Day11 Lake Tekapo

On 1st January 2013, from Queenstown to Lake Tekapo
The first day of 2013 started with bad weather. Our next destination was Lake Tekapo which is a popular sightseeing spot in New Zealand. Gazing at stars in this area is supposed to be amazing because of very clear atomosphere, large number of clear sky nights, and lack of light pollution. Unfortunately, though, I couldn't see stars in the sky because it was crowdy and it has intermittent rain. We were all the more unlucky because it's usually sunny in this area through the year.
However, as it got dark, the weather got better and I could see the scenery of Lake Tekapo. It was really beautiful lake and I'd like to see it with perfect weather. I wish it would have been better.

Day10 Queenstown

On 31th December 2012, free day in Queenstown
In Queenstown, you can do so many activities such a bungy jumping, sky diving, jet boating, kayaking, parasailing and so on. Needless to say, however, it costs so much and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on them. As such, I had to kill time to walk around in the town. But there are many trail courses and I could enjoy it enough. I chose the one leading to the airport which is along Lake Wakatipu, it was beautiful trail course. It was idyllic and people who live in this area seemed to enjoy a lot. The weather was also nice - sunny and not so hot, not so cold. It was the best day to enjoy walking.

Then, I looked around the town and bought some souvenirs. As there are many souvenir shops in this town, you can buy a viriety of goods representing New Zealand cheaply. This town is quiet and there are a few people during the day contrary to be full of people in the midnight. They must be gathering and drinking a lot everyday.

This day was the last day of 2012. The countdown live show was held in the downtown, and we went to see it. They danced, sang, and seemed to be happy. Many fireworks made me feel the end of 2012 and the start of 2013. It was the first time for me to have the year-crossing abroad. It was a great experience. I hope I could grow up more and learn lots of things in 2013.

 

Visiting Hotel

Nowadays I'm learning a lot of things in the new cource "Travel & Tourism".
Not only just do we listen to the teacher but also do some activities, for example, making posters, postcards and role playing etc. Today's visiting hotel was one of the activities in this class. We went to a hotel in the city and the hotel officer explained to us about the working in the hotel, facilities, some types of rooms. We looked around the reception desk, restaurant & bar, and the three rooms; 1 bed room, 2 beds room, and the suite room! The suite room locates in the highest floor of the hotel and it was like a pent house. I've never seen such a beautiful hotel room, it looked like quite a luxuary apartment. There seem to be many part-time workers, so I might be able to work in a hotel with just a student visa. I think it's worth trying it once, though it's so difficult to get a position and keep working.

1Q84

Last week I borrowed the one English book named "1Q84" written by Haruki Murakami. This book was published in 2009 at first, and there are 3 series. It is amazing as well as Kafka on the shore. His book is always difficult for me to understand what it means essentially, but I like it and it makes me feel that I want to read more (Indeed, it's not enough to read just once). It is quite a long story and it has more than 900 pages! I think I need approximately one month to finish reading it.

Day9 Milford Sound

On 30th December 2012, Milford Sound
Milford Sound is the most famous tourist attraction located within the Fioldland National Park. It's also quite a famous in the world.
We departed to Milford Sound at 7 am. It was crowdy. On the way there I could see the amazing scenery and splendid nature. I can't express these scenery with the words or pictures. I think only those who visit there can know how marvelous the views are. After 4 hours' driving, we arrived at Milford Sound. It was just a little rainy at first, but after started the Milford Sound Cruising, it was getting worse and finally it became terrible weather which includes strong wind. It was the worst weather in this trip. Since  I was looking forward to seeing beautiful scenery in Milford Sound, I was really disappointed. I want to go there again someday. I can't help but wish it would be sunny when I visit there next time.

 

Day8 Queenstown - bungy jumping -

On 30th December 2012, Queenstown
This day was one of the most impressive during the trip.
I tried the Navis Bungy jumping which is 134 metre high, the highest in Oceania region.

Although it was much higher than I expected, I was really excited and I didn't feel scary. My legs were locked and dived from head. Some technique was needed to change the position of head and foot after two reboundings. What a tremendous this activity was! I'd like to try the highest bungy jumping or skydiving someday. There are many bungy jumping activities both North and South Island in New Zealand, so I recommend you to try one of them.

 

Kafka on the shore

Finally I finished reading "Kafka on the shore". As I mentioned before, I've already read this book in Japanese and I tried to read it in English. Although I came across the difficult vocabulary which I didn't know for many times, I could guess to some extent because I already knew the story. It was amazing. I could feel that it was exactly Haruki Murakami's writing style regardless of being written in different language. I think it's good to read the book in English which I already read in Japanese because I don't need to look for the meaning of words so many times, and I can enjoy the difference between English and Japanese one. Actually there are not so many translated books, I'd like to try it as much as possible.

Restart

I haven't written anything for a month...
I know I have to keep doing to improve my English skills. I have no other choices. I'm so sorry, but it has been quite a tough time for me and I didn't afford to upload anything to this blog. Indeed I'm totally depressed recently because I noticed that I can't be communicating in English at all, especially after my new school started. I can't catch up with what they say. I've known that my lisening skill is absolutely awful for a long time and it hasn't improved yet, even though almost 3 months have passed since I came here. What on earth am I doing? What should I do from now on? I have no idea... I've spent quite a lot of time on negative thinking for a month.

Anyway I should change my attitude for everything and motivate myself. Restarting blog is one of the way to change my custom. I'll try to do it at least once a week.