Queenstown

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

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

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

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

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

Wellington Ukulele Orchestra

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

Cadbury Chocolate Factory

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

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

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

The Beauty of Student Life

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

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

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

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

Easter Break: Glacier parks to the "City"

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

Leslie and I- a LOTR site, finally!

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

Jessica and Victoria hard at work on the vegs

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

Home Sweet Home (kind of)

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

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

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

Leslie showing off her first ever homemade bread

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

Easter Break: The East Coast

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

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

Shaffer holding up Victoria and I

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

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

NZ Impressions

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

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

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

Easter Break: Glaciers and Sunshine

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

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

Easter Break: A Day of Rainbow Driving

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

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

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

Easter Break: Tramping on the Kepler Track

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

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

Easter Break: WU Does Fjordland

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

in the front- Victoria, Pete and I.

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

Milford Sound

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

Five glacial cuts

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

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

Easter Break: Jetboating to Glowworms

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

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

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

Leslie and I enjoying the sunshine on the lake

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

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

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

Easter Break: Traversing the southern coastline

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

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

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

Nugget Point

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

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

That is one OLD tree!

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