It was a windy morning. I liked the color of the clouds and ocean and we took a lot of photos.

The first stop on our way to the Hanmer Springs was the Punakaki Pancake rocks area. It is another DOC spot and you can go around for about 20 minutes and watch the different rock formations.

Later on we went over Westport and the Lewis Pass forwards to the Hanmer Springs. We stopped several times and enjoyed the beautiful nature of New Zealand.
 

We spent nearly 2 days in this nice city on the west coast and the the opportunity to visit the Monteiths brewery.

Later on we had the chance to test some samples of all the different beer types brewed here.
We camped overnight at Noah’s Ark backpackers and had fun with the other people staying there.
 

I and Jeff spent the Monday in Christchurch visiting the church tower and preparing for our small 5 day journey. We had a nice night at another Backpackers talking to random people and playing games like guessing all the states of the USA or the countries of Europe.

It rained most of the time on Monday and after stopping at a shopping mall we went up to Arthur’s Pass, were we intended to go hiking on Tuesday.

Sunday morning we spent in Christchurch and visited the gallery and an arts and craftsmanship shop.

Weather was really cloudy and we left Christchurch for the afternoon to visit Akarora, a city 70 km away.

This city is part of a peninsula and has some nice and interesting beaches.
 

On our way home we went along some roads directly on the coast which led us nearly to a dead end street. Anyway it was a beautiful view and worth to bring our car out there.
 

We – Jeff, Robert and I - left Wanganui on Friday and went directly to Wellington. We stayed overnight in the second biggest city of the North Island and went to several bars.

After only 4 hours of sleep we got up at half past 6 to reach the ferry which brought us directly to Picton, a city at the north part of the South Island.
 

Wasting no time we went directly another 400 km southeast to Christchurch, just stopping for a small lunch in Kaikoura.
 

Last weekend we went to the Gravity Canyon http://www.gravitycanyon.co.nz and did the Fox ride and also Bungy Jumping.

It is about an hour away from Wanganui and no problem to reach for us.

We have a car since a week. It is a Mazda Van with enough space for 8 people.

So ...

We went with the UCOL bus to Auckland to attend the Semi Permanent conference.

Thanks to Ngaire that we could stay for 2 nights at her flat. The conference was really cool and being in another city for a short time was even better.

Yesterday I made a bike tour with Aman. We went to the Wanganui Beach. Sounds better than it is because the beach seems to be a dirty waste land. :-)

Nethertheless we had fun and it also was a quite nice day. The bike I used was really old but it took me to the beach and back again.

It was a really nice Sunday so I took my digital camera with me while a was running a little bit through the town ...

Today was our first real day in school. We went there in the morning to finally fix the enrolment issues and to get our student id cards.

The first course was “Typography in Motion” at 1 o’clock. It was not what I expected but I think the course could be much cool. Courses or “Classes” last here 3 hours with a small break during the lesson.

At 4 o’clock P.M. was “Advanced 3D Modeling” our second and last course for today. I think I am starting to like AutoDesk Maya – the software we are using - again, because the lecture – Michael Wong – is quite good.