Kiwiventures

New Blog

2010-10-11T09:24:00.000+13:00

Over a year has passed since I moved back to Fairbanks from NZ and after taking a break from blogging I am back! The new site is here. Check it out if you like.

And one last adventure...

2009-05-30T00:46:00.017+12:00

Since we actually got 2 days without rain I headed further north and hiked up to the summit of Mt. Oxford with Steve and Nicky. The trip map is shown below. The starting elevation is just below 400m and the summit is at 1364m. The whole trip took us about 9 hours.

It was a marvelous sunny day and the snowline had descended down to about 1000m.
The summit was covered in snow. Yay!And the reward upon our return - BEER! :D

One more ski field before I go

2009-05-30T00:30:00.002+12:00

When the rain finally stopped Leigh and I hopped in the car and headed for the Awakino ski field. It's only a 1.5 hour drive from Dunedin and we were hopeful we would find something to shred there. And we didn't get disappointed. Yippee!!

The ski areas aren't open yet so we had to poach it. We were the first and only people out there and got to carve the virgin snow. It did have the disadvantage of not having anybody around to help when we returned and the car battery was totally absolutely empty. And we were out of cell range. But nothing could get us down after a day like this.

First Snow!

2009-05-23T09:54:00.004+12:00

All the way down to our elevation (which, for the uninitiated, is sea level):
And a close-up shot:
But the really good news it that the storm that brought us that little patch dumped 150cm (which, for the uninitiated, is 60 inches) in the hills. Where the ski resorts are :)
(Image stolen from the local newspaper who specifically didn't let me save it so I had to take a screen shot.)

But no snowboarding yet as it's just pouring down rain here at the moment and the avalanche conditions seem to be pretty bad.

T'walk 2009

2009-05-03T21:50:00.025+12:00

My flatmate Nick convinced me that I should join his Twalk team this year and so I did.

Twalk stands for Twenty-four-hour Walk and is a variant of "Rogaining" (after the founders' names: Rod, Gail and Neil) which is a close cousin to orienteering. I am a little hazy on the actual difference between the two, except that they evolved differently from a historic perspective. Rogaining evolved from bushwalking in Australia and orienteering was first done in Europe.

Either way, this one wasn't a pure rogaining event anyway. The way this race worked is that each team gets a map with controls marked:
... and has 24 hours to get as many of them as possible. The twist in this event is that the controls aren't as easily identifiable as in a normal rogaining or orienteering event - meaning they weren't big orange markers hanging in a tree but little tiny pieces of plastic hidden under a tree leave, covered by a bush or drowned in a lake.
And to make it 'easier' to locate them every team member gets a cryptic clue sheet that looks like this:
There is also a certain amount of sneakiness involved as you have to hide your find from other teams in the vicinity. And if somebody from another team wants to know how many controls you have found, or if you have found a specific one - you lie like Pinocchio!

So we all drove up to Christchurch. I hitched a ride with Kelvin and his wife Beatrice and when he picked me up he said, "We have to herd some sheep pretty quick. I hope you don't mind." I thought there would be dogs involved but was told that we are the dogs. It was quite an experience trying to outsmart the sheep. Although not very difficult :)

We met our teammates at the meeting point in a parking lot at the U of Christchurch, where we signed in and checked out each others costumes:
Our team name was "Bush & Balls" which is a wordplay on the infamous annual OUTC bushball (which is an actual ball in a tramping hut in the hills) but of course the name invited other interpretations. Lucky me - just can't get away from GW:
(I am still a bit confused about the "ball" part of our name - maybe they forgot that there were a couple women on the team?)

After everybody was checked in we were on our way to the start point (which was secret and not revealed until that time). They kicked us out along the road somewhere, and off we went to the hash house (which is like a central base camp and acts as the resting point between the legs).

There were 9 people on our team and everybody had to do the first leg but only 2 people per team have to do the whole 24 hours, the rest of the team members can choose which legs they want to do. Elke and Keith were the two lucky 24-hour-ers:
This is how our team did in the race:
1st leg -- 10:30am to 3:30pm -- 5 hours --
2nd leg -- 4:00pm to 8:00pm -- 4 hours --
3rd leg -- 8:30pm to 5:40am -- 9 hours 10 minutes
4th leg -- 6:30am to 10:25am -- 4 hours -
5th leg -- didn't get to that one.
(I did the 1st and the 3rd leg.)

There is a mandatory break of 30 minutes between the legs. While there are 5 legs, very rarely does a team manage to get on the last leg.

Here are a few picture from the 1st leg:
Right after the start:
Our team strategizing:
These guys won the costume contest (they actually wore those cardboard cans all the way through the first leg!):
They did have to take that costume off every once in a while, like here when we had to climb over a fence (we climbed lots of fences during the race!):
Scenery ---The most memorable thing from the 1st leg was the Maragouri which is the only native plant with thorns. Nice close-up picture here. Somehow I managed to get in the middle of a huge patch of it and all of a sudden there was no way out but right through them. And I was in shorts! Ouch!
I can't quite remember how long that leg was but I think around 18km.
Eventually we got to the hash house (which in real life is a cattle barn):
...had some food...
..and after 30 minutes the people for leg 2 took off. Meanwhile the rest of us set up a tent and caught some sleep:
The sun set around 6pm so by the time I woke up it was dark and time to get ready for the night leg.
That leg was truly amazing! The whole leg happened in the dark from 8:30pm to 5:40am. We each had a head lamp and then a few of us had some extra special 'flame throwers' so we had enough light to look for the controls which got increasingly difficult to find. One of them for example was hidden in a rabbit hole according to the clue sheet - and there were about 50 rabbit holes in that area. While we still did pretty well finding controls we weren't able to defend the first place we were in after the first 2 legs. I have to admit to not finding a single control during the whole race. Some of my team mates were pretty amazing with that stuff. One of them was a surveyor and he triangulated almost exactly to the right spot a few times and then had some special luck on top of that, like when he found the control under a rock - in the middle of a rock field with about a thousand rocks!
We did the race in the opposite direction from everybody else and therefore ran into a lot of people from the other teams. It was amazing how some of them lied to lead us in the wrong direction!

The temperatures dropped severally during the night to about -7C at the end of our leg. On top of that Elke and Stephen missed a tussock when jumping across a creek - and went in up to their armpits. They were pretty hypothermic by the end of it. We all were as none of us really had enough clothes for those kind of temps.

This is a picture of surface hoar crystals - pretty cool!
We eventually made it back to the hash house were the rest of our team was waiting ready to tackle the next (and last) leg. I was glad to be able to climb in my sleeping bag and warm up. A hot tub would have been nice :)

(Since I was the only 'tourist' on our team there are no pictures from the legs I didn't do.)
Everybody was back before 10:30am the next morning (they took a lot of points off if you were late). The awards ceremony happened after giving people some time to gather their wits and eat some food.
We did pretty well and made 4th place out of 43 teams. Missed 3rd place (and fancy prizes!) by just 12 minutes! The most impressive team IMHO were "The Oldies". Everybody on that team (and they only had 3 members, 2 men - 1 woman) was over 65 and did all 4 legs! I hope I will still be able to do that kind of stuff when I am that age. Something to aspire to for sure.

The organizers also thanked the farmer and his family who let us use his barn and his land :)
Oh, here is a picture of the barn after they cleaned it up afterwards:
On the way back we stopped at friends of Kelvin's and the guy wore a "Latitude 62" t-shirt from Talkeetna! He had actually worked there a few years ago - as had I. Crazy how small the world is.

Physics Retreat 2009

2009-04-26T18:50:00.030+12:00

For the past several weeks 8 of us had been working on organizing a retreat for the grad students and post-docs in the physics department. Physicists are globally known as geeks that are anti-social; and we were determined to change that!
We rented the Waiora Scout Camp (which I later found out was the location of the Winter Solstice party last June and I did not recognize the place at all!) and planned all kinds of things for the weekend. My main activity was organization of the food menu. So I had a chance to get my favorite really spicy chili on the menu. These guys were on the cooking team the first night and made a huge pot of it:
Most people seemed to like it (even though Kiwis are said to be very afraid of spices) - we only got 1 complaint. And it was really spicy - even for my taste.

As a little side note, we did the shopping on Friday morning at this Wal-Mart like place called Pak'n Save (or Pak'n Slave as the employees call it) where they treated us like 4-year-old children. We had 5 of these huge shopping carts full of stuff and started putting things into boxes as they came off the conveyor belt at the check out. Out of nowhere this feisty little lady showed up and told us we couldn't do that until after we had paid up. As she walked away we all looked at each other and couldn't really comprehend what she had just said. Was she finally going to send somebody over to help us getting the huge amounts of food off the belt? Well no - she didn't. So we kept doing what we had been doing assuming she must not really have meant what she said. But she did! So she came back to tell us that "we had been told to not pack stuff into boxes." And stormed off again. It felt like being in a psycho movie - nothing makes sense but all the characters pretend that everything is alright. In the end we did get all the stuff out into the parking lot and to our amazement managed to pack everything into 2 cars (one of them was an Audi I have to admit - 2 of my cars wouldn't have worked).
After dinner on Friday we did a pub quiz and I was able to play quiz master for an evening!
People hard at work solving quiz questions:Saturday started off with some workshops but then the afternoon was spent frolicking in the sun!Lunch outside on the lawn!No telling what Tim is up to in this picture...We had a Lego competition on Saturday evening where the teams had to put together a set of Lego pieces without getting instructions on how to do it. It was absolutely amazing - I haven't laughed this hard in a long time! I can't go into details here as this is the internets and children might come and read. But I'll post a picture - it is just what it looks like ;)
And we had a big bonfire on Saturday night ..
...where I finally came to understand how that all really works with Schrödinger's Cat and the global significance of Facebook. And the question came up if there really is a difference between Sweden and Switzerland (which Cajsa insisted there was but she had to say that since she is from Sweden!) and after "The Lion sleeps tonight" we agreed that neither Sweden nor Switzerland matter much in the overall scheme of things - Hollywood rules!

Sunday started off slow since we didn't get to bed until 3am the night before. We had a guy come out and instruct people in Abseiling (which nobody can pronounce correctly - damn German words):
And before we left the camp in the afternoon - a group photo!

Wellington

2009-04-19T18:34:00.012+12:00

Since it was Easter break I had decided to continue on from Christchurch to Wellington. I took a quick shower at Steve's house and he gave me a ride to the airport. Tanja, Christoph and Marlo picked me up on the other end and I spent a marvelous few days with them.
I also had a chance to hook up with Lisa and Dan as they had us all over for dinner at their new place. They have turned into hard-core Alaskans - they don't even have a heat pump!

Click image to play
(See Ben, it's not a phone - it's a revolver!)

The Waimak

2009-04-18T20:13:00.034+12:00

... or Waimakariri River. In Māori, Waimakariri has several meanings, one of which is "river of cold rushing water". The river is part of the Coast-to-Coast multisport race that goes all the way from the Tasman Sea on the west coast to the Pacific Ocean on the east coast of the South Island. I heard it takes the winner about 10 hours to cross the island. We decided to take 3 days just to do the rafting portion :)
So finally, a week later than planned we (that is Murray, Louie, Steve and I) left on the long anticipated trip. Steve and I departed Darfield at 7AM and drove all the way up to almost Arthurs Pass (got a good look at all the ski areas on the way!) where we met up with Murray and Louie and their ginormous dory. Put in was at the Mt. White bridge.
We blew up the raft,
.. carted the dory into the river
...and off we went!
The first section of the river was very braided and there were several shallows where we had to get out and walk the boats across some gravel. And Steve managed to break 2 blades in a single day! (He said he hadn't broken a single blade in 20 years of rafting.)
And then - NZ wild life! When I first saw them in the distance I, of course, assumed those were bears!
Some random shots from during the day:
The wind picked up quite a bit at the confluence with the Esk River but after some hard rowing we made it to the entrance of the Waimak Gorge where we ended the day:
Found a nice campsite:
... had a 'man dinner' ...... and of course a bonfire:
We packed up in the morning (actually I think it was closer to noon - bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast does take a bit of time to make and savior)...... and started our journey through the canyon.
There wasn't any real white water in there but some interesting hydraulics that could turn into quite the challenge during high water.
Scouting for a campsite (Notice the NZ fall colors are in full swing!)
Found the perfect spot!There is even an old railroad bridge across the river (and still in use as we were reminded of in the middle of the night several times):Needed to relax after an exhausting day...
.. and then had another awesome dinner (salmon - yum!) and dessert and 'cocktails'.
And for some after dinner exercise I tried out my packraft - first on the gravel:
(Steve tried to make it look like I was actually on the water to make me feel better about not being able to paddle.)
.. but then I found an alcove off the main river and thought I should just give it a shot:
When I realized that I could actually paddle with my somewhat disabled arm I decided to give that a try the next day and left the packraft inflated. I did end up paddling for a little over an hour before the pain got too bad and I had to stop. It was magnificent!
We had another bonfire that night and initiated a new tradition: sock burning! It came about when my socks just didn't want to dry and the firewood ran out. They burn pretty well albeit a bit smelly, especially Murray's ;)
On the last day we made our way out of the canyon and onto the Canterbury Plains where we again dealt with lots of braids all the way to the take-out.Since I had a flight to catch to Wellington we paddled furiously and got there an hour ahead of time. And here we are, 3 days later, drinking beer and cleaning up.

Rock and Pillar

2009-04-07T22:49:00.010+12:00

The following day was supposed to be the start of a rafting trip but that was canceled last minute. So I re-packed my stuff into a backpack and decided to go on a short overnight solo trip into the Rock and Pillar Range. First I made it to Middlemarch and found out that they really did name it after the novel. I drove a bit further north and took some unmarked driveway not being quite sure if I was in the right place - until I saw one of the infamous DOC signs:These things tend to show up in the most impossible places virtually in the middle of nowhere. So I parked the car and took off. But I didn't get very far until I saw another sign:
And then the gate:
And yet another sign:
And then I actually started my walk. The trail was quite nice and the scenery pretty stunning:
I still had 4 hours of daylight left and decided to make to the closer of the two huts. It was one of the most basic DOC huts without any amenities but did provide good shelter from the wind.
And there was a newspaper from 23 Nov, 1966 on the table. Seems like they had important problems back then - just like today:
Beautiful early morning sky:
I woke up to a beautiful sunrise
and hiked to the top of the ridge and on to a kind of summit with a huge rock formation:
The wind had picked up considerably by that time (I actually had to lean 45 deg into the wind and my feet were moved off the ground a few times), so I decided to take a different route back and get off of the ridge as fast as possible. And found the Big Hut:
Made it back down to the small hut, packed up my stuff and headed to Middlemarch for a flat white :)

The Catlins

2009-04-05T11:45:00.006+12:00

Time to catch up on all the missing blog posts. So, several weekends ago now I went to The Catlins. The Catlins region is about 1.5 hours drive south of Dunedin and is "as wild as it was when the first Maori saw it." Named after a whaling captain, Edward Cattlin, it is "unique since it has been largly untouched my animals, fires or past glacial action. They are thought to have been one of the last sanctuaries of the giant flightless moa, which died out 200 years ago. ..." (from http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/forest-parks/catlins.html)

My plan was to run the Catlins River Track so I stopped at the info center in Owaka and asked the nice lady there about the track. She advised against running it, so I ignored her advice and went there anyway. And I am glad I did! The track leads "into a delicate rainforest ecosystem with 28 species of fern and many epiphytes, orchids and vines." (from http://www.catlins.org.nz/natural_history.htm)
Nice spot for a short lunch:
Some sections of the trail were too steep or too slippery to run but most of it was fine. Several swing bridges crossed the river a few times:
Amazing place! I heard that some special orchids are blooming there in the summer and really bring the whole forest to live. Must be an incredible sight.

A hunting story

2009-04-03T01:13:00.009+13:00

But only the tail end of it. My flatmate's, Annelies, friend went hunting and came back with a Thar - a NZ wild goat. This is how they look like:
Source: http://www.britannica.com

Himalayan Tahr (or Thar) were introduced to NZ and their numbers are controlled since they pose a thread to the alpine vegetation. And therefore they can be hunted! More info and pictures here.

And so Annelies was the 'lucky' (she wasn't sure if that is the right term - she is more or less vegetarian) recipient of a piece of it:
We left it in the fridge for 3 days, then she marinaded it for half a day and then we put it in the oven (with potatoes and pumpkin) for about 40 minutes. And Voila!
And this is the whole meal:
... with the meat partially hidden underneath some salad. But Annelies did great and actually ate 2 slices! She did say that this was an exception :) The meat tasted great, it was very tender and had the perfect seasoning. Yum!

PS: It tasted like halfway between beef and ostrich if you really want to know.

Alaskan Reunion!

2009-03-27T12:10:00.004+13:00

Tanja, Christoph and Marlo (the brand-spanking new baby!) came to town last week and we spent the day at the beach on the Otago Peninsula. Contemplating the new and reminiscing about the old. Ahhhh - so good!
And poor Tanja has to drink Clausthaler now :)

Down the 'Presidental Highway' we go...

2009-03-23T16:00:00.038+13:00

Once more we went down the 'Presidential Highway' to Milford Sound:
(This picture was taken by Ben last winter - we were in such a hurry this weekend that we couldn't stop to take one. And it was dark anyway.)

We spent the night at a DOC (Department of Conservation) field station where Lara's friends Danilo and Lisa are working and they generously let us crash in the bunk room. Danilo stayed behind and watched their little 2-year old, Naomi, while Lisa joined us for a wilderness trek. We headed further down the road toward Milford Sound though the Homer Tunnel,
..and took off on the Gulliver/Esperance track. Here is a Google image with the Milford Sound Hwy marked in yellow, the track from the road to the camp site marked in red, the hike to the ridge in blue and the rest of the original mail route marked in green:
The track is not very well maintained any more but used to be the main mail delivery route to Milford Sound before the Homer Tunnel was built (entrance and exit also marked in the image). The steepest portions of the track were protected by wire ropes back then but I am still amazed that they delivered the mail over that pass. The next is an image taking at the tunnel entrance looking up into the valley along the path of the green track:
We only did the red and blue portion of the track (not the green one). The lower portion of the trail was lots of bushwhacking (we even lost the trail a few times):
..with the occasional glimpse through the trees:The vegetation got progressively sparser:...until there wasn't any left. We made it to the tent site just before dark. The only flat spot to be found was right above De Lambert Falls in the gravel. And luckily there were a few boulders to hide from the wind during dinner:
And while I was rewarded with spectacular views from the tent the next morning:
and a beautiful sunrise:
... my friends took off at 4:30AM to climb to the top of the ridge (marked in blue). And this is what they got to see from there:
After a short breakfast we started on the trek down.
To avoid some of the bushwhacking we took a slightly different route down a dry creek bed:
...and joined the main track further downstream. We got back to the car just slightly late (Lisa had promised Danilo to be back for babysitting duties so that he can go to work.) Driving back we stopped on the other side of the ridge and tried to figure out where they had gone:
Ah, there it is!Oh yeah, the arm. Well, it's not really were it should be. I was the only 3-legged member of my party. And therefore wasn't allowed to scramble up to the ridge in the dark :( But it looks like the mobility is good enough for biking now. Will give that a shot as soon as my legs have recovered to the point where I can swing them over the top bar of my bike :)

Brokeback Mountain Country

2009-03-17T18:05:00.017+13:00

While Ben put together his splitboard we ventured out to investigate possible ski runs for next season. Which is now sooo close - only about 3 months away :)

We drove to the end of some road that Leigh found on a map, parked our cars ...
loaded the gun...
and headed for the hills.
The biggest adventure of the trip was when the fuel bottle caught fire. I was ready to see it explode but Shelagh and Mike managed to suffocate the flames before the spectacle could take place (and I for once actually had my camera ready!)
Amazingly enough, Mike cleaned it up a bit and it worked again like a charm!

Sheep and cows used to be herded through the area and several artifacts can still be found from that time. Like this hut which Leigh called the "honeymoon suite" - even though it contained 6 bunks and didn't have a very honeymooney feel to it.
And now this looks like a pretty decent slope to carve some turns into:
And this has definitely potential:

We drove a little detour on the way back through Dansey Pass and found another potential gnar shredder:
and a good place to have a cold one afterward:
But until then: Yay for summer, sun lotion and shorts!
More pictures here.

Bring on the GNAR, or splitboard setup or damn! it's cold outside

2009-03-15T18:10:00.011+13:00

Since it's summertime in NZ, this blog is overdue for a gnar post. Being that it's too cold and windy to enjoy a chairlift ride for a day's worth of repeat gnar shredding, I had some time to set up my splitboard with a little leftover for actually making a blog post.

First off: Stance. I decided on a +35deg front and +5 rear. Not as forward-facing as I usually enjoy, but oh well, it's a safe choice. I'll spare everyone the details of the trial and error of getting the discs in the pucks oriented a way that works.

Now to decide is which bindings to use. I have on hand:

Cheap-ass Technines that came free with a board I bought at Play it Again
Awful K2 A-Team bindings that injured my heel badly enough that it was painful to ride for the last month of last year's season
Burton C60: stiff, supportive, responsive, comfortable, and extremely lightweight

Easy choice, eh? So I cannibalized my '99 Burton Supermodel:
Once I mounted the bindings to the plates, I started to realize that some things just weren't designed to go together. The bindings overhang the sides of the plates by about 1 3/4 inch. I'm sure they get a good amount of their stiffness from being placed directly on the board's topsheet. I think I'll give up some of it with the bindings suspended 1/2 inch above the board's deck. There's also the issue of the toe straps. Burton has a very clever design where the toe straps are held into the binding without a nut and bolt. I love the benefit of the thing never loosening and the light weight, but when used with a splitboard, well, things are bound to get lost in the most inconvenient places possible:
Imagine losing that at the top of a chute as you convert your board from touring to snowboard mode. Solution: Duct tape.
Now that ladder won't pass through the binding without a lot of coaxing.

In touring mode, the overhang on the bindings almost causes them to hit each other, we'll see if that is a problem in the real world:
I pulled the skins out and had every intention of trimming them to size, but I was just not in the mood to do anything destructive and irreversible.
So look for an exciting and action packed skin-trimming post in the near future.

Alpacas

2009-03-13T23:36:00.009+13:00

I visited my friend Steve last weekend. He moved to a small town near Christchurch from Anchorage 8 years ago and is now raising alpacas (besides other venturesome undertakings). There are two kinds of alpaca in New Zealand and his are called Huacaya (wa-ki-ya). And here they are:
And here is the reason they are so nakkid:
You can tell which animals the wool came from - the yarn was not colored. Steve had a friend spin the wool and knit sweaters and hats out of it. And I ended up being the lucky recipient of this sweater. Here is a picture of the backside:
The yarn for the sweater consists of 80% alpaca and 20% sheep wool. The alpaca fibers are somewhat weaker than other wool fibers so that the addition of some sheep wool fibers strengthens the yarn. Alpaca is very warm, really soft (I stroke my alpaca a lot !) and does not contain lenolin like sheep wool (which makes alpaca wool hypoallergenic). I looked it up and learned that lanolin is what makes sheep wool naturally water repellent. Judging by the recent weather sheep wool is the way to go in Dunedin!

Steve told me they make weirdly fascinating sounds during mating, so I looked it up on youtube and sure enough: it's called 'orgling' and sounds like this. Enjoy :)

PS: It's not quite perfect yet but the angle has definitely improved:

So romantic

2009-03-01T14:12:00.006+13:00

And of course there has to be an arm picture. This is how far I can extend my arm now (the right arm is just sympathetic to my left arm):

A tropical cyclone

2009-02-22T23:28:00.013+13:00

.. or ET for extratropical transition has descended upon us. While they are not supposed to make it this far down south EVER - here it is. All the way down at the southern end of the south island. This has only happened one other time in the last 30 years (according to a friend you might not remember this quite right). Either way it is kind of special. It has been raining now without interruption for 72 hours. And the stormwater drain system is slightly overwhelmed:This weather puts one in the perfect mood for Luciano Pavarotti. So I brawled my way through his tribute concert yesterday afternoon. Fabulous! (Except for Sting trying to sing opera - that seemed a bit weird. And Andrea Bocelli is old all of a sudden - that is weird too.)

We also seem to be doing a lot of cooking (and eating) these days. Lucky for me I got rid of my cast and have been going to the gym (not like paddling down a river but better than nothing). Especially since it enables me to eat all of Annelies' desserts which are incredibly good.

Talking about casts: my friend Andy works at the hospital and got me a copy of my x-rays. Fascinating! Job well done on my part breaking it apart. And on the doctor's part putting it back together. The forecast predicts the rain will end sometime on Tuesday. What I really don't understand is the UV forecast. It is "8-very high" for today. I think I am going to be a rebel and go outside without sunscreen. I really don't want to make a mess in my raincoat.

Broken

2009-02-11T23:32:00.004+13:00

Not much has been happening in the past week since I broke my arm. Went over the handlebars of my bike and landed in the ditch. On my extended arm. Ouch. At least I got a free ride in an ambulance! My elbow got dislocated and I think I broke a bone. The broken bone is not quite clear yet - the hospital staff was way more afraid of my pain than me and shot me up with so much morphine that I was unable to spell my name. And therefore can't remember what they told me I actually did to my poor limb. They were very happy that I am right-handed and broke my left arm. So I could still sign forms. Lots of them.

The first couple days were spent in bed with my roommate cooking me food.
Then she left on a camping trip, so I had to get up and cook my own food. After much training and some interesting acrobatics I am now able to slice bread with the cast pinning down the loaf (with much force, actually making a dent in the poor thing) and the bread knife in my right hand severing through the dough. Not a pretty sight but the slices I got are better than biting into the loaf. Which could have caused a jar dislocation and a second cast on my face.

My arm has nicely swollen up and taken on some color:
Hopefully I will get rid of that huge heavy cast tomorrow. So I can go for a bike ride! (I think it will take some special skill to convince the doctor that this a good idea. But I have been formulating a speech for the last 6 days - it all makes perfect sense. At least to me.)

Mid summer heat

2009-01-28T10:54:00.010+13:00

I arrived back here in Dunedin last Friday to a 27C heatwave. And promptly got a sunburn. Of course.

On Saturday I moved into a new place. This is the front of the house:
This my room with an awesome view: And this is my room ceiling:
On Sunday I went surfing for the first time. And on Monday I actually started working. And since everything is official now I can finally broadcast it: I left the world of sea ice and entered the world of Geographical Information Systems. I will be doing a GIS-based sustainability study for the City of Dunedin and are very excited about that.

And yesterday we had a little B-day Pizza party here and have started to plan adventures for the summer (even though we spent most of the time complaining about the lack of snow here at the moment)

Cabin Fever Reliever post

2009-01-17T15:18:00.008+13:00

The temperatures around here managed to change from -45F to +48F in only 2 days. And so we are all going outside again. In t-shirts. Well, almost. It sure is confusing. I have no idea what to wear. I ended up sitting in the coffee shop in a tank top yesterday because I was way overdressed but forgot to layer a t-shirt in there somewhere. Such is life in the far north.

So yesterday I was finally able to take my new used splitboard for a spin:
And today I took the bike for a spin:

All of this will come to an end soon if the temperatures don't go back down below freezing. Which won't concern me much since I will be out of here in only 4 days. Going back to worrying about sunburns. And work. Life is tough.

How to convert stuff ...

2009-01-06T13:19:00.002+13:00

(http://xkcd.com/526/)

Hunkering down and hanging on

2009-01-04T10:44:00.008+13:00

This is kind of like a Sarah Palin blog post - everybody's gotta have one. Only this time it's about the weather. Or better the bitter cold. And talking about it has been a Fairbanksian favorite pastime for days now. But yep, it's damn cold here. We even made it onto the "Coldest places in the world" website.
I am currently in Alaska trying very hard to ignore the Dunedin webcams. Sometimes I get well-meaning emails from people telling me about the nice weather there. But what do they know? We have SNOW here! And if it ever warms up again we might be able to go outside and enjoy it. And I'll get to break in the new splitboard. So far only Ben has been lucky enough to use it. On the one nice powder day before the cold spell:
But for now: it's Party Time! Happy New Year everybody!

Ode to the Bicycle

2008-11-30T01:16:00.021+13:00

Mein Fahrrad
by Die Prinzen

Just the other day I was riding my bicycle around at 120 (This is a joke! It is not to be taken literally. Even on the Autobahn, German bikes do not go that fast!)
And as always I could only hope
That the police wouldn't stop me
Because then I'd have to pay a fine
And they'd interrogate me
And my poor little bicycle
Would end up alone in front of the door

Oh how I love my bicycle
Why, I do not know
I am faithful to my bicycle
In contrast to my wife
I will never leave it
I will never walk away from it
We fly around as if on clouds
Because we understand each other so well

Every snot drives an Opel
Every ape drives a Ford
Every idiot drives a Porsche
Every ass an Audi Sport
Every crazy drives a Manta
Every goober Jaguar
Only connoisseurs ride a bicycle
And always get there faster

My bicycle is not purple
Because that doesn't turn me on at all
It is also not brown
Because I can't stand brown
No, I've painted it blue
From the saddle to the tubes
And I think that's very appropriate
Because some days I am blue too ("blue" in German is drunk)

And here is the original on the RIGHT side of the road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY24qc7woW4

Funny things from Oz

2008-11-26T20:27:00.000+13:00

So many colors!

2008-11-24T13:37:00.005+13:00

But the truly amazing thing are the smells - this blog needs a smell button! In lieu of that here are some pictures from my walk to school this morning:

It's really hot and humid today. Tank top and mini skirt weather - Yay!

Don Quixote

2008-11-17T17:27:00.003+13:00

o to break up this thread of never-ending outdoorsy stuff, here is something artsy. We went to a ballet last night - the Royal New Zealand Ballet performed Don Quixote:
And this is the story: The ageing Don is on a final quest for adventure. Accompanied by his young nephew, Sancho, and a bag full of ready cash, the Don sets off to town and beyond.
There they meet the devious and seedy Gamache with his consort of rough and ready street dancers, plus the beautiful and feisty Kitri and her young lover Basilio, a local delivery boy.But there's trouble afoot! The confused Don, believing that Kitri is his lost love, follows her and Basilio on their secret tryst to the gypsy camp. With his eye on the money, the sneaky Gamache follows closely. Seeing his opportunity, he rouses the gypsies to taunt the Don, before robbing him of his bag of cash. Left almost unconscious and alone, the Don has terrifying visions of storms and windmills, followed by a visit from Cupid, who reveals a whole array of ravishing beauties to behold.
But alas, it is only a dream and when his nephew Sancho returns with Basilio to rescue the bedraggled Don, they return to town penniless. Meanwhile, Gamache with his newfound illegal wealth is celebrating in town with his girls. The Don returns and realises that it was Gamache who stole his bag of money. Accusations and a fight ensue, resulting in Gamache being arrested and sent to prison. A happy ending? Not yet… Kitri’s father, a pretentious café owner, is adamant that his daughter will not marry a poor delivery boy. And that is that. However, in a gesture of thanks for Basilio’s help, the Don gives the bag of cash to Kitri’s father, thus freeing the way for her to marry her love. The town celebrates the wedding of Kitri and Basilio, the Don returns to his dreams and Kitri’s father does up the cafe.
And from a review: "This production of the ballet classic Don Quixote – first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1869 – is among the most accessible and spectacular productions from the Royal NZ Ballet and is marked by elder statesman Sir Jon Trimmer in the title role at age 69 in this, his 50th year with the company.

The sets are stunning and brilliantly colourful. The dancing is superb. ......" I can wholeheartedly second that!

(Images from http://www.nzballet.org.nz/image-gallery/don-quixote-dress-rehearsal)

Kaitangata - the lost village

2008-11-16T18:24:00.000+13:00

Kaitangata loosely translates from Māori to English as, 'Kill a man and eat him' (kai being food and tangata being human, or people). Likely the name comes from cannibal feasts held there after tribal fighting in the district between Kāi Tahu and Kāti Mamoe. (from Wikipedia)

So we went to Kaitangata. Not for dinner. But for a mountain bike race called the Black Gold Trail. Where "participants will travel through an awe-inspiring tour of scenic bush trails and forestry roads, giving opportunity to catch a glimpse of the famous Wild Horses living in the forestry of Taratu. Winding your way past historic mining sites you will feel the courage of yesteryears underground heroes....."

We packed our bikes into the car (which was no small feat given the lack of any kind of bike rack):
... and headed down the road to Kaitangata. We managed to get there 10 minutes before the race started. Just barely enough time to register and to throw our wheels back on and to catch the second half of the pre-race meeting.
The choices were 45km and 20km and since the description on the website had made it sound quite easy we opted for the longer one. The ride was magnificent! Single track trails through the forest:
... had been connected by stretches of logging roads:
... and third-level gravel roads:
We passed through areas that had been logged recently:
.. and areas that hadn't been logged in decades:
One of the most awe-inspiring moments of the whole trail was when we came to the top of one of the ridges and saw this:
.. and this:
We both had somewhat underestimated the race, time-wise and difficulty-wise. And got our butts kicked. In the end it took Andy about 3 hours and I finally rolled across the finish line after 4:40 hours.
The good thing is that everybody had finished by that point and was hanging out at the finish line and I got a big applause. (Andy got nothing - that's what happens when you finish too early!)

We hung out there for the awards ceremony since they were raffling off a bike. Even though we had no idea how to get that home if we'd win it. But then again - it was only 50km back to Dunedin and I am sure I could have talked Andy into riding it home :)

It's post-election Sunday!

2008-11-10T23:48:00.018+13:00

The centre-right conservative National Party won the election, the NZ$ is up and the Chinese announced a stimulus package. Things are looking up. Or so we hope.

Might have made sense to go to church and pray for the economy but we had other plans:

It's Movember in New Zealand!

2008-11-04T17:48:00.005+13:00

And Bro Ian is doing the mo-ing for us all. Check it out:

It's not over until it's over

2008-11-04T15:37:00.029+13:00

And it's not over yet. 2 more weekends of fun in the snow (and in the sun). Last weekend we went up to Brewster Glacier. The next image is from Google Earth with our approx. route sketched in:
Couldn't get organized in time to start the hike up in the daylight, so right off the trailhead we waded through the icy river waters just before it went completely dark.
4 hours and a bottle of port later we arrive at the hut at 1AM. All the serious mountaineers were in their sleeping bags by then since they had to get up at 3AM (!) to climb Mtn Brewster. We rolled out of our bags at around 9AM and were greeted by this:

After several espressos and some breakfast we took off towards the glacier (the hut is visible in the middle of the next image).
Warm slushy snow and steep mountain slopes made for difficult travel and after sliding around (mostly downhill towards the cliff) on the snowfields I opted for a turn-around while Leigh and Ian braved the elements and continued on to the glacier.

Mtn Brewster is the peak on the right in the next picture and one of the ice falls is visible on the left. They were rewarded with some sweet turns in virgin snow - see movie at the end of this post.

And they returned several hours later pretty spent and ready for more espresso. And freeze-dried dinner. And lots of chocolate.

Next morning we started on the trek back down.

The trail is quite interesting - it goes straight up the hill with no switchbacks or any conveniences like that and has a grade of about 50% - meaning for every 2 meters we did horizontally we climbed one meter in the vertical. Good exercise on the uphill, quite a challenge on the downhill.
The next picture is the first part of the trail following a rather pointy ridge top down to the treeline.
And after 3 hours of hard work, several philosophical discussions and a Kea concert:

.. we ended up back at the river crossing:
And finished the trip off with a nice cold one:
None of us can really walk today and I ended up having to bike to work - walking was NOT an option :)

And here is the movie from Leigh:

Just one last time

2008-10-14T17:32:00.027+13:00

So since we got 40cm of fresh snow in the mountains last week we ventured into the backcountry one more time - last weekend for the last few snowfields that were still open.

We bivyed out in the parking lot of The Remarkables (brrrrrrrr was it ever cold!) and I learned a new feature of my camera: taking pictures in the dark. While my technique definitely needs to be perfected this is one of the first shots (the lights are Queenstown):
Next Morning we went up to Lake Alta (same place where Ben and I did the mountaineering course) but this time we went over the ridge:
... and dropped into the Wye Creek basin.

And were rewarded with beautiful slush skiing/snowboarding in the afternoon.
The SPF70 kept me from getting a sunburn on my face but I forgot to put any sunscreen on my arms and got a nice burn on my lower arms from pulling up the sleeves. That will teach me - hopefully :)

Leigh made a movie about the trip which can be viewed here.

On the way back it was very obvious that spring has arrived. The colors were just amazing! (But I think only people from Alaska can appreciate that - Leigh said: "What colors?")
We took a detour through the historic village of Clyde:
.. and then took a gravel backwoods road back to Dunedin.

We went past Waipori Village (Waipouri meaning "dark water" in Maori and being a reference to the tannin-stained waters of the heavily wooded Waipori River catchment) - a small village nestled into the steep native forest slopes of the Waipori River valley about 1 hour from Dunedin.
The local fire station (Waipori Fire Fighter Brigade):
To supply the City of Dunedin with power a small hydroelectric station* was built and completed at Waipori Falls in 1880. A dam then needed to be built to feed that station and Waipori Village came into existence in 1902. The damn was completed in 1924 and created an artificial lake, Lake Mahinerangi.
The river valley below that station looks like an excellent place for packrafting :)

The village today is "no longer needed in connection with the power scheme and has been developed in terms of the Unit Titles Act. The individual units are generally used for holiday homes, with some permanent residents. The body corporate is responsible for the upkeep of the tennis courts, water and sewerage reticulation schemes and the sealed streets of the village. A swimming pool is located by the power station which is available for use by the people of the village."(http://www.cluthadc.govt.nz)

* In 2007, hydroelectricity accounted for 55% (in GWh) of all generated power in New Zealand. Including geothermal (8%), biogas (0.5%), wood (1.2%), and wind (2.2%), NZ generated 67% of its electricity from renewable resources. The remaining non-renewable 33% came from coal (7%), gas (26%), and wasteheat (0.1%).
(from http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/37882/A-table1.xls)

LOLKEA

2008-09-29T18:12:00.000+13:00

It's snowing!

2008-09-29T16:09:00.005+13:00

... but unfortunately only in Fairbanks:
The cats are well prepared with a big winter mane:
.. and I wish I was waxing my skis instead of dealing with a sunburn. Oh well.

Ben is back in Alaska and I will finally have to get some work done. There are still lots of picture from our trips - maybe I can talk him into posting some more stuff :)

Strangely disguised condom dispensers

2008-09-21T11:11:00.005+12:00

This is very clever. To shield the children from seeing a condom dispenser in the botanical garden's bathroom, they've labeled it as a "cologne" dispenser.

Now that I think about it, maybe it really is a cologne dispenser. Which begs the question of why they would make it look like they're selling condoms? Some other intrepid investigator with $2 NZD will have to find out for sure.

Update: I found a NZ$2 gold coin and put it in the slot - and voila, this is what came out:
Looks a bit small for a condom - and it smells good too.

Fly like an eagle..

2008-09-21T09:26:00.006+12:00

One cow says to another: "What do you think of that mad cow thing?" The other one says " What do I care? I'm a helicopter."

A helicopter in Milford Sound.

The Quest for The Gnar

2008-09-17T22:33:00.003+12:00

After endless days of looking for The Gnar, we finally found it!
And we shredded it.In the end shredding the gnar turned out to be the easy part. The more difficult part was getting back after running out of gnar:
We crossed creeks:
fought vegetation:
climbed icy mountain faces:
slid down scree slopes:
and side-hilled tussocks:
And crossed more streams:
Another weekend of cheating "deeth" in the bag!

Penguins at last

2008-09-17T15:55:00.008+12:00

We walked around a corner in the trail and there they were, not even 2 feet away from us: 2 yellow-eyed penguins: I even saw them projectile poop - fascinating!

And lots of sea lions doing what sea lions do on the beach:

12 spikes of 'deeth'

2008-09-09T17:24:00.011+12:00

Another weekend of cheating 'deeth' (as they pronounce that here) - this time with crampons with 12 spikes. Each. For a total of 24. Murderous weapons on our feet.
We took a mountaineering class with the NZ Alpine Club and learned a bunch of useful things that one needs to know before heading 'to the hills' (Seems like Kiwis reserve the word 'mountains' for those things in Alaska). We learned about Enzed weather patterns and embarrassed ourselves when yelling 'south' to the question of the most avalanche-prone face of a peak. EVERYBODY knows that the sun is in the NORTH when high in the sky at noon. And then the geostrophic currents - everything is just so wrong down here. The direction you look in when entering a roundabout, the toilet doors lock by turning the dial COUNTERclockwise, the light switches are on when pushed down, ... and the toilet bowl drains the opposite way - out of the bowl. Talking about excrements: this is a picture of Toilet Gully, the perfect place for a number 2 when high up in the hills and stranded without a shovel:
And to get the bowels moving you need a hot tub, preferably a portable hot tub:
We did all kinds of things from crampon usage:
... to avalanche awareness training to self-arresting. 'Biien' is demonstrating the correct way here:

And in the end we made it to the summit of 'the hill':

And were treated to spectacular views:

It's lambing season

2008-09-01T16:53:00.003+12:00

The knobular-knee'd little ones are out there spreading cuteness 24/7.

I can't wait to eat [another] one.

Aotearoa

2008-08-26T00:19:00.006+12:00

The South Pacific Ocean

2008-08-25T18:26:00.003+12:00

"believe it or not"

2008-08-19T18:46:00.007+12:00

So we went to a pub quiz last night at an Irish Pub called The Bog. We didn't really go there for the quiz but for the beer. Kilkenny's that is. And that beer was so good that we didn't manage to get out of there before the quiz started. And when the quizmaster assured us that it was NO problem that we weren't Kiwis and that the first price was more beer, well....

So we got ourselves a team name ("Roadies"), grabbed all the necessary paperwork (of course there was paperwork) and joined in the fun.
And then the quiz started:
Round after round after round we managed to be last or second to last but in the end we did it: last place!
In our defense we can say that we didn't recognize (or better know) the head coach of the All Blacks but then again we also didn't recognize Ariel Sheron. And I don't even want to talk about the movie stars (of course we missed Nicky Hilton - who the heck knew that Paris has a sister??)

In between the official rounds silly questions (How many people get hurt by tea pots per year?) could be answered for more free beer. I answered one of those and had to wear a silly Speight's foam hat to get the discount at the bar:
But it was soooooo worth it!

And the next day somewhere high up above Dunedin:

All the missing pieces..

2008-08-17T09:41:00.015+12:00

...or at least some.

Weekend before last we went to a ski club owned ski field - Fox Peak. Where they use a rope tow with a "nutcracker". Not quite what I thought this would be but equally bad.

So this is a picture of the tow rope:
And this is a picture of the nutcracker:
The trick is to get the 2 of them together somehow without braking any fingers while closing the nutcracker around the rope and holding on to it while being pulled up the hill. It's a "mountain skill in itself" (http://www.chillout.co.nz/nutcracker.asp).

Actually quite simple on skis but I never managed to make it work for me on the snowboard. There was a Japanese girl who tried this for about 6 hours without ever getting more than 30 m up the slope. Impressive! I gave up after 2 hours and since the hip belt messed up my back I didn't go back for more the next day but put skins on my skies and walked up the hill. My group had taken 2 rope tows up in the morning and helped shovel out the third uppermost one which had its rope buried under 2 feet of snow. By the time I got there they were all done and you can see the trench they dug in the picture. And Fox Peak in the distance.
Snow conditions were crappy but the weekend was quite entertaining and interesting in other aspects. We stayed at the ski club lodge and had a marvelous dinner and apres-ski party on Saturday night.
And again my German/European beer knowledge was put to the test:
Why is this beer called "Bavarian" made in Holland? Needless to say I failed miserably. (Couldn't get away with the "Bavaria is in Holland" explanation.)

Ben showed up on Monday to sunny weather and blue skies. Of course that didn't last and by Tuesday morning it was pouring down rain. All day without interuption. So we drove out to the Otago Peninsula and went to the Marine Studies Center where they let us touch slimy, and silky and crusty things from the ocean. There were pigfish with very human-like facial features:
And sea horses (we arrived at feeding time and could watched them suck up phytoplankton):
At the end of the day we made it out to Sandfly Beach trying to catch the yellow-eyed penguins returning from their daily foraging. Didn't see any of those but watched a sea lion rolling in on the beach:
Next day was sunny and we went hiking up Mt. Cargill. And were treated to a spectacular view at the top.
This is a picture of a geologic formation called the Organ Pipes near the top:
Did some adventuring and took a trail down the other side only to realize that we had missed the last bus home from there and it was dark by now. So we hitchhiked! After about 20 cars passed us a minivan stopped and a mom with a sick child gave us a lift. Phew - that wouldn't have been much fun to walk back along the dark road for 12km and another 4km back to the house. So we have learned to check the bus schedule before leaving and to take a headlamp - always. (Ben even takes his to the coffee place in the morning now!)

We also went biking the other day and finally we saw one: a possum (it was dead I might have to add):

The islands were visited by another major snow storm (meaning rain here in Dunedin) and we are gearing up for some snowboarding. As soon as Ben gets better. Which reminds me: need to go to the store now and figure out what type of flu medicine they sell here.

Sick today

2008-08-16T16:16:00.003+12:00

Frosty morning!

I fell asleep very early and unexpectedly last night and woke up with just a little dry cough. Otherwise, I felt OK and even got up and took a shower and made coffee before sunrise.

After some lounging around under two down comforters for two coffees and one Skype conversation's worth of time we decided to grab some more coffee and some breakfast type stuff in one of the local eateries before going hiking (or "tramping" as locals would call it) on a trail in the logging region northwest of town. As we approached our trailhead, the weather got greyer and wetter while things looked much better back in town. Before we got halfway there, we encountered a locked gate with a sign saying something about trespassers being sawn in half with a Stihl 36" bar skip-toothed chain saw. By this time, my dry cough had gotten worse and I was lacking energy so I wasn't heartbroken to turn around.

Having built up an immunity to NZ pathogens, Heike is off riding her bike somewhere. I'm under a couple of down comforters watching the vapor from my breath while I type this.

What am I doing here?

2008-08-14T23:50:00.001+12:00

Blogging! Heike made the grand mistake of allowing me to post here while I'm in NZ. More posts forthcoming.

Another marvelous weekend in the mountains

2008-08-05T15:44:00.014+12:00

This time we actually had sun - both days and all day long! Unbelievable! I had to buy sunscreen. A 1-ounce tube for $8 at the ski lodge - but it was so worth it!

After some initial start up problems with the car (the wheel sounded like it was about to fall off - but Ian decided we need to go skiing and can't worry about minor details like that) we ended up in 84 new cm of fluffy white stuff.
The backcountry skiing and hiking around the ridge line was so good that we used the lift only 3 times all day. The first run took us 2 hours including the hiking and the descent. We hiked up the ridge from the end of the lift and then traversed over to the backside to a run called Hammie's.
And I got the chance to see a real Voile splitboard in action - I guess it's time to get another student loan :)
The other exciting find of the day was a monoski which Wendy is modeling here for us:
We saw the owner of it later on trying to get down the hill on it. Not a pretty sight.

Scenery was awesome, so here are some shots: (this next one is a 360 panorama from the top of the ridge)

We spent the night at Donna's house. She had an amazing selection of crystal bowls that she got from the U.S. and gave us a lesson on how to make them vibrate. The bigger ones create a truly astonishing sound. It was just like being in church with big organ pipes. And I also felt as enlightened afterwards. And on top of that she told me my future. Now I am scared. I am not sure I like my future. I think I want another future. Or somebody else's future.

Back in Dunedin now - at least until next Friday. Practicing Maori songs tomorrow for a Hui next week. I am definitely better with the Maori pronunciation than with the NZ pronunciation. It's almost like German except "wh" is pronounced "f". I will have to memorize this song by tomorrow:

E tu kahikatea
He mau whakapai ururoa
Awhi mai awhi atu
Tatou tatou e

E tu e puriri
Laua takoto kia reri
Awhi mai awhi atu
Tatou tatou e
Awhi mai awhi atu
Tatou tatou e

Piece of cake!

Not even a whole week now and Ben will be here. Really looking forward to seeing him and doing some traveling around the island.

Antarctica New Zealand

2008-07-23T23:06:00.021+12:00

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

2008-07-21T23:20:00.008+12:00

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

2008-07-14T21:40:00.006+12:00

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

2008-07-06T13:16:00.002+12:00

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.

2008-07-03T15:58:00.008+12:00

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!

It's finally snowing!

2008-06-24T20:06:00.013+12:00

Solstice was survived ok and the days are now getting longer. Yeah! Since I forgot to take my camera to the festivities I will go on to more interesting things. Like the toilet. This is a picture of a NZ toilet tank:
The left button empties only half of the tank and the right one empties the whole tank. Kind of like the yellow-mellow idea without having to let anything mellow. Nice. Now if the water keeps gushing out into the bowl and doesn't want to stop, the lid needs to be removed:
WHERE IS THE CHAIN? The chain that gets tangled up and needs to be untangled? How can there not be a chain? How am I going to fix this without having a chain in this tank? After the initial shock about the missing chain wore off I decided to poke and squeeze all the random parts in there and after a little while the water actually stopped. Phew.

On a more positive note we finally got snow! And since I know some of you might not believe this I took a picture (the white stuff in there is the snow):
Luckily, a lot more snow fell in the mountains on the other side of the island and so I am in the process of getting my snowboard assembled for next weekend.

Meanwhile, a little update on office stuff (since that is what I came here for). First and foremost: our office has a window! With a nice view:
And here is the actual office with a computer called ICECREAM (brilliant Chris!)
And this is my adviser Pat Langhorne with outgoing grad student Daisuke:
My absolutely favorite thing though is the bike parking in the basement:
And my landlady is teaching me Enzed pronunciation: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." "Brown" and "lazy" are not going so well yet. "Over" isn't either. But I am working on it.

Dunedin Street Gig

2008-06-21T12:45:00.007+12:00

Dunedin Street Gig was put on by Volunteer Otago last night and I went there and sold cookies and chocolate and ran the EFTPOS machine (the customers had to explain that word to me :) Lani got a bunch of young kids to organized the event and they did an excellent job. There were bands playing (one that played 80's music!), fire jugglers (and eaters!), a graffiti competition, a guitar hero competition, and face painting! It was held at Sammy's which is a pretty old theater kind of place. Looks like it was built in 1911 - haven't been able to get more info on it yet. But I took some pictures of the stage and the ceiling. Pretty impressive!
Happy Summer Solstice everybody! I am going to enjoy the winter solstice here at a big outdoor party tonight and will post something about that later.

Arrival in the land of sheep .... and the giant bath tub

2008-06-14T13:50:00.000+12:00

Nobody seemed to care much about my overweight luggage and so here it is in another car on the other side of the world (only difference is this one is quite big compared to Ben's tiny BMW, that and of course I boarded the car on the wrong side and was very surprised to find a steering wheel there):I am currently staying in a house with a ginormous bathtub:

and no heat - as common in NZ. I was told that is the reason for lots of parties at people's houses all the time: to warm the place up!

And of course here is the obligatory sheep picture (taken 5 minutes after my arrival from the car):
All the white dots are sheep. But the sheep aren't really as numerous as the possums: while there are 15 sheep per person in NZ there are 20 possums per person! They have really soft fur and I am considering buying a handbag as a pet in lieu of having Kirikiri and Punipuni to keep me warm.

The best thing by far though is:
I almost bought a whole Apfelstruddel there upon my arrival. Decided against it since they might withdraw my visa if I gain too much weight :)

via the place with the really tiny shadows

2008-06-14T13:28:00.004+12:00

San Francisco - the land of the mighty sunburn. We must have stuck out like sore thumbs with our Alaskan tan. Should have bought suntan lotion - oh well, I won't be getting another sunburn anytime soon I guess.

Off to a "heavy" start

2008-06-11T19:19:00.002+12:00

The car is loaded - here I go! At least to the airport. Will see what happens there. The bike box is overweight for sure!

New Zealand!

2008-05-16T09:45:00.002+12:00

I am moving to New Zealand! More specifically to Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand. I got a scholarship from the University of Otago and will be studying Sea Ice with a fieldwork component in Antarctica. Departure date is June 11th. Pretty busy packing everything up and finishing my thesis at the moment. Come back for an update towards the end of June!

For now here is a webcam from the University of Otago in Dundin on the South Island (yes, it's fall there!):

http://www.propserv.otago.ac.nz/webcameras/WebCameraClient.aspx?ID=ClockTower