So right after I got back to Christchurch, intern friend Jordan flew in to Chch as well.
I had to work the next day, so we hung out and watched the Olympics, of course, until Saturday. While I was at work, Jordan was looking in to things he wanted to do in the area and we had talked about renting a car to make travelling easier. Both of us are 20, so it wasn't easy for us to even find a place that would rent to us.
So, Saturday morning, we take the bus out to where all the rental places are and we thought we knew where we were going, but really we didn't. So we walked. And walked. In the rain. A jogger came by and we stopped her and asked for directions. She wasn't really sure where the place we found online was, but gave us her best guess. She kept running and we kept walking. A little bit later, she comes back and said she realized that it definitely wasn't wear she thought it was and so she called her young son and had him look it up online and she was so incredibly helpful. So we finally make it to the place that will rent to us, only to find out that they don't have any automatics and neither Jordan or I can drive manuals. So we keep walking. We stopped in another rental place not too far away and asked them and they wouldn't rent to us but were kind enough to call a place that would and reserve a car for us there. So we walked there and Finally, got the car.
We drove downtown and took a tour of the botanic garden, which was extensive and fairly historic for NZ. Then we took a bus tour of the red zone. Much of the CBD is still cordoned off while repairs and tear downs go on from the devastating earthquakes that started almost two years ago. The red zone had gone much smaller since I'd been there and the development was very promising. The tour took us by the famous cathedral, which is currently a point of controversy, but was a lovely building, even as it was falling to bits. We also looked around in part of the museum nearby.
Then we put our hard-earned car to use and drove to Akaroa, a French settlement on the peninsula. It was a cute little town, but much of it was shut down for the day, which was approaching its end by then. The sun set around 5:00 or quarter after, so we still had time left to watch more Olympics!
Sunday we drove around Chch going lots of places and taking lots of pictures (which I'll post sometime, I'm sure). We went to the New Brighton Pier, Lyttleton, and Lydia Street!
Jordan returned to Auckland, I finished my final paper, and the next and final week began.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Stewart Island, Part 2
I'm going to do my best to finish recording my adventures, but I'm afraid these next posts, whenever I write them, will be more hastily done than before. I want to put this blog to bed before the semester starts, but we'll see how it goes (12 days!).
For dinner that night I had blue cod! I thought that I don't like fish, but when it is deliciously fried then I really do! Now that I've had blue cod fresh from the sea I think my standards are going to be higher than before. Mark, from the mussel farm, introduced me to some other people in the pub at the hotel and I got to know the locals while I ate. The Olympics were on the TV in the corner while we told jokes and played pool. The fisherman liked some of my fish-themed jokes and they were pretty impressed when I sunk the 8 ball, even though it was too soon. If you ever play pool in NZ, know that the stripes and solids are large ones and the wee ones, respectively.
The next day I arranged for a water taxi to take me to Ulva Island, a small island within Paterson Inlet. The island is nature reserve and most of the water around it is protected too. There weren't many other tourists and I was the only one going to Ulva so after the water taxi dropped me off, I was the only person on the entire island! Except for a few rats that are being exterminated, I was the only mammal on the island! There were some paths on the island that a small information book guided me around, and I learned about history and nature of the island. I saw many of the birds on the island, and they weren't afraid of humans. They were hard to take pictures of, but they were very active and some had lovely songs. Until sometime in the 1920s, a family lived on the island. Whenever mail from the mainland arrived on Ulva, the family would raise a flag, and all the other people living around the inlet would row or sail to Ulva to collect their mail and chat with their neighbors.
I spent a few hours walking around the island, but my favorite place was Sydney Cove. Sydney Cove has golden sand, clear blue waters, and...a rope swing! The rope did not swing far out over the water when the tide was out so I didn't get very wet. That was probably my favorite thing, possibly in all of New Zealand. An island to myself, sun shining, wind in my hair, bird calls surrounding me, and flying through the air without a care in the world.
That afternoon I flew from Stewart Island to Invercargill on an itty-bitty plane and flew from there back to Chch on a plane slightly bigger.The airport was the same as the post office, the gate was a van that doubled as air-traffic control, which drove to the top of a hill that had a small landing strip. After a passenger, a box of fruit, and a few duvets were unloaded, myself and a second passenger boarded. I climbed on the wing of the plane to get to the door. The pilots gave the safety talk, which took about 10 seconds, and then flew for about 15 minutes over to Invercargill. Once there, I boarded the plane to Chch, which had, like 50 whole people!
That night, intern friend Jordan arrived in Chch to commence adventures in Canterbury, which will be explained later!
For dinner that night I had blue cod! I thought that I don't like fish, but when it is deliciously fried then I really do! Now that I've had blue cod fresh from the sea I think my standards are going to be higher than before. Mark, from the mussel farm, introduced me to some other people in the pub at the hotel and I got to know the locals while I ate. The Olympics were on the TV in the corner while we told jokes and played pool. The fisherman liked some of my fish-themed jokes and they were pretty impressed when I sunk the 8 ball, even though it was too soon. If you ever play pool in NZ, know that the stripes and solids are large ones and the wee ones, respectively.
I spent a few hours walking around the island, but my favorite place was Sydney Cove. Sydney Cove has golden sand, clear blue waters, and...a rope swing! The rope did not swing far out over the water when the tide was out so I didn't get very wet. That was probably my favorite thing, possibly in all of New Zealand. An island to myself, sun shining, wind in my hair, bird calls surrounding me, and flying through the air without a care in the world.
That afternoon I flew from Stewart Island to Invercargill on an itty-bitty plane and flew from there back to Chch on a plane slightly bigger.The airport was the same as the post office, the gate was a van that doubled as air-traffic control, which drove to the top of a hill that had a small landing strip. After a passenger, a box of fruit, and a few duvets were unloaded, myself and a second passenger boarded. I climbed on the wing of the plane to get to the door. The pilots gave the safety talk, which took about 10 seconds, and then flew for about 15 minutes over to Invercargill. Once there, I boarded the plane to Chch, which had, like 50 whole people!
That night, intern friend Jordan arrived in Chch to commence adventures in Canterbury, which will be explained later!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Going Home
So I'm behind on my blogs and hopefully I'll be able to update more next week, but for now I will tell you...
I'll be home Sunday morning at 8:30 am!
That is Monday at 12:30 am NZ time, so I have just over 2 days before I'm home, but today and tomorrow I'm in Auckland, exploring the city with my friends. Today we climbed to the summit of Mt Rangitoto - a volcano in the middle of the harbour!
See you soon...
I'll be home Sunday morning at 8:30 am!
That is Monday at 12:30 am NZ time, so I have just over 2 days before I'm home, but today and tomorrow I'm in Auckland, exploring the city with my friends. Today we climbed to the summit of Mt Rangitoto - a volcano in the middle of the harbour!
See you soon...
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Stewart Island, Part 1
This week I had so many adventures, I don't even know how I'll ever share all of them. I spent last weekend hanging around at home, relaxing, nothing too exciting. The real fun started on Monday when I set off for Stewart Island (SI). My supervisor used to be a fisherman and lived on the island for a long time. His ex-wife still lives there and owns the hotel and its pub so I was going to have a nice place to stay there while I enjoyed myself and visited the mussel farm that raises the green-lipped mussels used in Bio-Mer's products.
Bright and early Monday morning my supervisor drove me over to his other business, a crayfish (lobster) company and I sat in the passenger seat of an empty truck on it's way down to Bluff to pick up a load and bring it back to Christchurch. The truck driver was Brian, a nice guy. He was happy to have someone change the CDs for him (ZZ Top and CCR). After almost 8 hours on the road, we finally got to Bluff. The plan was that I would take the ferry from Bluff to Stewart Island, but because of strong winds the ferry was cancelled. Brian got me booked at the same hotel as he was in, just down the street from the ferry terminal and then he drove us out to the beginning of Highway 1 with this international street sign. The hotel served us a huge dinner and we watched some coverage of the Olympics.
Tuesday morning came and the wind had died down only slightly. The ferry was going though, so I was too. Foveaux Strait was rough. Even the locals and people that make a business being out in boats thought it was rough. The wind was especially strong, but it is usually a choppier stretch than most of the ocean because it is relatively shallow and because the Antarctic and Pacific Oceans are mixing. I managed to hold on to my breakfast, but the one hour ferry was about 50 minutes too long for my taste. Once I got to the island I went to the hotel and spent the next couple hours lying in my room, watching the Olympics, trying to recover my appetite. I had a small bite for lunch and set off to explore! I followed a couple short tracks and was amazed by fauna and flora. The beaches all have stunning views with other small island dotting the horizon and the plants were thick and green because SI, like other parts of NZ, is considered a temperate rain forest. There was an abundance of native birds because the island doesn't have as many predators as the rest of NZ and many of birds on the island are actually distinct subspecies!
The next day I woke up early and met Nudge, Mark, and Nanu at the wharf, put on some giant gumboots, and set off for the mussel farm! To get there we took the small boat out into Patterson inlet and transferred over to a larger boat that stays anchored out there. From there we took that barge over to Big Glory Bay where the mussel lines are anchored. Nudge showed me how to steer the boat, but it was really hard! We went in a couple circles so I gave the controls back pretty quickly. The first couple hours at the farm I sat upstairs to watch the guys at work and take pictures of the bay in the morning light. After a couple hours of relaxing I decided to see the mussels up close so I went down to the deck and helped the guys out.
A machine would remove the mussels from the rope and sent them out on a conveyor belt. Then, we sorted through the mussels and threw out the ones that didn't belong. As we sorted through them, they mussels were gathered in large bags on the deck, and when we finished the prescribed section, those bags were emptied into another machine. This machine put the mussels back around a cleaned rope and covered them in a thin white sock, which would break up in a year or so, but by that time the mussels would have re-attached themselves to the rope. The mussels are also spaced farther apart than before so they can grow larger by the time they are harvested in 3-5 years time. Mussels are a lucrative business, but it is not easy to get started. The rope that the mussels grow on costs about $10 a meter, and it only lasts long enough for two harvests.
I sorted mussels for a couple hours, but when they finished that for the day and switched to re-stringing the mussels, I stayed out of the way and mostly just took more pictures. Then we took the barge back to the boat, which we then took back to the wharf. Before the sun went down, Mark drove me around the island with a running commentary. I think we covered almost all of the 27 km of paved road. Then we returned to the hotel/pub for dinner.
I think this is long enough for one post, so expect part 2 in the next few days.
 |
| Beginning of Highway 1 in Bluff |
Tuesday morning came and the wind had died down only slightly. The ferry was going though, so I was too. Foveaux Strait was rough. Even the locals and people that make a business being out in boats thought it was rough. The wind was especially strong, but it is usually a choppier stretch than most of the ocean because it is relatively shallow and because the Antarctic and Pacific Oceans are mixing. I managed to hold on to my breakfast, but the one hour ferry was about 50 minutes too long for my taste. Once I got to the island I went to the hotel and spent the next couple hours lying in my room, watching the Olympics, trying to recover my appetite. I had a small bite for lunch and set off to explore! I followed a couple short tracks and was amazed by fauna and flora. The beaches all have stunning views with other small island dotting the horizon and the plants were thick and green because SI, like other parts of NZ, is considered a temperate rain forest. There was an abundance of native birds because the island doesn't have as many predators as the rest of NZ and many of birds on the island are actually distinct subspecies!
A machine would remove the mussels from the rope and sent them out on a conveyor belt. Then, we sorted through the mussels and threw out the ones that didn't belong. As we sorted through them, they mussels were gathered in large bags on the deck, and when we finished the prescribed section, those bags were emptied into another machine. This machine put the mussels back around a cleaned rope and covered them in a thin white sock, which would break up in a year or so, but by that time the mussels would have re-attached themselves to the rope. The mussels are also spaced farther apart than before so they can grow larger by the time they are harvested in 3-5 years time. Mussels are a lucrative business, but it is not easy to get started. The rope that the mussels grow on costs about $10 a meter, and it only lasts long enough for two harvests.
I sorted mussels for a couple hours, but when they finished that for the day and switched to re-stringing the mussels, I stayed out of the way and mostly just took more pictures. Then we took the barge back to the boat, which we then took back to the wharf. Before the sun went down, Mark drove me around the island with a running commentary. I think we covered almost all of the 27 km of paved road. Then we returned to the hotel/pub for dinner.
I think this is long enough for one post, so expect part 2 in the next few days.
Whirlwind
I have been surprisingly busy this last week and unfortunately bad about updating this blog. The plan is that I will update it more this week and next week to catch up. For now I thought I'd share briefly what I've done.
I went to Bluff, Stewart Island, enjoyed nature, worked a wee bit on a mussel farm, went to Ulva island, rode in some boats, flew on some planes. That was all Monday through Thursday.
Then my intern friend Jordan flew in to Chch. Saturday we rented a car, drove to the CBD, saw the garden and the redzone, including the cathedral. Then we drove to Akaroa. Sunday we watched a building implode and then drove to the New Brighton Pier, Lyttleton, and all around town.
Today (Monday) it's back to work, until Thursday. Friday morning I fly to Auckland, explore the area with a couple of intern friends, and then Fly to LA Saturday evening. I'll arrive in Indianapolis at 8:30 am Sunday morning (Sunday 12:30 am NZ time) and that is less than a week away!
What fun!
I went to Bluff, Stewart Island, enjoyed nature, worked a wee bit on a mussel farm, went to Ulva island, rode in some boats, flew on some planes. That was all Monday through Thursday.
Then my intern friend Jordan flew in to Chch. Saturday we rented a car, drove to the CBD, saw the garden and the redzone, including the cathedral. Then we drove to Akaroa. Sunday we watched a building implode and then drove to the New Brighton Pier, Lyttleton, and all around town.
Today (Monday) it's back to work, until Thursday. Friday morning I fly to Auckland, explore the area with a couple of intern friends, and then Fly to LA Saturday evening. I'll arrive in Indianapolis at 8:30 am Sunday morning (Sunday 12:30 am NZ time) and that is less than a week away!
What fun!
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