It's almost 9 months to the day since I touched back down in New Zealand after another amaizing, albeit slightly thin on snow - European winter. The start of the university year was only hours away, and a bare room in a student flat was as organised as I had got for it. I thought I had a lot on my plate. Little did I know only 2 days later a massive earthquake would devistate Christchurch. All priorities would have to be scrapped and re-evaluated. Thankfully all my friends and family in Christchurch were safe and well, as many were less fortunate on what was one of NZ's saddest days. Looking back 9 months on, it is quite remarkable to see how far Christchurch (despite still being broken) has come, and to think we have managed to fit an entire university year in despite the campus having been closed for months due to major earthquake damage, thousands of aftershocks and some fat snowstorms. It was certainly a massive relief putting down the pencil for my last exam after a mega hectic rescheduled year. Here are a few snaps I have found of some less-snow related memorable moments from 2011.
Scotty slacking.
Digger clearly can't keep up.
Pitstop. Digging out Chch with the flatmates and tens of thousands of other students after big quake.
Easter roadie to the west coast with the favourite Frenchie.
About to black out.
Rugby World Cup quarter final time. Auckland with Vince Ray.
ENG vs FRA and NZ vs ARG.
So...
...after hitching for 5 hours in a van, a car, and a truck, carshing a
night in picton, followed by a 6 hour ferry ride in 6m swells, finally
made it home to visit the fam 24 hours after finding out my 45 min
flight had been cancelled thanks to a volcano on the other side of the
world. wtf?!
It's hard to believe how much has gone down already in 2011, and even more so that I will be seeing out the final few weeks of the year in the mountains as I head back over to Europe. Although already it looks like its going to be a late start to the euro winter, so first off it appears a weeks beach pilgrimage in Thailand is required to pray for some snow.
A massive thanks to all the crew in Chch for the good times, ski missions, study missions, earthquake missions, liquefaction missions, boiling drinking water for months on end missions, and the thousands of other missions than have gone down. Also cheers to the flat mates for the banter, ski bums for crashing on the couche and in 'the closet', the AB's for winning the world cup, and the Bond whanau for being awesome and super supportive as always. You have all helped turn a difficult year into one of the most epic, productive and rewarding yet.
Heres a couple of videos i found that help sum it up pretty well...
