There (Wanaka) and back again (to Christchurch)

It occurred to me the other night that most people don’t know the lay of the land here, and when I talk about certain places, you have no idea where on God’s green Earth I actually am.  So here’s a snapshot of where I’ve been over the past six weeks.

So, if you’ve interpreted my little map correctly (or if you’ve read the handy little title above), you’ll have deduced that I’m back in Christchurch. 

It was with a bit of a heavy heart, and a heavier bag, that I left Wanaka Saturday morning.  Over the course of the six days I’d spent at the filthy house, it had gotten steadily cleaner and cosier.  It really was nice having my own room, even if sound travelled through the paper-thin walls with surprising efficiency (I shared a wall with a Swedish “goth” couple, the female half who, if she wasn’t watching episode after episode of Two and a Half Men, was jabbering incessantly). And I doubt I’d ever get enough of looking at those mountains.

Lucky ducks

But leave Wanaka I did, hopping on board the 10:45 naked bus with no real idea of how long of a journey it would be.

I wasn’t bothered though.  One of my favourite things to do in this country is to just sit back and watch the invariably gorgeous scenery glide by.

This particular journey brought me through Otago’s Lindy’s Pass, with its kilometre upon kilometre of tussock-tufted hills and snow-dusted mountains.  The Southern Alps snuck into view around midday, and thankfully stuck around for a few hours. 

Mmmmmmm....tussocky.

At near 2:00 we had a rest stop and bus changeover in Lake Tekapo.  This delightful little town had charmed me and my travel companion last trip, and in the half hour I was there on Saturday, it had nearly convinced me to ditch the rest of the ride and make camp there for a few nights.

The main draw of the town of Lake Tekapo isn’t the, admittedly stunning, views (more gorgeous mountains? Ho hum), or the nice walks (Another amazing treck?  Yawn).  No.  The name of the place says it all.  The lake is what sets this place apart.

Just look at that water:

Have you ever seen, even imagined, water that colour?  Though it looks like the result of a chemistry experiment gone wrong, or some kind of awful environmental disaster, I can assure you, it’s not.  That’s all natural baby.

Well...that camera angle's not so natural.  Nor is my hair colour.  But the water is all natural baby.

I might mess up the science here a bit, but here’s what I remember from the explanation I got last year.  The rivers that feed into the lake flow down from glaciers in the Alps.  As those glaciers move subtly about, they grind against the mountains and create this rocky powder that gets carried downstream towards the lake.  This “rock flour” is so ultra-fine that it’s suspended in the water, and the light reflects off of it in such a way that we see that brilliant turquoise.  Pictures really don’t do it justice. 

The rest of the journey was rather uneventful.  The only thing of note was the interminable chatter of two Spanish girls sitting in front of me.  Good golly could those chicks yammer on.  In six hours of travel they were quiet for all of 45 minutes I reckon.  Most of you likely know that I’m quite the introvert, and I cherish those relationships where silences are comfortable and not infrequent.  When I’m thrust into a confined space with people who have never met a silence they didn’t fill, I get antsy.  Thank goodness for my ipod.

**Little tangent here: as I sit here writing this, the girl next to me has removed her shoes, unleashing a foot odour of a potency which defies description.  It’s distracting, and disgusting. Thank you for allowing me to share my pain.  And now back to regularly scheduled programming**

So, here I am back in Christchurch.  A few things have brought me back here, and only one is actually fun.

·        I’m slowly making my way north so I can be sure to be in Wellington for my interview with the University of Victoria on November 16^th.  (not fun)

·        My laptop battery has stopped functioning properly.  It won’t run unless it’s plugged in, won’t take a charge, and is steadily losing power.  I’m hoping to find a replacement in town, but given that it’s a Sony, things aren’t looking promising (definitely not fun)

·        I have to peruse the library to do some research for this stupid essay I’m expected to write for this course I’m enrolled in against my will.  A course that’s a prerequisite for a program I’m not even sure I’ve been accepted into yet. In other words, I might be doing this work for nothing!  Yay! (decidedly not fun)

·        The Black Seeds had a show in town Saturday night (fun!) and I went (double fun!). 

There’s a very good chance you’ve never heard of the Black Seeds, but they’re a big deal here in New Zealand.  They’re an eight-piece “dub” band I discovered during my last trip here.  On a whim last week I went to their site (and now you can too!) and looked up their upcoming concert schedule.  To find out that they were playing a few days later in an accessible location was quite the thrill.  The show was lots of fun, even though I was on my own.  I’d go see them again in a heartbeat.

It’s interesting being here during Halloween.  When I first came here in 2004, it wasn’t celebrated much at all, but in the years hence, it’s started to take hold.  Last night there were some disguised revellers out on the town, but not many.  Apparently some trick or treating took place, though most households didn’t have candy (or “lollies” as they say here) on hand. And no pumpkins  or jack o’ lanterns are to be found – not surprising given that it’s spring. 

So that’s about it for now. I've spent the last two (sunny) days at the library. I'm supposed to submit an essay on the 12th, and I figured I'd get it out of the way as soon as possible. Hopefully I'll have a first draft done tomorrow.

On Thursday I'm taking off for Picton and the next morning I'm starting a scuba diving course.  Huzzah!  I've been wanting to get certified for years and have never taken the time to do it.  I've tried to work something out a few times since I left Canada, but timing was never right.  Looks like it'll work out this time though, so I'm thrilled.

TTFN!

Dunedin offers me steep streets and structure.

Tuesday morning I was up early to grab a bus at 8:00, destination: the city of Dunedin, some five hours South of Christchurch.

It was a pleasant route that I must have done back in 2004 when I drove from Christchurch to here, but for the life of me, none of it looked familiar.  Not the delightfully kitchy Salmon World in Rakaia, not the pretty towns of Timaru or Oamaru, not the distant snow-capped mountains.  Nothing.  It was like seeing for the first time. It was great.

My enchantment during the ride contined as I arrived in Dunedin.  It was definitely helped by the absolutely gorgeous weather.  The sky was a completely cloudless brilliant blue that makes a bad mood almost impossible.  What could make a good mood bad is having to trek nearly a km to my hostel with some 40 pounds of stuff on my back.  Almost all of it uphill.

Cause nearly everything seems to be uphill in Dunedin.  It is a city in constant battle with gravity.

The train station, on its side (sigh)

Inside the train station (right side up! huzzah!)

If you first arrive, like I did, at the train station, you might be lulled into a false sense of levelness.  As you make your way into town via the descriptively-named Octagon – an eight-sided open area fringed with bars, restaurants, theatres and shops – you start to get an inkling of the steeply-angled hell into which you are about to ascend.  The roads to the west suddenly and sharply veer upwards, and every step becomes an ordeal. 

I hate this photo program.  The photo was taken lengthwise, while the photo below was taken widthwise, yet here, they are both topsy turvy.  Screw you Blogger!

Yet another NZ city not built on a grid.

Hunched over, sweating profusely, you’re painfully aware of each and every ounce you’re carrying on your person when going uphill.  When you’re headed downhill, it might require less effort, but it’s still not easy.  In order to avoid going ass over tea kettle, you must adopt an odd backward-leaning posture by scooping your tailbone underneath you and taking exaggerated steps, like you're wearing too-big clown shoes.

The world's steepest street is some 5km from the downtown.  I haven't seen it myself, but I've read that it's an asthma attack-inducing 19 degree incline.

Going up up up!

Up some more (though it looks sideways)

Luckily, Dunedin makes up for its unwelcoming inclines with lots of charm.  The views are great, many of the buildings are impressively attractive, and it has a youthful energy thanks to the university around which the city seems to be built. (Unfortunately, a lot of this energy seems to be expelled via the smashing of beer bottles.  I’ve never seen so much broken glass on sidewalks before).

It’s Otago University that brought me here too.  I had my interview with the College of Education yesterday in the hopes that I’ll be accepted into their Graduate Diploma of Teaching program, which would start in January.

It’s hard for me to say whether it went well or not.  I do think they liked me and some of what I had to say seemed to impress them (“very insightful!”). But the fact that I haven’t spent any time in a classroom, other than as a student myself, has them a bit worried that I may not really know whether this is a career I’d be interested in. 

It’s something that has been weighing on me a bit too, so they suggested I contact one of the local schools and see about coming in for a few days next week.  So I have.  On Monday and Tuesday I’ll be sitting in on a bunch of classes at the school just behind my hostel (I can actually hear the kids playing outside as I type this). I’m looking forward to it.

A few more photos for you:

The view from near my hostel.

A church. (duh)

Some building near the train station (see how deceptively flat it is down there?)

And that’s not my only obligation this week (see, I can still have structure J ). On Thursday (as in, today) I’m going to be trying my hand at WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms).  Basically, you help out on private farms for a few days in exchange for room and board.

I believe I’m going to be helping the owner with updating her website and doing some cleaning and maintenance work around her house.  Should be a good experience no matter what.

Thar she blows!

And blow she sure does today.

New Zealand is going through a baaaaaad storm.  Much of the country was hit with heavy ran, lightning, snow and gale force winds.  Here in Auckland we're pretty buffeted and haven't nearly had as rough a time as the rest of the country, but we did get some rain and a lot of wind.  There's also a chance of hail tonight. 

Early in the day it was quite nice so I took advantage by heading out for a walk to the Domain, a big park in the middle of the city.  According to the map it wasn't far from the hostel, and I figured it would take me half an hour. 

I'd forgotten how much NZ maps suck though. 

I can't really comment on road maps, not having used any, but pedestrian maps are consistently, maddeningly, laughably bad.  Claire and I had experienced these exercises in frustration time and time again last year -- incomplete sections, misleading legends, dead zones -- all designed to lead the unsuspecting visitor astray (and astray we were lead).  The situation is especially mind boggling considering how fantastic the tourism infrastructure is here overall.

For example, while following the map provided by the helpful lady at the i-site (the NZ tourism office), I was led to believe that Wellesley street would take me directly to the Domain from the downtown area.  However, about halfway down said street, I suddenly ended up at a T in the road, where according to the map, no T should be. 

At a loss, I took a small footpath that seemed to be leading in the general direction that the map indicated, only to be brought to the bowels of Auckland University.  This area, which on the map was nothing but a big, empty beige diamond shape, was in fact a labyrinth of narrow construction-filled, dead-end roads and gated footpaths only accessible by key card (of which I, obviously, had none). After more than 15 minutes of fruitless wandering, I finally stumbled upon an ungated staircase that led me back to the street I’d started on (the top of the “T”). 

Grumpy, but resolute to carry out my mission, I got back on track and 20 minutes later, along a rather circuitous route, I finally made it to the Domain.  It consists of a nice big green space which I believe is used for cricket, a duck pond, some nice walking tracks which recreate a typical NZ bush, a winter garden (greenhouse), and the Auckland War Museum. 

The Auckland Museum

Taking advantage of my camera's timer setting and a flat surface

Though I believe this is man-made, it's surpisingly accurate of NZ bush

Why hello there!

Had the grass been dryer and the sky not darkening, I likely would have happily set up camp with my book and read the afternoon away under a tree. 



Batten the hatches!

Alas, the ground was sodden and the sky rapidly becoming charcoal, so I headed back to the downtown (via a much more direct route).

It started raining not long afterwards and I sought refuge in a coffee shop (unfortunately, Starbucks was the closest one) and spent a good two hours reading a truly mindless novel.

I got transferred to a dorm for the next three days, and it’s actually quite nice.  There are five of us, no bunks, and the room is HUGE by hostel standards.  We have our own fridge and computer too -- all for $25NZ a night.  This is probably the best hostel I’ve stayed at in NZ.

I’m meant to go volunteer on Motuihe island tomorrow -- planting trees or putting up fences, something like that – but it looks doubtful that the ferry is going to be running if the wind doesn’t die down.  It could be a long day inside if that’s the case. Cross your fingers for me!