Weather

I thought that spring would bring better weather. And sometimes it does - when Tony was here, there were so many sunny and nice days. Then, Dad came. And it rained, and rained, and rained. And even though it stops raining for a day or two, it has generally kept up the wet pattern since then. I make refuge in the library and the St. David Lecture Theater building near my flat where there is an abundance of heat flowing out of the radiators and time my trip back home on whether it's raining or not.

A few days ago we got hail. Yesterday, the wind was bitter on my walks to and from class and rain came and went as it pleased. The sidewalks are dry at the moment, though I'm sure they won't be by the time I need to go buy groceries. . .

Here is a poem my grandparents have up at their house that is appropriate for Dunedin in springtime.

Weather

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll whether the weather
Whatever the weather
Whether we like it or not.

Procrastination

It seems as if my entire New Zealand education depends on whether or not I can write. Each of my classes requires 2 or 3 essays, and the final exams are written exams as well. And that's it, I have no daily assignments, no quizzes or tests. Only writing.

And all of these essays are usually due around the same time too, making my life a schedule of when I'll be in the library researching for which essay, and when I'll be typing which essay, and when I'll finally be handing in each essay. Unfortunately, I have three essays due within two weeks time. Like a good student, I spent my Saturday morning in the library and afternoon organizing my notes for essay number one.

Now today, Sunday, I thought I'd be able to whip together the majority of one of my essays. I've gotten about 700 words down. That's a start. But now I look out the window and see the sun shining through the clouds and think, "I wonder if Glassons has anything cute on sale." and "Maybe I need to go buy some more milk" and "Let's see if Facebook has changed at all in the last five minutes." Surprise! It hasn't. Now what? Okay, I'll crank out another hundred words. . .

Dad

Just a week after Tony's visit, Dad came to New Zealand. I met him in Wellington, New Zealand's capital city. After we met up at the luggage carousel, we hopped into a Prius taxi that drove us to the backpackers (hostel) where we stayed. (I had never been in a Prius before - it sure was quiet!) Despite the rain, we ventured out to the Te Papa museum and saw exhibits about NZ culture and geology. There was a room where you could stand and feel what it would be like to feel an earthquake. Little did we know that a 7.1 earthquake would rattle the area only days later...

On Sunday morning, we did a walking tour of Wellington in the rain. It was well worth it, though, as we learned a lot about the history of the city and the current uses of some of the historic buildings. At the end of the tour, Dad and I took the cable car up the hill to walk through a botanical garden. We really enjoyed hearing the Tui, a native bird, calling through the trees. The sound is unlike any bird I've heard before.

We woke up early on Monday morning to take a ferry across the Cook Strait. Unfortunately, the ferry we had booked originally was cancelled and we took a later one. Lots of waiting around. We did run into another Arcadia study abroad student who is studying in Christchurch. He was making his way around by hitchiking. We had interesting conversations about his adventures. Once we arrived on the south island in a town called Picton, we hopped onto a train and travelled south along to coast to Kaikoura. Of course, it rained almost the entire time. We had to force ourselves to leave the backpackers and venture out for dinner, but ended up having a good time. We played a couple rounds of foosball and I lost both times. :)

While we were in Kaikoura, our three plans were to do a night sky thing, swim with a huge pod of dolphins, and go sea kayaking. Unfortunately, only one of our plans ended up happening. It rained too much to see the sky, and the ocean swells were too large to go out swimming with the dolphins. We did go kayaking, though, and saw both some NZ fur seals and a rare blue penguin, the smallest species of penguins. He just happened to be swimming around at the right spot for us to watch him for about 5 minutes. And on Wednesday, before we caught the train to Christchurch, we went whale watching. They had a good system - another, earlier boat would track the location of the whales and would send the information to the boats behind it. A couple of times, we stopped and the captain of our boat stuck a listening device into the water to try and hear the whale. Pretty amazing. We ended up seeing a couple of Hectors Dolphins, a rare species, and a Sperm Whale. He was huge!

We only spent one night in Christchurch, but our hotel was pretty wacky. It was called Hotel So and it reminded me of Japan. It was pretty modern, with lots of neon colors and a curved, sliding glass door that lead to the bathroom. Two days after we left was the devastating earth quake. (No one has lost a life yet, though.)

On Thursday morning, we flew to Queenstown. While we were there, we mostly just bummed around, walking downtown through the shops, going to a craft fair on Saturday, using free internet at the McDonald's cafe. We also took a hike on Sunday that led to a sculpture called Basket of Dreams and a neat view. It was nice to have a laid back few days before taking the bus back to Dunedin and reality.

I showed Dad some of the places I go here in Dunedin - New World for groceries, the post office, where I can cut flax for weaving, and, of course, campus. We also went to Baldwin Street where we met an old man who typically runs up and down the street around 30 times a day. He's kind of famous. http://www.odt.co.nz/your-town/dunedin/3290/baldwin-st-30-times-day

Also while Dad was in Dunedin, we went on a penguin tour and saw some yellow-eyed penguins, hooker sea lions, and NZ fur seals. I was the only one to spot a penguin making its way onto the beach. All of the others we saw had already come ashore and were camping out in their nests. We also saw tons of sheep. The penguin beach was on the outskirts of a farm, and the tour company is the only one that has permission to visit the beach. So, naturally, we walked among the sheep on our way down the hill. We saw 2 sheep that had just been born, and 2 others who were looking for their mom and were bleating at us to help them find her. When she appeared around the corner, they ran over to her. So cute. We also saw a pitch black lamb.

Dad left yesterday, the only day of the 2 week trip that we didn't have rain. We took a tour of the Olveston house in Dunedin and enjoyed the last few hours of each others company. I'm so glad he came to visit. We had a terrific time.

Tony

On August 10, Tony came to visit me. We spent 2 weeks exploring Dunedin and some of the south island together and had a fantastic time. The day after he arrived was my birthday. We toured the Cadbury Chocolate Factory where we tasted lots and lots of chocolate and saw them making giant Cadbury Eggs for next Easter. We also went to St. Clair beach for dinner and gaped at the giant waves.

The first weekend he was here we drove to the other side of the country and visited Milford Sound. This beautiful area was misnamed; it is actually a fjord, formed by glaciers thousands of years ago. We took a cruise and saw waterfalls, seals, penguins, and, my favorite, dolphins! It was a gorgeous day and was a beautiful location.


The rest of his visit was spent wandering around Dunedin, walking up the steepest street in the world, cooking his delicious food, and enjoying time together. When he first arrived, he said, "I love New Zealand!" It made me feel so much better about being here, like I had more of a purpose and wasn't just a dot in a foreign land. I had actually paved a path for myself and was able to show it off, comfortable now in the skin that seemed so strange almost 2 months ago.

My Day

Today has been nice. I only had one class this morning, Early Australian and New Zealand History. (It's my favorite!) After class, I headed to the library to print my Maori essay. On my way in, I ran into Dave, the Christian group leader. We had a little chat, and he called me Liz. I didn't correct him.

In the computer lab, I watched as 12 pages of my paper shot out of the printer, one copy to hand in and one for my records. I stapled them together and headed over the the Maori Studies building and handed in my first ever Otago University essay. It's worth about 15% of my grade, so I really hope I did well! It feels so good to be done.

This afternoon, I've thrown in 3 loads of laundry, eaten leftover dinner from 2 nights ago, Skyped with family, and worked on editing and referencing an essay for my God and Ethics class. I'd say I've been pretty productive.

Tunnel Beach

On Saturday, I took a trip with the Otago Christian Group to Tunnel Beach. The group was very diverse; I was the only American student, there were 2 Malaysians, a German, a Japanese, a Russian, and an Indian. We packed into a van and drove the 20 minutes to the beach along windy gravel roads. July 31st was the last day the trail to the beach was open. It meanders through sheep pastures and closed on August 1st for the lambing season.

We walked the easy descent to the first tunnel, naturally made by the waves crashing against the rocks. Further down the path was a man-made tunnel. It was built by a Mr. Cargill to give his daughters private access to a beach. How wonderful would it be to have your own beach?!

Queenstown

Last weekend, I headed over to Queenstown with the other Arcadia Study Abroad students. We spent 2 1/2 days in the adventure capital of the world, jet boating, hiking, luging, and, for the brave ones, bungy jumping.

The drive to Queenstown took a little over 3 hours. When we arrived, we checked into the Pinewood Lodge where I shared a tiny room with 5 other girls. It wasn't the greatest, but it was a place to sleep. There was a kitchen, too, so I was able to bring food from home instead of eating out all weekend.

After everyone was settled in, we drove to the Shotover River where we took a jet boat ride. I had a blast! The boat only needs 4 inches of water to operate on, and our driver was a maniac. (Well, I guess all of the drivers are crazy. That's what makes the ride so exciting!) We came within inches of scraping against rock walls and running into logs, and we did lots of 360º turns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBT-2yGXVwU&feature=related

The rest of the night was open for free time. I went to downtown Queenstown with Cleo, another Arcadia student. It was really touristy, but so charming at the same time.

In the morning, we had the option of either skiing/snowboarding or hiking. I chose to hike. Everyone going on the hike had to be ready to go at, as they say, "7:45 AM in the morning". We drove over an hour to the start of the Routeburn Track. I had been told to wear lots of warm clothing. Usually, there's lots of snow and the temps are pretty low when the group does the hike at this time of year. Fortunately, it was a gorgeous day. Unfortunately, I wore way too many layers and had nothing to put them in as I took them off.

After crossing the third swinging bridge about an hour and a half into our hike, we stopped for "morning tea". I ate a Luna bar and filled up my water bottle in the river flowing by, and then we continued on. If I thought the first section was hard, I was in for a big surprise for the second section! It was almost continuously uphill. After 2 or so hours of huffing and puffing my way up the mountain, I finally made it to the Routeburn Falls hut where we could eat lunch. By that time, my stomach was growling and I inhaled my food. Jane, the Arcadia director in NZ, made us a hot blackcurrant drink. (Usually by the time people get to the hut, they are frozen and the warm drink is perfect. This time, we weren't really frozen, but the hot drink was still perfect.)

I went with a group heading up even further to go see a lake. At this point, we had finally reached some snow. Again, it was mostly uphill and steep, but I felt determined to stick with the group. We made it to the lake, but had to turn around immediately if we were to make it back to the bus in time. Of course, the way back down was much easier, but it still took at least 3 hours. I chatted with a new friend, which helped pass the time.

As we got closer and closer to the end, my feet and my legs were getting more and more sore. (They are still hurting now! It's hard to walk!) We made it, though, and we weren't even the last ones. The bus took us back to Queenstown and we ate delicious pizza at Winnie Bago's. I walked back the the Lodge, took a shower, and passed out on my bed.

Sunday was more laid back, but still a lot of fun. We took a gondola ride to the top of a mountain. From there, we strapped on helmets, hopped onto a chairlift, and came sliding down the hill on a luge track. I had a blast! We each got to take 3 rides. We had to take the slower scenic route to get used to it, and then we could do the advanced route. The scenery was amazing and I hardly felt the cold.

After taking the gondola back down, the bungy jumpers left for their adventure. No way did I do that! I went to a restaurant called Ferg Burger with a friend. (Jane was giving recommendations for restaurants on Friday night. She mentioned Ferg Burger, saying it in her cute NZ accent. Then she paused and said, "Ferrrg Burrgerr, as you Americans say".) It was crowded, but for a good reason. It was delicious! I had a burger with bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and some kind of sauce. I must have been hungry, too, because I was able to eat the entire thing. Celia and I went shopping at Glassons, a chain of clothing stores, and we got a free fudge sample at a candy shop.

All of the non-bungyers hopped on the bus and drove to Arrowtown, a famous gold town. We only had 20 minutes to walk around, and I think it was really just a way to kill time while we waited for the bungy jumpers to finish. I got some walnut and coffee ice cream, though, which was superb. My group then went to the first ever bungy bridge and saw about 10 people jump. The brave Arcadia kids met up with us there and we headed back to Dunedin.