View of Queenstown from Deer Park

Lord of the Rings tour guide -- and sound engineer for all three movies

Grant talked with a kiwi, a sound guy for the movies -- and this day -- the tour guide. Many photos are in the album.

From lord of the r...

Rugby

A few days ago I went to a rugby game, I was cheering for the team called The Crusaders. Though they lost, but it was exciting to even know what was going on.

Dear Ms. Riggle and Class

Yesterday I had my first major tour. It was swimming with Hector's Dolphins. We went out on a boat from the port of Akaroa early in the morning (it is a lot like Rockport, MA but with beautiful mountains all around). We went out suited in layers of wet suits, waterproof hoods, gloves, and shoes. It is really cold in the water because this is a South facing port which means it is facing right to the Antarctic so it gets the winds and the water from there. The water was 13 degrees celcius. Any easy way to go from C to F is to multiply the celcius by 2 and add 30. So email back if you can figure out what 13 C is in F.

The Hector's Dolphins are about 4 feet long. They are the smallest oceanic dolphin in the world. As we went out looking for a pod of dolphins to swim with, we saw penguins (the white penguin) floating in the water. To actually swim with the Dolphins you have to find a pod that does not have a baby (calf) and they pod has to show interest in the boat. It takes a while to find a pod to swim with. It was very exciting to be 12 inches from a wild dolphin.

We are going to an intense rugby game tonight.

Write back soon-
Grant

posting from New Zealand to class

Hi Ms. Riggle:

I am writing you at 6:30am on Wednesday and it is 2:30pm on Tuesday your time (in New Zealand they would call this 14:30).

It took two days to fly from Pittsburgh to New Zealand and we never stopped. We took off the 28th and landed the 30th. First we took a plane to Dallas, Texas. After that we got on a plane and flew to LA California. Once we were there we got ready to be on the overseas flight to Auckland New Zealand. We had one more destination to fly to and that was Christchurch, our final destination.

We've already gotten bikes and joined a swim team in forty-eight hours. We also have a violin teacher (we're pretty tired). Our house is huge and we all have our own rooms (a like jumping on the two beds in my room). We have a big backyard where I can get as dirty as I want to. It is fall here and yet it is may. The leaves are changing color and it is really nice outside. We've taken jogs multiple times and biked and swam multiple times.

So my Mom found the grocery store and asked for a pound of turkey. The man behind the counter just looked at her like she was nuts. They use the metric system. A pound would be 1/2 kilo. The turkey is good anyway.