January Wrap UP

We’re 1/12th through the year! Our January went pretty fast, and we were lucky enough to spend most of it together. So instead of separate wrap ups, we’re going to talk about some of what we have been up to.

Fave swimming spots

We were all over the country this month. Here’s some of the places we swam:

• Raglan\\ Luke-cold and wave-y
• River hole near National Park// Nice but VERY cold
• The Waimakariri\\ warmer than it looks, windier than it looks
• Route Burn\\ “that’s a bit fresh”-Shar
• Lake Nerine\\ it is worth submerging yourself in cold cold water to see a birds nest on a small island
• Rock Burn\\ water on the skin is nice!
• Assorted Tarns\\ warmed by the sun (like a bath, but slimy on the bottom with better scenery. Naked sunbathing afterwards optional
• Dunedin Tunnel Beach\\ kind of of cold but scenic and exhilirating
• Dunedin Doctor’s Point\\ Had a phat current and was lovely
• Lake Taupo\\ waves, algae, carcasses in the sun= probably the worst swimming experience
• Oriental Bay \\ possibly contaminated

Wildness and adventure

There are lots of adventures, like parting from your favourite people and going for long road trips, walking to waterfalls and spontaneous flights over Aoraki. The biggest adventure was a weeklong tramp (hike for you North Americans), with our parents and two family friends. We ended up with weird tans and scratched legs, but we also climbed three mountains, explored new territory, and generally felt very happy! (not to mention had near-perfect weather for 6 days, which is fairly rare in that part of the country). Upon our return we became the sort of people who are constantly referencing things that happened on the tramp but it was so fabulous we had to make everybody jealous. [PS: we saw whio, so who’s complaining now?]

Reading and culture

We visited Canterbury Museum, and Shanti went to the art gallery. We both loved the Squawkzilla exhibit because any chance to talk about fossils is good. We watched Little Women, and The Bachelorette, and . We went to some summer music performances in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. We squabbled over car playlists but played some songs that were good. Shanti listened to a lot of The Anthropocene Reviewed. Shanti loved the book “A Moonless, Starless Sky”, because it’s a new year and it’s time to be inspired!. Shar read a lot of slightly dated Guardian Weeklies that nevertheless were very enlightening, got partway through ‘Milk Island’, ‘Lolita’, and ‘Becoming a Beast’ (all of these were very weird for various reasons, so who knows if she’ll finish them). H is for Hawk was cool and I learned a lot about falconry.

Topics that came up in conversation

• What is a good flatmate
• Will there be any coherent response to climate change before a point of no return?
• Paper from magazines as a room decoration, yes, no, or sometimes?
• What the positive and negative aspects of our upbringing were (mostly positive tbh)