Morgan's Visit!!!

The foll0wing is a celebrity blog post from Morgan Scudder-Davis. My comments are in italics.

I arrived in New Zealand on Thursday and after a slight glitch in the shuttles (he didn't even SHOW UP. Girl, I WILL CUT HIM.), I got a ride from a student who happened to be working at the airport convenience store, I arrived at Massey and met Allison. The next day we took a ride on one of the Intercity buses to National park, home of Mount Doom (Mt. Ruapehu), and stayed at a wonderful little hostel that had a large indoor climbing wall. Allison planned to take me to see glow worms in a cave but due to inclement weather (i.e. a flooded cave), we spent the afternoon climbing at the hostel (we totally beasted it). The next day we went rafting with our very friendly kiwi guide and some of her friends. It was overcast and sprinkled for about half an hour affording perfect weather for the trip. About halfway through the trip we took a brief repose on the banks of the river and had the opportunity to jump off a huge boulder into the water! Allison chickened out. That rock was huge. We looked pretty awesome in our stylish wet suits.

On Monday Allison arranged a three hour horse ride that took us up onto the side of a mountain through pastures and magnificent views of the surrounding countryside. Allison fell quickly and irrevocably in love with her horse. The sky in New Zealand is a very vivid blue. Interestingly, I had the chance to speak Japanese with Toru, who came on the ride with us but spoke very little English (awkward. Especially trying to find a word for "wind turbine"). After our ride we drove up to the nearby wind farm and got a close up look at the very impressive windmills.

Massey’s campus is very green despite its large size and is laid out in a pleasant circular shape that made learning my way around campus fairly easy. You can take a bus from campus to the town of Palmerston North for only two dollars. The town is compact; most of the shopping is clustered around the central square which sports a clock as well as a pond with some exceedingly cute ducklings. I had a most fantastic time during my visit and would suggest a visit to anyone who loves the outdoors!

Pictures from the week's trip
More Pictures from the trip (I hope that link works)

We now resume to narration by Allison.

On Saturday, we also took the bus down to Wellington from National Park, through some of the most beautiful montain-and-pasture landscapes I have ever seen. The driver stopped over in Okahune for dinner, which happens to be the carrot capitol of the world. Weird.

Once we got to Wellington we checked into our amazing 6-story hostel and commenced the exploration of the city with friends from Massey, who had been on an IFSA-Butler program day trip. WE SAW JERMAINE FROM FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS. Oh. my god. Anyway.

The city is gorgeous. The bay has the most brilliant blue water (depicted in the photographs above), which offsets ships' sails beautifully. We basically did a marathon one-day tour of the city, including:
- A hike up Mount Victoria
- Taking the city bus to Island Bay (where the other water pictures were taken) and walking to the Red Rocks Coastal Reserve
- Visiting the zoo to see a kiwi (!!), kangaroos, and dingos
- The amazing Te Papa National Museum
- A locally-grown wine shop (the Pinot Noir is Marlborough's specialty, and was wonderful)

Since Morgan has left :(, I have been doing field research for my Ecology exam and studying for the bird-recognition test, which involves memorizing 30 native bird calls and the physical attributes 0f 50 species. This is my favorite call. Weirdoes.

I've also discovered that the black swans on campus will eat out of your hand :)

Wanganui

This weekend five of us escaped to Wanganui, a quiet riverside town near where the Wanganui river meets the Tasman sea. We were originally bound for Napier, but the music festival there that weekend had filled up all of the available accommodation. Wanganui had a fantastic museum, with a full size Maori waka (war canoe) that took up the entire room and was covered in carvings. Really cool. The museum had tons of natural history diorama-type displays, including fossilized skeletons of the giant moa, an ostrich-like bird that stood 8 ft tall! Upstairs, there was a challenging display of tintype photography featuring the Wanganui Maori -- the debate still continues as to whom these photos belong. The subjects, who believe that depictions of the self are actually the self? The artist, since passed away? His descendants? The museum?

Later that day we climed up Durie Memorial tower, a stone tower built to commemorate those Wanganui soldiers killed in WWI. There were 180 stairs -- we counted :) The view from the top was glorious! Wanganui has a strong tradition in glass-blowing, so we visited an awesome workshop/gallery to watch the artists. They were tremendously skilled, moving deftly around the white-hot glass to create the most incredible shapes. It was a wet and windy day, so we decided to close it out with a homemade dinner at the hostel and live music at a nearby bar.

On our last morning, we woke up at 5:30 a.m. to walk to the beach and watch the sunrise. The black sand beach and the rough waters characteristic of the west coast made for a somewhat surreal and absolutely beautiful morning.

Pictures from Wanganui

A word on New Zealand food -- in general, it's amazing. Though factory farming is developing in the more populated regions of the country, meat is generally humanely raised, and all beef -- all of it! -- is free-range and grass-fed. The chickens are also genuinely free-range, which means pasture-raised, not the American "free-range" (i.e. given a cage 50% larger). This morning when I was making my eggs and toast I actually found a feather on one of my eggs! This serves as a reminder of how fresh and real the eggs are. The yolks are gorgeously orange as well. I think this makes up for the spaghetti on toast concoction typically served for breakfast here :) I usually opt for organic yoghurt and muesli. Mmmm.

The Amusing New Zealand Accent Series: Part II

New Zealanders use a bizarre construction when they want to emphasize something: "____ as." It's like there was originally some universal simile that became so well known that the last word was dropped altogether. The most common permutation is "sweet as!" used to express excitement or enthusiasm about something, but any adjective will do, e.g. "Driving on the left side of the road is hard as." A fine example of this construction is featured in the wildly popular and wildly weird video Beached Whale (caution: contains NSFW language)

First Day Of Classes

Ecology & Conservation and New Zealand Environmental Issues today. I think I will really enjoy the environmental issues class. The instructor hinted that we might take a field trip up to the Te Apiti windfarm -- one of the largest in the southern hemisphere. Awesome! The exams here are worth a ton more than they are the in the U.S. -- in one of my classes, the final is worth 60% of the grade. Despite this, I may still split and take a skiing trip in June in the five days between two of my exams. Definitely an option.

After class I went with Brian Tanis (never Brian, always Brian Tanis) to the beautiful Victoria Esplanade gardens. We walked the track along the river and discussed the inevitable canoe/kayaking trip down it, then wandered through the forst trails (covered in graceful ferns) to the rose garden, which was in 2003 rated among the top five rose gardens in the world for its beauty and diversity. The park also has an aviary replete with parrots of all descriptions, including budgies! They also had a strikingly beautiful albino peacock.

Pictures from the Garden

Part One of the Amusing New Zealand Accent Series:

Here in Aotearoa, the letter Z is pronounced "zed" and the letter W is said "dub." Therefore, Google's URL is "dub-dub-dub dot google dot en zed." Also, swimsuits are referred to as "togs;" sandals, "jandals."

More Orientation and Beach Trip!!

This week has been filled with two orientation programs: the international students' and the first year students'. The highlight of the international student orientation was a trip to see three of the Massey farms (Massey was originally an agricultural campus and still has a strong agricultural/agribusiness focus today). Manawatu is a region based heavily on sheep and dairy farming, but also deer farming. The deer are raised for their venison as well as the velvet on their enormous antlers. We got to see the two dogs work and were introduced to two of the more friendly deer. We finished up the day with a trip to Rosie O'Grady's Irish pub, which was an authentic little place near the city square.

Pictures from Massey Orientation and the pub

Since the majority of the orientation is aimed at first-year college students, the other IFSA-Butler students and our new Swedish friend Lisa took the bus to Paraparaumu Beach, opposite the mysterious-looking Kapiti island. The beach has beautiful dark sand and is scattered with driftwood and shells. The sun shone all day long, tempered by the wind coming in over the water.

Orientation and Moving to Massey

This is my second day at Massey, having been in the IFSA-Butler orientation in Auckland since Sunday. Orientation was an absolute blast. On the first night, we took a hike up the lush green hill from the YMCA Lodge past the cows and pigs, then down to the beach. The air is so clean here.

On Tuesday, we tried rogaining. Rogain, which stands for Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation, consists of finding certain clay tablets that are scattered all over the 100+ acre property in 40 minutes. Each tablet has a unique symbol on it, so you record each symbol and get back to the base within the allotted time. In-tense. The game was followed by various informational briefings, then an amazing kayaking trip. We paddled past a very old shipwreck in the harbor and to the opposite shore, which had a nice beach. The kayak instructors then taught us how to play rugby (with varying success) and we played a few tries of touch rugby. Good muddy fun.

The last day was incredible. We traveled to a Maori marae, or traditional meeting place. The marae includes a meeting house, dining/social hall, church, and impromptu rugby field. The Maori greeted us with the traditional sung ceremony, to which we were to sing back in the Maori language. After the ceremony of greeting and giving thanks, we watched the men dig food from the hangi, an underground pit which is filled with burning wood and food and then covered with dirt for several hours. The food was wonderful and smoky. Afterward, a dance troupe specializing in traditional songs, the haka (war dance), and poi (dances with a grass ball). the energy from the group was unbelievable. To conclude the evening, the village elders told the history of the Maori people in the meeting house.

Pictures from Orientation

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After a short flight to Palmerston North, we arrived here at Massey University. The campus is enormous and very green, with several parks and a small lake. My room has a lovely view of the hills and, yes, a sheep pasture. Classes do not start until the 23rd, so I have a bit of time after the international student orientation to explore the area and maybe even take a day trip down to Wellington. Who knows :)

Los Angeles

I've spent the last three days in L.A. with Martha. The city is immense and sprawling, especially from my vantage point downtown. Martha goes to The Colburn School Conservatory of Music, which is all in one giant building. On Thursday, we went down to the Santa Monica pier (where parts of Iron Man were filmed) and had lunch at a fantastic crepe cafe. Yesterday we went horseback riding in Griffith Park, and today we drove the length of Mulholland Drive (the namesake of David Lynch's film), which provided amazing views of the city. I'm leaving for the airport in a few hours, and will arrive in New Zealand on Monday morning.

Pictures from Los Angeles

Preparing to Depart

I will be departing tomorrow to L.A., then on Saturday to Auckland!

I'm hoping this blog can serve as an efficient chronicle of my semester in New Zealand. I plan to periodically post photos and other paraphernalia as well as record what's going on :)

I am thrilled to be on my way. I'll be in touch.