For the Longest Time

Wow, it's been a while, eh? In fact, it's been just over a month since I last checked in, and not coincidentally, a month since I got back to the US. It's a bit strange that I haven't wrapped up until now, and I'm sure that no one's even reading this anymore, but in case anyone stumbles across this in the future (maybe other students thinking about studying abroad in NZ, perhaps?) I think it's best that I sort of finish this blog up.

Leaving Dunedin was a bit strange, if only because it was so surreal that my time in New Zealand was over. I was able to pack all of my stuff up (no small feat) with time to spare, and was left wondering where everyone had gone - by the time I left, most others had already embarked on cool trips to the North Island, Australia and Fiji. Of course, no packing experience for me can go off without a hitch, and I managed, the night before I left, to put my passport through the washing machine. This was not fun, but after a reassuring phone call to Butler, I felt good enough that I could beg US Customs for forgiveness and to let me into the country if I had to. In the end, it all worked out and my tattered, warped passport didn't ever get a second glance.

The flight back to the US was, like my flight to NZ, fantastic. It was probably only half-full, which meant I had a seat between me and the other guy in my row. And despite the many rumors I had heard to the contrary, I was indeed served complementary wine (twice!) at dinner. Air New Zealand, you rock.

By far the highlight of my first month back in the States was my five days at Pomona, spent variously driving around on the right side of the road, playing beach volleyball, wearing only shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops, and enjoying the company of good friends. I really couldn't have asked for anything more. The flight from Ontario to Salt Lake City, by the way, may have been my favorite of all time, if only for the scenery. We took off flying west, oddly enough, but then rose up to about 15,000 feet as we banked right and flew directly over the San Gabriel Mountains going northeast, and the views we had of the Mojave were spectacular...once again I could see the awesome lava flows at Pisgah Crater, as well as the cinder cones in the Mojave National Preserve. Good stuff. [Note: those are old pictures, not from that flight.]

Anyway, one of the big things Pomona and Butler mention in their study abroad guides is 'reverse culture shock,' which is pretty much the same as culture shock, only now you find your own culture abhorrent. Maybe it's just me, and I knew what to expect coming home, or maybe it was the fact that I was in an English-speaking, Western society, but I haven't been at all surprised or dismayed by things at home. I love, among other things:

• central heating
• fast Internet
• cheap CDs, movies, electronics, books, alcohol
  
• dining hall food
• calling and NOT texting
  

I swear there are more things than that, but at the moment my mind isn't being very helpful. And of course, there are things I miss about NZ, including pies, good beer, poker night, jazz night, and of course, the entire, beautiful country. But that's to be expected.

So there you have it. I realize this isn't much of a post to summarize my thoughts and feelings about it all, but if I had to really sum it up, I'd say that I really had the time of my life over there. I did well in my classes (unbelievably, it's true) while still having a lot of free time on my hands to travel around and see as much as I could of a country on the other side of the world. And while I didn't get to meet and hang out with as many Kiwis as I'd hoped, the tons of Americans I met more than made up for it, and besides, Americans are ideal there because they share similar goals (i.e. having fun and traveling) and can keep you connected in some ways to the culture you left behind at home. I liked that. And I loved New Zealand - the people, the mountains, the roads, the tramping tracks, the sheep, the rocks - all of it. And this much I know: I'm going back.

The Final Countdown

I'd link to a video of GOB on Arrested Development, but apparently it's been deleted. I'm actually shocked that I didn't use that as the title for this post - it would probably have made more sense to switch titles. It's funny how much someone changes the music they listen to over time - back in the middle of June, I was obsessed with the Traveling Wilburys. The last couple months though, I've listened to a lot of reggae, and most recently, OK Go, The Strokes and Nirvana.

Anyway, this will be my last post from New Zealand. I take off roughly 12 hours from now, and my packing's pretty much all set, thankfully. The flat inspection went off without a hitch (and damn well should have, compared to the state some others are in), leaving me home free. I couldn't possibly begin to wrap up my feelings and thoughts about leaving here and now - I may try to think about that on the plane from Auckland or later - because trying summarize now would be too short-sighted.

Here are two things that I know I'm going to miss. First off, jazz night on Thursdays at the Robert Burns Pub down on George St. Every Thursday, me and some friends converge on 'the Burns,' or 'the Robbie,' as it's called, to enjoy a nice pint of Monteith's Black or Emerson's Pilsner (one of NZ's best beers) and some conversation. The Pub is full of Dunedin's history - mostly from the list of owners dating back to the mid-1800s etched in the mirror above the bar, and the presence of poems written by Robbie Burns, Scottish poet, on the walls. The Quartet is fantastic, particularly the drummer, who'll make you do a double take when you see that old white guy sing just like Louis Armstrong.

The other thing? The culture of hospitality surrounding Pat, Rob and Xander's flat. I'd mentioned it before in passing, and really, it became an institution. A sunny blue sky was our Bat Signal for barbecues, and every Monday was Poker Night, where 8-16 of us got together to play some Texas Hold 'Em. Their end-of-finals barbecue was the perfect send off for the semester.

Alright, that's it for me, for now. Next up on my plate is a 5 days in paradise - also known as Pomona College. I'll try to check in from there if I can manage it between the laying around and doing nothing and the running around catching up with friends.

The Glaciers and Wanaka (Part 2)

[Note: This is part 2 of 2. Go here for part 1.]

Franz Josef glacier was just awesome. There's nothing else to say about it. What was also really awesome, though, was the valley the glacier was in - it had a ton of places to climb on, over and in. We saw glacial striations on the rocks - marks that are gouged into the rock by the moving glacier - and even two excellent outcrops (here and here) of a small fault (waterfalls/streams are great candidates for finding faults). We walked right up to the glacier itself; there were stairs going up it for the guided (read: paid) tours. After checking out the sweet river coming out from the bottom of the glacier - it struck me as something coming out of the depths of hell, albeit an icy hell - we were forced to head back by the inevitable rain.

Just a half hour drive south, we saw Fox Glacier. Once again, very, very cool. Andrew, Mary and I made the short walk out to a good lookout - no need to go right up to it, once you've seen one glacier, you've seen 'em all, right? Ha! In the picture, you can sort of make out the layers of snow and dirt going across the glacier, especially dipping in the middle where the river comes out. Nice.

That day, we drove 4 hours back to Wanaka, both because we didn't want to drive 8 hours home to Dunedin in one day, and also because it was Andrew's 21st birthday, so we wanted to be somewhere a little more amenable to fun, namely a BBQ. The drive, like all of the drives on this trip, was stunning, particularly Lake Wanaka, with its turquoise blue water. Shadowfax - Carrie's trusty steed of a Toyota Corona - was really in her element here. The hostel we had was right in town and had a grill, so we were all set. Sausages, portobellos, peppers and cucumbers - a veritable birthday feast!

The last day, Monday, we woke up to more gorgeous weather, and in Wanaka that can mean only one thing: Puzzling World! We were quite ready to be a-MAZED, so we made haste. This wonderland has two main attractions: a series of 'illusion rooms' and a huge outdoor maze, which can take up to 2 hours to finish if you try the hardest method. The illusion rooms were great - highlights included a room of scowling faces like Ghandi, Churchill, Lincoln, etc. which appear to follow you as you walk around with one eye closed, an Ames room, which makes you look alternately huge and tiny, and a tilted room where balls and water moved uphill, and you can stand 'askew,' as it were. NUTS. And yes, we did the maze (albeit with some cheating).

So, all in all, it was a magnificent trip. We drove about 1,400 km - 870 miles. The oil-guzzling, WOF-free Shadowfax handled it like a champ, and we saw some incredible stuff. Best to go out on top, I say.

Kepler and the Glaciers (Part 1)

[Note: This is part 1 of 2. Just trying to keep it readable. Find part 2 here.]

This post is long-delayed for a myriad of reasons, among them my last final (it went as expected, which is to say it was easy and stupid), post-finals celebrations, and now packing to get ready to leave in a ridiculously short 36 hours. But I'll save my thoughts on that for another post...

Anyway, the road trip I took was, without a doubt, one of the most incredible things I did in my time here, and certainly ranks near the top of my list of favorite experiences ever (right up there with - among other things - getting on TV at a Red Sox game, speaking at my middle school graduation, Thanksgivings at Zin's, and spring break '07 at Lake Tahoe).

We started early on Friday morning, and with a healthy breakfast of a mince pie and V, we were off. Our first real stop was on the Clinton-Gore Presidential Highway - no joke. The sign is located, not surprisingly, on the road between the small towns of Clinton and Gore. No, NZ doesn't have presidents, and yes, these town have been around for a long time. Surprisingly, there's not much information online about this, but one plausible explanation says that it was named this in 1999 in when Clinton came to NZ for a meeting, and that a replica lives in the presidential library in Little Rock. Who knows?

We started the Kepler track in the early afternoon, and took down the first section (14 km, ~9 mi) in four hours, which is pretty good considering the 3,200 ft vertical on that part of the trail. Like I mentioned before, the extreme alpine conditions beyond Luxmore wouldn't let us go on, but it was still spectacular. Luxmore Hut was really nice, particularly the mattresses in the bunks, and even better, the sweet cave and views 10 minutes from the hut. Good times.

The next day, we hiked back out (after probably sleeping later than anyone ever has at that hut) and let me tell you, there is not great feeling than taking your boots off after a solid hike. From there, we drove a solid 513 km, which is only 320 miles, but on country roads that are often windy, it can take some time. It was a great drive (I got to get behind the wheel - see me in the zone above) and driving along Lake Wakatipu and then the Crown Range to Wanaka was something I won't soon forget.

We got to Franz Josef that night, and pretty much immediately crashed (having survived the trip on potato salad, cheesy poofs and potato chips). The next day, Sunday, I woke up a while before everyone else, so while I was entertaining myself on the hostel's porch swing, all of a sudden Nick, a student from Bowdoin in my geology class, walks outside! Turns out he was traveling around alone, so after my genius idea of making eggs and bacon (Kiwis eat all kinds of weird bacon, so for future reference, look for 'streaky' bacon in Commonwealth countries), we all drove out to Franz Josef glacier.

Epicness

Well, I've been itching to post something about the trip to Kepler Track, the glaciers and Wanaka, but I don't have all the photos yet (I need to get some from friends), so I'll just post a few samples of what we saw now, and follow with a full post (probably) tomorrow. Also, check out the full album of what I already have to the right (or here); I also put my pictures from the trip to Qtown with Andrew into the Queenstown album.

Walking to the terminal face of Franz Josef glacier. We're about a 20 minute walk from the wall of ice, to give an idea of size.

Throwing caution to the wind.

On the drive from the West Coast to Wanaka.

Our BBQ feast for Andrew's 21st bday. I pierced the sausages too early, clearly.


And finally, us enjoying the optical illusions at Puzzling World in Wanaka. If I were smarter, I would've recorded this with my camera parallel to the floor, and not truly level. Oh well.

The Game Plan

So about a month ago, Andrew, Carrie and I decided that during finals we should do a tramp on one of NZ's Great Walks. Since I've never explained them before, briefly, they're a set of tramping tracks on the North and South Islands, managed by the Department of Conservation. Each track has well-maintained tracks and huts spaced about a day's walk from each other, meaning it actually costs quite a bit, usually $40 per hut. They have a booking system, too, to keep pressure on the tracks to a minimum, so really popular tracks like the Milford and Routeburn fill up fast. This brings us to the tramp we planned on: the Kepler Track. It was actually built in the mountains near Te Anau to alleviate pressure on the Milford and Routeburn, and is really nice - particularly the second day of the tramp, which is almost exclusively walking along alpine ridges.

Unfortunately, it's that ridge line that's caused us problems. We were going to do the track this weekend, but because of some late-season snow, crampons and ice axes are required, which is something we can't really muster right now. So briefly, the outline of our fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants plan:

• Go to Kepler, and hike the first (passable) section, and stay at Luxmore Hut Friday night.
• On Saturday, hike out and make an epic, beautiful drive to Haast and the West Coast, and stay in a hostel.
• Sunday, we'll go to the glaciers at Franz Josef and/or Fox, which are the most accessible glaciers in the world. At the same time, we should get a great view of Mount Cook across Lake Matheson. Maybe camp out Sunday night, and head back to Dunners Monday.

Cool, eh? It's gonna be great. Cheers.

Qtown Redux

Sorry for the delay, but I couldn't post this without pictures. Queenstown was fantastic, as to be expected. A few notes:

• We stayed in an incredible condo with views overlooking Lake Wakatipu. Many thanks to Andrew's parents for putting me up, of course. Amenities abounded, including a fireplace, heated tile floors and towel racks in the bathroom, bathrobes, and most importantly at the time of our arrival in the afternoon: satellite television, which meant, of course, I could watch a little of the Red Sox owning the Rockies in Game 1. That made me happy, particularly since Andrew and his parents put up with my excited delirium at the Sox doing so well.
  
• My second trip up the Skyline Gondola on the hill/mtn. above Queenstown was really nice, once again. The weather was picture perfect.
• There's nothing better than waking up in the morning and sitting outside in the sun with a cup of tea and a good book, with the expansive Lake Wakatipu and Remarkables towering in front of you you.

Easily the highlight of the trip was going to dinner at a smaller restaurant on the (relative) outskirts of town, recommended by a local. It's called Vknow Restaurant (a well-deserved name) and if there were ever a restaurant I would recommend to someone visiting NZ, it's this one. It's owned and operated by a husband and wife - he serves and handles wine, she's the chef. Even though the husband handled a full restaurant of about 30 people by himself, the service was exceptional and attentive. Throughout the several courses of our meals, he would come by with a different wine that best goes with the particular course - I can easily say I've never enjoyed or appreciated wine as much as I did that night. The wine list was clever, too, organized into sensible categories by quality. For those may know NZ wine, we had Quartz Reef Pinot Gris, Ngatarawa Silks Chardonnay, Akarua Rose, some Bollinger NV with desert, and I believe there was one other wine...maybe a Cabernet Sauvignon? I'm not sure. Regardless, a great night with some delicious food and fine wine.

My Life Right Now

The Queenstown post is coming soon - I'm just waiting for pictures from Andrew. Needless to say, it was great. More importantly, in my remaining two or so weeks here, here's a look at my daily routine:

• Wake up around noon; shower and make eggs for breakfast.
• Head to Gardie's, a sports bar near campus, at 1; watch the Red Sox dominate while having Speight's and wedges.
• Walk down to Pat and Rob's flat on Castle St. (middle of the student flats); have a BBQ with a bunch of friends, enjoy frisbee and Speight's.
• Play poker, win my $5 buy-in back.

Now I'm sure maybe a few of you are wondering, 'Wait, that's too specific to be a routine!' Well, it's what I did today, and will do tomorrow, so that's enough to me. Also, you may claim, how is this experiencing study abroad culture at all? Well when you're a 'Scarfie' on a beautiful spring day during finals, this is what you do. And it can't be beat.

Off I Go

I'm off to Queenstown, again on a spur of the moment type deal. Queenstown, of course, being home to spectacular views such as this and this. This time around, I'm going with Andrew on the bus to meet his parents - we'll likely get the chance to dine on some wonderful food and see all the lovely sights in the area. Pictures when I get back, with any luck. And did I mention I don't have any anything school-related to do for 2 and a half weeks?

I could get used to this.

Not a news-maker, by any means, but I just felt this little trembler - it's the little blue scribbles in the middle. That makes two in a week - not bad! I'm really lucky too, because it was a tiny earthquake, barely registering on any other drums. I doubt it'll even get a mention on the website, but my guess for magnitude? I'd say it was a magnitude 2.5, 100 km away. Alright, sleep before an exam is a must.

Boston, you know we love you madly

For the video embed-disabled, go here.

[Updated Oct. 23, 1:55 AM]: You know, on second thought, this isn't really a great video - it's almost painfully awkward, just rocking out in the middle of the day at an empty Fenway. And all the while this woman from Teddy Roosevelt's days is sweeping your stage? Sounds like oppression in gender roles, no? Maybe that's just all the studying for my human geography final talking...yeah, it is. I need sleep.

Final Frontier

On Friday, I took my first final exam for the semester, for my Metamorphism class - although I suppose it could have been my second, since I took the lab practical exam for the same class just a week before that. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that it went pretty damn well - they have a great system here where they (meaning every class at the University) provides at least the previous final exam for the course, if not several. Knowing the format and style of an exam ahead of time makes studying so much better, especially when you get four of the previous exams, like my Metamorphism one.

Anyway, I came away from the exam and the week or so of studying previous to that realizing that, yeah, I've actually learned a lot from that class. I guess it's a little surprising, given how little I thought I had done here, but both and Andrew and I were pretty happy with the outcome.

For now, I'm going back to my typical study routine - watching the Sox clamber back into their series and listening to Car Talk podcasts - until my Human Geography final Tuesday. After that, I have two and a half weeks until I get to take my last final for Māori Society, which means lots of backpacking for me. More on that in days to come...

Earthquake Weather

If you don't care for geology-obsessed rantings, you may want to stop reading here. However, if you like the rantings of someone who is completely and utterly, head-over-heels for his major, then this might be quite the thing to witness.

I'll set the mood for you first. It's late - about 1:30 am, to be precise - and I'm just minding my own business, sitting on the couch, browsing Facebook (are you really surprised?) while KC and Page are watching Troy. Then, all of a sudden, it happened: an EARTHQUAKE. Well, I couldn't be entirely sure at first, because I'll admit, it was hard to tell if I really felt it or maybe I was just woozy from being tired. It was (and still is) late, after all. It felt like the couch was gently oscillating below me - a little bit of a rolling motion, while moving side to side, for about 6 seconds. What's that, you say? Sounds just like Rayleigh and Love waves? That's why I thought too! Goodness, we sure know our seismology, don't we?

Naturally, I asked KC and Page if they'd felt the shaking too, even mentioning that it could have been an earthquake, but I think they were too engrossed in the death of Achilles to have noticed. Their loss! At this point, though, I was getting excited about the possibility of having finally felt my first earthquake. For a long time, I've always wanted to feel one, even before I went to college, just because it would be cool (ironic for someone interested in hazard management). Honestly, the only reason why I chose to go to school in Southern California and the South Island(PDF) of New Zealand is because both of these places are really prone to earthquakes. I mean, really, what else is there to care about?

Being the investigative person I am, I immediately went to the USGS Earthquake site - nothing there. Frustrated that I might have been thwarted once again (by a large passing truck, perhaps?) I tracked down the NZ version of the USGS, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS). Quickly navigating through the EQ site, I found a fantastic page with the seismic readouts of a set of 15 seismometers throughout NZ - just a representative sample. There weren't any readings on them, but it was also at least 6 or 7 minutes old, before I felt anything. My thoughts were confirmed, though, when I saw the individual readout of the WNZ (Wanaka) drum - one I knew would be close to any EQ action, which went up to 1:30 am, showing a solitary, large, red line. That was it! Within a few minutes, all of the stations' drums were showing this (huge) blip. Money in the bank.

Still, I didn't know where this happened, or even what the magnitude was. It was about this time that the USGS world EQ map updated - this time with a satisfyingly large, red box over Fiordland (map). Clicking with anticipation, I clicked and was blown away to see a big, bold '7.0' on the EQ page. And there it was. Of course, I knew that this would probably change, since most magnitudes are revised with time, after a lot of different seismometers have been analyzed, so in the mean time I went to the GNS and USGS sites, filling out 'felt reports' like a good little geology student - after all, these are important in calculating things like the Modified Mercalli index of the quake. It came out to pretty much a III. Shockingly, within 45 minutes of the quake, there had been well over 200 felt reports from all over NZ - that's by 2:15 am. Well done, Kiwis. Dunedin, for those who don't know, is the concentration of dots in the center-right of the above map.

To get a little more into the geological nitty-gritty of this quake, at this point, the magnitude has been placed at 6.8 - a pretty decent showing. It was centered just off the coast of Fiordland (maps here), clearly along the boundary between the Pacific and Australian Plates. This fault, the Alpine Fault, runs from here and forms the nearly linear western boundary of the Southern Alps - see some fantastic evidence of this here, here and here. It's a right lateral fault, but with a lot of oblique motion - the Pacific plate is essentially being thrust over the Australian plate (45 degree dip in places), hence the Alps. It's also the reason why we see these two moment tensor solutions - both indicating convergence along a SW-NE plane. Hmmm...funny how these things have a way of working themselves out. It's a good feeling, really.

Alright, that's enough from me. The USGS page on this quake can be found here, and the GNS one here. Check out some of the accompanying maps and other goodies - they're good times. Also, more on the Alpine Fault from our friends at the Otago Geology Dept. Alright, now I really need to sleep...being able to study for my final on Friday - for my metamorphism class, no less - would probably be a nice thing.

NZ Tunes

First off, I should probably say that overall, Kiwi music isn't all that extraordinarily different from what you might see in the States - in fact, American music is really popular here (sadly, they like a lot of the same crap we do, too). Some New Zealand music has had success in the US, too - you may recognize 'So Bizarre' by OMC, which was a hit in the mid-90s, and 'Walkie Talkie Man' by Steriogram was used in an iPod commercial, obviously the epitome of success. You may have even heard of the Rocky Horror Show - that was written by a transplanted Brit. Close enough. And most recently, if you watch HBO, you'll know about Flight of the Conchords, 'the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand." They're the best.

Anyway, one of my favorite things about being at a big university (for those not in the know, Otago has around 20,000 students) is that there's a pretty good music scene around here, and more importantly, it's a real draw for a lot of Kiwi bands - and that's great news for me. Back in September, I had a three week run of going to some pretty cool shows:

The first one was for Shapeshifter, a drum and bass act from Christchurch. I'm not the biggest drum and bass fan, but for what they are, I think they put on a pretty good show. The concerts here are put on by ReFuel, the on-campus bar, but are actually held in a gym-like concert hall, which works as a pretty good venue. This was by far the biggest show I've been to here - the entire place was packed and really bumping, and the entire place basically smelled of sweat, weed and beer (not to mention the beer cups and puddles on the floor). An entirely classy concert. Overall, I just find their music hard to listen too (music videos here, here and here), especially because it feels like you're at a rave and need to be on ecstasy to enjoy it. Not my thing, man. Crazy concert though.

Next up, a week later, was The Black Seeds. They were just awesome, and I loved the whole show, even the opening acts. One of them, Dubwize, was a Kiwi reggae group whose lead singer had the longest dreads I have ever seen - they literally went down to his feet (far left in this pic). Insane. The Black Seeds, however, were the main attraction, and with good reason. They're a reggae/dub band from Wellington with some great music - check out two really good songs/videos here and here - and see if you can find Bret from Flight of the Conchords in there, too - he's a former member. This wasn't as huge a show, since it fell on a Thursday, but it was just very well done.

Finally, we saw Katchafire, another pretty popular reggae/dub act from the North Island, south of Auckland. This was by far my favorite show, for a couple reasons. First off, they started out as a Bob Marley cover band, so they played several great covers, the best one, I though, being Iron Lion Zion. Secondly, they played was must have been at least a two hour set, if not longer - major props to any act that can play that well, for that long, in that hot a venue. Anyway, you can check out a couple videos here and here. Good stuff.

If anyone's still reading at this point in the post, I'm impressed. But if you are, I just have to end this with some FOTC stuff - they're a Kiwi version of Tenacious D (with more musical variety), and their show is like Curb Your Enthusiasm meets Napoleon Dynamite. I can't really get over them. This one here's 'Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros.'

Dunedin Shenanigans

So I thought I would keep up with more of the Dunedin cultural stuff with a couple other interesting things going on in these parts.

First of all, the bi-annual Cookathon was on Friday. It's held at the Cook (it's that student bar I mentioned way back in July), which is conveniently close to campus. It's a great place to go hang out, especially when it isn't crowded (i.e. not Thursday-Saturday nights), and me and my New England friends even went there at 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon to watch the Pats on MNF, which was pretty awesome, obviously. Lemme tell you, Kiwis sure do look at you funny when you're cheering for American football.

Anyway, steering back to the Cookathon, it's an all-day party, basically, where you pay $20 at 10 a.m. and you get a pint, 3 meals and a t-shirt. That's quite a deal, and the scarfies (Uni students) gobble it up, and go all out with costumes themes. It's really hard to get in at all on those days - the picture of the people outside is from 1:30 pm! Note the cop. I would've loved to go to this - Andrew and I had even been planning on it - but it's pretty hard to convince yourself to wake up at 10 am just to pack into a bar to drink and eat questionable food all day when the payoff is just a (reasonably cool) t-shirt.

SPEAKING of t-shirts, here is one the funniest comeback fads that I've seen in a while. I know that I'm not one to judge - not when I wear my 'I'd hit that'/'Erotica Tectonica' t-shirt - but holy crap, you'd think that Wham! reunited and re-released 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' as a hit iTunes single/ringtone/dance remix/mashup/charity work.

Considering the typical wearer of said costume - high school age girls (17 and under here) - you have to wonder if they even know who Wham! was, let alone their songs. Hell, I wasn't even alive when they existed - the duo broke up in June of 1986, 6 months before I was born - but at least I was a teenager (16) when I Love the '80s came out (they were 12). Clearly I am justified in my argument. Sane, too. Anyway, these shirts are pretty popular here in Dunedin (I'd take the photos on George St. to prove it, but that would be pretty creepy), so now I'm just waiting for the day when cutoff denim vests are in fashion, because then I'll be in business.

Best. Billboard. Ever.

I've never been the biggest billboard fan. After all, I grew up in one of four states that prohibits them - Alaska, Hawaii and Maine are the others - and I was pretty glad that the gaudiest sign I had to look at growing up was this one, but mostly just because it meant I'd crossed the river into West Lebanon, a bastion of congestion and commercialization.

Anyway, I've had to change my ways since going to school in L.A., obviously, and I can appreciate good advertising, which leads me to this incredible billboard. It's just two blocks south of my flat, on the side of the main northbound road through Dunedin, outside 'The Bowler,' a bar, and Video Ezy, a movie rental place.

I love this sign for a number of reasons, but it's mostly because it just has so much going on, on either side. The older ad on this sign is for Tui, a brewery from the North Island that makes what's probably the second-most popular student bar beer here, next to Speight's (a Dunedin brew, see more here). As a beer, it's alright, although I've got to admit I've never seen anything other than their East India Pale Ale. It doesn't matter though, because they've got the best advertising campaign I've seen - the left side of the ad has some 'rational' phrase or declaration, simply white text on black, and to the right, 'Yeah, right.' It's hilarious, simple and effective, especially since they cater to the area they're in - hence the flatmates statement. To add to the greatness, don't miss the graffiti below it too.

The newest addition to this board is on the other side. Actually, it's more of an alteration, but an extremely timely one that gives it a whole new dimension. For some more back story on this, go here, but just as soon as the riots happened, the Bowler plastered this gem up. Not really much more to say about it, but for those here who know about the riots (that would be everybody) it's fantastic. Doesn't make me want to go to the Bowler any more than before though - it's probably the #1 or 2 destination for Dunedin high schoolers on weekends. Blegh.

Our Spastic Weather

I'm not totally sure if I've ever really conveyed how ridiculous the weather can be here, but man, it can be really crazy - especially in the spring, like it is now. Take last Wednesday as a pretty good example.

The morning starts off chilly and gray, and soon enough, it's raining as I head off for my 8 a.m. class. Lovely, really. The weather clears up while I'm in class, and by the time I'm out of geography just before 10 a.m., it's only cloudy. No less than 45 minutes later, we hear the sound of banging on the roof, but much louder than rain, and it turns out it's hailing out - a lot. Incredibly, I leave for my 12 noon class, and it's sunny and beautiful out, almost as sunny as you'll see in Dunedin. Of course, I got too excited about this, and once I got back to my flat in between class and lab at 2 p.m., we got even more hail. Top it off later that evening with rain, and you'll have a complete day of weather in Dunedin. Nice.

Also, I've gotten some feedback about my post, 'Geology Escapades,' about my field trip down to Nugget Point, and apparently the geo may have been a little much. No worries, though! This isn't a geology blog - I just wanted to give a little taste of what I was learning, particularly for those who have a geo background. I have given a lot of thought to maybe writing a geology blog next semester, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Anyway, back to hoping for the wretched high winds that've moved in to blow away to sea.

(Not a) Quiet Riot

This may be about 6 weeks late, but it's definitely worth it. I guess a little back story is in order, though. And you can check out news stories here and here.

So every year for the last five years (at least) the University of Canterbury Engineering Society has been organizing this event called the Undie 500 (Wiki link). That university is in Christchurch, about a 5 hour drive north of Dunedin. So what is it? A race, of sorts (hence the similarity to Indy 500), although it would probably be better characterized as a rally. Here are the rules:

1. Your car must be purchased for under $500 - think about that; in US terms, that's around $380...
2. It must be registered and have a warrant of fitness - like a US inspection, but you get them every six months
3. You have to have a sober driver - sensible, no?

After they've met these rules, they decorate their cars in any number of manners - and there were definitely some creative ones. Then they make (or attempt to, considering how cheap their cars are) the drive from Christchurch, with a long pub crawl along the way. You might wonder, how many people are going to spend $500 on a car, hundreds on repairs and fuel, and even more on lots of alcohol - and that's just on the way to Dunedin? Well, the number of cars has been limited to 150, so several hundred, at the very least.

Okay, let's get more specific here. This year, the Undie 500 was the last weekend of August, the same weekend we were leaving for mid semester break, so I wasn't around to witness this firsthand, but there were plenty of news cameras. Here's why.

First of all, last year after the Undie 500 was completed, a lot of the participants, and their comrades-in-arms here in Dunedin, started burning various cars (presumably the Undie 500 entries) and couches, with some general rioting, too. Arrests were made and North Dunedin (where the student flats are) was a mess, so this year an alcohol ban was placed on the area, so no one could walk around with open containers. Didn't make any difference though.

I don't really know the sequence of events here, but it doesn't particularly matter. Despite limiting the number of cars to 150, imposing a liquor ban and city's riot police being out in full force, some crazy stuff went down. Emergency crews had to respond to more than 70(!) fires, many to piles of trash, but a sizable portion of couch and vehicle fires too. Bottles and other trash was thrown around, particularly at the police, so what happens? 69 people were arrested - 54 of them students.

And I'll be honest, I kind of wish I'd been there to see it. At the time, I was having a blast caving in Greymouth and seeing the pancake rocks in Punakaiki, and I wouldn't have missed that for anything. But what a thing to see - hundreds, maybe thousands, of students acting recklessly and irresponsibly - actually rioting; this is something I'll never see in Claremont. I'm not saying I like that or would have taken part, but it would have been pretty sweet to sit on the roof of my flat and watch the chaos go on below me.

Geology Escapades

Last week, I took my only geology field trip of the semester. That's pretty sad for me, because I haven't taken less than three geology field trips in a semester since I've been in college. In fact, by my count, I've been on 14 field trips in just four semesters at Pomona, including 7 overnight trips. That's pretty damn good, especially for such a small department, but that makes just one day trip in a semester a little disappointing.

Of course, I did really enjoy this particular trip, for my 'Metamorphics' class. It's about metamorphic petrology, which is basically looking at rocks which have been deformed over time, and how they became deformed. What's nice is by now, I've taken basically the equivalent of a full semester of metamorphic petrology, including about a half semester back at Pomona, and just over a half semester here at Otago.

For the trip, we drove south from Dunedin as far as Nugget Point, which is at the northern end of the Catlins, a beautiful stretch of coast on the south end of the South Island. You can see why this would be a geologist's paradise: So yeah, that would be layers of rock, but turned so they are completely vertical. Crazy, huh? In fact, they're quite popular among different types of geologists, even. For the paleontologist, there are Jurassic-age bivalve (think clams or scallops) fossils. For the structural geologist, analyzing how this block was rotated is the thing to do. For the metamorphic petrologist, however, this represents the beginning of a type locality for burial metamorphism - a type of metamorphism that often involves only the low pressure and temperatures associated with thick piles of sediments or other rocks. This is something you may see in huge river deltas (think Ganges or Amazon), for instance.

For the slightly more geology-inclined, what we saw at Nugget Point specifically was the very start of metamorphism. Light enough to preserve fossils, but just enough to begin the process of zeolitization - the transition from diagenesis (cementing of sedimentary rocks) to the zeolite facies. The rocks - in this case composed of volcanigenic sediments - appear essentially unchanged; we even found some of those fossils in it. As the day moved on, we moved 'up sequence,' with metamorphic grade increasing more and more, until at our last stop we reached greenschist facies (intermediate grade) rock. I've highlighted the rough temperature-pressure conditions that we saw on the trip on the facies diagram above. What made this interesting, besides the pretty consistent increase in grade, was that all of these rocks all had the same mineralogical parent - that is to say, if you melted all of these rocks and analyzed each melt's composition, it would be the same for all the rocks. Pretty cool.

Milford Sound

That would be Mitre Peak, probably the most photographed mountain in New Zealand, towering over Milford Sound. Holy crap, you can see why. See my heaps of photos here.

So the Butler program took me and pretty much everyone else out there last weekend for our 'adventure weekend,'--probably the best use of the money we pay the program. We rolled out for Te Anau on Friday, staying in a hostel in town. We started Saturday morning by going across Lake Te Anau to the Te Ana-au Caves, which are a far more accessible kind of glowworm caves, compared to the sweet-as (only one 's', yes) ones we saw in Greymouth. It was cool seeing different caves (these were limestone vs. sandstone) and there were tons of glowworms, but walking around on platforms just doesn't have the same coolness factor. Oh well.

After that, we started heading up the two-hour drive to Milford Sound. It was an epic drive, with mountains shooting straight up on either side of the road - I was straining my neck to look up and out the bus windows as best I could. Finally we got to the sound itself, just a dead end road with a bus terminal/boat dock with a half dozen cruise ships moored outside. The picture at the top is what we saw just before we got on the ship.

We weren't on the ship for more than two minutes before we saw our first waterfall, and it was the first of dozens...I couldn't even keep track, because the number of falls fluctuates depending on how much rain they've gotten recently (and there's always a good chance of that, with about 23 feet of rain a year). That waterfall is in the picture here with the red New Zealand flag, used on nautical vessels for whatever reason.

There was SO much to look at on this cruise. The fiord (if that looks funny, it's because most other places spell it as 'fjord') is almost 10 miles long, and has sheer rock faces coming out of the water on either side, 4000 feet up. On the creepy side, those walls go pretty much straight down too, about 1600 feet below the surface.

Of course, all of this spectacular scenery is thanks to the glory of geology in action. In the last couple ice ages, this region was heavily glaciated, and carved into a U-shaped valley, the way it is today. Obviously, there's a lot of evidence for it left. Among the cooler things were the gouge marks in the walls of the fjord. In this picture, they're the lineations going down and to the right, meaning the glacier flowed from left to right, towards the ocean.

Also quite awesome were the many hanging valleys around. These form when you have a smaller glacier flowing from higher up into a larger glacier. The small U-shaped valley, after the glaciers recede, end up sitting above the large valley, often with waterfalls flowing out of them. I just love the perspective of looking up and into one of these valleys, like the picture below, which gives you an idea of the sheer scale of these things.

Okay, okay, enough geology for now. After our sweet cruise, we went back into the dock and were boated out to another cruise ship, anchored in a nearby cove. The ship we got onto was the one we were originally supposed to cruise around on too, but apparently they may have hit some rocks when they got to close to this waterfall - something they usually do all the time. Anyway, this was the ship we were sleeping on for the night. Our group had cabins with two beds in each room - a sweet deal - but by far the best part was the buffet dinner we had that night. I'd forgotten what a huge, delicious, multi-course meal was like.

In the morning, we got a real taste of the sound, when me and 5 others got up at 6:30 and jumped in the water. It seemed like a terrible idea at the time - the anticipation was awful - and once I hit the water, I couldn't decide whether if felt like my skin was burning or freezing. After a frantic doggy paddle over to the back of the boat, I thought it would be a perfect complement to my impending frostbite to jump in the water again. While it may sound like suicide, from the point I got in a hot shower afterward, I was really glad I'd done it. After some kayaking around the sound, we headed for home.

Now, we would have gone for a little hike on our way home, but of course, it was raining. I have the pictures to prove it. Instead, we made for Dunedin a little earlier, but I think getting back to the city at this particular time, just to happen to see this, was worth it, don't you? I'll leave it at that.

The Last Leg!!

YES...my last post about MSB. It's about time. Now let's get on with it!

After we left Golden Bay, we went east past Nelson to a little town called Havelock. We basically used Havelock as a stopover point between Golden Bay and Kaikoura, but it has the added bonus of being right on the Marlborough Sounds, on the northeastern part of the South Island.

Like pretty much every other place we'd been on this trip, the Sounds were fantastic, and we had a great, windy drive along them on the way to Kaikoura, our next major stop. The shot above is from the Queen Charlotte Drive, a really picturesque road between Havelock and Picton.

We got to Kaikoura in the early afternoon, and man, what a town. I immediately regretted the fact that we were only staying there for the night, just from the view we had from the deck of our hostel, as you can see.

This hostel (Dolphin Lodge, for those keeping track/keen on going to NZ), was fucking fantastic. Honestly. It was a pretty nice big house, on a hill above the main part of town. Obviously, great views. There was a hot tub AND a grill on the deck (along with a picnic table), a hammock, and two housecats to keep us company. Not only all this, but we were practically the only people in this entire house (save for one other random student), and we loved it so much we recommended it to our friends who were passing through, so it was a regular party.

There was definitely enough to do in and around Kaikoura for two or three days, but with one day, we weren't sure what we could do, so we call kinda split up and did our own things for a little bit. Andrew, Kelsey and I decided to go out to the tip of the peninsula and go for a walk/hike, especially because we heard about a seal colony there, and most importantly, wicked cool rocks. Anyway, once we got out there, the weather got bad really quickly. In fact, it was the worst weather we'd had all break: dark, ominous clouds, rain out in the distance, and some of the hardest gusting winds we'd ever felt. Of course, this actually turned out to be one of the coolest things we did on the trip. Andrew, Kelsey and I basically all did our best to stand against the wind--they both put their jackets over their heads to act as windcatchers--and you can see the kind of stuff they could do. It was a blast taking pictures of this. The next day, Andrew and I and the friends we met (Carrie and Steph) went biking to a breakfast place, while the rest of the bunch went on a 'swim-with-the-dolphins' cruise. Turned out they didn't swim with them though - there weren't enough of them. Bummer!

Alright, I'm going to roll our last to places into one, for brevity's sake. After the night and breakfast in Kaikoura, Andrew and KC left in Carrie's car to actually go back to Golden Bay so they could do fun stuff in Abel Tasman National Park with the Arcadia study abroad program. The rest of us drove on to Hanmer Springs, a couple hours away. It's a little town near the mountains (not IN them, as their tourist ads may lead some--me--to believe) with natural hot springs that have been piped into a resort run by the town, full of pools of various temperatures. Other highlights: the coolest mini-golf/temple maze (though they are separate courses) place ever, and the 'on 47 Bar & Grill'!!! I need to send this to Pomona, clearly.

The last night of our trip, we drove down to Christchurch (completing the contrived, tourism-conceived Alpine Pacific Triangle). We stayed at a hostel really close to Cathedral Square, the center of the city. We basically spent our time walking around the various markets (leading me to a great purchase - $10 mirrored Aviators) and the Canterbury Museum--home of sweet old-fashioned bikes, among other things.

Alright, that wraps it up! It only took me about 3 weeks to do, so not bad, right? Hopefully soon enough I'll put up pictures and talk about my trip to Milford Sound. Let me just say, it was something. Cheers!