Kaikoura is a small town on New Zealand’s South Island located a two and a half hour car ride northeast of Christchurch. CCSP makes it’s home at the Old Convent a beautiful building that was built as a convent and school house in 1911. It became a bed and breakfast in 1980, and then in the fall of 2008 welcomed it’s first group of CCSP students.
All of the students arrived on the afternoon of the 2nd after many long hours of flying from The States and Canada, some via Australia and Papua New Guinea. After several hectic moments of introductions...
“Hi I’m Kelley, Kellsie, Kayti, Rich, Isaac, Beth, Sarah, Paul, Mike, Rachel, Stacie, Josh, Curtis, Stephen, Lizzy, Meaghan, Jo, Tyler, Tim, Kat, Julia, Courtney, Erin, Robyn.”
“Welcome to New Zealand, we’re Courtnay, Sara, Jess, Marcel, Abe, Derek, Ashley and Allie.”
...everyone piled into the van for the drive home to Kaikoura. During the drive back Rich took approximately 971 pictures, it was just that beautiful.
After a supper of fish and chips on the beach, the students and staff gathered for a service of dedication for the coming semester before all 24 jet lagged students went to sleep. The convent was completely quiet with lights out by 9:30 PM.
The last few days have been jam packed with orientation to life at the Old Convent and Kaikoura. Students had the chance to learn a little about doing laundry, recycling, bicycle care, and Stewart, CCSP’s resident lamb. Their first bike ride into town may have turned a few heads. It’s not every day 26 people bike through Kaikoura. But they soon made some new friends as they searched the town for photos of items such as “gum boots,” the “Why Not Café,” and the most reasonably priced accommodation for any guests that might come to visit them. I should note here that any readers who decide to come visit could find themselves sleeping on park benches, the beach, or unoccupied garages.
The second full day of orientation included a forest walk with Barry, a local who explained the ecological history of Kaikoura and what the land would have looked like before the Maori came and then after European settlers came 200 years ago. Some of the highlights of the walk included listening to Bellbirds and Fantails, hearing about trapping Australian Possums (a destructive invasive species in New Zealand), and staring up into the high branches of Matai and Rimu trees. After the hike small groups gathered for their first small group outing. One group ate lunch at the lookout, others went to the Thai food restaurant and still others went to the lavender farm, a 3km bike ride up the road.
On Saturday the whole crew drove up to Kevin and Sandy Top’s farm to learn about sheep shearing. On their farm the Tops raise Romney and Merino sheep. Not only does wool come from a renewable resource, unlike most synthetic petroleum based materials, but students have discovered over the last few days that wool socks are a must have in the often chilly Convent. An interesting fact that Kevin explained to us sheep shearers from New Zealand are in high demand worldwide, a New Zealand sheep shearer can shear 500 sheep in a day while shearers from Britain can only shear 50. As far as I know this is information that you can’t find on Wikipedia!
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