Cruisin'. Not Quite the Riviera, But, Um, Close?

This weekend, I joined fellow Abbey College residents for an Otago Harbour wildlife cruise.  The day started off decent (it wasn't raining, just gray), but started to turn while we were on the boat.

We still saw some neat things.  Some birds came out of the water from nowhere.  At first, someone thought they were penguins, but they were actually shag.  

There were sea lions, too.

Once we reached the lighthouse, the water started getting VERY rough!

So, we turned around and headed back.

Next time, we're hoping to see an orca or some Hector's dolphins. 

The Great Cheese Debate

Oh my!  Busy times here in Dunedin!

Last week I enrolled in an endurance cycling study.  The research will look at the effect of salt supplementation on cycling performance.  To be eligible I needed one endurance cycling event under my belt in the past six months.  

So far, I had my VO2max tested and body fat measured by a skinfold test using calipers.  This was not sexy in any way, shape, or form.  To begin with, Sam, the student researcher, had to make little blue 'x's on my belly, bicep, shoulder blade, quad, and calf.  Then, he had to pinch all these x's with the calipers.  Not cute to have your belly fat pinched by a good looking young guy.

Next, a mask connected to a machine that analyzed my oxygen consumption went over my face for the 15 minute cycling test.  This was not an issue when I was warming up, but about 10 minutes into the test (after the tension had been cranked up) I turned into a drooling mess (all the water that I expired pooled in the bottom of the mask - gross).  On top of that the room was small and had poor ventilation.  So, I got a little on the sweaty side pretty quick.  And, on top of that, the mask caught the sound of my heavy breathing so that I sounded like Darth Vader.

This week I'm going out with the same student researcher to check out the 40 km course we'll do a time trial on for the study.  Unfortunately, coming from a country where we ride on the right side of the road presents some challenges when cycling in a country where they ride on the left side of the road.  I still can't quickly figure out which direction traffic will be coming from!

Eventually, I'll complete two more 80 km rides that will test my sweat rate. Yum.  Compensation for my effort will be $40 gift cards to the grocery store - just enough to buy a banana and a pack of gum (kidding, of course, but have I mentioned how expensive things are here?!).

My own research is, uh, sort of coming along.

We've had a few meetings about the questionnaire that we'll distribute to middle age women in New Zealand.  Usually, we get caught up in semantics.  We're a group of educated folks talking about food in a scientific sense.  We sometimes forget how normal people talk about food!  For example, would a regular person call something a low fat cheese OR a lower fat cheese?  

It gets a little foggy because the average person probably decides if the cheese she's eating is low/lower fat based on what the front of the package says (what the marketing tells the consumer she is eating), not what the nutrition facts label says (what she is specifically eating, in terms of grams of fat, carbohydrate, protein, etc. ).  So, if we want to know people are choosing "healthier" options, do we ask questions that relate to what the packaging says or what the food label says?

Have I lost you yet?  Yes?  Okay, let's leave this research stuff for now and look at pretty pictures instead.  

Check out the post below to read about my tramping trip to Paradise/the Routeburn Track/Mt. Xenicus.

Dear Mt. Xenicus, You Kicked My...

On Friday around 6pm, the Tramping Club headed towards Paradise (past Queenstown).  We were in "bed" (in a sleeping bag under a tarp) around 1am, up at 5am for breakfast (muesli, milk, and tea) and on the trail listening to owls and finding glow worms in the dark around 6am.  The sunrise picture above was taken from Routeburn Flats about 1 1/2 hours into the hike.

Our group included Jaz (leader), Tiff, Joey, Pete, Sean and myself.  We knew we were in for 12-14 hours of hiking.  I was not aware that I should have appreciated the nice flat trail up to this point.

Last view of Routeburn Flats for a little bit...

So, you can tell the stream looks a little farther away at this point.  There was a LOT of effort that went into getting to the point where this picture was taken.  We crossed through the stream and then started bushwhacking to the top of this mountain.  I wore gaitors to protect my shins from the prickly plants that covered the rocks and boulders we crossed over.  

In hindsight, it was really cool to scale a mountain and see up close and first hand how the landscape changes.  In the moment, I was scared as hell that I was going to slip down to the base and a) get hurt and b) have to start over trying to get to the top.  Luckily, there was a lot of a grassy plant called tussocks that I could grab ahold of and use to pull myself up... I probably spent a good hour and a half on my hands and knees (and belly) getting up to the top.  Supposedly, this would cut a solid hour off of our hike.

I took a quick break to "chocolate up" (refuel with yumminess) and noticed my poor leggings!  I got holes in the knees from army crawling up the mountain.

I'm pretty good at pretending to be happy, huh?  It's hard to tell, but there is considerable distance to go to get to the bump of rock just below that little bit of blue sky you see in this picture.

I was victorious getting to the top of the first mountain. YAY!

You can see the perfect line where the snow ends on the mountains in the distance.

Getting happier!  This is about as far up as I was willing to go.  The rest of the group went on to the Mt. Xenicus summit.  It was too icy for me to dare attempt it.

Time for the group to chocolate up one last time before the 2 hour trip to the summit of Mt. Xenicus.

Dad's backpack in New Zealand... Dennis Boucher was with us that day!  Yeah, and, for anyone who has read my recap of Ironman Lake Placid, I saw a butterfly!  Coincidence? I think not.  Not quite a monarch, but it was orange and black (probably a moth of some sort, but I'll pretend it really was a butterfly).

Here's the last of my ascent towards Mt. Xenicus.  I'm out of breath, my nose was running because it was windy and cold, and it had been about 7 hours since we had breakfast (I was a little hungry and dehydrated at this point).

So, what's a girl to do when she hangs back while the rest of the group moves on to risk life and limb just to say they reached the top?  Perhaps a little test of the self-timer feature on the camera is in order!

Perhaps a little exploration of my own to see what views I can find for myself...

Lake Wilson on the right.........

When the group returned from the summit, it was time to get out of the cold and wind so that we could relax for lunch.

At last, it was time to head back to the Routeburn Track, but first... a view of Lake Harris...

.... and a closer view of Lake Harris...

All we had left to do was turn around... and follow the water...

Follow the water down to the valley...

I see FLAT land ahead!!

 

(We climbed that mountain on the left!)

Flat land makes me very happy.

The rest of the hike would be super easy if our bodies weren't beat from the previous 10 hours of hard work!

One last bridge....

Back at camp...

On Sunday, we did an easy 40 minute walk to Sylvan Lake.

The only thing left to do was hit the road.  We stopped in Queenstown to get AMAZING food from Fergburger.  But, not before one last look at Lake Wakatipu.

These Boots Were Made For Tramping

I'm no Carrie Bradshaw.  I cannot justify (nor afford) spending hundreds of dollars to decorate my feet.

Or, can I?

Earlier this week I joined the Tramping Club.  Don't worry, it's not what you think!  Tramping is code word for hiking. The membership fee for the year is $30 and for an additional $80 I can go to Paradise (near the Routeburn Track) with them.  To me, $110 sounded like a budget friendly way to see a spectacular part of the world.  But, I soon found out that tramping can get expensive real quick.

At the meeting to sign up for the Paradise trip each leader described the trail they would hike.  Some were easy, some were moderate, and one was described as "hardcore".  I thought I'd pick a hike that would be just hard enough to earn a Snickers along the way, but wouldn't require fancy schmancy tramping gear.  So, I got in line to hike up Conical Hill - a moderate hike.  Little did I know the guy leading the hike only had six magical slips of pink paper for each person hiking with him (we had to have a pink slip for the hike we wanted to go on).  I was seventh in line. Darn it!

Plan B was another moderate hike being lead by a guy who I have nicknamed "Frodo" for no other reason than he looked elfish (I have never seen Lord of the Rings, so my nicknaming may be quite off).  Interestingly, he had a head full of curly blond hair, a 'fro if you will, which struck me as funny after I nicknamed him.  Frodo had a nerdy vibe to him... he had thick black plastic eyeglasses and I imagine he had a pocket protector hiding under his flannel shirt.  I pictured him calculating how wind speed and direction would affect our hiking performance.

Unfortunately, after I started chatting with him about the hike, I discovered he was lacking a certain social skill that I can't quite put a finger on.  This worried me.

I ditched Frodo to head to the line for the hike with two spunky, smiley blond girls.  They were leading the easiest of hikes (more of a walk) and I figured at the very least it wouldn't be the most awkward 8-9 hours of my life.  Just as I was about to receive the magical pink slip, I got elbowed out of the way and it was snatched out of one blond's hand (I believe this is karma biting me in the a$$ because several years ago I elbowed a competitor out of the way during a running race so that I could beat her by a full second-that glorious victory was worth it though!).

I asked the president of the group if she could make an announcement to the hike leaders for them to let us know who still had room left on their hike.  Turns out it was either Fun with Frodo or the hardcore hike.  If I survived an Ironman, I can survive 14 hours of rough terrain, right?  Someone, who shall remain nameless, made a snide remark about the differences between an Ironman and tramping - this got me a little fired up.  Guess I'd have to show someone just how physically/mentally fit I am.

Please don't let there be really high things that I have to walk across!!

I inquired about the hardcore hike... I'd need gaitors to protect my shins from prickly plants and good tramping boots.  Both items are available for hire from the University's recreation center, but the idea of tramping in someone else's foot sweat was unsettling.  I'd need to go shopping.

It took a while to recover from sticker shock when I first laid eyes on the boot prices.  $200 for the cheapest boot they had?  My god!  Other boot prices ran higher - $300 to $400!!  It was time to find a store more in my price range.  Off to Kmart I went.  But, alas, they had nothing.  I checked out Kathmandu, received great help from a guy there and found better prices (still, about $200 for a pair of boots).

Eventually, I ended up at Mountain Designs.  I don't know if it was being beaten down by the fact that I had trekked all over Dunedin for four hours just to discover that I was going to have to part with several hundred dollars or the fact that the girl at the store took pity on me when I said, "I need tramping boots that no one will make fun of" that lead to me walking out with a new pair of boots, Merino socks and Merino leggings.

Nevertheless, I am now equipped to tramp like a champ.

Start of Week 2 in New Zealand

Today's weather was b-e-a-utiful.  It was just too awesome outside to be inside.

So, I went for a walk...

I wanted to check out the neighborhoods in the hill across from where I live.  That meant I'd have to walk up those hills first.

But, it's worth it to walk up the hills around here.

And, it's not such a shabby deal to walk down a path or two...

...Hydrangeas are everywhere.  The colors change depending on the location.  I've seen them blue, light purple, and red.

I am not too cool to say it.  I am mesmerized by the sky here.  It's beautiful how it changes constantly. The blue is such a pure blue and the clouds make me think they've been filtered to take the ugly gray out and leave the pretty white and gray behind.

 The sun was still shining later in the day.  That meant another walk.

Even though summer is wrapping up around here the flowers don't know it, yet.

I thought I'd have some fun with the editing features on my computer.  I like this picture below because it made the flowers so pink and my eyes so blue (they're actually green with some blue speckles).

The last picture for today cracks me up.  I was trying to figure out why the camera hadn't been capturing pictures the way I wanted to - the colors just looked so dead compared to what they are in person.  Well, I finally got all the auto features reset.  And, what a difference.  The light in the picture is cool, in my humble opinion.  The funny thing is my windows are NOT that filthy!

Video Update: Week 1 in Dunedin

Not happy with the thumbnail. Grr!

Trampers in Training

Kate, my roommate, and I are training to become lean, mean, tramping machines.

The Otago University Tramping Club caught our eyes when we scouted out campus student groups to join.  It seemed like the perfect way to see more of New Zealand: let someone else do the planning and we'll follow along.  For $30/year we'll get free gear for hire and access to the Paradise day trip (near the Routeburn Track) and a two-day trip to Fiorland near Milford Sound.

Yesterday, we decided to put our walking shoes on and head to Signal Hill.

When you come to a fork in the road...take it!

As is customary in New Zealand... it started getting overcast as the day went on...

 I'll make this next picture bigger for those who want to read it.  Basically, it says that the rock is a piece of the site where Edinburgh Castle is located.

There was a monument at the lookout and I was particularly intrigued by this guy...

I told Kate that is how I'll look when I'm done with my PhD: fat, hairy, and cradling my dissertation.