Dave and Drea - Life down under: February 2008

Hey all,

So all this last week I've been up in Christchurch for a course on Traffic Engineering. The course tried to cover everything there is to know about traffic in a single week. Let's say it tried to do a little too much and hence did much too little that was of any use. But the good part was that Drea was able to come up with me for part of the course and we got to take advantage of the company expense account (remind me not to give this web address to my boss). (for beer loving readers we went to one restaurant that served beer made from spruce and manuka trees, based on a recipe from Captain Cook, it was surprisingly good. Wigram brewery. Drea and I drove up via the scenic route on Saturday. (oh yeah, alas, we did not get to swim with the dolphins. They were booked solid for the weekend so we'll have to try again some other time) Anyway, we left late on Saturday since we weren't trying to get to Kaikoura, which is 3 hrs north of Christchurch. We stopped and camped Saturday night in the Peel Forest, known for their large native trees.

Drea in the Peel Forest

In the morning, I got a chance to try out one of my birthday presents. We went down to the river edge and I tried to catch a fish with my new fly rod. We brought a frying pan in case I caught something, but having it along must have jinxed me. But let say I got some good practice in (especially at tying and untying horrific knots). I tried my hand at fishing at that river and then a second river before heading down the road towards Christchurch, empty frying pan in hand.

The fish were scared. Just not of me.

Tuesdsay night in Christchurch we took advantage of the Christmas present we got from my brother and sister-in-law. They got us tickets to see a show at the main (but tiny!) theater in Christchurch. It just happened that "The Producers" were playing and we had fantastic seats. The show was great (funny, but the next night we happened across the movie version on tv at the hotel and we thought the production that we saw was FAR better) Thanks John and Jenny!!!