Discovering the cinema

The last 2 weeks I've spent a lot of my time in the cinema, I've really rediscovered the fun of going to see a movie while munching away copious amounts of chocolate (m&m's or maltesers). It all started with The kings speech and since then I'm hooked. I've allowed myself at least one movie a week and since there is so much to see (we also have an arthouse cinema) and no tv in the hostel it has been great. Watching Tangled (the classic Rapunzel story but then completely updated to the 21st century), Gnomeo and Juliet (just finished watching it an hour ago, same as: old story, new wrapping, but still brilliant) and Sanctum. The last one was a bit creepy (well as a diver at least): a team of cave explorers gets trapped when the cave floods and they have to find an alternative way out of the cave. They use full rebreathers and all but one die.... nicely filmed, plot not too surprising, but I would recommend it. Also the other 3, so you guys should be busy watching a lot of movies too ;-) I'm sorry I missed seeing Despicable me, might try and rent that one day. Apart from watching all these movies not much happened. I read a lot of books, went out for a few drinks on Saturday evening (last weekend) with a few Dutchies (note to self: do not go out on your own here, lots of ferrals), did the Te Henui walkway and got slightly lost, drank lots of cappucino's at Starbucks, read the paper for hours, enjoyed the sunshine and now discovering the free wifi of the library (which is great and lets me upload some pictures).
No real plans for this weekend either, but might go to the mountain (Taranaki) for a long walk with some of my fellow backpackers from the hostel if the weather stays good. Oh and I finally managed to find a dark blue pair of jeans that fit properly and wasn't extremely expensive or a skinny jeans. I was so happy that I bought 2 pairs (it was one for 70 dollars or 2 for 100, one blue, one black). The only downside is that I've got too much stuff to put in my suitcase already, so something has to be thrown out before I get on a plane to Ozzie...
Christchurch.... I think all of you have seen the news and everybody here is pretty shocked, almost everyone here knows people down there. We didn't feel a thing (apparently it was shaking here in Sept last year when the first one struck C) but the pictures on the news say it all. So many deaths and so much destruction... It was the prettiest big city and now all of it is gone. They were just starting to get their lives together and rebuilding... So sad. Makes you realise you are in a country that is right on the top of the edge of two plates moving around...
Anna called me yesterday evening with the sad news that they haven't made it to the second round of the Farmer of the Year competition :-( We will still go to the dinner ofcourse and see all the presentations etc, but it's hard that after all the hard work they put in they didn't make it to the second round. On the bright side: she invited me to come along to the Fonterra (dairy)factory (all suppliers got an email with an invitation for the Saturday in the last weekend of March) and she invited me to come along : D Ofcourse I said yes, it will be very interesting to see how it all works and the good thing is that it is in the same weekend as the dinner. Am really looking forward to it and will buy some nice Dutch goodies here in NP to thank A&A for their hospitality.