My New Career - Journalism

We got up this morning and headed down to breakfast and got to hear everybody's stories of their home hosted dinners. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, but BFF's Paul and Edna definitely had the best time. They decided to go in with "stories". So when their 85 year old host asked what they did for a living before they retired, Edna said she sold Amway and Paul said he was an interrogator for the government. Oh, how I love Paul and Edna. After breakfast we went for a bus tour of Christchurch. We went up to the top of cashmere mountain for an amazing view of the city. This place is absolutely beautiful!! Mountains, and farms, and ocean - it is really breathtaking! I can see why they filmed Lord of the Rings here - and why Dwight Schrute wants to travel here.

After our tour we were free for the day. So we found a little cafe to have lunch outside and then went "Punting on the Avon", or as I would call it, "Riding a Gondola in the River." I asked our punter whey they called it punting, but since he was just here on a 1 year visa from Argentina, he wasn't sure. He did tell us a great story about how he fell in before though.

From there we just wandered around. We saw the Arts Center and the History Museum. Then we decided to go into Christchurch Cathedral, which is a gorgeous church downtown. When we got in, there were people asking about doing the tower climb to the top to see the view. There was some confusion about it because, as the church guide was saying, there was a protestor who had locked himself on one of the balconies. There are 4 balconies up there, and they don't connect, so they decided to open the other 3 back up. The police had already been there, and the protestor wasn't coming down. They said there was nothing they could do until tomorrow afternoon. So we started the climb up a very, very long very, very spiraling staircase. When we finally got to the top, there were a couple of girls trying to get a glimpse of the protestor. But the door was locked and he had put up a piece of paper over the little glass part of the door so no one could see him. I decided to just talk to him...

So I said, "Hey. What are you doing out there" He said, "I'm having a good time!" I liked this. Why should a protest be unpleasant? So I said, "What are you protesting?" He replied, "The ACC." No idea. So I asked what the ACC is. My ignorance coupled with my obvious American accent caused him to ask if I was a tourist. So I said, "Yes, I'm from New York. I work for the New York Times. If you can let me have a picture of you I will send it to my editor and get you some press in the US." This peaked his interest, and he agreed to take off the paper for one quick photo. So he took off the paper and smiled really big, and I got my picture! Woo hoo!

When we got down the very very long staircase, Dad and Jake were telling the church guides that I had gotten a picture of the guy. They asked how, and I said I told him I worked for the New York Times. They were very impressed that I was a journalist for such a great paper. It wasn't until that point that I realized I went to the most famous church and New Zealand and flat out lied. Ummm.... oops?? I didn't bother to correct them and just went with it. Right about that time a reporter from the paper came in and the guides told him about my great photo. He asked to see it, so I showed it to him. Then he asked me how I got it, so I told him. Then he asked me to email it to him and he would put my name in the paper with the picture. SCORE!! I just hope he doesn't write the part about me working for the New York Times, because you can google that stuff, ya know??

When we got outside, we read the big banner the guy had hanging down. His website was www.screwedbyacc.co.nz (co not com). I only looked at it for a second, but it was funny. I like this dude

So anyway, I emailed the picture and the reporter emailed me back and said he would try to get the picture and name in the paper in the morning. I will post the link if it happens. If not, then with my crafty new skills, I'm going to be like BFF Paul and start a career in espionage