I’ve arrived in New Zealand! Got here on Monday night, to find by bedroom already occupied by two French backpackers, which alarmed me a little…they were friends of my new flatmate Amandas’ though so all was fine. Have settled into my flat, it’s a nice little log cabin affair, just like a ski chalet, although a trifle mouldier and more beaten up than any chalet I’ve stayed in. There is a visiting cat and a possum, who I haven’t seen yet but have heard clog dancing on the roof. I have three flatmates, two Kiwis and one Californian, all girls.
My time so far has mostly been occupied with registering and going to on campus orientation talks and parties, quite fun but rather full of drunk freshers. I have taken the bus into Christchurch, which is about thirty minutes drive away and seems a lot like Exeter so far…more on that when I’ve explored further. Lincoln is a nice little township, there is one very scary pub, which is fun but I’ve decided not to work at as the blood and alcohol were mixing in the wrong place. It is definitely a "bring your own wellies" place!
The Uni is on the Canterbury Plains, which are very flat (big surprise!) The Southern Alps are beautiful in the distance and I’m really looking forward to playing in them! I’m going to borrow a bike from a very kind person who has given up cycling, so I should be able to whizz around campus and into Christchurch on days off. Campus is very nice, with lots of good lawns for sitting on and looking contemplative and some nice eat and drinkeries. They are very proud of the library (which I shall take a photo of soon) it’s a pretty building with arches and twiddly bits, not many like that round here, they are mostly very functional with corrigated iron roofs (that word looks wrong somehow).
Australia was a good break, Louisa and Mikes’ house is lovely, the veranda around the house is up in the tree canopy so I spent a lot of time birdwatching on their swing seats. The pool was fun too! Did a lot of beach and rainforest walks and revisited Corrumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, which was worth a second look. High points were seeing a Tawny Frogmouth night jar sitting on my bedroom windowsill in the afternoon, watching a strange gig by a performer called ‘That one guy’ who played a synthesizer made out of a bent drainpipe and also a saw and a boot! Sitting in the pool watching rainbow lorikeets fly overhead was really nice too and going riding with Louisa was good fun. She nearly bought the horse she rode as he was a nice baby (three year old). I made myself a bit useful by lining some curtains for Lou and Mikes bedroom, which actually look rather good 
More soon when the real term begins, brain coming out of mothballs!
