Horse Trekking and Collingwood pictures

This picture is actually still from Marahau. This was outside some sort of small-town museum/gift shop, and it reminds me of the tree from the Disney version of Pocahontas.


Me on my horse! I can't remember the last time before this trip that I went horseback riding, but it would have just been around a paddock - nothing like this. We were up in hills, climbing through sheep tracks, and running full speed up 45 degree + cliffs. It was so much fun!


While we were out trekking in Golden Bay, we didn't meet anything but sheep. It was amazing to be so far out, so far removed from everything. The hills kept on rolling on and on and on to one side, and on the other they dropped down straight to the sea.


This is the way that we followed the tracks into the hills. That bit of land that extends into the ocean is called Farewell Spit, and it goes on for 26km. It is growing every year, rising more and more out of the sea due to changing tides.


You really have to watch yourself on these Golden Bay roads.


Collingwood has about three streets and covers roughly three city blocks of land, but even a small township like that has its own claim to fame.


Every guidebook I ever looked in about Nelson made one thing quite clear: every chocoholic must, under any and all circumstances, visit Rosy Glow Chocolates. I was very disappointed that I never made it there. So, imagine my surprise when I arrive in little old Collingwood and find that the original Rosy Glow Chocolates is located there! The one in Nelson is owned by the daughter of the woman who owns the one in Collingwood. I think that explains the overkill of pink in the house. The chocolates, by the way, were amazing.

I am not sure what it is about this area of the country, but they seem obsessed with life-size chess boards. Nelson has one in the town square; this one was at my hostel in Collingwood.


As small a township as Collingwood is, they still have magnificent sunsets.

Abel Tasman Pictures

Happy New Year! In honour of 2006, you get two picture updates today AND a post about my recent holiday (if I have enough time). Just so you know, I was really annoyed with my slow internet last week and in a hurry because I was packing, so that is why there was no picture update.

Abel Tasman National Park is at the northernmost part of the south island, and it is gorgeous. I went tramping and kayaking over a couple of days at the end of November, so the weather was starting to warm up but there weren't many tourists yet. The water was just amazing.


The mountains in the background are in the vicinity of Nelson, just to give you some geographical perspective.

Now, of course this bird doesn't have just one leg. It was chilling out on a rock and had just brought its leg up when I snapped the picture. But it is so cool!

Me in my official kayaking gear. I ended up taking off that yellow jacket windbreaker thing because it was pretty warm, really sunny, and I had good layers on underneath. It was a small group; the guide, a guide-in-training, and two other couples. I had a great time and realized that I love sea kayaking just as much as I love regular kayaking.


It was a bit of a complicated process to get from the kayak company to our kayaks. First, we put on all of our gear, and then we all loaded into the boat that was attached to a tractor. The tractor pulled us down the road for a while before reaching the beach. We had to cross a wide expanse of the beach because the tidal difference is HUGE (all of that beach shown above will be covered in water in a few hours), and then our boat taxiied us out to the smaller cove where we picked up our kayaks. The whole process was repeated on the way back in.


Our kayaks! We fit an amazing amount of gear into these kayaks. All of our food, cooking utensils, water, sunblock, shoes, extra clothes, everything! I was in a kayak with the guide-in-training, a girl who was my age. We had a blast.


This is a shot of the beach where we stopped for lunch. We stopped for an hour, maybe a little longer, and during that time, all of this ended up under water. The tides were huge in Abel Tasman. The beach had a lot of big "climbing" rocks over to the left, and in low tide you could walk around the point on the right to the next beach over. There was also a sort of lagoon in the back that was just sand when we arrived and had enough water in it to kayak when we left.

There are several small islands right around the coast, and most of them have lots of seals chilling out in the sun or playing in the water. We kayaked around them and got as close as we could, but A) the Department of Conservation has strict guidelines about how close you can get to the seals and islands and 2) seals are dangerous! After we kayaked around this island, we caught the breeze on the other side and "sailed" back into the initial cove. So much fun!

OK, that's picture update numero uno. I promise another one later today!

Pre-Christmas update

It’s just me and Nina in the flat right now.  Meredith has left for her cruise around New Zealand with her parents, and Claudia has left for her month-long trip around the south island with one of her friends from back home.  With only me and Nina, the flat is a lot quieter than with everyone else here.  This is also because Nina has had class every morning from about 9-1, so I have the flat to myself a lot.

We have spent the week somewhat bumming around the flat and just getting ready for Christmas.  We saw King Kong yesterday at the Embassy as a celebration of her class being over until early January.  The weather has been absolutely fantastic, so we have been out enjoying the sunshine and low winds.  Well, until today, that is.  It was bright and sunny when I walked into the grocery store, and by the time I walked out, the winds had shifted, and it started to rain just as I reached our front door.  After being home for about 10 minutes, the rain shower turned into a full-fledged thunderstorm with rain coming down sideways.  It was raining so hard we couldn’t see into town.  It’s cleared up significantly, but we are still wary of what might happen tonight (we have a 21st birthday party to go to and don’t want to be caught in the rain).  Oh, the joys of Wellington weather!  It’s actually kind of exciting, never knowing what’s coming next.

I have been trying to do some work on my paper this week, but I discovered today that the library is closed until January 4th, which means that at most I can just do some research online.  I won’t have access to the theses that I need to complete my research, so I have to wait until the new year to write my paper.  This was more disappointing than it should have been given that I am living in the coolest city ever.

Mainly, I am just adjusting to having a summertime Christmas.  It is a lot more different than I thought.  I didn’t think about the fact that we are in the middle of summer, so the days are long.  Therefore, it doesn’t get dark until about 9PM, which means no one really decorates their houses with Christmas lights because there is only about an hour or two to turn them on.  There are no decorations in town, very few Christmas trees, etc.  Not much spirit anywhere that I can see, except of course for the plastic tree in the main room at Les Mills and other various places of business.  The one exception would have to be Kirkauldie & Stain’s, New Zealand’s version of Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s.  They have an excellent Christmas décor, and I find myself wanting to hang out there simply enjoying the decorations.  Also, this holiday season isn’t just about Christmas.  It’s summer vacation, which means family trips to the beach and barbeques and summer jobs.  Back home, the only reason we have vacation right now is for Christmas holidays, so I feel like there is more of an emphasis.

All of this doesn’t matter because I now officially have presents under the Christmas tree thanks to my friends back home.  I would have had more, but I am like a 5-year-old child in that I have to open things I get in the mail immediately.  I was specifically instructed not to open these presents until Christmas, though, so I will honour that promise.

That’s about everything going on here.  It’s been a slow, relaxing week.  Nina and I are going out for a nice Christmas Eve dinner before I head to church, and then I am spending Christmas Day at Kay Phillip’s home.  I will also be travelling with Mark and Anna from the 26th-31st, so I will be sure to post about all my adventures when I return home!

Christmas Pictures

Happy Holidays from Flat 7!


We moved all the furniture around so that people had space to move and stand. Meredith, Claudia, and I had fun decorating the walls with wrapping paper. We had a great time getting into the spirit of Christmas, and they party was also a good way to meet our neighbours that we don't often run into.


The infamous 4-ft. plastic Christmas tree! Complete with a gold tree topper, lots of tinsel and mardi gras beads, plastic Santas, and fruity mini candy canes.


This lighted Santa Claus is my favourite Christmas decoration that we picked up. Sadly, he was relegated to the corner on top of the TV because it was darkest and next to a plug, so he wasn't well noticed, but I love him anyways.

Proof that I can bake! It doesn't feel like Christmas because it is summer and light outside and warm and all, but it would really not feel like Christmas if I didn't have any of our traditional Christmas cookies. These are a batch of S cookies, and I made butter cookies as well. The cookies don't taste quite the same as at home because New Zealand flour is heavier than American flour, but they taste good all the same.

And finally, the roommates (minus Nina who wasn't dressed up in Christmas clothes and therefore was not allowed to be in the picture)! Claudia was a reindeer, I was some sort of Santa's helper/elf, and Meredith is looking lovely in what might be the most hideous shirt to come out of China. I am sad I don't have a direct shot of it; perhaps she got one, and I can post it after stealing it from her. It's made for a small Chinese person, so it fits incorrectly all over and comes complete with plastic beads knitted into the front, puffed sleaves, and some sort of exploding plastic flower adornment.

The Twelve Days of a New Zealand Christmas

Adapted by Kingi M. Ihaka

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
A pukeko in a ponga tree.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Two kumara and a pukeko in a ponga tree.

On the third day: three flax kits …

On the fourth day: four huhu grubs …

On the fifth day: five big fat pigs …

On the sixth day: six pois a-twirling …

On the seventh day: seven eels a-swimming …

On the eighth day: eight plants of puha …

On the ninth day: nine sacks of pipis …

On the tenth day: ten juicy fish heads …

On the eleventh day: eleven haka lessons …

On the twelfth day: twelve piupius swinging …

King Kong Premiere

King Kong has already had its worldwide premiere, but it also had a pretty big red carpet premiere in Wellington yesterday.  The entire movie was shot in and around Wellington – even the shots of New York City are actually the Hutt Valley.  Because it is such a local movie, Peter Jackson made sure to have a big Wellington premiere.  I have never seen a premiere before (nothing premieres in Atlanta, only New York), so I had to go and check it out.  Neither did I have time to camp out all day nor was I too excited about the actual stars, but I did want to see the crowds and the red carpet.  Claudia felt the same way, so we headed down to Courtenay Place around 5.30.

There had been entertainments such as singers and dancers since 3.30, and the New Zealand celebrities were set to arrive at 5.30, followed by the cast stars at 6, so Claudia and I weren’t expecting to be able to see anything after getting there so late.  The streets had been closed since the night before, and a couple of diehards had even camped out overnight.  Recently, the winds have for some unknown reason died down in Wellington, so the temperatures keep rising, and it legitimately feels like summer now.  I think the warm temperatures encouraged the outdoor sleepover.  By the time we arrived, the streets were packed.  People were climbing trees, hanging over balconies, everything.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the world premiere of The Return of the King.  I hadn’t seen anything like this since the Lions test match in Wellington back when I first arrived.

Claudia and I made our way through the crowds down the street, trying to catch a glimpse of the red carpet through stacks of people 4 rows thick, until we got all the way down to the Embassy Theatre where the movie was being shown.  (As a side note, this wasn’t the actual premiere.  It was shown at 12.01AM that morning all around the country.  For some reason, the official premiere was at 7PM.  Who knows?)  There was a small stage set up for speeches, lots of TV newscasters around keeping their eyes on the people walking by, and some grandstands set up behind the stage for ticketed guests.  We found our way to the barrier behind the stands because there was a money view of the theatre entrance and it was in the shade (sort of).  It was also not very crowded for some reason.  We decided to hang out here for awhile so we could see the stars as they entered the theatre.

This was the best decision of the day because we happened to be standing next to what may be the nicest, coolest security guard ever.  After being there for about 15 minutes or so (it could be longer, I have a poor sense of time), he came up to me and asked if it was “just the two of us,” meaning me and Claudia.  I said yes, of course, and then he said that there were two seats available at the front of the stands and would we like them?  Shocked, we made our way through the barrier and right onto the front row.  It was so cool!  The stage where the speeches were made was only about 6 feet from me, and all of the stars (minus Naomi Watts) in attendance made their way over to sign autographs.  I got to meet Karl Urban (Eomer in the Lord of the Rings trilogy), Jamie Bell (Jimmy), Andy Serkis (King Kong in King Kong and Gollum/Smeagol in The Lord of the Rings), Adrien Brody (Jack Driscoll, and also the star of The Pianist), and Colin Hanks (Preston), among other people.  I must also mention my prime view of Dan Carter as he walked down the red carpet.  (Dan Carter is the All Blacks rugby player with whom I am most obsessed.)  I got to see the Wellington mayor make her speech, as well as Trevor Mallard, the Economic Development Minister.  And, of course, Peter Jackson!  I got to see Naomi Watts up on the stage as well, so that is OK even though she didn’t come over to sign autographs.  The cool thing about her was that she was taking pictures with her digital camera the whole time, holding it up to take pictures of her co-stars and Peter Jackson as well as the crowd.

After everyone had gone inside who was allowed to go inside, Claudia and I hung around the take some more pictures of the grandstands, red carpet, and theatre.  This meant we were around when the guards started the take down process, and I jumped in to get an official King Kong sign that had been hanging in front of the grandstands.  It’s really cool, but we don’t know where we are going to put it yet.  We’re still looking for a prime place in the flat.

So, that is my first red carpet experience.  They were doing pick-up filming in Wellington when I first arrived, so I am happy I was still here for the premiere.  I originally wasn’t going to see the film, but after knowing that it was filmed entirely in Wellington and that it has been getting amazing reviews, I think I may make it down to the theatre and catch a showing.  I do hope that my next red carpet experience involves me actually going INSIDE to the premiere after walking down the red carpet, but we’ll see how that works out.  I just have to figure out how to be important enough to be invited to one of these things.  You can send all suggestions to me at my gmail account, thanks.  (

Maori 216 and Rotary (round II)

I am 2/3 of the way through my Maori studies class now.  My group had our 90-minute presentation last Sunday, so I am happy to get that over with.  The assignment was to pick a presentation topic that relates to the Treaty, and we decided to focus on the Maori language, specifically the revitalisation in recent history of the language and culture.  We came at it from several viewpoints, and because of my background, I got to focus on the Crown reaction to the language and what the government is doing / has done to promote or suppress the language.  Overall, it went really well.  Apparently classes here don’t have many presentations because the girls in my group didn’t know how to go about doing a presentation.  Several had never used PowerPoint.  I have done a ton of presentations, so I got to teach them about PowerPoint, how to give a good presentation, etc.  It’s a good thing I have had classes on that back at GT!  We meet again in mid-January, but I am going to try and get my essay written before Christmas.

Last night was my host club’s Christmas Party, so I got to spend another evening at Pencarrow Lodge.  Mark couldn’t come because he was detained in Auckland on business, so Anna and I were each other’s dates.  It was a very enjoyable evening.  I got to get dressed up again, and I wore my sparkly Santa hat all evening, and of course the meal was very, very good.  As a student, I don’t often get good meals like that.  Rotary Christmas parties are great fun because everyone is full of holiday cheer and out to have a great time.  There was dancing at this party as well, and I don’t think I will ever forget how amusing it was to see all the Rotarian men dancing around, slapping their knees and acting like cowboys, singing along to ‘Rawhide.’  

Speaking of Rotary, I had a speech up in Paraparaumu last Thursday as well.  That went really well.  I had given a speech to the Paraparaumu club a few months ago, but now I was speaking to the Kapiti club, which actually meets in the same building as the Paraparaumu club.  It’s amazing how clubs that live in the same area, even meet in the same building, can be so different.  I really enjoyed both clubs.  There were a lot of people in attendance – 37 if I remember correctly.  And 23 apologies!  That’s a pretty large club for this area.  I had some computer issues, but everything worked out OK, and my speech went really well.  They were all very friendly, of course.  Meredith was also giving a speech in the area to the Otaki club, so we caught the train back to Wellington together.  

That is about all that is going on in my life now.  Even though Christmas is approaching, everything is slowing down, especially since I have gotten my presentation out of the way.  I just have the essay and my readings to do.  I also have another speech tonight to the Rotary Club of West Hutt.  Meredith and I are going to a Christmas concert on Friday at the Town Hall, and we are having a Tacky Christmas / housewarming party this weekend in our flat.  We have decorated our flat now.  We raided the Warehouse for the tackiest decorations and came back with a PVC Christmas tablecloth, a 4-ft plastic tree that we have loaded down with tinsel, gaudy plastic Santas, and Mardi Gras beads, and a hanging ornament thing.  We still don’t have mistletoe, but we’re working on it!

South Island Pictures: Nelson, Picton, and Wellington

The two of us at the geographic centre of New Zealand. How many geographic centres have you been to?


It seems that everyone I travel with has a habit of taking pictures of public restrooms. First Amy and Meredith started the trend in Taupo, and my mom has continued it in Nelson. She was fascinated with the 'Superloo.'

I love this picture. I took it inside the cathedral in Nelson. It's just very peaceful.

This is what downtown Nelson looks like. Everything is bricked over, the buildings are well restored, and it has a pleasant small-town feeling while still having a good amount of shopping and eateries.

This is Mom and me on our wine tour. This is about the third vineyard (pronounced vin-YARD) we visited. You can see the grapes in the background. It was a great day for a wine tour, with lots of sunshine and warm weather.

I have to include a picture of the dive-bombing birds of Picton. It looks like a very pretty bird, but don't be fooled. It's actually a terror in disguise. This bird is so bold that it won't wait for you to leave your food before it swoops down to steal the scraps; it will dive bomb you at your table while you are trying to enjoy a pleasant meal at an outdoor cafe. If you're ever in Picton, watch out. Just a warning.

Yes, my mom did get swallowed by an elephant accidentally. No, not really. We found this sculpture thing in the Botanic Gardens in Wellington, and we still can't figure out what it really is. It makes an interesting picture, though. Feel free to submit your own captions in your comments.

A nice picture to end the trip. This is on the cable car on the way back down to Lambton Quay.

MAOR 216 and Rotary update

All of my updates recently have been about the trips I have been taking, so I haven’t had much chance to talk about my life in Wellington!  Don’t worry, I am still alive and doing well!

I am in the full swing of things with my Maori Studies class.  This class, MAOR 216, is all about the Treaty of Waitangi, or the treaty signed by the European settlers and many of the indigenous Maori tribal leaders.  (I think that the Maori studies department would kick me out for such a short appraisal of the significance of the treaty!)  There are many issues facing the treaty today, including translation errors, ignorance, and dissatisfaction with the handling of the document by the government.  The treaty was written in both Maori and English, but the accepted English translation of the Maori version doesn’t match the original English, and the Maori translation of the English version doesn’t match the original Maori.  Therefore, there are 4 working versions of the treaty, and this is causing problems in the area of guarantees (i.e. what is guaranteed under the treaty, what is protected, etc.)  Also, this document was signed in 1840, but it was promptly disregarded and ended up in a filing cabinet in the National Archives where it was rediscovered in the late 1900s, half eaten away by rodents.  Now, the Waitangi Tribunal hears claims put forth by Maori for lands taken and damages incurred, etc.  

My class deals with pretty much every aspect of this treaty.  We think about what it means to discuss the treaty as intellectuals, different frames of reference for the treaty, what it means for Maori and Pakeha (European settlers) societies, and more.  This class is pretty challenging for me because it is so far out of my frame of mind.  I am an engineer.  I don’t do women’s studies, I don’t do religious studies, I don’t do liberalism in a classroom.  So, when I am confronted with people who have marched on the capitol in protest, with people who are far left liberals fighting for a cause that isn’t even in a language I understand, it is very challenging.  Although knowledge of the Maori language isn’t a prerequisite for this class (they would never have let me in if it was), my ignorance of the language and Maori background makes the class very challenging and interesting.  My tutor in the tutorials is also very intimidating.  She is the kind of person who is very into her cause, who marches and protests and demonstrates, and who demands a high level of competence in her tutorials.  In the first tutorial, we had to introduce ourselves, say where we were from, what our mountain is, what our river is, and who our iwi (Maori tribe) is, all in Maori.  That was highly challenging as I have never spoken Maori that much in my life, but I am working on it.

We split into groups based on our home locations for our presentation project.  My group has all females (we’re the Kelburn/Kilburnie group), and our presentation is about the revitalisation of the Maori language after it became an official language in 1987.  Before that point, it was a punishable offence to speak Maori in New Zealand.  We have all split into different sections, mine being the Act itself and the Pakeha reaction and mindset surrounding the act.  This is a good topic for me because it is what I identify with (namely, the European perspective on the treaty and treaty-related issues) as well as bringing in another good perspective in the presentation.  I have had some trouble finding information, basically because there is no information due to a lack of interest in the Maori situation at that point in time, but that in itself is a point of interest in my presentation.  I have had to go back and search through microfiches and Parliamentary debates, getting very dusty in the process.  The presentation is Sunday afternoon, so wish me luck!

Next, a Rotary update!  This is a fairly busy Rotary month for me.  I finally got to meet Rodney Wong, the district governor, at Pencarrow’s farewell dinner for the Finnish GSE team about a week ago.  I also got to go to Meredith’s club’s Christmas party this past Sunday.  Well, I say party, but it was really more of an outing.  It was a mystery tour involving two types of transportation and several different venues.  This club has been so nice to me, inviting me along to many of their activities and really including me in the Rotary world.  Meredith and I met up with everyone at the Dominion Post ferry at 3.30 on Sunday afternoon, ready for all the excitement.  We went across the harbour to a small park, where we had a couple of glasses of wine and some peanuts and socialisation.  Later, we took a bus around the coast to Pencarrow Lodge for a sit down dinner, a bit of golfing (Meredith has a fantastic drive, let me tell you), and some more socialising.  I got to talk to many of the Rotarians I had only seen at the one meeting I had been to or briefly met through Meredith, so that was enjoyable.  I really do love getting to know all of the different Rotarians because each club is so different.

One question in particular was very thought-provoking for me.  One Rotarian asked me how I would describe this experience when I got back home, namely drinking with a bunch of Rotarians on a wind-swept beach/park in the middle of December, but also meaning the whole experience.  It got me thinking about how I could never really have anyone else understand what this experience has meant to me.  I can tell you about it, show you pictures, try to have you understand the culture, but you won’t ever be able to understand the impact it has had on my 20-year-old self.  The best that I can do is bring back all of my knowledge and experiences and try to exemplify my scholarship year through my actions.  We also talked about the fact that in 30 years, when I am explaining this to younger family members, it is going to be an ‘oohing and ahhing’ effect when they find out I lived on my own in New Zealand for a year!

Now, after that philosophical note, I believe I will go curl up with a new book.  I have a couple more Rotary speeches coming up in the next week and class all weekend, so I should have another update soon.  I am also adjusting to a summertime Christmas, so I will let you know how that is going.  Let’s just say that, for now, Christmas cookies aren’t the same without cookie cutters to make Christmas shapes and when they are made with a Nalgene bottle as a rolling pin!

South Island: Day 7/8/9/10

South Island: Day 7

Day 7 was the day that my mom and I spent in Nelson.  We had arrived very late the previous evening, so we didn’t see much of the city before going to bed, but I had high hopes.  Amy had told me that this was the city that she and her parents enjoyed the most.  So, the next morning we woke up early once more and set off to explore.

Nelson is a very cute little city.  It was one of the first ones settled in New Zealand, and it enjoys some very nice weather as it is sheltered from the southerly winds (for the most part) as well as the rain.  Mom and I set out with our trusted Lonely Planet as well as some advice from Amy.  One thing I was particularly interested in was the Botanic Gardens.  There is a trail leading up the mountain in the gardens that brings you to the exact geographic centre of New Zealand, and I wanted to stand on that spot and have my picture taken.  The trail was much steeper than I anticipated, though, so we got a bit of a workout on the way up.  My dad had also chosen this particular time to call us to check in on our trip, so he got to talk to my mom as she huffed and puffed her way up the hill.  The view at the top was definitely worth the climb, as was being able to say that I have been to the geographic centre of New Zealand.

We climbed back down and headed back to the city centre.  We passed some gardens on the way, so we went in to explore.  These were the Queen’s Gardens, and it was a lovely spot.  It had a small river running through it, with fountains and walkways and well-placed benches.  After wandering through there for a time, we headed further in to town to go check out the cathedral, something else I wanted to see.  We didn’t have too much time for exploration, though.  We had a schedule to stick to!

While the Nelson region isn’t as famous as some other parts of New Zealand for wineries, it does have several good ones, and this was where my mom and I did a wine tour.  This was my first wine tour, and I was really excited about it.  I love New Zealand wine, and here we were at the source!  The tour company, Bay Tours, was excellent.  Not only was the driver/leader very friendly but she also took us on a bit of a sightseeing tour around the city on the way to the wineries.  Tasting all the wines was good fun.  The first place was a combination of two smaller wineries, and we also had a food compliment platter so we could test how changing the food you eat affects the taste of the wine.  We had a good group, good to talk to, and I discovered that I enjoy un-oaked chardonnay best (chardonnay that has been made in metal barrels as opposed to oak so that it doesn’t have any of that taste).  I really want to go up to the Hawke’s Bay region, or Napier, and do some more wine tours up there as that is where most of the chardonnay is made.

The next day was really just our travel back to Wellington.  We took an early bus over to Picton to catch the Interislander Ferry across the strait.  This was the major concern of the trip as Mom tends to get seasick, and the waters across the strait can have some major swells, but a little Dramamine and everyone was OK.  This was the biggest boat I have ever been on, as I have never been on a cruise, so I definitely explored around.  Mom wasted no time getting settled in the bar area, crunching on some nut mix and watching Dr. Phil, before falling asleep on the benches (which also helped her not to be seasick, I think).  After travelling so much for so many days, we tended to sleep whenever we got the chance.  Mark picked us up at the ferry terminal, and we went out to a nice dinner at Shed 5 with him and Anna so that my mom could actually meet the people who are somewhat responsible for me here (in case you forgot, Mark and Anna are my host counsellors here in Wellington).  I hadn’t had a meal in a place as nice as Shed 5 the entire time I have been here – I am a student, don’t forget – so that was highly enjoyable.  The big excitement for my mom that night was that there was an earthquake during dinner.  It was about a 4 or 5, if I remember correctly from the papers the next day, and it was actually the first one I had really felt in Wellington.  They happen all the time, of course, so none of the other diners paid any attention to what was happening, but you would have thought the world had come crashing down to hear my mom talk about it later.  It was funny.  The whole earthquake situation in Wellington is actually quite funny in that I will pick up the paper in the morning, read about how a such-and-such strength earthquake was felt in Wellington the night before, and think, “Wait!  I missed it again!”

We’re now getting into the homestretch of my mom’s trip to New Zealand.  We spent the next two days wandering around the city, exploring the shopping districts and figuring out what was really different between New Zealand and the USA.  Mom was as amazed as I was at how expensive cosmetics are.  We met up with Meredith for lunch at the Backbencher, a restaurant I have been meaning to go to, so it was nice for Mom to meet someone who I am around quite a lot in Wellington (especially as I now live with her!).  We also spent a good deal of time in Kirkaldie & Stain’s, New Zealand’s equivalent to a Macy’s, exploring their Christmas store.

This was also the evening that we had tickets to the ballet!  We went back to our hostel, got all dressed up, and headed over to the theatre to enjoy The Nutcracker.  Don’t be fooled, though.  It was a contemporary version of The Nutcracker, complete with dancing invalids and Clara having severe head trauma rather than a dream.  They even got rid of Drosselmeyer!  I really enjoyed watching it, and the changes were rather funny.  This was the first time I had seen The Nutcracker since actually dancing in it ages ago, which means it is the first time I have seen it all the way through.  Because the ballet was at 6, we had skipped dinner, so after it was over we went down the street to a really flash bar to have small nibbles for dinner and some good drinks.  

The next day was the last day Mom had in New Zealand.  She didn’t fly out until that evening, though, so we basically had the whole day.  We checked out of our hostel, moved all of her stuff back to my flat, and spent about an hour packing up some of my stuff to send home with her as well as ship.  The big plan of the day was to go to the Botanical Gardens because they are really nice in Wellington.  The last time I had been in the gardens was in mid-July, so none of the flowers were flowering.  Now, in early November, most of them were out, and it was great.  We spent a lot of time in the rose garden because my mom loves roses.  There are all kinds of different species and varieties and cross-overs, and of course we checked out each one.  We also ended up with some very interesting pictures, the best of which would be my mom being swallowed by what looks like an elephant trunk.  We also got to play around on the cable car for awhile, which is always fun.

So, that’s the end of the South Island Expedition!  It was a great 10 days and my only family visit the entire time that I am here in New Zealand.  We saw lots of cool stuff, and I really enjoyed being able to tour around the South Island.  I never did make it down to Southland, so we’ll have to work on that still!

South Island Pictures: Fox Glacier, Punakaiki, and some Nelson

You can see here how the Fox Glacier is surrounded by temperate land and rainforest. The glacier spills down the valley to the sea and is one of only two other places in the world where this happens.

A view from the top! It was a quite misty, rainy day, but we didn't let that stand in our way!

Our guide is the girl in the front in the red, and she is using her ice pick to re-cut the stairs that we climbed up the glacier that you see up to her right. You definitely need to have crampons on your shoes to climb this ice.

I cannot for the life of me remember which lake this is, but it is between the Fox Glacier and Nelson. Whenever the water is still, you get great reflections in the water around this area because of the minerals picked up by the glacial waters.

I was highly excited to stop at Punakaiki just so I could see these aptly named 'Pancake Rocks.' You can see how they seem to be pancakes all stacked up on themselves. This of course has a logical weathering explanation, but they don't seem as cool once you understand the science behind it all.

The view from the geographic centre of New Zealand. This is Nelson, and the land across the water right underneath the clouds is Abel Tasman National Park. It's a gorgeous area of the country.

Climbing the steps to the cathedral after climbing the track to the geographic centre ...

... makes for one very tired mother!