trip to Christchurch - day 1
July 24, '04

(click on the first picture to get started; captions are at the bottom of each picture page)

It was a nice sunny day during our drive to Christchurch. Emma (the grad student who was driving) pulled over to let me take this picture of the beach. Sample scenery during the drive
There were some nice river crossings, too And who could forget the sheep...
This is one of the towns we passed through on our way along Highway 1. The highway paralleled the train tracks for much of the trip, so there were lots of these fun railway crossings... I especially like the little picture of a steam engine.
In preparation for attending the rugby game that night, we dressed up to show our full NZ All Blacks support. Next to me is my flatmate Tenley, her friend Karl whose flat we stayed at, and Karl's friend... uh let's call him Fernface for now. I have "N Z" on my face if you couldn't tell. Also note the many layers of clothing visible around my neck... this has essentially been my garb for weeks now. The stadium. Pretty sweet!! Somehow our seats turned out to be really close to the field.
A big ol' choir sang in the middle of the field before the game began. We were sitting right about... there.
Here is an action shot of one of the cool moves they do in rugby -- the dude is being lifted into the air to catch the ball that was thrown in from out of bounds. Blurry excitement after the All Blacks made the winning points in the final seconds of the game!