Thursday, March 3, 2011

Once again, im slacking on my posts.

Im off to get away from the city for a bit, but in the meantime here's a link to some of my earthquake photos


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2085742&id=1090560130&l=70be648b4f

Friday, February 25, 2011

Everything is getting slowly better, will post tomorrow about more details

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Mt. Sunday


Up to this point I never really went specifically to any Lord of the Rings locations. I may have been in the region, and noticed, this definitely would have been in LOTR. But I needed my inner geek to come alive! So when my friend Caleb said that Edoras was a two hour drive, we made plans for the weekend. After a long gravel drive going through mounds of gravel, clouds of dust and a few streams (poor car), we made it to Edoras! More unbelievable was the view. In such a remote area, miles of plains come to meet the alpine fault rising high into the sky. Right in the center of these plains, was a tiny mound.


It wasn’t very tiny once we got to it, in fact it was a small mountain. We decided to hike to Mt.Sunday, but found it hard not getting wet in the wide rivers. But to think, most of the filming of Rohan was around these rivers, and we were wading through rivers of middle earth!

Once we got to the top, we had a hard time figuring out where the Great Hall was constructed. On top we couldn’t get over the view. We were at least 1 hour from any other person in any direction. You know how in the movie Rohan is very windy? Well, it was extremely windy. We could hang up on top of Mt.Sunday if it wasn’t for us being thrown left and right by the wind.



You know how we were 1 hour away from any other people? Well, that was shortly over when a LOTR tour bus arrived. Filled with overweight Americans, they lugged their camera and fanny packs a mere 5% of what we hiked, because they had a 6x6 (yes, a 6x6) truck to take them up the hill. The best part was, we noticed they weren’t using regular walking sticks. They were using reproduction swords from the movies! Ha-ha. So it ended up turning into a geek contest. Here I am spotting the Uruk-hai taking the hobbits to Isengard in the distance.




Wanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander, or, in modern usage, to travel and to explore the world.

Celebrating With the Flat








Band Together




After the earthquake shook Canterbury, a free live concert was organized for the public. Over 30 NZ bands played, alternating on two huge stages from 11am-8pm in Hagley Park. It amassed a record-breaking crowd of over 175,000 people. To give you a sense of this size, Christchurch’s population is 375,000 people. If there was a famous NZ artist or celebrity or politician, they were there. The Prime Minister of New Zealand stopped to say hello, and the Mayor of Christchurch played bass with his all-time favorite band. It was a great happy-feely time as everyone literally “Banded Together” for Canterbury’s shaken troubles. It gave me a greater sense of how much trouble the earthquake caused to so many across the region. Subtle details can still be seen or heard. One example is that reported domestic violence increased by 40% since the earthquake hit.
There was every type of artist, for every age group. It led to little kids cramming around me to get near the front and older people rocking out to songs the younger generation had no idea about. The Swarm Dance Troupe team put on an AMAZING performance, having great vocals, original dance talent and great song mixes. It was interesting to hear NZ folk and country music, along with “Mainstream” NZ rappers who the US never heard of. Rock artists where girls scream bloody murder as if the Beatles just landed, probably would have a hard time landing a Bar gig in Middletown NY. Strange to see this little bubble of a music culture of four million which takes bits and pieces from music culture from around the world and adds their own twist. I was happy to wait till the very end where I saw the Exponents perform “Why Does Love Do This To Me” in which probably every person in the crowd new all of the lyrics to. After, all of the various music artist came on stage along with politicians, concert organizers, random people to sing on stage in a very “campfire sing along” style song. These kiwis sure do know how to put things to the side to just enjoy life at times.