Greetings everyone! The last weekend seemed to just breeze right by and time down here in the deep, deep south is quickly coming to an end. I've got 2 more weeks of class left (after this one) and 3 finals (one each week for 3 weeks) before my time's up. A bit more than a month to enjoy Dunedin town and the South Island...let's make the most of it. Anyways, enough of that, let's recap the weekend past through pictures:
My family loves me!!! Many thanks to my Uncle, Aunty & Grandparents for cooking up this care package and sending it down to me. I was in desperate need of some munchies... Clockwise: Garlic Peas, Arare/Rice crackers (no Tomoe...but just as good), Char Siu Bao/Manapua (ooooh yeah), a big tub of Cookie Time Chocolate/Apricot Cookies and other various assorted goodies. Thanks to my wonderful family, I'm the happiest student in Dunedin town!
I wake up on Saturday and Stuart tells me that George Street (the main road that I live on) is closed for some sort of event. He saw bagpipes and we speculated about what it could be for. As I walked down George St, I swear I heard the beat of a very familiar sounding drum...
Taiko drums that is! Little did we know, there was a parade put on by lots of people commemorating the relationship between Dunedin and Otaru. Otaru is a little town in Japan and the two cities have established a "sister city" relationship. Dunedin built a playground for kids in Otaru and the Mayor of Dunedin went over there to open it back in August. Apparently, we get a parade...
Not to say that this parade sucked or that it wasn't worth a playground! This was a darn cool parade. Look! Kimonos!!!
And more people dancing!!! This is the highest concentration of Asian people I've seen since leaving Hawaii! Amazing!
And even more people dancing (courtesy of the NZ Japan Society of Auckland)!!!
Even boy racers could participate in the parade! They had a line of Japanese import cars that not only included this spectacular Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V, but also the first ever Mazda car imported into NZ from Japan (tiny little thing...Stuart reckoned he could fit it on the back of his pickup with room to spare). They also had a Mazda 6 which was as sweet as it always is.
And just off the parade route, next to the Museum, I met my buddy the Moa! You can think of the moa sort of as giant (up to 12 feet tall) kiwi birds. They were definitely really cool birds...till the Maori ate most of them and the European settlers destroyed much of their natural habitat (or some combination of the two).
Later that Saturday, we went to the Otago v. Taranaki game. Oddly enough, the bus on the way to Carisbrook was full of 'Naki supporters. It felt a bit awkward, though we played the confused foreigner card to perfection. At half time, this Polynesian dance group, Kia Orana (or something of the like) performed. They also performed at the International Student Welcome function at the beginning of the year! Seems like they're almost local celebrities!
Now here's an actual picture of the game. Otago in blue (go team!) and 'Naki in bumble bee...er...black & yellow. Final result was a win for the home team! Woo Hoo! Not quite as magnificent a game as the last game we saw here (AB's v. Boks back during break - damn was that a good game), but an exciting 2nd half and Carl Hoeft's last game for Otago (former AB).
I'd say a nice, enjoyable, relaxing weekend. Hopefully, it's the last quiet one for a little bit. We're hoping to hit up Mount Cook (highest mountain in NZ...also, the mountain Sir Edmund Hillary practiced on before being the first man to climb Everest) this weekend. Pics to come whenever we get back from that. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. Until next time, take care!!!
*edit* Added pics of the freaky weather. Scroll on down to the bottom of the post to have a look!
Howdy all. Just a quick response to the last couple of comments I received... In regards to my hair, yes, it was definitely time for a haircut and I got one over mid-semester break. You'll notice, in the following pics, things on the top of my head are well under control. In regards to the lack of food pictures, just scroll down. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, it was quite a good weekend for all of my sports teams! First off, North Harbour took care of Bay of Plenty in NPC (rugby) action. Then USC dominated Arkansas in College Football. Finally, to round out things with a bit of High School football, Punahou beat St. Louis for the first time in 10 years. Oh, and also, my brother had a surprise birthday party thrown for him. Let us begin this post two weeks ago...
In support of her election campaign, New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark came to Dunedin to speak at Otago University. She spoke about her party's election promises, such as debt free student loans and maintaining the strong growth that NZ has exhibited over the past few years under the guidance of her government. She is quite a good public speaker and had good support from the predominantly pro-Labour student crowd.
After completing the two tests I had that week, Stuart and I decided to indulge a little by having a nice homecooked meal. So, here it is: Pan-fried flounder (fresh from the fishery), roast potatoes and heaps of veggies. It all sat very nicely in my stomach after a week of less than spectacular nutrition.
Following dinner, Stuart, Ryan and I visited Tull yet again for another helping of desserts. This is a rather poor picture of my dessert which was a very light, fruity mango slice. It is sort of a mango/soy tofu sort of pie thing (I ordered this because they ran out of the chocolate cheesecake I wanted) that was very subtle but very tasty. You absolutely cannot go wrong here. Every dessert choice will offer you, at the very least, sweetness satisfaction.
Nothing too interesting went on during this past week. The highlights were finally going to Moana Pools (very highly chlorinated, but definitely good to be back in the water nonetheless) and countless hours of Election polls/speculation on the nightly news. Things really didn't happen till the weekend finally came...
Saturday was Election Day. For me, that meant my first time ever voting in a proper Election booth (I've previously only voted absentee). Unfortunately, I didn't bring my actual digital camera so there was no way for me to discreetly take photos (the camera phone makes a loud, obnoxious shutter sound) in the polling booth so no ballot photos or photos of me in the booth.
After casting my vote, my cousin Nat came to my flat to enjoy a lovely BBQ (despite the rain that came at the very end).
Here's the spread: Roast potatoes, London Pride sausages (the best) and grilled onions. You can also see Stuart's steak and Ryan's Veggie patties in the picture. Not shown are the Tim-tams (chocolate covered biscuits) that we had for dessert. Oddly enough, not the most fancy of meals but it was the most full I've felt in a really long time.
And, here we all are getting ready to dig into the food in front of us: Nat, me, Sarah, Ryan & Stuart. Good company, good food, good times. We even went out to the park to toss around the football that Stuart bought. Aren't we American!!!
After a leisurely afternoon, Stuart and I donned our dress shirts, slacks and ties before heading on over to Cat's flat for an Election party. From 7 pm onwards, we snacked and watched live Election results on TV. It was cool to see people dressed up nicer than usual and also very exciting to see the votes pull in. The process is quite different from the US elections that I'm used to following but quite simple to understand. We even made a run to the supermarket to pick up ice cream and more snacks. This little excursion included a 5 minute debate in the chocolate aisle as we tried to choose which chocolates to bring back. Turkish delight was the first variety picked but there was substantial discussion regarding whether roasted almonds or caramel whip should be selected as chocolate flavour #2. After a best of 3 rock-paper-scissors competition, the roasted almonds won out. It was reasoned that the "savoury" almonds would complement the "sweet" turkish delight (despite the overlooked fact that it was all chocolate and, therefore, all sweet). Anyhow, I digress. It was cool to see the Moat Streeters (and company) again since the last time I had seen them all was for Mesopotamia and they are always such great fun. Thanks for having me! By the way, at the end of the night, Labour held a slim 1.1% lead over National. Although they lost 1 Parliament seat, Labour still has a seat more than National and, with that advantage, have an opportunity, through deal-making and coalition forming, to lead the next government and give Helen Clark an unprecedented 3rd term as PM.
It hasn't been too crazy here the past couple of weeks but we're gearing up for a trip, hopefully, in the near future. Our sights are set on Stewart Island (little island just south of the South island). That would be a great trip I think. But, we first have to make it through some demanding academic assignments and some odd Spring weather. This morning, the mountains around Dunedin were covered with snow and it's been hailing all day so far. So much for it getting warmer. Alrighty, until next time, take care everyone!
Here's some quick pics I snapped with the trusty cameraphone today on my run. I tried to get as close to the snow as possible but I gave up after a couple of hail showers and gale force wind gusts convinced me that if I would've continued, I not only would've gotten some cool pics but probably pneumonia. I tried my best and was probably 1/2 the way to the snow but let's not jeopardize my health for some snow pics...well, there's always tomorrow. Enjoy...
(L): The streets are spotted white this afternoon on the way towards Mt. Cargill. (R): Upon closer inspection, those white spots are not vanilla dippin' dots or styrofoam balls...it's hail!!!
(L): There was a lot more snow up on Mt. Cargill this morning but this is where I was heading on my run. (R): Across the way (to the left of the previous pic), there was snow as well. I saw some up on Signal Hill (to the right of the previous pic) this morning but there wasn't any there this afternoon. I guess the sun peaked out long enough to melt all that.
Hi everyone. My apologies for the lack of updates but last week was pretty crazy to be fair. Thankfully, I made it through my two exams and the illness has been conquered (well, I'm out of penicillin and feeling pretty good). Because of the busy schedule, there hasn't been a whole lot that has happened recently other than some good old fashioned Dunedin town fun. So, just to get the update ball rolling, here's a few pics from our trip to Abel Tasman National Park which, as you would've read from the previous post, happened during the mid-semester break. Here goes...
Just before getting to Thunder Creek Falls (pic from previous post), we crossed this bridge that was named the "Gates of Haast." We passed many cool bridges on our trip but this probably is the most picturesque of them all.
Speaking of Thunder Creek Falls, here I am posing in front of the loud waterfall.
After emerging from the inland portion of our drive, we hit the West Coast of New Zealand. This pic comes from a lookout (the name escapes me right now) that we stopped by on the way. Essentially, the drive up the West Coast was this beautiful the whole way up. Not too many towns or people on the drive up at all. Just plain lovely.
After a full day of driving (and with the gas light flashing it's warning message), we stopped off at the Fox Glacier to have a look. The trail to the glacier warned that you shouldn't stop for the next 200m. Since we're really good at following instructions, we stopped to take this picture. Ryan looks in horror as boulders come crashing down the mountainside...
This is what we walked all the way to see: the Fox Glacier in all its twilight majesty. Not the best of pictures, but this is as close as we got. We decided it was plenty close since we were tired, hungry and darn ready to find our accomodations for the night.
We were intending on setting up camp near the town of Fox Glacier but we basically drove through it before we knew what was going on. We continued on to the Franz Josef Glacier town (luckily there was a petrol station there) and that, sadly, wasn't much bigger. We had hoped to have a nice sit down dinner but the only thing that was open at 7pm on a Sunday was the local supermarket (which was gonna close in a 1/2 hr). We bought our measly dinner from the grocery store and headed out to find a camp site to plant down for. It was pitch black and we luckily found the Department of Conservation camp that was just off the side of the road. We downed dinner in record time after promptly setting up the tents in anticipation of an early night.
We spent about a half hour trying to make a fire but we couldn't get it to stay lit for very long since we couldn't find really good, large, dry wood pieces. This is as successful as we could get it. After warming up a bit and letting dinner digest, we tucked away for the night in anticipation of a long journey in the daylight.
Unbeknownst to us (since it was pitch black at night and we could only see as far as our little flashlights), our camp site was right next to a gorgeous lake.
This is what we were sleeping next to all night long. BEAUTIFUL! Hands down one of the most memorable images of the trip so far. Still, pristine lake complete with fog and reflections of snow capped mountains. How did we miss this?!?!
Here we are pausing for the group picture, complete with morning hair. Ryan, Me, Ben, Stuart & Jon. We skipped rocks on the lake, broke down the tents and then were off on our way.
We passed many bridges on our travels including "Doughboy Creek" and other funnily named crossings. All I have to say about this pic is that Ryan is in the process of acquiring a little souvenir. For fear of legal repercussions, that's all I'll say.
More scenic driving was to be done in the morning as we continued our journey up the West Coast. Here I am above the fierce ocean at the Strongman Lookout. Such an awesome sight...
Next stop along the way was the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. It's hard to see the layering of the rock formations (sorry for the tiny picture size) but that's why the rocks got their pancake name.
It's maybe a little easier to see the layering in this picture, particularly on the left hand side. Here's another view at one of the many lookouts.
We lunched at another supermarket in the town of Westport before we finally had to bid farewell to the West Coast. After lunch, we journeyed inland through more foresty, rocky and hilly regions on our way towards the Abel Tasman region. We reached Motueka, the town most close to the Abel Tasman trail head, a couple hours before sundown. Unfortunately, that meant that we were also too late to get our campsite permits from the Department of Conservation. We had to camp out once more and delay our start of the trail one more day. Motueka was much larger than Franz Josef (thankfully!) and there were actually several choices of accomodation and dinner. We tried being smart by getting a campsite for only 3 people since everywhere we went charged far more than we were willing to pay for. Unfortunately, the owner saw us all despite our best stealthy efforts. We setup camp for 3 of us and Stuart & I decided we'd sleep in our cars in the DoC parking lot. After the lodging fiasco, we went out for dinner at an Indian restaurant called Maharaja. The food was delicious but, as many of you have probably experienced, the spicy food played havoc with our digestive tract. We all took full advantage of the restaurant's restroom facilities before buying our food stocks for the hike. We then played a bit of pool in a sports bar before getting kicked out of there just before 11 pm. It was then bedtime for us all before our long day of hiking.
After a good night's rest, we stopped by the DoC to get our permits and then headed to the trail head. We were finally ready to begin the Abel Tasman Track!
Here's a view back towards the start of the trail after we had been on it for a while. If you look at that sandy bit, we hiked across most of that and up the foresty hill to the point at which I took this picture.
Another one of the lookouts we encountered was Stu's Lookout. Sorry Stuart, but I think this was definitely one of the weaker views that we saw all day...
Here's one of the many bays typical of the Abel Tasman Track. Lush forest, beautiful sand and gentle ocean. Mother Nature impresses yet again!
After the initial sandy bit and the hill climb, the trail weaved from overlooking these beautiful bays inland towards these peaceful streams. This particular stream had a lovely waterfall nestled within plenty of greenery.
A detour off the main trail led us to the Yellow Point lookout. Here, you could see the ocean spread out in front of you (from behind some trees that is). Off to one side, there was an outstretched rock that offered a view of some fiesty birds. Looks like there was quite a bit of competition for the coveted branch!
We hit a peak along our inland trek where we were afforded this beautiful view of the ground we'd have to cover in the near future. From this point, we hiked downhill to reach Anchorage beach on the right. After a little photo session and beach frolic, the trail continued through the forest before reaching the Torrent Bay Tidal crossing just visible on the left hand side.
The tidal crossing was our last main challenge before finally reaching our campsite for the night. A mixture of sand, mud and freezing cold water made for a rather painful barefoot walk which covered probably near 800m. Those little dots on the left center are Ben, Jon and Stuart.
We reached the Torrent Bay Campsite where we setup shop for the night. Since we arrived early (around 2 pm), we had a lot of time to kill. We had knocked off a good 11+ km in just over 3 hrs of hiking and lunch never tasted so good. My illness was really kicking in by now so I opted for an afternoon nap while the other guys went off to explore the Torrent Bay Township (really just a collection of about 4-5 little houses). They returned from their uninteresting exploration and split up for more afternoon fun. Stuart & Ryan went for an afternoon run while Ben & Jon hiked up to Cleopatra's Pool. I stayed put at camp and napped to my heart's content.
After Stuart & Ryan came back from their run, I felt well enough to have a little dip in the ocean. Here we are just before hopping into the freezing cold sea. This was, as it turns out, Stuart's first time in the ocean and one of those cool "guy bonding experiences." None of us spent too much time in the cold water but it was great and refreshing...in that shocking, bone-chilling cold sort of way.
The next day, I unfortunately had to say goodbye to these guys who I had spent the last several days with. As much fun as the Abel Tasman had been, I definitely was not well enough to keep going for the rest of the way (they were on the trail for 2 more days). I also had to zip back to Dunedin in order to make it back for my flight up to Auckland! I waited 3 hours on the beach for the Aqua Taxi to swing by and give me a lift back to the town where I had left my car before starting my arduous drive back to D-town. This time, I got to enjoy the wonderful views of the East Coast. After making it into Nelson just after midday, I took a break for lunch at McDonalds. Wondrous...well, it was food and I was hungry and in a hurry. From Nelson, I drove non-stop to Christchurch where I arrived just before 7 pm. There was lots of great coastal and hilly, inland scenery along the way but I was too sick and too motivated to keep driving to lose any time to photo taking. Sorry guys... Chch was a welcome break from hours of driving and I stopped for dinner (went back to Dux de Lux for salad & pumpkin soup), a well deserved nap, more petrol (managed to fill up my tank with $1.47 per Liter gas even though the attendent was in the middle of changing the price to $1.51) and a V (energy drink...I wouldn't have made it back alive without it). At 1 am, after having to drive slowly the whole way down because of THICK fog, I made it back to Dunedin. After a long, hot shower and an hour of packing, it was bedtime before the flight home. Just for the record, that was almost 13 hours on the road between Marahau (where I had my car parked) and Dunedin (with a handful of pitstops along the way). What a looooong day!
Thanks a bunch to Cat & Adriel for the ride to the airport! When I got there, I learned that all domestic flights had been delayed because of the HEAVY fog that blanketed all the major airports. That gave me time to read through most of a rugby magazine and a car magazine before boarding my flight. To continue my tradition of taking pictures on flights, I present you with the above. It took me a little less than an hour in the plane to cover what took me 13 hrs in the car yesterday. It's a bit hard to see but the view above is of Abel Tasman National Park. You can see the sandy bit near the middle is where Marahau and the trail head are. Upon closer observation, you can see the islands that were seen a few pics above! I can't believe those guys got amazing weather after I leave! Oh well, it was beautiful either way and I'm glad I went.
Auckland was incredibly interesting considering the fever didn't go away until I went to see the doctor for some penicillin. I did manage to spend some quality time with the family and I did make it to my cousin Nat's birthday party. Thanks a bunch to my family whose loving care and generous helpings of food probably played a huge part in my recovery. I love you all!
And there you have it folks! My break in a (rather large) nutshell. Sorry I don't have more pics but I'll try to steal a few more from Stuart and Ryan. All in all, a great time and I only wish I could've been at two places at once: Abel Tasman with the fellas & Auckland with the family. Anyhow, I have a couple more pics from the past week but those will come in a future update that will cover both this week and last week. Stuart bought a (American) football so look out for pics of us trying to control our College Football withdrawals. We'll also be barbequing this weekend so hopefully that'll be good times all around (weather permitting). This Saturday is also Election Day! Yay! I'll try to document that as well as I cast my first ever vote in a New Zealand election. Excitement!!! On that note, peace be with all of you and I shall catch you guys later. Take care and stay healthy!!!
Just to update you all. I'm still around and I'm alive (last I checked). I had an awesome break that included seeing the All Blacks narrowly beat the Springboks, a trip up to the Abel Tasman National Park (via the West Coast) and a trip up to Auckland to visit the family. I'm also sick and I have two exams coming up. So, this is just a short little hello to stay in touch with everyone. Take care and keep an eye out for a real, much more substantial update with plenty of pics. In the meantime, enjoy these pics:
Look at all of us rabid All Black Fans cheering on our team. Not the best of pictures but it's the only one with all of us in it: Stu, Jen, Lily, Cat, Ryan and Myself.
The South Africans have never won in Dunedin at Carisbrook and this night wasn't to be their lucky night. They got mighty close at the end but the All Blacks fought to the very end and after heaps of pressure on the tiring Bok defense, they got through and scored the game winning try! Good on the AB's!
After the game, Lily ran off with Stuart's All Blacks hat and we just decided not to run after her. She never came back and we ate dessert at Tull. They have an amazing reputation for awesome desserts and they did not disappoint. By desserts: the Gateaux, Brownie and the Bananarama (or something like that).
A closer look at my gateaux. It had thick, fudgy chocolate layers on top of chocolate mousse layers for a nice alternating taste. You get both richness and sweetness in the same bite without being overwhelmed! Amazing!!!
Thunder Falls was 5 min off the road on the way to Haast on the West Coast. The drive up the West Coast was nothing short of breathtaking and a thoroughly scenic way to see NZ.
Finally, here's a look at a beach in the Abel Tasman National Park. This is a beautiful coastal hike that passes through some really pretty looking areas. I only wish the weather were nicer while I was there.
More pics to come when I survive this week. Wish me luck and I hope to be in touch with you all when the time allows it. Cheers!
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