Undie 500

Since I know your lives are dull and meaningless with me on the other side of the world, I know you probably read the Otago Daily Times, well, daily. Anyway, you may have been concerned with or excited about recent news, depending on your nature. 

Now before you start worrying, or get excited (depending on your nature), I just let you know I did not participate in the Undie 500. 

The Undie 500 is a play on words (the Indie 500). Its a pub crawl from Christchurch to Dunedin and also a car rally. Basically, people buy a car for under $500 in Christchurch and drive it to Dunedin. They also pick a theme (I saw a vanbulance which was painted like an ambulance and a prostitute disposal team van, painted like a police van). There are prizes involved which I don't really  know about. 

Anyway, all this mayhem (and I mean mayhem--burning couches, costumes and broken beer bottles mayhem) took place on the street that runs parallel to mine, Castle St.

View Larger Map

In the end, 80 people were arrested and a bunch of police officers got beer bottles thrown at them. And Dunedin is all in an uproar about weather or not the Undie 500 should be allowed or not. Many students (including me) think that the police presence and the controversy started by the alcohol ban just rile up students and set expectations for chaos. Plus I heard the police officers were forcing students off their property to arrest them, but that source is totally unreliable. And for real, I read it in the ODT, the police ran out of pepper spray.

The point is, the Undie 500 is a major source of contention right now. So I thought I would share that with you now that I'm not having adventures right and left. Anyway, you can google and youtube it if you're really curious.

PS, tomato in mac and cheese is amazing.