Mission to Victory Beach

How about I adjust the text to photo ratio for today's post?  Today's mini mission brought us to the Okia Reserve/Victory Beach.

For your viewing pleasure... my first pukeko!

Last month, I picked up some Christmas cards with cartoon pukekos swimming.  I had no idea that these are one of New Zealand's most recognized birds. I just liked that they were swimming and wanted to mail the cards to my old Salem State swim buddies.

The walk to Victory Beach took us past the Pyramids-a byproduct of an explosion that happened a long, long time ago.

Upon a closer look at Little Pyramid it's easy to see the similarity between these columnar stones and the ones which make up the Organ Pipes. There was a cave in Little Pyramid as well, but I assumed big hairy man-eating spiders were in there just waiting to pounce, so I skipped the exploration.

A Hooker's sea lion blocked this particular access point to Victory Beach.

No worries! We found a way.

So, it sounds weird that a bunch of dead crabs would be kind of cool, right?  I couldn't help getting a kick out of the little guys, though.  They had markings that looked like a smiley face!

For some reason, people that read my blog or look at my Facebook photos prefer my pictures of animals.  Well, penguins in particular.  Here's an Oyster Catcher... I guess most people would say it's not as cute as a penguin...probably because it doesn't waddle.

This last photo is kind of cool - these are the "footprints" of the sea lion in the photo above who was blocking the entry to the beach.

So, tomorrow I'm celebrating New Years Eve at a low-key party and then on New Years Day we (Chris, Daniel, Johanna and I) are off to Monowai!  We'll drive up the first day to camp at the start of the track. Then we'll hike for three solid days and head out on the fourth day.  Check back here in a week for the photos!

Kiwi Christmas 2012

Last night will go down as one of the most memorable Christmas Eve's.

My friend Max invited all the orphans over for a traditional Christmas BBQ.  The picture above was taken from Max's deck at about 10pm when the last bit of sunlight was disappearing behind the mountains.  I kept my eye out on the harbor to look for dolphins, but they must have been chasing salmon somewhere else.

We spent hours chatting, eating, playing with the cutest 3-year-old boy, and even watched Finding Nemo (guess who picked that movie?).

To thank Max for his hospitality, he asked for me to entertain him and I obliged.  Max is French and so I like to practice the vocabulary that I remember from five years of French classes with him.  He gets a particular kick out of me saying things like, "La vache aime nager" and "One egg is un oeuf!"  (I just learned that there's a joke to that... "Why do the French make their omelets with one egg? Because 'one egg' is un oeuf!).  I even sang him a song that I was taught to learn French vocabulary for the weather.

I think the night wrapped up beautifully... we indulged in Max's glorious chocolate cake and Alia's cheesecake (that took her about 6 hours to make, but nonetheless came out as a gloppy, but delectable, mess).  Then we bid our adieu's after taking in the moonlight with La Vie en Rose in the background.

Merry Christmas!

DOLPHINS!

O. M. G.  I missed the dolphins!!!!  Why? Oh, why?! Of all days to be in uber productive PhD mode! Yesterday, I joined a group of friends for a small trek to Heyward Point which had a pretty darn good view of the water. Why weren't the dolphins around then?!

*sigh*

So, maybe I didn't see dolphins yesterday (I'm not leaving New Zealand until I see some dolphins!), but I did see these cute sea lions:

It took roughly 45 minutes to reach our destination.  Initially, when we reached Heyward Point, it was really obnoxious that the sea gulls were screeching out of control:

But, we found out what the fuss was all about - these eggs:

Aside from the the local critters, this was an uneventful trip, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  Just a few more weeks and I'll be able to share photos from the Monowai trip!  In the meantime, I'm going to keep my eyes out for more dolphins here in the harbour:

Mt. Charles Mission

Oh weekends, how I adore thee!  On Saturday, Tim, Court, Daniel, Johanna, Anna and I set out to conquer Otago Peninsula's highest point at a whopping 408 vertical meters (1,339 feet).  We battled rain, wind gusts and telltale signs of sheep to reach the summit.  

December 1st officially marked the beginning of summer, so I have high hopes that the weather will cooperate in the future so that I can bring you some substantially more impressive photos. 

In the mean time, I'm happily taking advantage of holiday sales to acquire gear for a longer tramping trip to Lake Monowai at the end of the month.  This will be a 4-day trip, so fingers crossed Mother Nature is getting the rain out of her system now so that we'll stay nice and dry at the end of the month.

Down by the (Curio) Bay

Yesterday, I went on a little day trip to Curio Bay with Geoff, Bryce, Emmet and Kate.  It was great to get out of Dunedin for a little while to explore New Zealand some more.  We rented a car and I was the designated driver.  Things went pretty well with Kate as my co-pilot.

We stopped for a second to stretch our legs, take a break from playing 20 Questions, and take a picture of this rainbow:

Our first stop was the Jurassic fossil forest.  At low tide we saw the stone remains of tree stumps and logs.

After all that fresh air, we needed a tea/coffee break.  The place we stopped at just happened to be near Niagraa Falls!

Turns out, it was nothing more than a bump in the water.  It was given the name by a surveyor with a sense of humor.

Next up, a pit stop at Nugget Point.  I really enjoyed the short walk to the lighthouse.

Today, we took another trip, but headed to the peninsula this time.  Our final destination was the Royal Albatross Centre.  It wasn't windy enough for them to be out and about.

I had one minor goof-up with my driving today.  We made a wrong turn, so I pulled over to turn around and my brain didn't process the change in direction very well - I ended up on the right hand side of the road and a car was headed straight for us.  No big deal to move over, though!  The second driving "uh oh" moment occurred when we took the wrong road to the albatross colony.  The roads here are half the size of roads in the U.S. and on one side of the road was a cliff and on the other was the side of a hill - not much room to maneuver! We had to use team work to get the car turned around - my 3-point turn turned into a 12-point turn because I was SO nervous that I'd drive us over the cliff, even with Geoff out of the car directing me!  Despite a few hiccups today, I'm feeling much more confident with my driving. Yay!

Do I see a New Zealand driver license in my future? Stay tuned!

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.

No challenge too big or too small.

My flatmate, Kate, knows that I still have trouble crossing the road (yes, even after two months!), so what in the world would possess her to trust me with getting us safely to Larnach Castle in the rental car?

It came down to it being a beautiful day in Dunedin and us having three hours left before the rental company would come pick up the car.

Besides, what could go wrong when you have great little reminders to "Keep Left"?

I'd like to say that I adjusted quickly to driving on the left side of the road, but that would be lying.  Luckily, the only casualty was a little piece of curb when I lost concentration trying to figure out how to attempt a traffic circle.  Kate tolerated my slip up well.

It took a great deal of concentration to keep my side of the car as close to the center line as possible.  On the left side of us was just about a foot of shoulder before the road dropped off into Otago Harbour. 

For reasons unknown to me, every cyclist and his brother was out that day.  Eventually, we found ourselves in a worst case scenario: cyclists on my left, car on my right, and cyclists to the right of that car.  There were way too many people trying to share the same width of road, so I took the next logical step. I braked to a full stop.  Kate tried to coerce me into applying pressure to the gas pedal, but I didn't trust my ability to stay perfectly straight.  Soon, all was well with the world and we found a place to pull over and catch our breath.

In no time, I was in a driving "zone" - Kate didn't have to wave me back to the center of our side of the road and I even mustered up the courage to drive around a tractor chugging along at about 15 kilometers per hour - hot damn, I was a rebel without a cause!  

We arrived at the castle and expected to be able to hop out, take a picture, get back in the car and be back to Abbey in time for Sunday brunch.  Alas, there was a $12.50 charge per person to get out and walk around the grounds.  Being a self-proclaimed cheapskate, I winced at the thought of parting with the money, but did it because I just knew that people reading my blog would love to see what the heck we were trying to drive to.

So, here it is:

No, really, that's it.

I think the best description for it is "cute".  Hey, they can't all be Neuschwanstein Castle.

At the very least, it had a nice view.

I believe we spent a grand total of 22 1/2 minutes on walking around taking pictures.  That's because it was very important to get back for brunch.  They serve the most amazingly crispy/greasy/delicious hashbrowns every Sunday for brunch - they are just not to be missed. 

The ride back was uneventful. 

Interestingly, and annoyingly, the one thing that just had to be done when we got back was lock the keys in the car (car rental company rule).  This was easier said than done.  Just why we had so much trouble is beyond me.  When I don't want the keys locked in the car I have no trouble locking them in, but on this particular day when the keys needed to be left in the glove compartment and locked into the car it was a real P.I.T.A.  

Kate tried and tried. I tried and tried.  We had all sorts of combinations going on with the locks on the doors and the lock on the driver's side.  Nothing worked.  Luckily, a fellow Abbey resident walked by and I figured he could outsmart the car.  And, he did.  Yes, at first he gave us a quizzical "You want to do what" look when we asked him, but the sense of relief on our face when the keys were finally locked inside left him with a sense of satisfaction.  I think I saw him puff out his chest with pride due to the fact that he could do what we couldn't.

Oddly enough, after our adventure Kate said I'm ready for the campervan on our grand finale trip in November.

More Cowbell! Stadium to Surf 10k.

I can't help it, I only workout when I have a race coming up.

So, I signed up for my first race in New Zealand, the Stadium to Surf 10k.  The race started less than 10 minutes away from where I live, on one side of the Otago Peninsula, and finished on the other.  The course was extremely flat considering there are hills, hills, and more hills surrounding us.  The route took us mostly through residential sections of Dunedin, with a finish across a grassy field and finally to the beach.

Here's a picture of the finish line, although you can't see it just above the beach on the right-hand side.

I was disappointed that the couple hundred spectators standing around, just watching us finish, were not cheering at all.  Jeebus, there was not even one single cowbell, either.  What kind of finish line was this?!  So, I tried to pull a "Bob Stocks" by raising my arms up, smiling big, and yelling, "WAAHOOOOOOOO!!!" as I crossed the finish line.

No one cared.

I actually think I saw one woman shake her head and whisper something to a small child next to her.  Probably something like, "Poor girl, she must be delirious from dehydration!"

I'd like to give the Kiwis the benefit of the doubt.  They could have been distracted by other things, like, oh, let's say... the scenery around us.

I grabbed a post-race celebratory apple and enjoyed the beach before jumping on a bus back to the start line.

(Completely untouched by photo editing software!) 

Just 14,893 kilometers to New York City!

Today, the race was mentioned in the Otago Daily Times.  In the photo, I am in the top center and wearing a yellow shirt.