S'later Palmy!!

So...this is it! 18 months in this wonderful country... and tomorrow morning I'm heading back to good old Europe. Phil will stay here for a bit longer and will take up the blog again. Thanks heaps guys for the most amazing farewell present ever, I hope we meet again somewhere, some time in the future. NZ rocks!

Massey University Student Association Awards

Winners of the MUSA 2009 award for Outstanding Contribution of the Year

Congratulations Phil and Ed!!

The Caccia Birch house

A little bit of history here in Palmerston North: the Caccia Birch House was built in 1895 (and that means "very old" here in New Zealand) for a Scandinavian family. Several families lived there for years and it was used by the army and the university later on. It is now property of the Palmerston North City Council and it is available for use by the whole community. The best part: it's only 5 mins. away from our place :-)

Spring is here!!

8th Aug. Wharite Peak

View of the Manawatu from Wharite Peak

80th Anniversary Muac

The Massey University Alpine Club celebrated its 80th anniversary last Saturday. The club organised an evening of dinner and entertainment with special guest speakers and former club's members.

(Muac's current president, Jackson, giving the first speech of the night)

The Club started running in June 1929, and it only stopped organising activities during World War II. It isthe second oldest club at Massey University (for only half an hour, behind the rugby guys) and still the most popular.
Although it's named "alpine club", nowadays it focuses on many more activities such as kayaking, rock climbing, caving or slacklining. It's a great place for first years and international students to meet people and get into the outdoors of this amazing country.

(Muac members in the Tararua Ranges in 1931)

Palmerston North from the air

Palmerston North!! The heart and soul of the Manawatu region and also the place we call home (sweet home). On this picture our house is somewhere on the top right, close to the river. Around 80,000 people live here. Of those, a significant percentage are students at Massey University who come from everywhere around the country and overseas and have made of this place one of the most important student cities in the country. We all call this place "Palmy".

In case you were wandering...yes, there is a Palmerston (south). The city was initially named Palmerston, but then the word "north" was added to differentiate it from the town of Palmerston in the south island.

Bernd's Graduation Ceremony

We attended Bernd's graduation ceremony today at The Regent theatre in Palmerston North. After being told how important their degrees are going to be in these times of crisis, the students were capped by the vice-chancellor of the university and got their diploma. After that, there was a parade with all the graduating students (and families) to the square (where else...) with the Town Crier leading the way. We had never seen the Town Crier from Palmy before: she is like an ambassador for the city and her job consits on opening festivals and leading welcoming ceremonies and parades (among other things, we guess). Here is a picture of her:

7th March 2009. Relay for Life; Hokowhitu

In case you were wondering what is Philipp doing in this picture, well, he's representing the surf club (and Massey) in the Relay for Life, a race organised to support victims of cancer. He's wearing the head of the Massey Uni mascot...handsome, hey?

Daily Life

So many months uploading pictures on this blog and we've just realised we haven't shown any from...Hooooome

Our garden=bbq place

Palmerston North

Sunset at Himatangi beach

The Manawatu Gorge Track

Only 12 Km away from Palmerston North, the Manawatu Gorge track is pretty much the only easy walking track you can do around here. It takes around 2h to do and it has three viewpoints along the way that give spectacular views of the river, road, railway and nearby windfarms.

Massey University Campus

Massey University

Campusallee

Campus - zentral

The Oval

Atawhai Village- Mein Zuhause