i learned how to surf on a group trip to goolwa beach, which is i think two hours from adelaide. surfing itself wasn’t that hard - i can stand up on the board and stay up for a short period. but that day the waves were 5 feet tall and i could barely stand up in the sand when the water was at my waist, let alone deeper. a friend and i ended up leaving our boards on the beach and playing in the shallow water because the strength of the waves and currents anywhere deeper than that was really quite scary. it was lots of fun overall though! i’d like to try surfing another day, when the waves aren’t ridiculously big…
glenelg beach is adelaide’s beach. we ride the tram for around 30 minutes to get there, and there are shops and food and other things around. when it was hot, we usually went down to spend the day swimming and lying on the beach.
akaroa is a french settlement about an hour and a half away from christchurch. it’s a small town with restaurants, homes, and tourist shops, but it borders on an amazing lake. it’s really quite beautiful and was so lovely to spend a day exploring! (the previous photoset is akaroa!)
christchurch was very different than we expected. the entire city centre was damaged by the earthquake in february 2011, and even now people are not allowed access because of its danger. it was pretty disheartening to see; it felt like the earthquakes had broken the city and its heart.
