To be a Kiwi

North Island Adventure

2010-06-15T01:51:00.001-07:00

Victoria and I flew into Auckland and got on the road in our campervan on Friday afternoon. We drove south out of the Auckland’s urban area towards Tongariro National Park. It wasn’t all that riveting a drive through flat farmland, but we did stop at Raglan to walk on the beach during the sunset. Raglan is a surfer’s haven and had a very relaxed feeling. The houses in the small town were set among the small hills that led down to the harbour which was turned orange and pink in the sunset.

We took some amazing hikes in Tongariro National Park on Saturday. Even though it’s winter down here the weather was perfect for tramping, sunshine but not too warm. Our first tramp was a short loop through native bush between Mt. Ruapehu and Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings) to see Taranaki Falls. Then we went up to do the first few hours of the Northern Circuit Loop that took us past a mountain stream, mountain springs, and up the side of Mt. Doom. The views were magnificent, especially towards the end, with the alpine plains covered with snow and the Emerald and Blue Lakes laid out at our feet. We spent the night near Taupo and went to Rotorua for Sunday. On the way we stopped at Huka Falls, a short waterfall with brilliant blue frothy water. An amazing amount of water goes over the 9-m tall falls- 200,000 litres every minute (Enough to fill five Olympic sized swimming pools)! The weather was terrible so we ended up going to some thermal pools. We drove north along the Bay of Plenty to spend the night at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula.

We took a nice hike at Taruia in the morning to the top of Mt. Paku. The small, pyramidal-shaped mountain sits at the edge of the harbour between Taruia and Pauanaui and gave us a beautiful 360 degrees view. We could see up the western coast of the Peninsula, past the towns to the forested hills inland, and all of the small islands along the coast. There were surfers shredding up the waves at the entrance to the harbour, their small forms almost indistinguishable from the blue water from our high view. A rainbow stretched from the ocean into the inland hills. We stopped by Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove on our way north before looping back down the eastern coast to make the drive into Auckland. It was high tide when we got to the Hot Water Beach, so we weren’t able to dig our own thermal pools out of the sand at the water’s edge, but it was nice to see it either way. The hike into Cathedral Cove was beautiful, taking us through native bush filled with fern trees and towering evergreens. The sea arch at Cathedral Cove wasn’t all that impressive and the small beach was filled with tourists, even though it’s the off-season, so we didn’t spend too much time there.
We had dinner at Food Alley in Auckland, rated the best Asian fare for quite a few years. There were tons of stalls to choose from with large portions for cheap prices of all kinds of Asian food. I ended up choosing Indian food, but I wished we had spent more time in Auckland so I could have tried the other types!
We drove toward Northland before stopping to spend the night. On Tuesday we took a nice long walk along the Hatea River in Whangarei. It was like a tropical paradise, except not very warm, walking next to the ambling stream beneath the palmy plants and huge ferns. Just north of the Hatea River Walk we walked on the canopy walkway in AH Reed Kauri Park. The view from halfway up the trunks of the magnificent trees was magical, a small stream winding through the forest floor beneath us among shorter trees and ferns. We stopped at Whangarei Falls on our way out of town, they’re the most photographed waterfall in New Zealand, but not the most impressive. We spent the night at Paihia at the Bay of Island.

It was a beautiful morning in the Bay of Islands on Wednesday. The soft sunshine lit up the harbour of Paihia, making the small islands that filled the water spots of green among the sparkling water. The town was sleepy and relaxed in winter, probably a stark contrast to the bustling atmosphere of the high season. The scenery was amazing as we drove north along the Bay of Islands. We stopped in Keri Keri to go to Makana Chocolatier where they make Kiwi-style chocolates from all local ingredients. We stopped at a few bays along the loop north, but my favorite was Wainui, the small bay lined with an empty beach. The water was calm and only a few houses lined the shoreline between the beach and the vibrantly green hills. We stopped in Mangonui for Victoria to get the “best” fish and chips in the world (as a local man told us).

As the day was beginning to turn into night we arrived at the Waipou Kauri Forest, the largest remaining kauri forest in New Zealand, and stopped to see Tane Mahuta. Tane is the largest kauri tree in the world and is more than 2000 years old.

In the morning we took a nice peaceful walk through Trounson Kauri Park before going back north a ways to a tramp that took us past Yakas, the 7th largest kauri tree, Te Matua Ngahere, the 2nd largest, and the Four Sisters, four kauri trees whose bases have melded together. The kauri trees are breathtakingly large and ancient, we stood just looking at them for minutes. All of the paths near the kauri trees were raised off the ground on boardwalks because the root systems of the kauri are so delicate that being walked on would kill the trees. On the hike we walked through Cathedral Grove, a clearing in the forest that is filled with towering kauri trees. It was one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been and my favorite place that I’ve seen in New Zealand.

Second Weekend at the Whare

2010-05-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

My weekend kicked off to a great start on Friday with the 24 Hour Booksale at the old Regent Theatre. The Regent sits on the Octagon and is a beautiful architectural remnant of 19th century Victorian style. When I went into the theatre on Friday it was to a much different scene than normal, tables slanted down from the entrance all the way to the table-filled stage. Every surface was covered with books and every other open space was filled with people digging through the titles. The books cost between one and 10 dollars and some people even came from abroad for this annual event. After my arms got too full to pick up another book I decided that I probably had enough to last me until I left here, paid a dollar each for the books, and left the Regent with the other bibliophiles, our arms and bags filled with books.

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday out at the Waikiti whare for Noho with my professor Stas, his wife Cheryl, their two girls, and Schaffer. The whare was alive with the weaving students and Roka and Carey’s uncountable children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. (Roka and Carey are the older Māori couple who founded the whare in Waikati after running their home for orphans there. The whare wananga, university, they run is affiliated with the Māori University of NZ which is the largest on the island because of its many small indigenous affiliations. Their courses combine weaving and Māori culture and the instruction is undertaken on Noho weekends.)

We got there on Saturday morning in time for the morning’s karakia, of which I almost remembered all of the words from our previous trip for the call and response. Then as Roka took charge of the weaving students Carey took all of us visitors outside to teach us about harekeke, the flax plant that is integral to the traditional Māori way of life. Before cutting any harekeke he said a small karakia, solemnly addressing the tall spiked plant and gesturing to the sky as he spoke in Māori, asking the plant’s and the atua’s blessing. He showed us different species of flax, instructed us on trimming the plants, and the appropriate methods of transplanting. His talk was interspersed with references to traditional harvesting methods, the gods, and the hilarity of the local Pākehā who didn’t know the Māori methods and were always surprised at their easy effectiveness.

In the afternoon Roka taught us how to make our own kitis, baskets, from kiekie. Kiekie is a vine that attaches itself to trees and sprouts its fronds from the lofty arena of the trees’ trunks. Roka had already prepped the fronds by boiling them for us so we got right into the weaving and in a short time had each made a small purse. It was amazing to sit there and have a master weaver teach me how to fold the kiekie so that the weave was snug and flat. The methods we were using are the same ones that her Māori ancestors used when they wove baskets to carry and store their food. Sitting in the warm afternoon sunshine among the other weavers and using the same natural materials that the Māori used made it seem timeless.

My kiti, still untrimmed

Every few hours we would be called to the wharekai to enjoy a large buffet of food. All the weavers and whatever neighbors or descendants of the family were about came from their different areas to eat together at the dining tables. The main room attached to the wharekai was filled with weaving projects and the sweet smell of prepared harekeke. Numerous relatives and children passed in and out of the whare constantly, and I never did figure out how everyone was related. The young Maori children were especially cute, with their seemingly endless hunger at mealtimes and their constant desire to play games. Every once in a while the sounds of the children playing would be broken by one of the teachers talking to the weaving students in the most impromptu, laidback lecturing style that I’ve ever seen. All of the students were working on beautiful baskets and had a deep knowledge about Maoritanga (Maori way of life), their teaching style is definitely effective and much more in the way of Maori than the mainstream education system.

After spending the night back in Dunedin we woke up early to drive out to the whare to prepare an American breakfast for everyone. I guess they don’t eat pancakes very often because everyone was raving about them for the rest of the day. After enjoying our delicious nutmeg pancakes we went out to the pasture to take a short horseback ride. The little girls were so excited about the horses it was so cute! After their first ride Leah was telling everyone the proper way to get up into the saddle and Sophia was ecstatically telling her mother how she had held the reins all on her own. On my turn on the horses we took them up the hill at a slow plodding pace. When we reached the hill crest the rolling hills were laid out before us, the verdant green slopes filled with grazing white sheep, in what was definitely a classic NZ moment.

After extensive goodbyes and traditional gift exchange we departed for Dunedin in the afternoon with a standing invitation to return whenever we wanted to. Roka and Carey both loved the woven horsehair Nez Perce gifts that my Mama had sent from the States and they gave me a Maori dictionary!

Cardboard warfare, diving, lectures, and tramping

2010-05-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

The usually studious daytime quiet is broken with war cries. Half-nakedstudents wearing cardboard armor are battling it out on the grassy lawn next to the Leith Stream. I joined the crowds of people drawn to the spectacle by the guttural yells of the “warriors”, standing at theoutskirts of the “friendly” skirmish and making sure to stay clear of the sweeping strokes of the numerous weapon-like instruments that the two sides are using to assail each other. It was very entertaining to watch the attackers mount their attack on the defendants pounding their assortment of weapons as they charged the waiting line. Nurses wearing short white dresses and armed with Gatorade bottles made the rounds of the“battlefield” following each wave of attack. The two cardboard and duct-taped “armies” must have gotten pretty tired as the war drifted across campus for a few hours.

I twist around in the water, doing flips, spins, and diving. As I somersault I have to remind myself to breath smoothly and continuously, kicking my fins over my head. Flipping over onto my back I watch the huge bubbles from my mouthpiece drifting up to break the surface of the pool. After a few pointers and short demonstrations I had gotten into the 4 meter deep pool of Dive Otago to practice the basics of scuba diving. It was really liberating, like free diving during snorkeling. I only wishthat there had been some aquatic life to frolic with.

One of the biggest differences with classes at Otago is the differing lecture styles of the each lecturer. Not all of them are professors and in all of my classes we usually don’t have the same lecturer twice in a row. But it wasn’t until this last week that I finally appreciate the way lectures are conducted at Willamette where interaction is the basis of all classes and professors always stop to ask for questions. I was sitting in a small lecture hall for my Pacific Studies course, only about 20 students had shown up for the lecture, most likely because they have become increasingly boring. About halfway through the lecture on the culture of the island of Mangaia I realized that I had some questions about what wewere talking about and that the lecturer hadn’t stopped for questions yet. So I waited until an appropriate break and then raised my hand to ask. I waited patiently with my hand in the air for a few minutes until thelecturer looked right at me and then continued with his lecture. He didn’t stop for the rest of the lecture or ask for questions at the end. So I still don’t know the answer to my question about the political structure and geographical boundaries of traditional Mangaia society and have decided that I appreciate the lecture style at my university.

On Saturday afternoon I went up the valley to hike Mt. Cargill with somefriends. It was pretty foggy out, but it wasn’t cold at all, so even though we couldn’t see anything past the hillside it was really enjoyable.The fog surrounded the path, forming a wall of whiteness that served as a calming barrier. On the wayup to the peak we stopped off at Organ Pipes, a basalt formation that required a bit of climbing to reach the top. (They are not unlike the Devil's Causeway in Ireland, except smaller.) From the small platform formed by the tops of the vertical stone columns we could see the native bush covering the hillside beneath us as the sun pushed the fog aside. Theair was filled with birdsong and little fantails swooped through the air around the top of the Pipes.

Otago Museum

2010-05-09T00:39:00.000-07:00

A moa skeleton.

Moa were one of the many bird species that became extinct after the Polynesian's arrival on Aotearoa (NZ). Prior to the introduction of Polynesian species, there were no large mammals on the islands of Aotearoa.

Among the other animal skeletons were some penguins...it's hypothesized that NZ is where all penguins originated from. The local yellow-eyed penguin supports this hypothesis with its small, relatively undeveloped build.

One of the most beautiful parts of the museum were the Tangata Whenua rooms. The wooden carvings were especially beautiful and characteristic of Māori culture.

How a traditional wharepuka, sleeping house, was arranged

A waka- a traditional canoe like the ones Māori ancestors voyaged to NZ in

Māori carvings from a marae (Māori traditional center)

Autumn Architecture in Dunedin

2010-05-09T00:24:00.000-07:00

The Quad (on campus)

How New Zealand does their Best Western hotels

One of the classy student flats near where I live

And why am I not living here?

Student flat on the way to my Māori lecture

A nice Dunedin home- odd that it's so close to the campus...

Another Dunedin home- a second example of a place where students obviously don't live

Music to My Ears

2010-05-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

I had a very musical past week. On Friday evening I was in Circadian Rhythm listening to a local jazz group. The slightly wizened Kiwi musicians bouncing around to the beat of their music in the cheerfully painted Indian cafe. Sunday night I attended an orchestra performance called "Russian Masters" at the Dunedin City Center. I enjoyed Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Beethoven (Russian?) while sitting among a sea of elderly people in their finery in the lavish performance hall. Sunday afternoon I went to a Polish celebration of Chopin's life, replete with the Polish ambassador to New Zealand, children dressed in traditional Polish garb, and a piano performance. Wednesday's music performance was Hungarian Masterworks for Piano Four Hands. The two professors who played for us were exquisite together, their hands running up and down the keyboard, flawlessly overlapping and pounding in perfect rhythm.

The Chopin Celebration

Queenstown

2010-04-30T23:03:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning it was off to the farmer's market for some breakfast crepes and farm-fresh berries before loading up the car and heading off to Queenstown. My Kiwi host Crispin drove while David, Victoria and I enjoyed the scenery. The four hour drive through central Cantebury was beautiful with the trees changing color to their fall finery. We stopped in Alexandra for lunch at a cute natural cafe where we had to stop ourselves from buying about five different things each because everything looked so good. The farm stores along the way were all open, selling fresh fruits and regional goods like nuts, honey, and eggs. When we arrived in Queenstown we checked into the Black Sheep, a surprisingly clean and new hostel, where we were staying. Then the boys went off to visit one of Crispin's friends while Victoria and I took a hike up one of the mountains surrounding the lake.

It was perfect hiking weather, too overcast to get sunburnt, just cool enough to keep walking uphill comfortable, and the view from the top was amazing. Lake Wakatipu and the town of Queenstown lining its shores were peaceful, with no movement marring the stillness. The mountains stretched up from the still water, their slopes turned a deep blue from the distance. Goats were grazing the hillside near the trail and a mist was rising from the nearby valley, lending a mythical feel to the landscape.

After meeting up with the boys again we ventured downtown to what David professed was the "best burger place he'd ever been to"- Fergburger. It seemed that other agreed with him because when we arrived the line to order strecthed out the doorway. But we eventually got our burgers and they were worth the wait. My 'Holier than Thou' was possibly the best vege burger I've ever eaten... the tempured tofu with a spicy coconut and coriander sauce and veggies. Yum! After dinner we explored the town for a while playing pool in the upstairs of the Moose Bar where their snowboarding films shown on the wall tvs made me really, really want to go snowboarding. We went to Lick for some ice cream (apple crumble, amazing) and then went to a local party that Crispin's friend invited us to. It was exactly like a house party in the States would be like...except for the accents of course.

Sunday was Anzac Day. But Joes Garage was open for breakfast and it was delicious...I had a plum smoothie for the first time ever, and I would definitely recommend it. Driving back to Dunedin we passed Anzac Day ceremonies in all of the towns we drove through. Whereas the day before the towns had been full of weekend hustle and bustle, there were usually no other cars on the road besides ours and large gatherings of people were having memorial ceremonies in the city centers.

Queenstown was beautiful, with its lakeshore lined with colorful trees and its clean, albeit touristy, city streets. I may have to make a trip up there during ski season to see how it has changed.

Wellington Ukulele Orchestra

2010-04-30T03:54:00.000-07:00

This blue-grass style band was not exactly what we were picturing when we bought our tickets for the Ukulele Orchestra...but it was great! There were 8 ukulele players, and one bass player, and they were all dressed in ridiculous outfits. They performed a wide range of songs, but my favorite was definitely their rendition of the Beatles song "All you need is love"...

Cadbury Chocolate Factory

2010-04-30T03:44:00.001-07:00

The smokestacks and purple buildings of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory are the stuff of a chocoholic, Willy Wonka-lover's dreams. Sometimes when I'm walking past the factory I smell the sweet scent of baking chocolate in the air- this may be just an olfactory halluciation, but I like to pretend that it's real.

We got to go visit the factory and although it wasn't quite like the factory in Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", it had it's high points. We didn't get to see the actual production floor, but we did get to see the chocolate waterfall that is housed in one of the purple towers. It's only to entertain visitors, but it was still magnificent...a roaring rush of melted chocolate that splattered the inside of the tower so that the railings and walls of the staircase that we were standing on had formed some stalagmite-like chocolate protrusions.

They also had the old Cadbury delivery cars...I wish they still delivered the chocolate in these, I would buy it all of the time.

The Beauty of Student Life

2010-04-30T03:22:00.000-07:00

Due to lecturer's being ill and random cancellations I only had a few hours of class this week...so I was able to fully enjoy the start of my second round of non-academic courses and everything else going on this week.

I've started swimming again so Monday morning I swam laps around the old and broken people at the Physiotheraphy pool. I'm always the youngest person when I go there and the pool is so warm, it's great. I went grocery shopping at the organic store with Leslie in the afternoon. On the way we checked out a vegetarian cafe where I had a delicious vege-quiche-thing. That evening I had my first meditation class. I was so excited when I found out that it was taught by my yoga instructor...he's so full of zen, it's great. After spending an hour meditating on my mat in the old activities hall surrounded by other supine people I was very relaxed. We were having a Willamette dinner at Stas's house so I had a good night hanging out with everyone, enjoying the good food (I successfully made a cheesy pasta bake), and playing Bananagrams.

My only class on Wednesday was cancelled so I got to go to the $3 Hare Krshna lunch with a bunch of my girl friends. I hadn't been in a few weeks so I was very excited to nosh on their huge bread roll and chocolate semolina pudding. I'd never had this dessert before, and I don't know if we have it in the States, but I think that we definitely should...it's amazing. After filling my stomach I went to a music performance at Marama Hall by performance students. My favorite was the flutist who played Bach's Hamburg. My first Self Defense class was a success. It's taught by this middle-aged judo master who's hilarious. All of his explanations of techniques and situations are whole-heartedly New Zealander, involving one or more "huge, scary rubgy players". It was also very entertaining to watch some of the girls try to do the moves. They didn't know how to move their bodies to hit something and so would be moving in two different directions at once, barely moving at all, or some other highly entertaining motions. It was one of my friend's 22nd birthday so I spent most of the night at his birthday party at his flat. It was supposed to be a potluck...which meant that Elizabeth and I took real food and everyone else brought chips. Despite the lack of edible food it was still really fun and I got to meet a few new people.

Thursday evening was my first astronomy course and it was amazing. It was held at an observatory on a hillside right above the Octagon. The small building is full of telescopes of all different sizes and its walls are covered with colorful posters of planets, solar systems, and star formations. The sky was pretty overcast but it did clear up enough for us to see Uranus...I could even see it's rings! We got to play with this high-powered laser that our instructor uses to point out the stars in the sky and I got to make the roof of the observatory swivel around. The instructor brought out tons of different models of planets and solar systems to show us things. It was a very successful class.

Easter Break: Glacier parks to the "City"

2010-04-16T01:54:00.000-07:00

It was a sleepy car ride up the western coast to Arthur's Pass from where we made our way east through the Cantebury Plains towards Christchurch. We lunched at the top of Arthur's Pass, one of the most recent highways to be established, finally connecting Westland to the agricultural areas of the country. We were joined by a friendly kea bird who decided that the best way to make sure that it didn't miss any scraps we accidentally dropped would be to hop around our group. It was standing right behind me the entire time I was eating my sandwich in a slightly unnerving way, I was just glad that it wasn't so familiar with humans to try and eat the sandwich out from my hands. Eventually the large, parrot-like bird got tired with our frugal-group (we weren't supposd to feed it) and went to explore the tops of some of the parked vans, startling their human occupants as it poked its head through the windows in search of something edible.

Leslie and I- a LOTR site, finally!

An hour later we stopped at Castle Hill for some impromptu bouldering and general exploring. The unusual limestone rocks have been used in multiple major films including Lord of the Rings.

Jessica and Victoria hard at work on the vegs

At Jessica's flat that night we cooked up a huge Mexican fiesta-meal to celebrate our last night together.

Home Sweet Home (kind of)

2010-04-14T04:24:00.000-07:00

It's been nice to be back in Dunedin and do normal homey-things. This week I've been catching up on my homework, going to yoga class, and going to the SPCA, like normal. But I also went to my first ever Zumba class and loved it! It's a dance exercise class that is very high energy and taught in an impromptu, fun style. And I was surprisingly very tired when the hour was over.

I found where the Wednesday lunchtime concerts are in our music building and went to a 'Recital of German Lieder'. I really just went for the piano accompianment but the singer had an amazing baritone voice and was very interesting to watch as he automatically acted out the story of what he was singing and then seemed slightly embarrassed at his performance at the end of each song.

I found out that my favorite restaraunt in town, a vegan cafe called Circadian Rhythm, has live jazz on Friday nights. Consequently I spent most of this evening there nurturing a spirulina smoothie and their hummus plate while enjoying the jazzy atmosphere.

Leslie showing off her first ever homemade bread

My flatmate Jenny cooking for real (for the first time!)

Easter Break: The East Coast

2010-04-14T04:07:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we had to leave the Christchurch students to drive back down the east coast to Dunedin. It was a sleepy, lonely car ride but we managed to do some fun things on the way. In Dunsandel we stopped for coffee and tea and found a really cool cafe. It was all decorated in regional, antiques and sold some local, fresh apple juice that was some of the best I've ever had. I don't know who designed the door to the place, or why they chose to do it this way, but the handle to the cafe's front door was so low that it was almost down to my knees. And that's pretty low!

Our final stop of the trip was at the Moeraki Boulders. The local Māori people tell how a canoe searching for the prized greenstone was wrecked at the nearby Shag Point. The beach's round boulders are the baskets and gourds from this ancient canoe. An alternative explanation is that the boulders were formed while they were back in the nearby mudstone cliffs. They are called septarian concretions that are formed when minerals are crystallised equally in all directions from an organic nuclei. Either way they were really cool to see and play on.

Shaffer holding up Victoria and I

Shaffer and Stas squaring off on the boulders...I don't know how that would worked exactly

I think we were all rather disappointed that our week of adventuring was finished once we returned to Dunedin, but we were also ready for a good-long bath and some relaxation time.

NZ Impressions

2010-04-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

It was interesting to drive through this seemingly natural landscape and realize that the flora and fauna is relatively recent (within the last few centuries). The original forests were decimated with the colonization by Europeans and replaced with European flora that would sustain their Euro-centric vision for NZ. And before the Polynesian settlers, the Māori's ancestors, came there weren't even any large mammals on the islands! I think the trip would have been a little more relaxing for me if I hadn't been thinking about all the environmental history of it the entire time!

It was also interesting to see how even the smallest towns had a rubgy pitch. And most had skate parks also.

Everyone was really nice and welcoming on the trip. I don't think anyone treated us badly, deserved or not, the entire time. Not even when we ran onto the dock of our glowworm tour boat as it was leaving and tried to board it.

Easter Break: Glaciers and Sunshine

2010-04-10T22:41:00.001-07:00

All zinced-up and ready for the glacierCrampon bags, check!
Climbing up the moraine

Late Thursday morning we hiked up the end of the glacial valley and onto Franz Josef glacier. The rocky valley floor is composed of flattened rubble that fills the valley 300 meters past the actual rock bottom of the valley. Waterfalls were spread at regular intervals along the valley's walls. After scrambling up the moraine we climbed onto the ice of the glacier. The ice beneath our boots was vividly blue in some places, the melting glacial water pooling up in pockets in the ice and streaming down the jagged chasms that split the ice. Sometimes the cracks in the ice were large enough for us to explore. The sun was shining brightly, making the ice of the glacier transparent. Franz Josef is only one of three temperate glaciers in the world, the icy mountain surrounded by temperate rainforest and waterfalls. After our tramp on the glacier we walked around Lake Matheson. On calm days its surface is supposed to be smooth enough to see the reflections of nearby mountains perfectly. Although there was just a little too much of a breeze on this day, it was still a beautiful walk. Ducks cut watery trails across its surface as smaller black and white birds fluttered their tails as they flitted through the air. The tree trunks lining the path were covered with moss, harekeke, and hanging vines. Some of the trees had a hanging flower adorning their uppermost branches, its bright red petals brightening the otherwise green forest.

Easter Break: A Day of Rainbow Driving

2010-04-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we drove from Te Anau, along Fjordland, past Queenstown, through Wanaka, and along Westland to Franz Josef glacier. Although it was a relatively short distance it was like driving across multiple mini-continents with many different types of landscapes. It changed from open lake shore to windy mountainous roads, past Eastern Washington-like farmland to glacial streams running through forests. We stopped at Wanaka for lunch. Leslie and I ate at an organic cafe that was amazing; I had quinoa loaf and a fresh fruit smoothie. Between Wanaka and Westland we stopped at Lake Hawae, its water a bright blue set within the barren mountains.

Leaving the lake behind we drove through Haast's Pass. Its river had dug itself a deep canyon and icy blue water rushed past the large boulders filling the riverbed.
Our next stop was at Bruce's Bay where everyone who drives past stops and makes a creation out of rocks and driftwood. Every open space along the ocean-side of the highway was filled with small peetering towers of stones or structures of driftwood. After arriving in Franz Josef we took a group run up the valley to the glacier. The stream that runs off from the glacier was an icy, slate-grey color; set among the almost tropical forest in the valley floor it looked like it belonged in another world. We left the main road and ran along the forest trails up the valley towards the glacier. We almost sprinted past a small mountain lake before stopping to appreciate how the mountains were reflected in its smooth surface.

We ate really good Indian food, at Purayi, in Franz Josef township that night.

Easter Break: Tramping on the Kepler Track

2010-04-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

We spent Tuesday in Te Anau also as we waited for our van to be repaired (there was an issue of using regular petrol instead of diesil) so we took a 25 km tramp along the Kepler track. We followed the track along a broad river, its lazy curves winding through old growth forest. Light filtered through the branches of the tall trees to touch the thick moss-covered forest floor. The moss was so thick it felt like a soft, springy mattress- my hand almost disappeared into it when I touched it. We came out of the forest momentarily to cross a narrow desert-like plain before plunging back into the trees. The track was empty and quiet except for the birds' songs that sometimes broke the peaceful stillness. It seemed like the kind of place where elves would live. It was really nice to have a relaxing walk with everyone, and it gave us all time to get to know each other even better.

We had chinese food at a cute restaraunt called Ming Garden in Te Anau. The food wasn't amazing but it was really entertaining to watch Pete learn to use his chopsticks because he had never used them before and he was sitting there practicing with them before we even got our food. We spent the night playing Bananagrams in the hostel's kitchen (like speed Scrabble, without the board) and drinking ginger beer (which is delicious).

Easter Break: WU Does Fjordland

2010-04-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

The WU Crew: in the back- Jessica, Leslie, Stas, Megan and Shaffer.

in the front- Victoria, Pete and I.

We rose before the sun on Monday morning to make the two-hour drive to Milford Sound for a morning cruise of the fjord. We drove from Te Anau along the Milford Road into Fjordland National Park. The sun appeared about halfway through our drive, by its light we could see the mountains, waterfalls, and lakes that we had been blindly driving past. The mountains grew taller and crept nearer as we drove west; soon their steep faces filled the van's windows and even by craning our necks upward we couldn't see their peaks. Upon reaching the fjord we boarded the small tour boat and took places in the bow with a perfect view of our entrance to Milford Sound.

Milford Sound

Tall mountains stood proudly out of the calm water of the fjord. Waterfalls adorned their tree-covered slopes like necklaces of trickling water. Some of the falls were set in deep crevasses that they had cut into the rocky face with centuries of work. One of the mountains was the steepest single rock face in the world, rising straight up from the base of the fjord. On another mountainside you could see five huge curves taken out of its face from each of the glacial movements through the fjord. We spent the entire cruise standing in the front of the boat joking around and taking in the magnificent view.

Five glacial cuts

Driving back to the east from Milford Sound we stopped at an really geologically-interesting canyon called the Chasm. Huge rocks were naturally organized along its walls and large logs jutted out from random spots where they had gotten stuck over the years. The pictures just don't do its depth and intriguing rocks justice. During our scenic drive back to Te Anau there were few cars, but we did get stuck once when a herd of sheep decided to use the road as their own personal highway.

In the afternoon we recovered from our early morning and then took a short tramp to the beginning of the Kepler track around the edge of Lake Te Anau. (The Kepler track is one of the Great Walks, a 60 km tramp through the mountains of Fjordland.)

Easter Break: Jetboating to Glowworms

2010-04-10T04:53:00.001-07:00

After a much-needed morning yoga session we took off from Invercargill towards Te Anau. The scenery became increasingly gorgeous as we left southern Otago and made our way towards the Fjordland National Park, where Te Anau is situated on the edge. Broad pastures were filled with grazing sheep. Foothills covered in scrub stand in the shadows of tall, treeless mountains. Bright blue mountain streams rushed down from the mountain forests. It was absolutely gorgeous to drive north through the island with the Otago plains to the east and the mountains of Fjordland rising to the west. We stopped at Lake Manapouri for a group photo op on its rocky beach before going on to Te Anau. We stayed at a really nice backpackers there that was on the lake shore; the girls had a room to ourselves and we even had our own bathroom and kitchen! We had a lakeside lunch, soaking up the rays of sunshine and watching the platoons of sailboats drifting across the blue surface of Lake Te Anau. Tall mountains reached out of the calm lake, sunlight illuminating their forested slopes underneath the clear blue sky. The town had a lazy feeling to it that was refreshing after being in a bustling college town for so long. After a walk along the lake shore we took a jet boat cruise on Lake Manapouri on a friend's boat.

Shaffer and I almost falling off the back of the jet boat

The lake was even more majestic from an on-the-water view. He cruised us around the lake, weaving among the islands set around its edges and took us to a small cove where there we could see a waterfall hidden in the mountainside. We took a short tramp through the underbrush around the cove- it was like a tropical forest with its dense, green growth. It seemed like a dinosaur was going to poke its head out behind one of the giant ferns or something. On the ride back Megan and Pete went water skiing in the freezing water.

Leslie and I enjoying the sunshine on the lake

At dusk we boarded a small yacht to go to the Te Anau-au Glowworm Caves. A few stars were starting to appear in the purple-tinged charcoal sky. The islands that we passed were just dark shapes set against the darker mountains surrounding the lake. The previous days' rain had swollen the stream running through the caves to a thunderous rush of water. Its roar was strong in our ears as we walked along the wooden platforms built inside the caves' walls. There were a few glowworms on the ceiling on our walk through the cave towards the main glowworm cavern, unobtrusively stuck to the ceiling.

(Not my photo...but pretty eh?)

We passed a torrential waterfall and got into the small wooden boat on a quiet pool. As our guide began paddling us into the darkness of the cavern the sound of the stream became fainter. No artificial light was brought with us as we were steered blindly through the dark, silent cavern. The stillness was broken only by the sound of the boat bumping into the rocky walls as the darkness became less oppressive while the number of glowworms increased. Patches of glowworms covered the ceiling, their light turquoise color providing the only illumination in the cavern 30 meters beneath the earth's surface. They looked like stars covering the cave's ceiling or blue sparkles strewn across the rock's surface. Or they could have been pinholes stuck through the rock to reveal a luminescing interior. The glowworms bioluminesce to attract prey into their sticky "hunting" lines. The lines dangle down from the ceiling, composed on their venomous saliva, invisible in the darkness. When light is shone on them they look like minuscule strands of pearls. The thunderous sound of the stream heralded our return to the lightened passages as we departed the unearthly world of the glowworms into the equally magnificant star-filled nighttime sky.

Easter Break: Traversing the southern coastline

2010-04-10T04:02:00.000-07:00

This past week was Easter Break so I went on a week-long trip with the other Willamette students and our Willamette professor who is down here taking care of us. I had an amazing time visiting some of the most beautiful and unique places I've ever been. At the same time it was great to get to know everyone better. We have some great memories and stories now...most of the places that we went are too great to describe with words, but I'll do my best.

The whole gang: Victoria, Megan, Leslie, Shaffer, Jessica, Pete and Stas

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to meet the rest of the group for our trip along the southern coastline of the south island from Dunedin to Invercargill. We took the scenic route through Catlin's Forest Park and stopped at the main sights along the way.

Nugget Point

Our first stop was at Nugget Point to see the lighthouse. It's an incredibly beautiful place- the white tower of the lighthouse is nestled on the edge of the small peninsula. Huge rocks extend past the point out into the sea, their slopes teeming with a colony of playful seals. We stood in the shelter of the lighthouse for a while watching the seals romping around on the rocks beneath us, their smooth forms barely indistinguishable hundreds of meters below us.
We piled back into the van to go to Purakaunai Falls. The short hike was through a verdant temperate rain forest, it was so similar to Oregon's that I had to remind myself that I was not tramping around on the Oregon coast. Light rain sprinkled down through the tall trees as we followed a melodically humming stream through the forest. The three-tiered falls were slightly hidden by their surrounding vegetation, but the straight edges of the rocks are eye-catching.
We got to Cathedral Caves at low tide, but we still had to time our entrance into the gaping cavern to avoid getting a salty bath from the incoming waves. The caves were definitely my favorite place of the day- two connected sea caves cut into the side of beach cliffs. We entered the first archway to find a wide chamber with a broad, arching ceiling. The light filtered in from above the ocean behind us as we walked back into the darkness. The caves were surprisingly dry and had amazing acoustics, it was easy to see where they got their name from.

We also made it to the Petrified Forest while it was still above the ocean's grip. These fossilized trees are remnats of a Jurassic Era forest that was immortalized when ancient flooding washed silica into the forest from a nearby volcano top. The silica impregnated the plants, turning them into fossils in just a matter of months! What is visible now is a rocky shoreline that has fossils of tree trunks and fallen logs, while it's not covered by the water that is.

That is one OLD tree!

The entire day we had a decent view of the seemingly endless Pacific Ocean stretching down towards Antartica. We were entertained by pods of small dolphins and the yelping seals who frequent the coastline. We spent a very comfortable night at an Invercargill hostel after barbequeing up a huge dinner at a friend's house.

Camping trip to Aoraki

2010-03-29T02:20:00.000-07:00

I left Dunedin early Friday afternoon with Lucia and Libor (a Czech-Slovak couple), Cynthia (Brasilian) and Lorenzo (Italian). The sun was shining and it was really warm (24degreesC!) so the drive was really pretty. I was surprised at how similar the countryside looked to back home. But the unplanned pause in our drive from a herd of sheep getting moved across the road was wholly NZ. For the last hour of our drive to Aoraki (Mt. Cook) National Park we could see the mountain in front of us- its grand peak stretching up into the summery sky.

After pitching our tents and having dinner we got to enjoy one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen...

This beautiful preclude to the night was deceiving...none of us slept much because of the horribly strong gusts of wind and rain that tore off the outer cover of the tent multiple times and threatened to flatten the entire tent on top of us a few times! But despite waking up a little worse for the wear we were rewarded for our restless night by a rainbow that stretched in front of a mountain range next to our camp.

Lorenzo, Cynthia and I

We did the Hooker Valley track on Saturday morning. We followed the track as it wound up the valley, crossing the river twice over narrow suspension bridges, and generally getting soaked all around. (It rained the entire walk in and puddles covered half of the trail)

Although we ended up sopping wet, the hike was gorgeous. There were clouds covering the tops of the surrounding mountains but we could still see the bottom parts of the glaciers on their slopes. Waterfalls gushed down from the bottom of the glaciers, feeding into the stony-colored stream that we walked next to. There were boulders strewn across the wide floor of the valley, left behind from an ancient glacier.

The rest of the foreigners arrived late Friday evening in time for us to have a nice candlelit dinner together. It was a very classy style of camping- most of them brought all the luxuries from home and the campsite we were staying at had a public building with tables and sinks. AND the campsite had recycling, trash, flush toilets, and potable water. It was definitely not roughing it. But it was really funny to see all of the foreigners trying to toast marshmallows in the flames of the candles.

On Sunday we hiked up a different valley to see the Mueller Glacier and then hiked up the adjacent mountainside. The track was pretty steep and at times treacherous (I saw more than a few of the wooden trail stabilizers that had fallen from the trail onto the steep mountainside).

But the steepness of the track was worth it because as we climbed an amazing view of the valley opened up before us. By the time that we got up to Sealy Tarns (small mountainside lakes) halfway up the mountain we could see all the way to the lake that we drove past on our way into the park in one direction and up past Hooker Glacier to the base of Aoraki in the other direction.

While we rested at the tarns the clouds blew away from the mountain tops and we finally got a full view of the Mueller Glacier.

Mueller Glacier from the campsite.

Before driving home we stopped at Tasman Glacier, the biggest glacier in NZ. The few meters of rock rubble covering its surface hide the 200-600 meters of glacial ice filling the valley.

Looking down Tasman Valley from the Blue Lakes lookout.

And the sun came back out in full force just in time for our drive back to Dunedin.

A Day in the Life of Elena

2010-03-29T01:40:00.000-07:00

The infamous Dunedin fire truck- courtesy of the antics of the Scarfies.

My walk to and from the grocery store, pretty eh?

My flat (on the left).

Leith River and flats on my way to campus

Te Whare Wanunga Photos

2010-03-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

Shaffer, Victoria and I modeling Rokka's art with Roka and Carey in the sleeping room

traditional Maori garments made from harekeke

All the Bearcats outside the whare ready to go clamming

making flowers in the wharenui

prepping the harekeke

whakanoa- getting rid of the tapu of the powiri ceremony by eating food (which is noa)

Waikouaiti Whare trip pictures

2010-03-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

Digging for tuangi (clams) at Blueskin Bay

Roka and Victoria digging up dinner

Shaffer following tikanga Maori- washing the sand off of the tuangi so that we leave it with the ocean, where it should be.

(I'll post more pictures once I get them from the other students)

Te Whare Wanunga

2010-03-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend the WU students at Christchurch came down and we all went out to a whare wananga (a house of learning) to experience Maori culture and learn about weaving. The whare was established by Roka and Carey, an elderly Maori couple, years ago so that they could teach Maori ways. Roka is very well-known for the amazing Maori cloaks that she has made from harekeke, flax, fiber that she has shown around the world and that are on display now at Cantebury Museum. She is now a teacher of Maori arts at Uni of Otago. Carey is part Maori part Scots who was very grandpa-like with his short Santa Claus-beard. He used to be a schoolteacher before founding the whare. It has been used as a private school, a carving school, and it has developed into a place where they offer harekeke, flax, weaving courses. They established it independent of the government and now they are connected to the largest university in NZ, a Maori one called Te Wanunga te Aotearoa. After this educational purpose it also serves as a place for their whanau (extended family). They have quite an extensive whanau because along with their children and grandchildren they also took care of hundreds of children through the welfare system over the years. The whare wanangua has become their family home where at least some of their whanua come for the weekend. When they have children they return to the whare to bury their whenua, placenta, in the ground to give them a deeper connection to the earth, also called whenua, there and the family.

We spent the weekend learning about tikanga Maori, Maori ways, and enjoying being in their family. When we first arrived at the whare we were sang onto the ceremonial green by Roka's daughter. The women in our group entered the open courtyard first, followed by the men, to her eerie, wailing song. Roka, singing the replies, led us in to our seats along the long wooden benches facing the whare's front and her seated family. Following Maori customs the men sat on the benches in front of us as Carey stood up to welcome us. He spoke Maori in a deep booming voice and he greeted us and our ancestors and paid respects to them, the whenua, and the atua. The Stas gave a short response in his native Greek before we finished closing the space between us visitors and their family. We said 'Kia ora' (hello) to each other as we gripped arms and touched our noses together. The nose represents tihei mauri ora, the first sneeze of life, and thus our ancestors; so by touching noses we were kind of introducing our ancestors to each other and getting rid of any foreigness between the two. The welcoming cermeony had created a state of tapu, a sacred state of separateness, that we broke by eating food which is noa, or common. When Carey said that we were going to have tea I expected a few biscuits and some hot drinks. Instead we went into the main hall to find three long tables laden with trays of food. (This theme continued for the rest of the weekend- we ate often and well.) After taking tea we all went down to the village green where they were having their annual A&P (no idea what that means) show. It was a mix between a farmer's market, garage sale, and an auction. Little children were riding ponies and taking rides on a small fire truck that went around the green blaring its tinny horn. There were huge steaming pots of local clam chowder and tubs of homemade raspberry honey.

After lunch we had a runanga, an introduction circle, in the wharepuni, sleeping room. All of the whanau, weaving students, and Willamette students went in and made ourselves comfortable on thick mattresses and fluffy pillows. We then went around the circle introducing ourselves; the ones who could speak te reo Maori (the Maori language) did, their beautiful flowing words were very sleep inducing. Which incidentally was allright because we were doing things the Maori way. Traditionally meetings were held in the wharepuni and everyone lay down on blankets and mats on the smooth earthen floor. The meetings would usually go long into the night so if anyone was ever tired they could just close their eyes and go to sleep and wake up when they were rested to get back into the conversation. So Carey kept on encouraging us to just take a nap if we felt like it, an offer which for college students is a bit too needed. We got to sleep in this wharepuni with the weaving students who were there for their weekend course work. It's long walls were set with tall windows that were separated by elaborate wooden carvings that were made by Carey's students. The end wall was covered with a harekeke carving that represented their whanau's whakapapa, their genealogical table- half a ship and half a canoe were connected by a bible to show the Pakeha-Maori origins. The two wooden statues on either side of the door represented each side of the family. On the other side of the door was a whale's tail sticking out of the ocean, to represent their origin from the sea.

After meeting everyone we went to Blueskin Bay to do some clamming while the weaving students started working harvesting the harekeke leaves. Blueskin Bay got its name from the Maori who used to live there- they were so heavily tattooed that their skin looked blue. I had never been clamming before, so it was an entirely new experience for me. Roka and her family still follow the old Maori way of only taking those tuangi, clams, that were larger and leaving the smaller one to breed and grow older and larger. After collecting enough tuangi to go along with dinner we took a leisurely stroll along the beach to a sea arch. It was a gorgeous day out, cloudy but not cold, with the bay calm until it reached the sea.

After returning to the whare Roka taught us how to prepare the harekeke and to make small flat baskets out of. Harekeke was, and still is, very important to the Maori. They use harekeke leaves to make baskets and decorations and use its fiber to make nets and clothing. After dinner one of Roka's granddaughters taught us how to make flowers out of the leaves. She was much, much better at it than we were, but was very patient with us clumsy Americans. Now I have an everlasting bouquet of beautiful flowers made of harekeke on my desk.

Pictures

2010-03-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

Every day at the Clubs and Societies Center there is a $3 lunch put on by the Hare Krshna. I usually go once or twice a week with my friends...the food is delicious and they
give you tons of it! My favorite day is Wednesday which is soup day, they give you barley soup, a hearty homemade roll (it's huge!) and dessert. They serve the a different
flavor of the same dessert everyday- it's sambola. I'd never had it before, it's texture is most like Cream of Wheat...except it tastes good.

This is what a common flat of a university student looks like. Not too tidy, but usually with no major damages. The street in front of it is usually covered with broken glass
because the students here don't recycle- when they're done with a bottle the just smash it on the ground or throw it somewhere or at something. Some of the flats are decorated
with art, like this one's surfing penguin, while others have names like "the Castle".

This rugby stadium is being built right between the campus and the harbour. It is going to be used in the Rugby World Cup which is coming to NZ in this upcoming summer.

Fun Fact: Agave's first flower is usually their last. This particular plant is about 10 metres tall and took 25 years to get to a point where it was ready to flower. Just a few
months ago it had a bright yellow flowering-ball on it's top. The flowering takes all of the plant's energy, so it will die after it's flower finishes. Althought it's no longer
flowering, you can see how amazingly tall it was.

Just another week at university

2010-03-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Since classes have started I haven't had much time for big adventures, but I have managed to do quite a few fun things around all my very strenuous schoolwork (ha).
We had another WU dinner at Stas' house last weekend for which I made dessert. It was chocolate peanut butter cheesecake which was a completely new recipe for me, which always complicates things, but it was made even more difficult because it was an American recipe and I'm in NZ. They don't have graham crackers here (which I wanted for the crust) and their cream is in a totally different container than we have. So grocery shopping took a really really long time. But the dinner and dessert were delicious, so it was worth it.
I discovered that my flatmates Jenny and Elizabeth like playing badminton, and I'm always down for a good game, so we went to UniPol (the gym) to play and we ended up staying for a few hours. It was really fun, especially because we were playing with no rules. Jenny was especially funny, when she would miss hitting the birdie she would throw her hands up in the air in disgust and surprise.
The next day there was an international barbeque for the students living in my part of town. So I got to meet a bunch of new people (mostly Americans) as I tried to eat my not-really-delicious-veggie sausage. I even met some Idahoans when we were playing grass volleyball.
I had my second massage course- we learned a legs and feet massage. I got to be the example so I had a great massage from the instructor followed by an unsatisfactory massage from another student. I think I'm going to try not to pair up with him again. For the most part everyone is really cool and mature about the massage thing, but I think he is not used to it and I was kind of creeped out. Especially at the end when, after we had been talking about good places to run around town, he very excitedly invited me to go running with him and then, and I quote, "we can massage each other afterwards". Yeah, that's not happening.
I finally got to meet the local student who is supposed to be my mentor during my time here. She's really nice, lives out on the peninsula with her family, and is a theatre major. So we went to the lunchtime theatre performance together (every Thursday and Friday there are hour long performances in the theatre). It was a really strange performance about two teenagers who had been born in a bomb shelter and whose parents had been killed and eaten down there by their crazy cook. The cook then kept the children imprisoned so they had never been above ground. It was very well-written, not allowing you to realize where they are or what exactly is happening until the very end, but it was still slightly disturbing and extremely dysfunctional.
I went to my first movie here on Friday night- Alice in Wonderland in 3D! It was exactly like going to the movies in the States. And it was a great film. I was supposed to be taking my surfing class this weekend, but a huge storm rolled in towards the end of the week and stuck around all weekend so it didn't end up happening. There's nothing to slow down the wind as it blows up from Antartica so by the time it hits New Zealand it's pretty rough. It was so strong that I was actually trying not to go outside because if a big gust came up I would get blown around. It made walking to class a bit difficult. On Saturday I went to a party at our friends' house that was all non-American international students (except for me and one of the flatmates)- it was really fun. People were mostly speaking in English, but sometimes small groups of people would form speaking their own languages or people would shout across the room to their countrypeople in foreign languages.
My flatmates and I have been going to yoga every Monday and Thursday night. It's getting pretty difficult sometimes, but it's still really fun. It's a good flat-bonding thing also...especially when something funny happens. Like last night when we were doing the cat pose (where you kneel on hands and knees and raise your sacrum and head to the ceiling while dropping your spine towards the floor) and the instructor told us quite seriously that if we work hard we could eventually touch the back of our head to our sacrum. Elizabeth and I immediately looked at each other in complete disbelief and had to work really hard to not laugh too loudly.
Yesterday morning I went to volunteer at an animal shelter that is just a few blocks north of the botanical gardens. It was really nice to finally be around animals even though it was depressing to see all the animals in their cages. I loved being able to play with the kittens. The only really difficult part was during my training when the woman who was showing me around kept on telling me where normal things were but since she was using Kiwi-words for them, I had no idea what she was talking about. I think she thought I was a little slow because I kept on having to ask her to repeat things or show me where they were because I couldn't understand what she was trying to say. Like when she told me to put the trash in the 'spat', which is the very obvious dumpster outside one of the buildings, and she ended up having to show me what she was talking about because I couldn't figure out what she meant.

Cute Sea Lion video

2010-03-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

Being a Scarfie?

2010-03-07T11:36:00.000-08:00

(The students at Uni. of Otago are called "scarfies" for the scarfs that they wear, I have yet to see anyone wearing a special scarf but maybe when the weather gets worse?)

Every Thursday the Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Farming, and Environment puts on a seminar that is open to students and the community. I went to the one last week at which Rob Rosenfeld was talking about ways of effecting change with indigineous groups and local problems. He mainly spoke about his work with the Yukon area tribes in cleaning up the toxic waste from the military base up in Alaska (documented in the film Yukon Circles). He was the founder of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council that was formed of 70 different indigenous tribes who had signed a treaty to do everything possible to protect the Yukon River Watershed. I went in expecting a room with chairs lined up in rows at which the speaker would speak from the front of the room and it may cause a small amount of sleepiness. I ended up enjoying a very informal conversation where we all sat in a circle and were encouraged to interject any questions that we had. About halfway through the seminar glasses of wine and plates of cookies, sandwiches, crackers and cheese started being passed around. Sitting around sipping on drinks and nibbling on the food while listening to the presenter's stories was not at all what I was expecting, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. I think that I'll go back every week, if only for the high quality cheeses they had!

Aramoana Beach

The next morning I jumped into the car with my flatmates who were going surfing and we went northwest to Aramoana Beach. The drive along the Otago Harbour was a great way to start off the day: the sun was just coming up over the green hills, the bays were peaceful with the small boats floating at rest, the narrow road we were on hugged the water's edge. At the beach the sand felt like silk between my toes as I watched the waves rolling in towards the beach from the Atlantic Ocean. The sun slowly rose higher into the sky as the moon stolidly held its ground over the top of the seaside cilffs. Sea lions were sleeping near the sand dunes, their fins twitching as they dreamt of whatever sea lions dream of. From the beach you could see up the eastern coastline of the mainland for what must be miles, I couldn't see any signs of human habitation, just mountains, beaches, and the ocean.

Yesterday Stas, a Willamette professor who's conducting research here this semester and acting as our interim-parent, took Leslie, Schaffer and I out to the Otago Peninsula for a day trip. We drove along the Otago Harbour on the opposite side from which I had gone out the day before. Where the sun had been shining down from a clear blue sky the previous day, this morning the sky was hidden behind a shield of clouds and the mountains were covered with a trailing mist. We pulled over to the roadside to take some scenic photos and saw some kind of concrete formation in the hillside beneath the road so we climbed down to check it out. There was a semicircle of stone set in front of two doors that led back into the hillside.

The mysterious tunnel

Through the doors were a maze of passageways and rooms, obviously unused and covered in graffiti. We explored a little bit, but not knowing what it was, continued on our way. It turns out that we had stumbled across the fort that was built in the 1880s to guard the harbour against a potential attack from the Russians. The semicircle was part of a hidden gun system from which a cannon could be raised from the ground and its recoil energy would return it to its subsurface position. The hillside doorways were entrances to the fort system. It was strange to be poking around a place that had obviously seen a lot of human use and was now left entirely to the ravages of time and spray can-toting teenagers.

Schaffer and Leslie exploring the dark rooms

We spent the rest of the day hiking and exploring beaches. On both Victory and Allans Beach we saw sea lions, intriguing rock formations, and of course enjoyed the ocean's pounding waves.

Leslie in a sea arch at Allans Beach

The sea lions were really cute, most were just lying in the sand sleeping or relaxing, but a few were entertaining- scratching themselves, waddling around, rolling in the sand and shaking themselves like dogs, or just rearing up to enjoy the feel of the wind in their fur (or for some other reason). They seemed harmless as they lay in the sand, staring back at us with their large doleful eyes, but one of my friends told me that they can run about 40 km per hour on the beach! On our drive back into the city we stopped at a monument for the fallen Kiwi soldiers of WWI. It had been a pretty windy day on all of the beaches, but this monument was on top of the ridgeline of the peninsula, so the wind was blowing really strongly there. It felt like it was about 60 mph...you could lean into the wind and it would keep you from falling over. When I lifted one foot to take a step it would blow me into my next step. We had to hold on to the railings if we wanted to be sure about standing in one place. We had our own little sky-diving practice up there, playing in the wind.

"The Pyramids"- natural rock formations at Victory Beach, composed mainly of basalt

Let There be Light!

2010-03-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

We had our power shut off yesterday, because no one had paid the electric company, so we were wandering around in our dark flat for a few hours. But by the time I got back last night it was back on. I was really glad because I don't know where my flashlight is!
I took another long hike this weekend, up the Pineapple track to Flagstaff Mountain. From the lookout on the top you can see all of Dunedin, most of the Otago Peninsula, and the mountains to the inland. It wasn't the most beautiful hike I've ever been on, but it felt great to get out of the city and be looking down on it from a mountain in only a few hours. The sky was blue and the sun was out, and it was a clearly marked trail the entire way, it was great. I was glad that I was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt (to block out the super strong sun because the ozone layer has a hole in it down here) because it got pretty chilly once the sun started going down during my descent.

Classes started this week so I've been doing the school thing: going to class, getting all my course books, starting to read for lectures. I like the subject material for all my courses so hopefully the lecturers will be good, from their introductory lectures I like them. My environmental history prof is a hippie historian. For my other two papers (courses, in Kiwi-talk) there are a bunch of contributing lecturers, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to have a different lecturer for each class. My classes also aren't as big as I expected, the smallest is 50 students and the largest is about 300 students.

I went to my first yoga class on Monday night and I'm still sore from it. The floor of the large hall in the student union was filled with students and mats. The yogi was this chill older man who had a very calming voice and peaceful manner, his hair tied back in a bun as he walked among us helping our poses. We did some pretty hard poses and my inflexible muscles were not liking it- but it should help a ton by the end of the semester. I also had my first massage class last night. The instructor was very good, not only teaching us techniques but also about protecting our own bodies while giving massages and about making the client as comfortable as possible. At the end of the session we got to give and receive a half hour back and shoulders massage. Ahhh...it felt so good, I only wish that I had this class every night!

I was requested to tell more about the hangi....so, here goes. Although there were probably a hundred people there, students and people from the Maori department, it was like being at the barbeque of a large family. They were all laughing a lot and telling jokes. Everyone seemed to know everyone else and when people said hello they hugged each other. All the women who worked in the department seemed to treat the students as their own children. In the backyard of the department, it kind of had the vibe of a Hawaiian luau if it was held by a close-knit family. It reminded me of my experiences with Hawaiian culture, if that helps anyone picture it.

Peninsula Adventure, take two.

2010-02-26T15:33:00.000-08:00

In the morning I went to the Glenfalloch Woodland Gardens- thirty acres of native flora mixed with exotic flowers. Established 120 years ago the Gardens were extremely relaxing to walk in surrounded by a symphony of native birds. There was a matai tree that is 1000 years old, its strong white trunk stretching high above the surrounding trees.After relaxing by the stream there I hiked from the gardens down to a nearby bay where I took a trail up into the hills to Larnach Castle. The castle was built in 1870 by an Australian banker, it was abandoned after his family sold it and fell into disrepair until it was re-discovered in 1967. The gardens outside the castle are incredible with their creative floral designs and speciality gardens. My favorite part was where they had an Alice in Wonderland-type garden. After exploring the grounds it was getting towards midafternoon and I decided I should find my way down the hill to the bus stop before it got to late so I got directions from a local guy and started hiking down the mountain. It was gorgeous walking in the shade from the huge trees on each side of the narrow road and enjoying the sunshine that was lighting up the meadows and harbour. I was having a great time, enjoying life, until I got to the point where the road ended and I was stranded in the middle of three fields. I spent a good deal of time trying to find the track, retracing my steps and exploring my options, until I decided that I just had to go for it. I could see where I wanted to get to, so I just took off through the fields. It was pretty slow going hopping fences, slogging through the deep grass, getting stuck in a muddy creek. I'm glad that sheep and horses are such docile animals because if I had been walking through fields with som angry creatures, it might have gotten a bit more difficult. I was so happy when I finally made it onto more of a road and I almost feeling good about it until the road turned out to be a path from someone's backyard and I ended up in right in front of their house with their two large dogs. Luckily, the woman whose fields and backyard I had just tramped through came out to call her dogs off and point me down the hill towards the bus stop. I had never been more happy to see a concrete road before but it was definitely a fun adventure.

Hangi

2010-02-26T15:32:00.000-08:00

The Maori Society Department was holding a hangi so I went to get some food and check it out. A hangi is a traditional Maori method of cooking used on special occasions; the food is cooked in a big pit in the ground. It was fun to sit and eat my bin of baked veggies and be surrounded by Maori people. They were loud, funny, and full of life; it was like watching a big family since everyone knew everyone else. I don't think I'll eat the food at the next one I go to a hangi though, mine gave me food poisoning.

Train "trip"

2010-02-26T15:28:00.000-08:00

We were supposed to take a scenic train trip up the beautiful Taieri Gorge for a few hours and have a bbq at a gorgeous site up the valley. However, there was a huge wildfire up the gorge and since for some odd reason they didn't want to drive the train through the flames we were shunted to a shorter trip to the not-so-spectacular race tracks only a few minutes outside of town. The food was delicious and I got to meet a ton of new internationals and hang out with my friends, but it was a bit of a letdown for everyone.

"Chocolate Bikkie"

2010-02-26T15:25:00.000-08:00

I went to an orientation session for international students where they had a bunch of different kinds of cookies for us to nibble on while we met some new people. It definitely helped to jumpstart the conversation once one of the Kiwi girls started talking about the different ways that they eat cookies down here. It's kind of similar to the different ways that we Americans eat Oreos, except not exactly the same. The girl was really excited when she brought out the chocolate covered marshmallow puff cookies, she said "everyone eats them differently, I smash mine on my head before I eat it", then smashed the cookie onto her forehead to flatten it before she started nibbling at it. Then she pointed to the ginger cookies and said that it's lucky if you get it to break into three pieces when you smash it with your elbow. If you do that, then you get to make a wish. All the international students were kind of just watching her in awe- those kind of beat any cookie traditions that we had.

Toga Party...Otago-style

2010-02-22T18:27:00.000-08:00

Another event of O-week is the infamous Toga Party in which the first year students drape themselves in white sheets and go out to party it up. It sounds pretty fun huh? Well, except for the part when the upperclassmen pelt these first years with rotten eggs and other unwelcome projectiles. I guess even if you aren't wearing a toga you may get hit by something if you're walking around.
I think I'll stay inside tonight.

Burning Couches

2010-02-22T18:19:00.000-08:00

This afternoon when I left my flat a fire truck drove by. On it's side there was an message that looked like an advertisement, it said:

It's not just your couch that's burning, it's your degree.

with a picture of a burning couch above it.
I guess during O-week here the students burn couches in the street next to mine and the fire trucks have to come to put out the fires a few times a night. They must be getting tired of coming down here so often.

Photos from around Dunedin

2010-02-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

Bird's eye view of Dunedin from Pineapple Track

Reservoir above town

Kiwi graffiti. pretty eh?

Upper Leith walkway- five minutes from my front door.

Bagpipers in Dunedin

2010-02-22T02:10:00.000-08:00

Snapshots of O-week

2010-02-22T00:07:00.000-08:00

The sunshine is continuing to stream into Dunedin, making it great weather for exploration. One morning I headed west up the hill towards a reservoir that a Kiwi told me had amazing running tracks around it and I soon found a trail disappearing into dense undergrowth. Soon after leaving the street it seemed like I was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a forest. The only sounds I could hear were the birds chirping and the occasional bubbling of the stream when the trail met back up with it. The path wound through the untouched, wild forest for ages it seemed as I ran without really knowing where I was going. I finally found the small lake before diving back into the bush. The tall trees shaded the path as it wound up and down hills, past small cliffs, and across small streams. It was really peaceful back there.

One night all of the Willamette students met up at Stas's family's house for a delicious dinner and we stayed late into the night planning our semester break trip and talking on their deck. It was a totally different view of the city than I'd seen; their house is situated above the city on one of the surrounding hills. As the sky grew darker and our glasses grew emptier (they had some delicious apple juice) the stars overhead grew brighter and brighter. By the time we were done talking we could clearly see the Southern Cross overhead through the glass ceiling.

There is a farmer's market every Saturday morning, rain or shine, next to the vibrant flower beds of the Dunedin train station (which is incidentally reputedly the most photographed building in the world). My roommates and the rest of the WU students made it a party and went and checked it out. The spaces between stalls were filled with people vying for a chance at all the delicious offerings. There were chocolate-filled crepes, tubs of fresh, bright red strawberries, bags of speciality teas, fresh bread and berry pies, newly budded flowers in their small pots, sweet tubs of local honey. Groups of musicians playing folk music added to the friendly clamor of the market with their guitars and drums. I, coming out of a wintertime-produce deficiency, of course filled my bags with everything fresh I could lay my hands on.

Afterwards as Elizabeth and I navigated the weekend crowds on our way to the Octagon to check out some bedding sales we found the street closed off by a bagpipe festival. All of these kilt-wearing Kiwis were playing their songs simultaneously, each group competing against the next for the ear of the observor. The drummers twirling their drumsticks in the air as the pipers drew in huge breaths to fills their bags with air. The sidewalks and grass were crowded with people enjoying the reedy music and sunny weather.

One sunny afternoon I went with my Brasilian flatmate Jenny to play soccer in the park near our house with a bunch of her friends from her non-native English speakers class. It was a total international affair with guys from Mexico, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Italy.

View from Sandymount: Allan's Beach and Mount Charles

The next morning I met up with the same guys and we took a bus out to explore the Otago Peninsula. There are tons of hiking tracks and wildlife- penguins, albatross, sea lions, and loads of birds. The bus only took us so far so we starting hiking up a mountain to the east of the small village we were dropped off in. They were planning on camping there overnight and I was going back to town so we split up after a bit when I decided to walk out towards a beach on the eastern coast as they continued up the hill. I soon was picked up from the dusty road by a friendly German family who took me to Allan's Beach where you're supposed to be able to see sea lions. I never made it down to the shore though because as soon as we got there I met up with Jenny and a van load of international students- we had two Germans, a Norweigan, a Belgian, and another Brasilian cozily squished in a mini-van.

Jenny hiking at the Otago Peninsula

After a delicious stop at a cafe we went up to Sandymount Lookout. It was a narrow, slippery hike to the top through some prickly bushes but from the top we could see the entire peninsula and the coastline of the mainland. A few of us continued hiking around the Sandymount Circuit track to see a bit more. We found a beautiful spot where the trail was suspended above some meadows that bordered the sea cliffs. The Pacific Ocean was spread out beyond the cliffs' edge in a broad expanse of slightly curved blue water. The rush of the breeze through the brush sounded like waves coming ashore as we watched sheep peacefully grazing the meadows below.

Sandymount Circuit track with the sheep for company

(the little white dots in the meadow below)

After enjoying the silence we made our way to Sandfly Beach where at dusk you can see yellow-eyed and little blue penguins coming ashore to feed their babies.

The hike in to Sandfly Beach

Today Elizabeth and I spent the morning signing up for non-academic classes and programs to do this semester. I am now signed up for: massage, surfing, astronomy, stand-up paddle board, scuba diving, meditation, yoga, pilates, and self defense. I'm going to get to try so many new things!

Although the New Zealanders are very similar to Americans for the most part (loud, friendly, love to party) I have run into some interesting cultural differences. A couple nights ago I was hanging out with some of my new friends in their flat talking and watching tv. The two Kiwi girls who were there were explaining some of their commercials to us. Kiwi tv is very serious about their safety warnings. In the hour or so that we were watching it we saw a warning against "Unattended Cooking" in which a woman's daughter burnt up and a drunk driving warning filled with blood and dead bodies. It was definitely strange compared to American warnings that only hint at the results of bad decisions. It was very like the Kiwis...very straightforward.

Since it's orientation week most of the students have arrived and the streets surrounding the university where all the students live have been going crazy. During the day the Kiwi students sit outside their houses and drink. There are parties every night on every street and flat complex and students walk around the streets drinkng. Since the drinking age is 18 here the alcholism is a bit more visible.

I'm also learning a lot about Brasilian culture from Jenny. She has lived with her mother and sister her whole life; she says that in Brasil it's unnatural for people to move out of their parent's home before they are married. Also, since they have cooked for her her whole life she doesn't really know how to make anything and goes out to eat for every meal. The other night she was really agitated about needing to go to the store because she was out of water...she has only drank bottled water her whole life because of the water quality in Brasil. She was shocked that we drank the water straight out of the tap.

Hopefully tomorrow is another sunny day!

While the sun was out...

2010-02-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

Dunedin Botanical Gardens...my backyard.

My bedroom. With my own door that opens to the back garden.

University of Otago Clocktower. In the middle of campus with the Leith River bubbling along in front of it.

Getting over the jet lag

2010-02-17T22:10:00.000-08:00

New Zealand summer is not what I expected. I wasn't silly enough to think that it would be 90 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny all the time like home, but I was kind of hoping for a bit of sunshine and warmer weather than I left back in the wintery States. It hasn't totally disappointed me, yesterday I was out walking around with just jeans and a light sweater on and the soft breeze felt great. But today it's been alternating between sprinkling and raining pretty much all day. Which is fine, the greeness of the plants has to come from somewhere I guess, it just makes it a bit more difficult to motivate myself to go out and explore. But I'm getting quite a bit of that in, regardless of the weather.

I arrived safely in the Dunedin airport with all of my bags and feeling quite well rested for having traveled for 21 hours. I was surprised by the Auckland airport. I guess I shouldn't have expected it to be as different as most foreign airports are, but it felt very...American-like. They even had a MacDonalds. Stas, a Willamette professor, picked me up from the airport and drove me the 30 minutes to Dunedin proper through rolling green hills dotted with sheep and farmhouses. I had a quick tour of the town before arriving at my flat. Three of my flat mates are here already. Elizabeth is a geology major from Virginia who likes backpacking. David is a surfer from San Diego. Jenny is an international business major from Brasil. They're all really nice. Our other two roommates are supposed to arrive in the next few days. We have six bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and back porch/garden area. My room is on the ground floor and is rather sad now with it's empty light yellow walls. But hopefully it'll perk up a bit when I actually get stuff to put in it.

Our flat is only a few minutes north of the campus and just south of the Botanical Gardens. You literally walk around the corner and you're there. It's gorgeous in there...the Leith River (more like a stream) that runs behind our house curls through the garden, surrounded by trees and natural growth for the most part but farther in there's a gorgeous rock garden on either side that is bursting with flowers now. There's an aviary, fountains, greenhouse, and tons more. I went running in there yesterday, it's on a hill which will take getting used to, but it was really refreshing to get some fresh air and to be surrounded by flowers and plants. The sweet smell of the roses from the huge rose garden was a pleasant reminder that it IS summertime down here.

The campus is gorgeous also, with the Leith River carving a deep channel through it's grassy lawns. Most of the buildings are modern but a few are old stone buildings like the famous clocktower. Campus is still a bit dead, coming off of summer semester, but it's just starting to come alive with students. All the locals are tanned from their summer holidays, making me feel even more foreign. Groups of international students are wandering around taking tours. Guys in cut off shorts and sneakers are riding around on their long boards while the most of the girls are wearing incredibly short shorts for the cool temperature.

I spent most of today exploring many of the campus buildings as I was trying to get my courses approved. It took much longer than necessary because I was going around everywhere asking for the Enviromental Science department (which doesn't even exist here) when what I really wanted was the Environmental History department. But I got to see a LOT more of campus than I would have and everyone who helped me was very friendly. So I am now (finally) registered to take Maori Studies, Environmental History of New Zealand, and Pacific Societies; it's going to be amazing. I was supposed to be in a chemistry class, but the one that I had cleared isn't offered this semester it turns out. And I don't feel too bad about it (I'm really looking forward to a science-free semester); especially because the Chem professor who I talked to here basically told me that I would get much more out of taking easier classes and learning the culture than spending time studying. He made me feel a bit silly really...but in a good way, everyone is so nice here!

My classes don't actually start until February 1st, and orientation doesn't start until next Wednesday, so I'm getting plenty of time to explore the town and get set up. I walked down St. George St. (the main shopping street) to the Octagon (the town center) yesterday. The sidewalks were slightly crowded with college students filling the skate/surf shops, clothing shops, cafes, and restaraunts. It will take a little while to get used to walking on the left side of the sidewalk and remembering which way to look before stepping out into the street; but there haven't been any major collisions yet, so it's looking hopeful. After the schools let out I started seeing young boys and girls in their school uniforms hanging out with their friends along the streets, the girls in their plaid skirts and knee-high white socks and the boys in their wool sweaters with collared shirts underneath. I found a great organic store; except most of their stuff seems to be from the United States.

Things that I have learned so far:
They do have peanut butter here!

In the Maori studies building (where some of my classes will be held) you're supposed to take your shoes off before entering the classrooms.

Regular bread is called 'vogel'. Who knew?

They carry a lot of American brands of products (compared to Europe)

Right next to campus is a pub that is older than the university itself and was written up once as being the best pub in the southern hemisphere.

Well, the sun has made an appearance and I'm going out for a job with my roommate.