Tales of my life

Going to a field trip tomorrow. YEAY! Imagine this, 50 mechanical engineering students, in a cabin, in the middle of no where...hehe. Sounds fun :) Oh, also 5 guys traveling together in semi-posh university vehicle with a full tank.. hehehehe.. Already made plans to head out earlier and make a proper road trip out of it..

Sadly...I'm gonna miss church, futsal and the start of the PREMIER LEAGUE!!! Dang...It's ok, Liverpool will beat Sunderland..EASY!

Uni is definitely getting busier but it's ok, one more week to go to spring break. That also means good weather ahead! Currently in the process of designing an aerodynamic car and going to build a 1:20 scaled model to test in the wind tunnel next term. That's gonna be lotsa fun. Project is coming along really well as well. My main problem now is getting my hands on some load cells to do some testing. Where is my load cells!!!???

Alright..snooze time. Before I leave... just one more time... GO LIVERPOOL!! Looking forward to the good news after the field trip :D

What an amazing place! I was trying to find the right words to describe the two days in Abel Tasman and the closest I could came out with was paradise. Josh summed it up well... just one word, epic.
So I went with Andy, Josh and Simon. There
wasn't much planning before the trip and it was amazing how perfect it turned out to be. Couldn't have came out with better plans if we tried. The first day was all kayaking. The red lines on the map is the path we took on the kayak. Went to check out Split Apple Rock, then went to the two islands to check out the seals and some penguin looking bird, stop at a few bays and then pitch tent at Anchorage. Some of the bays were just amazing. My favourite is Te Pukatea Bay (picture at the top). So peaceful and serene... Whats exciting was because we were in our kayaks, we felt like explorers. Going around the point and discovering each of those bays were so exciting! Oh, and our mexican feast that night was one of the best meal I ever had!

The next day all we did was walk, walk, walk.. Basically tramped from 9 - 6.30 with lots of stops. Went to check out Cleopatra's pool and the few bays we missed while we were on the kayaks. Went for our daily swim/bath at Appletine Bay (marked X on the map). Then it was decided that we're gonna take the coast track back to Marahau to add a sense of adventure to wrap up the trip. Went around and over some rocks. Was literally living life on the edge as you don't know what to expect on the other side of the rocks. Even had to do a few rock climbing manouvre with out huge packs on our back. When we reach Marahau, it's already 6.30. Glad we made it before we lost complete daylight. At the end of the tramp, we have four smelly guys with cuts and bruises and aching muscles.

We had fish and chips at the kayak base and drove back to christchurch at 7.30. Reached Christchurch at 1.30 am and went straight to bed. Had such an amazing time :) I think my best memory of the trip is sleeping to the sounds of crickets, waking up to birds chirping away and taking a nap on golden sand beach to the rhythm of the waves.. ~~bliss

p/s: I even made it to soccer that morning and played the full game. We won 5-1!! What a way to start the season =)

For more pictures, check out my facebook album. Here's some of my favourites.

It's amazing how refreshing just a few days in the midst of good company can do to you. After 2 hard tough weeks in uni, the weekend getaway was very much welcomed. I went to Kaikoura with mates from church for a Leadership Camp/hanging out time. Wasn't so much a camp as most of the time was just hang out time. I guess good leadership can only come from good relation between the leaders. Was great to strengthen relationship with the guys and also to get to know the new boys. Feeling so much more recharged and ready for the year ahead! I guess the picture below represents the weekend very well. Its the view right in front of the bach we stayed at. Simply amazing :)

So I've been back from what could be the best weekend of my life! Yeah, thats a big call I know, and as I'm writing this entry, I struggle to find the right words to express myself. 4 days, over 40 bands, 9 stage and 25 000 people!! And thats the number of people camping over the weekend.. Thousands more came for the day for the main bands namely Switchfoot, Hillsongs United, Israel, Leigh Nash and a whole lot more.

Highlights of the festival for me :

• Imagine this..25 000 people all dancing and singing their hearts out.. wait, maybe you don't get me.. I mean EVERYONE, all the 25000 people there! At one point during one of the main sessions, I turned around and I dont see a single person standing still. Such a joyful atmosphere..
• Leigh Nash was just soooo lovely. For those who don't know her, she is the lead singer for Sixpence None The Richer (and she broke the news to us that the band is coming back together).
  
• It's amazing how all the bands are just so humble. Leigh Nash in particular kept saying thank you and you just know how much she means it. If she was 10 years younger, I'd ask her to marry me! lol.. Switchfoot are cool too, they're so passionate bout what they do.
• It was a good time catching up with friends from Christchurch. A total of 15 of them made the journey up here

I think the main highlight of the festival for me was going through the Mission Experience (something like One Life Experience).. It gave me a renewed sense of purpose.

Copying the Mastercard advert:

Parachute ticket: $140
Food over the weekend: $20
The joy and fun : Priceless.. :)

more pictures available here

Happy new year people!!

I've just been back from a wonderful adventure. Had so much fun doing stuff and spending time with friends. So here's some of the highlight of the trip..

I guess the most exciting day of the trip would be the day that we spent at Koofai Bay. It is a private beach only accessible from Andy's farm on a 4WD. Felt like we own the whole bay to ourselves (well, actually we did, kinda...it belongs to Andy's family).. The journey started with us on the back of the 4WD truck, hanging on to the metal railings on an open carriage. After a short lunch, we walked around the cliff/rocks to the fishing spot. I don't think I've been to a better fishing spot ever! They were biting the moment you put the bait in the water. The water were so clear that you could see schools of fish swimming around every 10 minutes or so. The first two fish that we caught were filleted and smoked straightaway, doesn't come any fresher than that :)

Other stuff that we did were camping, climb Mount. Camel, went to Cape Reinga, bonfire and heaps more. Check out Celest's blog for more details. Feeling very lazy to blog on it. Going to enjoy my weekend before going back into work.

One thing I realised from the trip is that theres no better way to recharge after a hectic year than just spending time in good company. Man bond by doing stuff together, be it fishing, football, board games or just getting into a car and have a good long drive. :)

*check out more pics on my facebook album