I am a Farm Girl Aviator

Right before we left for Fiji, Meredith and I received an email invitation to go speak at clubs in the Palmerston North area.  I ended up going to the Woodville Rotary club, and my speech was last Thursday evening.  I took the bus up there (no commuter trains head that direction) and was met by a Rotarian, Bob, at the bus stop.  He works at the dairy plant that I had passed the previous weekend on my Wanganui trip as the Health and Safety manager.  Because my bus got me to Palmerston North by 2:30 or so, we had plenty of time before Rotary, so I got a personalized tour of the dairy plant.  I saw the plastic milk jugs being made, the milk being tested and processed, and yogurt and cottage cheese being made.  It was like getting to know the enemy, getting to know my nemesis.  (In case you didn’t know, I am lactose intolerant.)  I was all dressed in coveralls, white gumboots, hairnet, ear plugs (loud machinery in a dairy plant), and safety goggles.  Too bad I didn’t have my camera in there!  Afterwards, we went back to his house so that I could change, and then we headed off to Rotary.  Woodville is a real farming community, so this club reflected that in its laid back attitude.  It is a smaller club, about 11 members or so, and another one joined the night I gave my speech.  It went very well, was very well accepted, and the whole evening was very pleasant.

Bob and his wife Margaret were leaving early the next morning to visit their son (I think), so I stayed with a different couple, Joy and Jim.  (Joy was the new Rotarian from the evening.)  They were so nice!  I know I say that every time, but I haven’t had a bad experience with Rotary yet.  They had a whole room set up for me, my own shower, bathroom, everything.  The bed was so comfortable that I felt like I was staying in a hotel!  I even had little mini soaps and shampoos.  Joy had also left the fire going because she knew Americans typically found New Zealand to be cold due to the lack of central heat.  We had a nice evening, sitting by the fire and talking, but I was exhausted and went to bed early.

I had a bit of a sleep in the next morning, thank goodness.  Finally, some good sleep!  Joy and Jim had a great breakfast laid out for me, and after breakfast and talking and showering, we drove in to Fielding for some real Kiwi experiences.  This area is big in livestock farming, so to introduce me to it all, we went to a Stock Sale.  The farmers bring in their livestock to be auctioned off on specified days.  It is a great social outing as well for the older farmers.  You can tell that they are not there to bid on any livestock; they are there to catch up with their old farming buddies, much like younger women go shopping with friends without any intention of making purchases.  We watched paddocks of sheep being auctioned off outside before making our way out of the rain into the cattle auction.  This consists of a large warehouse with stadium seats along one side and a sort of boardwalk on the other side.  The cattle are driven in through one door, weighed on the scale, driven into the next pen, auctioned off, and then driven out the other side by dogs.  It was quite entertaining to see about how much different cows are sold for, what is a good price per kilogram, and why some cows are worth more than others.

After this, we drove into Palmerston North for lunch and a bit of shopping.  I really want a small map of New Zealand and a larger map of the world, but one with Australia at the top.  I haven’t been able to find one that I like yet, but I am still looking!  We had to be home by 3:30 so Joy could get dinner started, but we drove home past the wind farm, which was cool.  Windmills are huge, by the way.  I got out to take some pictures and was really cold and almost blown over, as well.  Engineers really placed that wind farm in a strategic position.  Anyways, we got home and curled up by the fire with cups of tea, reading the paper and relaxing indoors.  Two friends of Joy and Jim’s came over for dinner, which was amazing.  Roast lamb and vegetables and all sorts of other yummy stuff.  Their friends were really nice.  We had good political conversations that turned to a discussion about good advertisements we had enjoyed.  I was talking about how I love the Tui billboards.

[In case you don’t know: Tui is a beer brewed in New Zealand.  They have billboards where the left half is black with white type, and the right is red with ‘Yeah Right’ and the Tui symbol on it.  They change the left side to go with whatever is the current mood in NZ.  For example, ‘It’s getting too cold for a beer’ or ‘The perfect body in 3 minutes a day’ would be on the left, followed by the ‘Yeah Right’ on the right.  I think they are hysterical!  They have been going since 1997 or so, which is quite long for an advertising campaign, but the brilliant thing is that they can change so quickly based on NZ society.  They had some great ones during the election.  The one nearest to my flat now says, ‘We didn’t think Winston Peters was a sore loser’ or something like that.]

Jim and Joy’s friends had just purchased a magnet where you could change whatever was written on the left side with magnetic letters that came with it.  I was super excited about it, so they gave it to me!  I also got to go to the brewery the next day and have a look around.

After this, I was transferred to my next host family, Jim and Jenny.  They are an older couple who live on a farm, so I got to experience farm life.  I got to bottle feed baby lambs that didn’t have healthy mothers.  I got to drive a quad bike (4-wheeler in America) around the farmland.  I helped set up a new fence and moved cattle from one paddock to another.  Jim drove me over to a friend’s dairy farm so I could see cows being milked.  I hadn’t seen it industrialized before.  This guy can milk 160 cows in about 1.5 hours with his machinery.  Jim and Jenny also have two cats, so I got to play with them.  I have missed having cats around.  That night was the big rugby final (Auckland trounced Otago, just so you know), so they had some friends over for dinner and to watch the game.

The next morning the weather finally cleared up.  There had been a cold snap, a last ditch effort by Mother Nature to hold on to winter, and it had been raining for three days.  I was so happy that it did decide to clear up because it meant that the best part of my trip would actually get off the ground.  Michael, another Rotarian who I have never met (he is in another club, I think), has some sort of job with planes.  I am not entirely sure what he does.  Anyway, he set it up for me to go flying over the Palmerston North area!  Jim drove me to the Fielding Airfield, where we met up with Andre, our pilot who looked like he was about 26 or so.  He took us up in a Cessna, me in the front co-pilot seat and Jim in the back taking pictures.  We are up in the air, and Andre hands the controls over to me!  It was fantastic, being up there and flying the plane.  I loved being above everything.  There was a fog settled down in Woodville, so it was very cool to be above the clouds and seeing them from above.  The skies were clear enough to see Mt. Taranaki and Ruapehu.  I have seriously been bitten by the aviation bug.  Anyone want to sponsor me getting my pilot’s license?  It was also very cool because Michael set it up to be a free flight, no cost to us.  Rotary is amazing like that, opening up so many opportunities that you wouldn’t normally get.  You aren’t experiencing New Zealand as outsiders and backpackers; you get in to see what the Kiwi way of life is like, to eat what they eat, and to tour as locals would.  Very cool!

So, after that excursion, it was time for me to head home.  Jenny was amazing and sent me home on the bus with cakes and pies and chocolate.  No getting hungry on the way home!  I got back into Wellington around 3 on Sunday and having been running around ever since then.  I am leaving at 5:10AM tomorrow morning for my south island trip with my mother, and I have a lot of things to take care of before that (not the least of which is pack, something I have not even begun).  I won’t be back until November 4th, so I will pick up on my story then!

Whanganui Pics ... finally! [Part 1]

Now, I have been terribly remiss in getting these pictures online. I had a final last week, and then I was out of town Thursday-Sunday, so that is my excuse in not posting these pictures. I have so many, though, that they are going to come up in two posts! Way to stretch out my pictures ...

Our entrance into the Republic of Whangamomona. We definately hopped this sheep fence to get in close enough to the sign.

This is the infamous Country Pub where we stayed. Amy, Meredith, and I stayed in the attic room, which was pretty cool. We took our showers downstairs, though. Our shower came with instructions and warnings about the lack of hot water and water pressure, so we played it safe and took over the downstairs bathroom.

I showed you a picture of the Whangamomona Hotel; here is a picture of the rest of the town taken from the hotel. I told you there wasn't much to it! To be fair, there is one more building, a cafe of sorts, that is across the street from the hotel.

Upon entry into the Republic of Whangamomona, it is required that you make a stop at the Border Control. There is the one pictured above as well as the one at the other end of the street, about 500 metres away. This particular one is a bit rickity, so when you stepped in you thought the entire structure was going to tip over sideways!

Close to the end of our evening, a former mayor/president of Whagamomona presented the three of us with our black Whangamomona passports. We are also all drinking our Tuis on the house in celebration of the newly won awards. The people in the pub were so friendly to us!

After leaving Whagamomona Sunday morning, one of our first stops was up to Mt. Damper Falls. To get there, we had to hike through some farmland at the beginning of the trail, which is where we ran across these cows. I am not sure if they thought we had some kind of food or were just really interesting, but we had a bit of a stand-off with them before continuing on our merry way.

As tourists, we will do anything for pictures of more sheep, including climbing around on fences! But check out that New Zealand pure bush in the background ... it was amazing.

A very good example of the sheep of which we were so desperate to take pictures. Because it is spring, there are little lambs everywhere, so we were especially anxious to take pictures of the families. Our sheer number of sheep pictures was definately the runninig joke in the group.

A picture of (most of) the girls on the trip! Left to right: Ann, me, Amy, Kay, and Meredith. Taking the picture is Noel, and missing is Gillian. That's right, Noel spent all weekend in a van with six women! He survived in spectacular fashion.

New Zealand Boondocks

I am typing this up as a well-deserved study break.  I have my final on Wednesday morning at 9:30 AM, so I have been studying for about two days straight now.  I am going away this next weekend, though, so I wanted to get a post up about last weekend before I got it confused with the next!

OK.  Meredith’s host club’s President, Kay Phillips, has a sister (Ann) and brother-in-law (Noel) who live in Whanganui.  Noel is semi-retired.  He has a rural mail run and small tourism business, but he is looking to expand his tourism into more trips into New Zealand bush (otherwise known as the boondocks, or ‘womp-womps’ here in New Zealand).  He needed some guinea pigs for a test run, so Meredith, Amy, and I, along with Kay, travelled up that direction for the weekend.  It was going to be a great opportunity to get out of the city and see rural New Zealand.

I head over to Stafford House (where Amy and Meredith live) around 3 on Friday afternoon to meet them and Kay.  Meredith and I go outside to meet Kay, and what an entrance she made!  It was a beautiful day, and here comes Kay, speeding along in her bright red top-down convertible!  Meredith and I were not expecting that, let me tell you.  The four girls piled in to the convertible, and we were off down the open road, top down, sun streaming in, with some good old Frank Sinatra on the stereo.  It was an excellent beginning to our experience.

We arrived in Whanganui a little later than expected because of traffic, but no matter.  Ann and Noel were very gracious and accommodating.  They have a very nice house.  Very homey, very welcoming.  Everything was brightly coloured and coordinated.  Additionally, Ann is an amazing cook.  She enjoys cooking for other people, and you can tell.  We students ate very well!  We sat around talking and watching the NPC (rugby) semi-finals that night (just so you know, Otago – the underdog – won and will be playing Auckland this weekend in the final).  We turned in rather early because we knew we had a big day ahead of us.  Six people having to get ready to leave by 8:30 with one bathroom meant that there were some very early risers.  I have been waking up early recently, so it didn’t matter, and it was quite nice to wake up to a delicious cooked breakfast.  Gillian joined us, we packed up the car, and rolled out!

Our first stop was the Tawhiti Museum.  This is a great historical museum with lots of vintage artefacts and a detailed Maori history of the area.  We spent about an hour wandering around the museum, learning about early New Zealand life and inspecting a history of tractors in the ‘barn’ section.  We drove in to a city called Stratford, had a quick lunch in a café, and then began the next part of our journey.

State Highway 43 is known as the ‘Forgotten Highway.’  It connects Stratford with Taumarunui, and it takes about 2.5 hours to drive the whole way through.  There is between 10-20 kilometres of unsealed road.  It has lots of historic stops along the way, some political, some environmental.  As guinea pigs, we were just expected to say when we wanted to stop, to shout out when we thought there would be something interesting ahead.  This was really a test run so that Noel could get an idea of what kinds of things people would want to see and what the timing would be like along the road.  Some of the places were run down and not really worthy of a stop, but there was some really beautiful lookouts when passing through saddles.  We were really in the middle of no where on this trip.  I had seen rolling New Zealand hills from the main highways when driving to Taupo and back, but I have never seen anything like this.  The hills just kept going on and on and on.  You would see sheep and goats and cows perched on all kinds of outcrops, some blatantly defying gravity.  There was a running joke between the Kiwis (Ann, Noel, Gillian, and Kay) about how many pictures Meredith, Amy, and I wanted of sheep.  Think along the lines of, ‘Now, there is Amy with a sheep.  Now, Katie with a cow.  Now, Meredith with another sheep.’  I will be interested at the end of my time here to see how many pictures of sheep I actually have.

We stopped about halfway through in the Republic of Whangamomona.  This is a village with about 40 residents, but it has an award-winning country pub and hotel.  You can start at the top of the main street, walk two minutes, and reach the end of the main street.  And by main street I mean only street.  It is called a Republic because in 1988 the area was redistricted from Taranaki to Wanganui, and the residents were extremely upset about not being consulted.  In protest, they formed a republic, elected a president, and now celebrate their independence day every January.  This is a big event, drawing in about 6000 people to experience such activities as gumboot throwing, sheep shearing, passport stamping, and voting in the presidential election.  They have had several presidents over the years, including ‘Billy the Kid,’ a goat who won by eating all his opponents votes, and a poodle who, after an assassination attempt, resigned.  As this was in the middle of October, we didn’t expect much to be going on.  I anticipated a nice dinner and a quiet evening with my book.

I could not have been more wrong.

First of all, I didn’t take into account the fact that this is the only establishment in the area.  All of the locals come in to the bar and lounge area (complete with pool table and also colouring books and toys for the children) to hang out after a hard day’s work.  Also, the second rugby semi-final was being played (Auckland vs. North Harbour), so even more of the residents were out to see it being broadcast.  Finally, they have live music on Saturday, something we were not expecting.  It ended up being a great night.  We got to talk to a lot of the locals and find out how they lived.  They are mainly shepherds and farmers, which was very interesting to me because I have never met a shepherd before.  There was one guy who is my age and in charge of something like 20,000 sheep.  He and his brothers can shear 400 sheep per day!  I was talking with their uncle, and he said they had all gone out the previous day to go pig-hunting, which involves catching wild pigs, cutting off their tails for proof, and letting them go again.  Not something I ever thought I would experience!  Also, I learned a random fact – you don’t typically eat pork from a pig that weighs more than 100lbs because it is too tough.  Anyway, enough about pigs.  We spent the night mixing in with the locals and other guests, enjoying a couple of bottles of wine, and cheering on the rugby teams.  After the semi-final was over (won by the expected team, Auckland), the headmaster of the school set up his speakers and laptop and started in with the live music.  Meredith was busy becoming a pool shark (she and her partner won every game after about 9:30, I believe, no matter who challenged them), and Amy was drawn to the microphone, getting up there to sing with the headmaster.  The hotel owners had just won their awards for ‘Best Country Pub’ and ‘Best Re-Furbished Hotel,’ so there was even more cause for celebration.  We danced and celebrated right up until about 1AM, at which point the ‘second to last drinks’ call was announced.  Towards the end of the night, the first mayor approached Kay with the news that he had heard we were visiting Americans and that he wanted to present us with our official Whangomomona passports.  That was very special and generous of him.  The locals were really great to talk to, to learn about their experiences and impressions.  I heard that normally the bar closes down between 11 and midnight, so this was an extra special night, buoyed by the semi-final, the awards, and the excellent mix of company.

The next morning was the beginning of a long but beautiful day.  We rose early to be dressed and ready for breakfast at 8AM to leave by 8:30 (which turned into 9).  The first thing we did was turn off the highway to go see Mt. Damper falls.  These are supposedly the highest falls in the north island.  It was about a 20 minute drive off of the main road and then a 20 minute hike through farmland and bush.  We had a standoff with some cows across the river, but not other major events.  Several pictures of sheep and lambs later, we entered the bush and hiked down along the trail to the platform overlooking the falls.  It was gorgeous and well worth the hike off the main path.  The morning was bright and sunny, very warm, which made it that much more pleasant.  We observed for awhile and then headed back out, taking pictures of lambs the whole way.  Amy was especially excited about the lambs and sheep.  She is leaving soon, so I think she is feeling like she is experiencing everything one last time.  Last class, last time catching a coffee with someone, last time doing something very New Zealand.  I know I am going to be feeling that way when my time to leave comes around.

But off topic.  Back to the Forgotten Highway!  This day, Sunday, was going to be very long driving-wise, so we didn’t stop at very many historic spots, and none off the road.  We went through some amazing saddles and valleys, got to check out rivers and historic railway tracks, and – of course – take more pictures of sheep.  We reached Taumarunui and stopped for lunch in a café that we had heard was good.  We had some amazing views of the mountains on this day.  We could see Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Taranaki, Mt. Tongariro, and Mt. Ngauruhoe all from the same vantage point.

After this stop, we took the River Road back to Whanganui.  Rather than being an often-used state highway, this road was more rural and skirted the Whanganui River.  This is the road along which Noel has his rural mail run.  He doesn’t only bring mail to the people in the settlements along the road; he will bring in their shopping (one person had him bring in a double bed not too long ago, and he has had women hand him credit cards, pin numbers, and their shopping list!) as well as transport passengers from one point to another.  This road is very typical back-country New Zealand; it is mainly one lane, although it is two-way, and much of it is unsealed.  I was sitting in the front seat at this point, and I was very nervous sometimes!  Noel is a local driver, so he knew what he was doing and where he could go fast and where he had to be more careful, but I was always nervous going around blind corners, especially after we suddenly met another couple coming the opposite way!

We made a couple of stops along the road.  There are several Maori settlements, each with their own marae and worship area.  We stopped at one of the cleaner, well put-together ones.  This was just a quick stop, with only Amy and me leaping out of the van to take pictures of the traditional Maori figures and the church.  We were a bit pressed for time.  The pakeha (= white Kiwi) settlements along the river had interesting names: Jerusalem, Corinth, London, etc.  Someone had an obsession with cities of historic importance.  One of our last stops was in Jerusalem.  We stopped at a small convent/church that Noel frequents on his mail run.  The church is a catholic church, but it was built for the Maoris, so there is a definite Island influence.  There is a Maori statue, Maori paintings on the wall, and the other wall decorations were not like any catholic church I have been in.  Meredith is catholic, so it was especially different for her.  On our way out, we ran into Sister Sue.  This is the most modern nun I have ever met.  She had just come up from the marae, saying they had been making a lot of noise that day and she had to see what was going on.  She told us stories about her and her sister in the pub drinking beer-and-lemonades.  She was very friendly and very interested to meet the postman’s wife (Ann).  As we were driving away, Meredith noticed that Sister Sue was wearing gumboots, and made a comment to the effect of, ‘I just saw I nun wearing gumboots who was drinking in a pub.  I love this country!’  We really enjoyed meeting Sister Sue.

We made it back to Whanganui sometime around 7 or so.  This was too late to pick up Kay and Ann’s father to bring him to tea (he is 96 years old and still lives independently!), but we made the best of it.  Ann made some great curried sausage and vegetables, and even used silver something-or-other because we had mentioned over the weekend that we hadn’t ever had it before.  She was so nice for accommodating us so well and just taking us in.  Roundabout 8 or so, the four of us Wellingtonians piled into Kay’s convertible (top up this time) to begin the trip back into town.  We had some great conversations in the car on the way home.  Well, Amy passed out for awhile, but she contributed her bit, too.  We talked about everything from music to car wrecks to police systems and the ACC and suing people.  Very varied, very interesting.  I ended up home somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10:30 or so.  Exhausted, I unpacked, responded to urgent emails, and collapsed into bed by 11:30.

I have spent the two ensuing days holed up in the library studying for my final tomorrow morning.  Don’t worry, I am not being crazy; I took an excellent 3-hour shoe shopping and sun-bathing break yesterday, and today I went and got tea and coffee with my friend Dan and sat by the waterfront for about an hour, enjoying the sun and good conversation.  Nevertheless, I will be glad when my final is over tomorrow.  I already have a lunch with Amy and Paula as well as some celebrations with my flatmate V (who also has her last exam at the same time as me tomorrow) planned, and then I am also going out with some friends later that night.  Then off to Woodville on Thursday!

All you Techies: I hope you are enjoying your fall break!  Take advantage of the relaxation; I know I wish I had some when my life is crazy like it has been recently!

Quick update:  I have just read the beginning part of the paper, and it seems that New Zealand has an official government.  Helen Clark will be the prime minister leading a fractured Labour-led government.  Jim Anderton and his Progressives continue to be coalition partners, and he remains in Cabinet.  Winston Peters (leader of the 7-seat NZ First) has received the prestigious Foreign Affairs Minister position, and Peter Dunne (3-seat United Future) will be Revenue Minister.  Both parties will support on confidence and supply.  The Greens have been shut out of cabinet by these two parties but will most likely still support policies.  The Maori party remains independent, voting issue by issue, and National and ACT comprise the Formal Opposition.  The big fracture in this is that Winston Peters promised to stay neutral and not go after the bauble of office, and the fracture runs deep enough for NZ First President Doug Woolerton resigned, apparently in protest of Winston Peters actions (so says the Dominion Post).  We’ll see how this all works out!

Carterton, La Traviata, and The Women

I spoke at the Carterton Rotary Club last Monday night.  Carterton is a little under an hour and a half away from Wellington, so I did what I did with Paraparaumu.  I took the train and then spent the night with a Rotarian’s family.  I took the train out there, met two Rotarians at the train station, and went straight to the meeting.  I love how each club is so different.  This club is significantly out of Wellington, so it seems much more relaxed, none of this city-pace business.  The club was very sociable, like a group of friends who had gathered for a party.  I had a great time giving my speech.  I was closer to the Rotarians than I usually am, so that fostered even more of a sense of community.  They also gave me a great bottle of cabernet sauvignon merlot with the Rotary Centennial label.  Way cool.

That night I stayed with Helen and John Hayes at their home in Greytown (which I believe is the first planned city in New Zealand).  They are both Rotarians, but Helen has been a member for only about a year.  Helen was the woman who had set up me speaking at the club, so that was a treat to be able to meet the woman behind the emails.  Also, it was especially nice to meet John.  John is the newly elected National MP from the Wairarapa electorate.  He has spent years working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; has represented New Zealand in Singapore, India, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea (as High Commissioner), and Iran (as Ambassador); and he played a significant role with Don McKinnon to solve the Bougainville conflict.  Needless to say, this was very interesting for me as an International Affairs student.  He’s done so many awesome things!  He drove me in to Wellington the next morning (he had to attend a caucus meeting at the Beehive), so I got to spend a little over an hour talking to him.  It was a great time.

That night I did something else exciting.  I went to the opera!  I have never been to an opera before, and my friend Alex thought that this one would be a good one with which to begin.  It was La Traviata.  The main plot is that a prostitute, Violetta, and a rich man, Alfredo, fall in love and run away together.  Alfredo’s father convinces Violetta to leave Alfredo for the sake of his family, so she returns to her previous life and marries the baron.  Both Violetta and Alfredo are heartbroken, and in her grief, Violetta’s health takes a turn for the worse.  She dies at the end, but not before Alfredo returns to her and the father apologizes for the wrongs he has committed.  Except for the leads, this was a Kiwi cast, and they were phenomenal.  The Russian woman who played Violetta was just amazing.  Her voice was so clear, so pleasant.  She could sing loudly, softly, high, low, everything.  Of course, I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it was amazing anyways.  The entire thing was in Italian, with some surtiles on the sides.  I loved hearing that language.  I don’t see how an opera could be in anything BUT Italian.  It’s like someone created Italian so that opera singers would have a language to speak.  It really was an enjoyable evening.  I got all dressed up, the most dressed up I have been since being in New Zealand.  Very Wellington.

I have spent the majority of my time between now and then holed up in the library studying.  I have my geology final next Wednesday, so I am trying to learn an entire semester in four days.  The class is not structured very well, which makes it difficult to study.  We had lots of different lecturers, and there is not even an assigned textbook.  There are ‘recommendations,’ but the main professor said that any introductory geology book would do well.  Also, I have not been good about going to lecture.  Mike and I split the lectures (i.e. I went on Wednesday and Thursday, he went on Monday and Wednesday), so we really need to get together to put our notes together.  He is out of town until Saturday, and I am until Sunday, so we shall be getting together on Monday hopefully.  I have spent a good time going through all the online lectures yesterday and today, as well as reading most of the book and looking at the notes that I do have.  I am not too worried.  I am not in New Zealand to be worried.

I don’t want you to get the impression that all I have been doing for two days is study.  Perhaps at home this would be true as I crammed for GT exams, but I am in New Zealand!  I don’t want to have my nose in a book all the time!  One of my friends here is moving to Auckland to take a job in mid-November, so I won’t get to see her much any more.  We met for a coffee/study break yesterday, and I met my friend Dan for a coffee/study break today (he works in the library on marketing business).  I also claim a good seat in the library.  I study in Wellington Central Library, not the Vic Uni Library.  I pick out a desk that overlooks Civic Square, right in front of the huge windows, so I don’t have to look at a book the whole time.

I also enjoy my evenings.  Tonight was absolutely amazing; I needed it after studying all day.  Meredith, Claudia, Lauren, and I met for dinner and then went to a show.  We ate at Strawberry Fare, which was just amazing.  You walk in planning on eating an incredibly small dinner so that you can enjoy their amazing desserts.  The presentation is incredible; I took a picture of my homemade sorbet.  It was incredible food after eating hostel food so often (although, I think it would be incredible anyways).  Next, the show.  We saw The Women: Sex, Sin, and the City.  This show was a riot.  It is billed as ‘These are the ladies who lunch, but who lunch on each other.’  Imagine Sex and the City in play form.  I was literally laughing out loud.  This show had such female stereotypes (it even had a fast-talking valley-accented big-mouthed blonde manicurist) but was still very witty, very clever.  I would see it again; it was that good.  We saw it at The Downstage Theatre, which is a very intimate setting.  I counted 12 men, but there were probably about 15 – I couldn’t see everyone.  Meredith saw one group of women troop in, all sit in the same row, and then the lone man sat at the end.  We decided that he had been recruited as the DD for a Girls Night Out.  I think that the men enjoyed this show as well, though.  It was just so well done that you couldn’t enjoy it.  It’s like How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days – the men won’t see it without a woman, but they don’t mind having to see it.  I would absolutely go again.

And that brings us up to the present.  I am going to the gym tomorrow.  I am going crazy not running.  Then off on another adventure this weekend!  Ciao …

Bridge Swinging and Abseiling

The random sketchy bridge. No, not sketchy. Just worn down and a little ... rustic.

The bridge came complete with this lovely sign warning us of the dangers of standing next to one another. Comforting thought when you are depending on the bridge to keep your harness together.
Speaking of the harness, this is what it looked like. Not too bulky!

So, here I am, all strapped in and waiting to jump off of the edge. You can see how your back is to the ground below. You can hear the river rushing beneath you, and it was fairly higher than it has been because of all the rain that day. Don't be fooled by my smile, I really am a fair bit nervous.
But of course, I got over it and jumped off the bridge. I'm in New Zealand, I don't have time to be nervous. Scared people don't do anything fun, and this was fun!
And finally, me looking hot in my stylishly battered old wetsuit. Not really complaining, though, it did keep me warm in the river!

Tricky Wellington and Otaki

I had this entire post typed up yesterday, and then it suddenly disappeared.  An hour’s worth of writing gone, gone, gone.  Disastrous!  I hope this covers everything as well as it did yesterday.

Wellington has once more proved to be a tricky place to live.  I fully expected a downpour all day long yesterday, and what happens?  I wake up at 8AM to perfectly clear skies and bright sunshine.  I took advantage of the morning and went down to the waterfront to listen to a podcast and enjoy the water.  I love sitting down by the waterfront.  The Wellington coast is so pretty.  The water was an exceptional colour, not quite blue but not quite green, just a great aquamarine colour.  I went over to the café in Te Papa for a chai tea latte and sat in the sunshine, reading the weekend paper and feeling very ‘Wellington.’  I wandered around Oriental Bay for a bit, enjoying my favourite spot on that side of the harbour, before heading home.  I am glad I got out when I did, and went home when I did, because the clouds started rolling in about 20 minutes after reaching Mckenzies.  It was then cloudy and cold and rainy for the rest of the afternoon.

The weather in the afternoon was a lot like the weather on Friday.  It was cold, windy, rainy, etc, but it didn’t really matter to me.  I was already wet and in a wetsuit!  How come?  Well …

Last Tuesday I was checking out a potential new flat with Meredith and Claudia (I am going to try to move out of the hostel that I am currently living in; the one we looked at is nicer, and I would get to live with Meredith and Claudia over the summer, which would be nice) when Claudia starts talking about some activity thing she had signed up for at the Rec Centre on Friday.  I don’t have class on Friday, so I decided to go along.  I just signed up for it, not really knowing what I was getting myself in to.  I figured it wasn’t a big deal because there isn’t much I won’t try or attempt, seeing as how I jump at every opportunity available.  I just put my name down, paid my money, and showed up at the Rec Centre at 8:15AM on Friday morning.

Turns out our first activity was bridge swinging.  This involved going to a random dilapidated bridge somewhere about an hour outside of Wellington and jumping off into the canyon and river below.  First, we were strapped in to a small harness.  Then, you climb over the side of the bridge, facing inwards.  Next, you jump backwards as far as you can into nothingness, fall until you reach the length of the rope, and commence swinging back and forth under the bridge like some big swing.  This was so much more nerve racking than skydiving in my opinion.  You really had to work up your nerve to jump backwards over the river off of the bride.  It is hard because you can’t see what you are doing, where you are going, and the harness isn’t particularly bulky or large.  It was a great experience, though.  I got a little bit of whiplash, nothing near as bad as I did in my car wreck, but it was worth it.  There is a second ‘guide’ down on the ground under the bridge, and she caught your foot to stop you swinging and pulled you down to the ground.  We all did this, clambered back up the hill through the bush, piled back into the van, and drove off to our next destination.

We drove a little longer along the Otaki River until we got to a campsite type place.  We piled out into the structure/hut thing to eat lunch.  Our leader from Vic definitely made a comment to the extent of ‘Wow, so the stereotype is true!’ when I pulled out my peanut butter and jam sandwich.  After lunch, we all pulled on our wetsuits and put on our protective helmets and harnesses.  I had never worn a wetsuit before, so that was an experience.  Keep in mind that I still had no idea what I was in for!  I am happy that Claudia over packed and had some extra clothes and things for me to wear under the wetsuit.  Her surfing gear really helped keep me dry, especially considering the fact that my wetsuit had several holes in it and was really worn down in others.

After we were all decked out in our protective gear, we began our short tramp up to the top of a part of the river.  This is when I discovered that we were going to be abseiling (that’s rappelling for you Americans) and trekking down a river that led into the Otaki River.  This was so cool.  I hadn’t abseiled in ages, and then just on indoor rock walls and the like.  The water was freezing, my shoes are still soaking wet, and I am all bumped and bruised from slipping on rocks, but it was such a cool afternoon.  We abseiled down three different waterfalls.  It was so different from being inside because you had the water pushing you down, splashing you in the face, and it was hard to get a good grip with your feet sliding all over the wet algae-covered rocks.  If you slipped too hard, you crashed into the waterfall wall.  This only happened to me once.  When we were just trekking down the river, not abseiling, we would still get bruised and soaked because of the changing depths of the water.  The level would suddenly go from your mid-calf to above your waist, effectively dunking you in the water, and then you would stumble on rocks and the level suddenly became shallow again.  There was one other cool thing, too.  At one point we had to do a ‘flying fox’ type thing.  Of course I was closest and ended up going first.  You strapped your harness to the rope, climbed down about a meter or so, turned so that your back was to the rock wall, and jumped out over the waterfall into the air.  There was nothing around you; you just zipped down the line until almost running into the tree at the end.  After you had slowed, the guide at the top lowered you down until you could step on the triangular rock sticking up out of the pool.  That was very fun.  Before we knew that was what we were going to do, we had been joking about flying down over the waterfall like on a zip line.  Crazy experience!

Of course, we all pretty much passed out in the van after that.  I kept it a quiet night.  Dave cooked a really good meal for me and two other friends, Bex and Louise, so I just went over to his house, enjoyed the roast chicken and vegetables, and watched part of a movie before heading home to pass out.  I was more active last night, heading out to a party out in Kilburnie.  It was thrown by Meredith’s boyfriend’s friend, which meant that I didn’t know anyone except Meredith, Lauren, Jay (the boyfriend), and Ash (Jay’s brother).  No matter, though.  Lauren didn’t know anyone either, so we stuck together in the beginning, and by the end I had met some really fun people.  It was an entertaining night.  After the party began to wind down, we all grabbed a cab and headed back into town to go dancing at Jet.  Fun evening all around.

Before I leave you today, I do have some random closing thoughts.

• It may not be popular in America, but texting is the way to do things here.  I have gotten maybe 8 phone calls the entire time I have been here, with only one of those from a non-Rotarian non-insurance related person.  Texting is such a big part of life here that even government officials are savvy into this.  I was reading in the paper last week that a current government minister who was tipped to have an even more prominent position in the next (likely to be led by Helen Clark) government took himself out of the race through a text message to Helen Clark’s phone.  It really is the way to do things here.


• I know why Victoria University can have such a small cleaning budget.  The tons of pigeons wandering around are like super vacuum cleaners, slowly finding every crumb dropped by hungry students.  I was hanging out on the bridge, reading the paper and studying, when I got distracted watching a pigeon as it methodically ate every little crumb on the ground around the benches closest to me.  The pigeons are always everywhere because doors and windows are always open (no central air conditioning means that you have to circulate the air somehow), and they follow the students.  I have finally become used to pigeons in the classroom and hallways.

Procrastination

I should be studying right now, but I feel that I need to take a break. I am going to go run and pick up some dinner, but I wanted to get these up while I was thinking about it.




These three were taken at Scorching Bay, right outside of Wellington. Meredith, Amy, Lauren, Claudia (a German law graduate student), and I had a late lunch at The Chocolate Fish, which is a trendy cafe on the coast outside of the city centre. I was amazed at how nice and helpful the wait staff was. They really took care to make sure my food and hot chocolate had no milk in it, and they didn't seem at all put out for having to do so. Apparently, this cafe was a big favourite with the Lord of the Rings cast, so that was cool for me. More LotR stalking going on there. It was a great lunch. We ate outside, the weather was very fine (as you can see), and it was even warm in the sun when the wind stopped gusting. We sat around for a long time, just talking and enjoying being out of doors.

This whole weekend has been enjoyable. I spent a good part of Friday night catching up with a friend I hadn't seen since Fiji, and that was great. After Chocolate Fish, I did some work before heading over to Stafford House to chill with Meredith, Amy, and Lauren. We hung around and talked over some wine for awhile, and then we headed out on the town. The big goal was to do some karaoke, and we were successful. We went to Club K, a karaoke bar right in Courteney Place, and it was a lot of fun. Yes, I got up there and sang, but I sang with Amy. We did "I Love Rock and Roll." Great song, great energy in the club. Then we went out to meet some friends in another bar, I ran into some friends that I knew (this being Wellington and all), and we all danced the night away. I stayed out ridiculously late, slept til 1:30 this afternoon, and have been trying to do work ever since.

One other factoid. Daylight savings time started here today, which means we sprang forward an hour. I am now 17 hours ahead of the East Coast, not 16. This will change to 18 hours once the USA ends daylight savings on October 30th and you fall back an hour. Crazy confusing time zones! Another interesting way of putting all of this: at the end of the month, once everyone gets their clocks sorted out, I will be 3 hours short of being a full 24 hours ahead of the West Coast. How crazy is that! Almost an entire day!