It also had a great view of the sea which is right next to the building. After that, we just walked around on the beach's pier and watched people attempt to fish but we never actually saw anyone catch something.

Our next stop was this mall where we ate and "shopped". We ate at this American restaurant (yes, there is something classified as American) called Lone Star. Here, we had to wait forever for our food which was worth the wait. I ordered this chicken stuffed with mushroom, spinach, and something I can't remember. I absolutely love this dish and I would order this over and over again. All the dishes are in huge portions and I had to share almost half of my chicken and not eat most of my salad just to finish a certain amount (okay, that's confusing, so basically, it is huge!!!). The address is:
26 Manchester Street
Christchurch

The above picture is my brother's steak. That is not my dish. Bye!

July 10th, 2011 Adrenaline Forest, Spencer's Wild Farm, and Indian and Greek Cuisine

All of my followers, why are you following this blog? Isn't that stalking? Just kidding!
Anyways, the main highlight of today was going to this place called Adrenaline Forest which is basically an aerial obstacle course. My first thought was, "Oh my god, I'm going to die!!!". Eventually, I got used to the height, speed, and the scariness and I was able to "enjoy" a course. My favorite part of the forest was crashing into the cushion. All in all, I finished three courses, 1,2, and 3 out of the 6 ones and my hands are so sore!!! Even though I still think that the place is dangerous and designed by a hand-abuser, I would recommend this to other people (especially people I dislike!).

After we finally got out of that death trap, we went to this amazing(ly smelly) farm which was completely free but you can't even touch the lambs, rabbits, and certain birds.

The untouchable bunny:(. Even though mast of the animals were cute, there was something a little weird about them. I mean, the white bunnies had creepy red eyes, the pigs had strange things on their chins, and the roosters kept crowing, and it's not even morning!!! They also had very low numbers of certain animals. For example, they only had one peacock and only three (black) sheep. I also stepped in a lot of poop/mud. :(
For dinner, my brother had this gyro which no one had a taste of so I can't write anything about it. We also had butter chicken and lamb biryani which (if you don't know already) is a type of Indian food. After that, my parents and I ate this boysenberry ripple ice cream which is basically boysenberry syrup "mixed" with vanilla ice cream.
One thing I would like to address is how green New Zealand is (not like green green, just like not-wasting-stuff green). I mean, they charge you .50 50 cents for ONE plastic bag but sometimes they don't even have (plastic) bags!! Also, even though most of the roads and shops are closed, the casino is still open! Have a good day/afternoon/night.