hello from queenstown

It's been a while since I've had internet access. We've been in some pretty rural areas, and it was awesome. Since I was in Nelson, we drove north to Motueka, where we stayed for 2 days. We kayaked and hiked in the Abel Tasman national park. It was really awesome. We learned about some of the trees there, including the Kahikatea and the Totara. I also bought a book on NZ geology while I was there.

I don't remember if I've mentioned this, but we saw LOTS of baby seals in Kaikoura. I have some video!

After Motueka we headed down the west coast. Our first stop was in St. Arnaud, which has a population of 80 people. A group of people went and hiked a really intense trail (I went on the easier track). They were out past dark, and it was really dark there. We almost had to send out a search crew.

We then went to Hokitika, where we had a lecture on the beach. It is the best place to buy pounamu, which is the Maori jewelery made out of greenstone (serpentine in geology terms).

Our next stop was Fox Glacier, where we stayed for 2 nights. We hiked up 700 stairs to get to the glacier, where we hiked even more stairs with crampons (spikes) tied to our shoes. Hiking on the glacier was the neatest thing ever. It was "sweet as" (that's kiwi lingo).

Today we drove 5 hours in the rain to Queenstown. There is a big weather system coming through. They're supposed to get 25 centimeters in 2.5 days. And that's nothing. One area got 17 centimeters in one hour last week. It washed out a couple roads and caused a landslide. We drove through some of the areas where they filmed The Lord of the Rings and 10,000 BC.

We are now in Queenstown, which is a big skiing place June-August. They are just now getting the first snow, so it might be a wee while before anyone can ski. Four girls bungy jumped today, and 10 other people are bungy jumping tomorrow. I'm hiking part of the Routeburn Track tomorrow. It's normally a 3 day hike, so I'm ok only doing part of it. We get to stay in Queenstown for 3 nights, and that's a real luxury. Some places we've only been staying for one night.

A wee walk in Aotearoa

So, we've done quite a lot since my last post. We've left Christchurch and headed north. We stopped in Kaikoura for a couple days. Kaikoura is one of the most green cities in the world. Look it up some time, it's pretty amazing. In Kaikoura, we first went on a Maori tour, which showed us lots of old maori places. We then took a boat out to see the dusky dolphins. There had to be hundreds of them! Then we went on a long hike along the cliffs on the coast to see a colony of seals. They were so close! The hike was amazing, we were hiking on rocky shores and up steep trails. We ended the hike going straight up a 70 degree muddy hillside, which some people slipped on. We also ate some lamb.

Since then we've travelled to Nelson, which is one of the sunniest cities in the country. On the way to Nelson we travelled along Highway 1, which hugs the coastline and cuts through some vineyards. We stopped to hike up a trail, which led us to a waterfall and pool filled with baby seals. There were so many of them playing in the water, one of them even came up to smell me. Once we arrived in Nelson, we went to a nature reserve and went for a "wee walk" which turned out to be a pretty intense hike because recent rains had washed out some of the trails. My muscles still hurt. We did some volunteer work there, clearing out the non-native plant species. We then ate dinner in town. Today we're travelling to Motueka, where tomorrow we will kayak in the Abel Tasman park.

a couple days in christchurch

So I've been in Christchurch for a couple days now. We've had lectures on ecology, tourism, sustainability, Maori culture, multi-member proportional government, and agriculture. A nice break from all of the hard-core science at Tech.

I have been to the grocery store a few times. Kiwis have some strange tastes: vegemite, instant coffee, ovaltine, nutella (can be bought for NZ$2.89), muesli and granola cereal, chicken flavored chips, kiwifruit, dried fruit, instant juice... just to name a few. I've been snacking on lots of dates and nutella sandwiches. And the fruit is a kiwifruit. It is not a kiwi. Kiwi means either the person (a european decent new zealander) or a kiwi bird (which are rare and only come out at night).

We went to the botanical garden and the Canterbury Museum today. I took so many pictures of the garden, I wish I could upload them. The museum wasreally interesting. They had lots of Maori artifacts. There was an entire exhibit on the geology of Antarctica, which I wish I could have spent more time at.

The Maori culture and language is very fascinating. There are two periods of Maori history. The first is when they were first here and hunted extensively. They hunted the large flightless moa birds, which whent extinct because of this hunting. The second period is more of a farming and agriculture period where they developed towns and tools.

On another note, this hotel is interesting and weird. It is very modern. The rooms are all different, and somehow we ended up with the bad bathroom with NO counter space and a huge shower. The floors all have different color themes, I'm on the green floor.

Christchurch is a cute town. All the buildings are very English looking. You can find so many coffee places here, and they all serve the ovaltine. I don't know why so many people keep going to starbucks for breakfast.

Well, I have to go get dressed for the Maori dinner/reenactment thing we have tonight. It's supposed to be cold and involve lots of walking. We'll see...

almost there

I'm waiting in Auckland, NZ for my flight to Christchurch.  So far:

Met a couple friendly kiwis and fellow tourists in the airport while waiting for the flight.  Also met some people from the UGA program who are very nice.

Qantas is pretty awesome.  Fancy pillows and blankets.  LOTS of food.  Toothbrushes and eyemasks.  Free personal TVs with lots of movies (I watched UP and Avatar and a Aussie documentary about a photographer in the salt flat there). 

The stars at night were unbelieveable.

My pen exploded and my hand is now strangely purple.  My ears are also popping non-stop due to the pressure differences everywhere.

We flew over the North Island and saw sheep and cows and black sand beaches.  The sea is strangely calm looking.  Everything is very green and the trees are very different looking.  The people are friendly so far.  

Still waiting to find a place to exchange my money.

all ready to go

So here's my stuff... all packed, finally. I'm sure that I'm forgetting something...

My first flight leaves today at 3pm. I arrive in LAX at about 4:30 and then I have a 7 hour layover, in which I will have to go find my checked green bag and re-check it in with the other airline for the long flight to New Zealand. Simple, right? Then I get to take the 13 hour flight to NZ and then another 1 hour flight to a smaller city in NZ. I won't actually get there until Tuesday (since it's across the international dateline).

preface

So this blog is meant to be my way of keeping in touch with everyone this summer. Please leave comments! I want to hear from you all! And I want you to hear from me, so let me know if there is anyone else who would like to be added to the email list. There is one spot left!

The plans...
May 9 through June 3
> Study abroad with UGA in New Zealand
July 14 through August 14
> Research in Colorado with Keck Geology