Silver Peak Geeks

Wednesday was Anzac Day in New Zealand.  It's a holiday to remember/honor those who served/are serving the country.

Since the University was observing the holiday we didn't have classes or offices to report to.  So, a fellow Abbey resident organized a trip to Silverpeaks.

The area doesn't look like it's filled with intimidating tracks to hike.  But, unfortunately, the weather conditions are unpredictable and have lead to a number of rescues.

I wasn't expecting the stupid prickly gorse that was everywhere.  The paths were very narrow and it was hard to avoid having my exposed legs shredded.  If you plan on tramping in New Zealand, you would be very smart to pack gaitors with you!

Three of us completed the 5.9 mile walk in about 3 hours.  Luckily, the weather stayed nice.

No big hiking plans coming up in the near future because the weather is starting to cool down.  Guess that means I'll make LOTS of progress on the literature review for my thesis??

Missing in Action - First Tri Attempt in NZ

Just over a week ago, someone posted on a Facebook group that he was going down to Invercargill for a triathlon and was looking for folks to share the ride with him.  I volunteered to be the swimmer if he wanted to do a relay.  He agreed.

We left Dunedin just after 7am on Sunday and made it to the pool just before the 9:45am race briefing.  Unfortunately, this did not give us enough time to go to the bike/run transition area to drop off Chris' running shoes.

As we drove into the pool parking lot, Chris turned to me and said, "You have a drivers license, right?"

Turns out I had to drive Chris' shoes to the next transition area while he was on the bike.  I was confident-ish in my driving skills, but not confident that I could find the hotel parking lot where T2 was located.

Long story short, I drove past the right hand turn that would have lead me to the spot to drop off the running shoes.  Instead, I drove several kilometers in the wrong direction, turned around only to end up in a school parking lot, and made a wrong turn out of the school parking lot only to end up in some residential neighborhood.

By a stroke of luck, I eventually found the transition area where Chris was patiently waiting for his shoes.

Interestingly, despite waiting for me for over 10 minutes, our relay team still placed 2nd.

Bike/run transition area:

It was a small race, but fun!  I enjoyed that it was super laid back.  Definitely something that my good friends from the Broome County Triathlon Club should consider organizing at home.  *hint, hint*

Chris was kind enough to take us on a detour to Bluff before heading back.  It was just a short drive south and is known as the southern most point on a state highway in New Zealand.

Over all, it was a nice day out of town.  Let's hope I won't have to drive crucial pieces of race equipment to teammates next time!

Protecting Penguins

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day here in New Zealand!  I was thrilled to spend a day out on the peninsula at Natures Wonders to help put up predator-proof fencing.

These aren't your typical lions, tigers, and bears kind of predators, though.  They are loathed little critters like opossums, hedgehogs, rabbits and mice.  These introduced pests have been quite naughty, especially when it comes to albatross and penguin eggs.  The idea is to protect the land with the fence and eradicate the little buggers with poison.

The actual task at hand was pretty self-explanatory.  A group of students helped to staple down a "skirt" of fence with small holes onto a fence with bigger holes.  My job was lugging around rocks to weigh down the bottom edge of the fence so that grass could grow through and secure it in place.

Albatross Colony...

Transportation on the farm...

Perry Reider (owner) explaining how the fencing works...

Our task: go up the hill and down the other side with the new fencing...

A good portion done before lunch...

Ocean!!!

View of the Otago Harbour from where we were putting up fencing...

Perry's family owns all this land...

It's a fully operational sheep farm...

The sheep have a great view, huh?

We took a small break for lunch, and then it was back to work...

Not a bad view in the background...

So, Perry is very proud and passionate about his work and wool.  He wanted to share what it's like to do a tour of Nature's Wonders by demonstrating how to shear the wool off one of these sheep...

Perry showing us how they use the dog to herd sheep...

Blogger won't let me upload the video of the sheep getting sheared. Boooo!

I felt very fortunate that we had the opportunity to spend time at such a neat place for the day!  If anyone is looking for a neat activity for an afternoon, I'd definitely recommend a trip to visit Perry.