Antarctica New Zealand

The sea ice group from Dunedin (minus Andy who is still lolly-gagging around somewhere and enjoying the last days of summer) went to an Antarctic fieldwork coordination meeting in Christchurch. I don't think I will ever see that many penguins (the ones made in China) again!
And other types and kinds on every building, fee station and even life size on top of a bus!

And then my own personal new little friend, Lucky, the emperor chick:

There aren't only penguins around - art work (not from Our friends in China) can also be found in the building. This one is called "Fishy Jumpsuit" .... Craig in the "before" picture:

.... Craig in the "after" picture:

And this is the new t-shirt design for the project K131:
This one also made by Our friends in China:

Highlight of the day: the espresso machine in the lunch area (probably made in Germany - not sure if that would also be "Our friends"?):

And random Antarctic craziness at the tourist place with men climbing out of crevasses (toward the ceiling) and the shop with about 1/2 million penguins (the sales person assured me that every single one of them is made in China):

And Hagglunds for tours around the airport (that one seems to be for Our friends from Japan - every single tourist was Japanese)

A fun day all in all. And we did get a lot coordinated!

My brand-spanking new car

Here she is in all her heavenly beauty - the 1989 Mitsubishi Galant:

With a special $40 ski rack. It was a bargain but unfortunately, doesn't fit quite right. Duct tape wasn't the answer in this case - beer carriers were:

It is also not made for the new really fat skis - so they had to be strapped on with NRS straps. Worked just marvellously. I also got a set of snow chains off of TradeMe for really cheap. TradeMe is like Craigslist and eBay combined for Kiwis - and only for them! I had tried to sign up while still in the US (it's never to early to start shopping!) and they nonchalantly deleted my account when they noticed that the IP address wasn't in NZ. They also contacted me here asking why it appears that I am signing in from the US. Better save those good ol' cookies as long as I can. Already noticed that there are some websites that I can only access from my personal laptop but not from my work computer.

But back to the incredible car... It is one of those cars that made its way over from Japan in 1998. It's very interesting to me to see in how much better shape it is for its age. The Fairbanks cold really seems be killing things way before their time. It is a very fancy car with automated temperature regulation, an air purifier in the back (!), econo and a power mode switch (no idea what that is for), an OD button (anybody?), a really nice stereo with an iPod adapter (too bad I don't have an iPod) and a Pat Benatar tape! That tape was the highlight of our trip last weekend - we could barely believe our luck. And ended up doing a 2-hour sing-along. The good old 80's - sorely missed by all.

The absolutely worst part of the car is a musical chime. Which comes on (and stays on!) as soon as the speed of the car goes above 105 km/h. I have already spent an hour on Google trying to find instruction on how to disable that thing - no luck. It will eventually drive me insane. I am sure of it.

This next picture is a Kea - an alpine parrot that only exists on the South Island of NZ:

According to Wikipedia they are mostly encounted in ski areas - trying to steal food from rich white people :) They are very pretty and behave like ravens - fighting over food scraps. The underside of their wings is really colorful - the rest of them is just green. And they are so cuuuuuuute!

And in conclusion the obligatory beautiful scenery shot:

Days are getting longer now - and according to the newspaper "Spring is on it's way - already" (They do need a spell checker - that's for sure. Hope they are as wrong about the weather...)

Real Pow

Finally - real powder. In abundance. A whole weekend of fun and really good skiing and snowboarding.

I also watched my first rugby game! All Blacks (NZ) vs. Springboks (SA). The game was part of the Tri-Nation (NZ, SA, OZ) Rugby tournament and happened right here at the stadium in Dunedin. But since we had left for the weekend we ended up watching it at the NZ equivalent of the VFW which is the RSA (or "Royal NZ Returned and Services' Association Inc.") in a town called Twizel on a big screen. Unfortunately, we were late and missed the haka. NZ Andy proceeded to explain every single rule to me during the game - and all the special terms used for everything. So just ask me! And then there is that special time when you have to yell "Go you good thing!" And that needs to get done when something goes over the line for something else (I did forget that one). Actually the cool kids don't yell stuff like that any more - only the old dorky geezers do (if I understand that right). Either way, it was great fun and an amazingly good game - even though the All Blacks lost. But only by 2 points :)

More Science

The weather is absolutely atrocious on the South Island this weekend (roads are closed and advisories are out asking people to stay home) - so I ended up volunteering (volunteers are paid here!) at the NZ International Science Fair (http://www.scifest.org.nz).

One of the highlights: The Colossal Colon. This is the entrance to it:
And this is the exit:Luckily we just dealt with Penguins and Antarctic research - nothing too smelly. I did the first shift with Melianie:
And we got to wear some REALLY cool t-shirts:
The kids could climb into a real Antarctic expedition tent:
and try on cold weather clothing:
After my shift I walked around and found some other interesting things:

And Isaac, the poisonous fire-bellied newt:
This is his underside:
She wiped her hand off on her pants after touching him :)

And an interesting-looking worm bin:
And just in case some of you want to try worm-bin NZ-style, here are the instructions:As I write this I hear sirens every few seconds. And the wind is howling....

A whole weekend of snow - almost.

Our adviser Pat has left town so we decided to do what responsible grad students are supposed to do: go snowboarding! (At the orientation meeting the presenter made clear that going for a Ph.D. requires a good balance of work and play - and we decided to start off with "play").

We rented a car and drove to Queenstown which is about 3 hours away. Very narrow and windy roads - fun to drive.

No snow in sight for most of the road trip. But finally - a dusting on a far away ridge line:
We got into Queenstown and there was no snow to be seen. The Winter Festival is currently happening and with students on semester break the place was packed. We got there just in time to watch a big firework:
We stayed at the Youth Hostel (central heating!!) and the guy at the reception told us that of the 2 open ski areas one was more family friendly and the other had more challenging terrain. Didn't take us long to decide on the right one. So we took off early the next morning and drove for another 45 minutes to the Cardrona Ski Resort. Up and up we went ....
The snowline was pretty much right at the base of the ski area. There was a sign at the bottom telling people to NOT drive up the gravel road without snow chains. Since there wasn't any snow down there we drove up without snow chains.

But then towards the top we finally did get into real snow:
On my first ride up I met Gareth from Australia:
He couldn't believe his luck - he said had never seen so much powder before! (There was one patch of un-groomed but very tracked-up snow. I told him to go snowboarding in Colorado.)

Most of the day was spent in white-out conditions:
but every so often the area would clear up and expose the beautiful scenery:
Prime minister Helen Clark had just been there the day before to officially open the new chair lift:
It actually snowed about 3mm over the course of the day and when we tried to leave they didn't let us drive down the road because we didn't have any snow chains! They made us wait for the grader and we had to follow it down the road:
The driver must have felt a bit silly since he pulled over after only a kilometer and let us pass.

The next day we did decide to try the family-friendly place, Coronet Peak. The weather was pretty crappy (freezing snow-rain) and everything iced up pretty badly.
That combined with an onslaught of eager skiers caused the lift lines to increase in length over the course of the day. In the end we had to wait for about 40 minutes to get on the lift:
And a picture from the lift:
My goggles also froze up in a matter of minutes - so I had no clue where I was going. The day did have its good moments like when I lost the main trail and accidentally snowboarded down some backwoods gully. Since we didn't have any snow chains (we had smartened up by now!) we did not even try to drive up the road but hitched a ride with some locals instead. And they told us that it's not always like that. Once all the lifts and all the ski areas are open there are no waits in line. Phew.

Made it back to Dunedin by Sunday night and needed 4 days to recover. Can't wait to try this again!