Motuihe Tree Planting

It’s a great feeling to meet deadlines you set for yourself.  I wanted to have my thesis proposal ready to turn in before driving down to the South Island this coming Friday on mid-term leave.  Well, it is now Monday night and I have a draft of the proposal entitled Non-Specific GIS-Based Mass Evacuation Planning for the Auckland Volcanic Field ready to run into my adviser Mark Gahegan.  It took me a lot of work last week meeting with hazard managers at the regional council, going to a course on the Essentials of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, reading background documents, and finally writing my proposal, but I now have my proposal at a stage I am comfortable with and looking forward to some constructive feedback from Mark.

Mexican Monday week II was a success with chili con carne at Marcel’s apartment.  We also took a look at (and poked a bit of fun at) Soren’s new car, which he and I will drive down to the South Island on Friday—arriving on Saturday for Uni Snow Games.  I’m so stoked because they have a cross-country competition as well.  After over a month of waiting, I finally received my household goods shipment from Alaska as well, which contained my ski boots, so at least I know have the bare essentials required to compete in the snow games.  I’m very excited about going down to the South Island as you might have sensed.

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful weather.  I spent Saturday checking out the Auckland Art Gallery, which had been moved to a different venue due to remodeling.  Though the exhibits were nice, it has nothing on the Auckland War Memorial Museum (see picture above), which is multiple times larger and contrary to the name, has a wide variety of exhibits ranging from natural history to ethnography.  Saturday afternoon I convinced my friend Marcel to give me a haircut and enjoyed the rest of the evening reading and dreaming about great tramps to do in the future.

Sunday morning I rose bright and early and headed out to Motuihe Island on a ferry full of Rotarians and Boy Scouts to work on a tree planting community service project.  Montuihe Island is located in Waitemate Harbour just a short 30 minute boat ride from Auckland.  Here, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has been working on a massive project to return the island to native forest by removing the introduced trees and replacing them with native growth.  I thought this sounded like a fantastic project and was very keen to help out.  Doing my part, I spent the day digging shallow holes, placing a fertilizer tablet in below each sapling, and tightly re-compacting the soil so that the kakariki birds would not dig the saplings back up.  As a result of the project I have a newfound respect for gardeners which it turns out requires much more work than I had previously realized.  Our efforts well rewarded with sausages however, so I was quite happy.  I also learned that kiwi birds had just been reintroduced to the island, which I hope to one day be able to see.  Perhaps next time I come back to the island it will be a flourishing native growth forest with a thriving kiwi population.  That would make me very happy indeed.

Coromandel Tramping

One of the great things about being involved in University clubs is the chance to meet new people. It seems that almost every weekend a trip is run through one of the three clubs that I am involved with and I get to meet new people. So far I have gone out to Ruapehu with the snowsports club, gone wondering with the tramping club, and learned to eskimo roll a kayak (albeit it in a pool) with the canoe club. This past weekend I headed east with seven fellow tramps? / trampers? / tramping club members squeezed into an old van dubbed the “looser cruiser” (some high school students apparently don’t appreciate their vehicles that much). Our destination was the Coromandel Peninsula, a mere two hours outside Auckland, but speckled with golden beaches and beautiful bush walks. Unfortunately, the weather was less than desirable, but we made the most of it playing rummycube, cards, and “Bonanza” a new game from Holland centering around bean trading, which is sure it make it big any time now.

In spite of the drizzly weather, we headed out for a few short tramps on Sunday making our way into the Coromandel Forest Park and walking out to Cathedral Cove, a wonderful sandstone arch cut by the wave and erosion. Nearby there was also a nice beach and a small natural waterfall, which made a perfect shower. I’ll have to come back again in the summer—with a towel in hand—to more fully appreciate the cove’s grandeur. I have heard of some spectacular sea kayaking in this area as well, which I would enjoy checking out.

What students will do for good fun… A 08:30 am low tide at Hot Water Beach near Hahei, along with some load noises, and the lights turning on at 06:30 motivated us all to get us early and head north from our batch (kiwi slang for a vacation house) in Tairua. Hot Water Beach is quite unique. Here 60 degree C water comes through fissures in the earth, emerging right on the beach. A hole, properly dug and protected by a small wall to protect it from incoming seawater, will act as a exceptional natural hot tub. Even though we arrived at Hot Water Beach at the perfect time, just before low tide, Poseidon was frowning. All the bad weather had kicked up quite some large surf as well and rogue waves would randomly come dissolve the walls I worked frantically to construct around our hot water spring. The work was futile and after an hour of struggling, I simply gave up and plopped down in my little puddle accepting that fact that every now and again a cold wave would come lapping up on me and spin me around. It was still great fun however—a geologically power experience I will not soon forget.

Tonight I invited two of my good friends, Marcel and Soren, over to my apartment for a nice Mexican dinner. Though I have been cooking quite a bit to eat healthy and save some money, I have not had Mexican food since arriving in Kiwiland. To amend this, I made tacos with all the staples: seasoned beef, refried beans, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, grated cheese—absolutely delicious. So good in fact, that we have concluded to make it a weekly event. It is very nice to be able to hang out with friends, share good food, and engage in fine conversation. Till next time—remember don’t forget the spice.

Waiheke Island Biking

Hurry, let’s catch the bus! Eugene and I dashed out of the Human Sciences Building to the nearby bus stop, just as the big, red rig pulled in. “Do you go to Mount Eden?” Eugene asked the driver in his thick Ukrainian accent. Four or five bus attempts later, a $1.60 fair, and a mad scramble to the top of the hill bought us a commanding view of the city just as the sun was setting. Eugene quickly whipped out his tripod and Nikon SLR camera and started taking pictures, I followed suite with my trusty, old Kodak that has been pulling through for 5+ years now. Click, click, click, I began to worry we would end up with far too many shots of the spectacular sunset, but just then my last battery gave out and my camera went dead. From now until my shipment arrives in 2-3 weeks, I will have to rely on external photography support for my blog. Eugene (pronounced zhen-ya), ever the aspiring photographer, was more than happy to oblige even letting me borrow his fine camera at a few times to snap some shots. We watched as the sun set and a black veil rose up to envelope the city. From the top of the old volcano, the view was spectacular. Sitting there on a chilly Friday night, watching the city come alive, proved a relaxing way to cap of a workweek full of meticulous research.

In comparison Saturday proved far more mundane, reaching its peak level of excitement when I opened my mailbox to find a new installment of New Zealand postage stamps. As many of you know, I am an avid philatelist and became engrossed with the intricate details of a colorful series of Sir Edmond Hillary commemoratives and two round kiwi stamps with a very fine combination of monotone simplicity, symbolism, and beauty.

Sunday morning I arose early, packed my rucksack, and headed to the ferry wharf where Eugene was waiting with tickets to Waiheke Island. Waiheke Island, located to the east of Auckland in Hauaki Gulf, is the home to a sublime countryside cloaked in numerous vineyards and sheep fields. I asked Peter from “the bike shed,” where we rented our mountain bikes for the day, what he liked about Waiheke Island. After revealing I was from Alaska, Peter explained “Waiheke is a mix of Madison and Anchorage. It has the feel of small town USA and the grandeur of Alaska—all circa 1960.” After spending a day on the island, biking nearly forty miles of its long, winding, and steeply graded roads, after gazing over its brilliantly green, grass covered hillsides and glittering gold beaches; I can confidently say there is very little on Waiheke Island that reminds me of Alaska. It is beautiful none-the-less. On our travels, Eugene and I passed dozens of vineyards, countless sheep, and even climbed into a very large rock garden topping a knobby hill. During the circumnavigation of the island, I saw tropical birds, pheasants, and a giant, painted rock appearing to be a ravenous ogre. I made sure to avoid him while stopping at a wine store just before departing the island to pick up a bottle of the local specialty, which I plan on saving for a very special occasion.

Until then I wish you a great week.

Please check out the google.map “Erik’s NZ Adventures” where I have geo-tagged the locations of all my past kiwi trips and digitized my biking and trekking routes at the following site provided by clicking on the map to the top right or the text at the bottom of this website.

To view more photos in my picassa web album click here.

Skiing in August?

Skiing in August? Well naturally in the southern hemisphere it is possible! So far this year New Zealand has had quite a good start to their ski season, which began roughly one month ago, though I quickly learned that it is more than just the opening dates which are different about kiwi ski resorts. The lodging situation and the snow conditions are also unique. Lodging at the Whakapapa side of Mount Ruapehu is focused on a few club huts, one of the nicest of course belonging to the University of Auckland Snowsports Club (UASC). The UASC cabin comfortably lodges around thirty people in bunk style accommodation with a massive living/recreation room and a centerpiece wood burning stove. The club also provided our transport to the mountain, which consisted of two vans full of pumped (read boisterous) students, and a trailer filled to the brim with gear (thanks to Rotarian Paul Monk for letting me borrow his jacket & ski pants which kept me toasty warm all weekend). Due to heavy traffic leaving Auckland and the physical constraints of an Asian van loaded with 12 bodies, our speed peaked at around 90 km/h and getting to the mountain took a solid 6 hours.

When we arrived at around midnight on Friday the weather was not promising, blowing a highly inconsistent mixture of snow and rain, which proved bitterly chilling. Saturday morning only proved worse—horizontal rain. Most of the skiers (myself included) decided to wait it out. We spent the day in the lodge making friends and swapping stories. The sun cast brightly through the windows when we woke up Sunday morning. In record speed I managed to get dressed, eat, buy a lift ticket (84 NZD = approx 55 USD), hire rental gear and make it up the mountain just as they were opening up the quad. The first few runs were glorious and the snow felt like spring corn. The experience of skiing on active volcano, with igneous rocks jutting out all around you is quite impressive. For all the Lord of the Rings fans out there, Mount Ruapehu is what director Stephen Jackson chose for Mount Doom in the film). I managed a few black-diamond off-piste runs before the clouds moved in again, around noon, and reduced visibility to a stone’s throw at times. Most skiers gave up and called it a day, but a few of my intrepid friends and I stuck it out and skied till 4 PM, when the cumulative effective of the wind beating pellets of snow and hail on our faces for hours, minimal visibility, and deteriorating snow conditions forced us in. After cleaning up the lodge and fixing a flat tire, we were ready for the return trip to Auckland in which my travel speakers blasting out a continuous stream of Bon Jovi, Chili Peppers, and Dave Matthews Band saved the day.

Even though the aggregate weather was sub-prime, the camaraderie of the trip was excellent and I consider myself lucky to have been afforded this spectacular opportunity. After all—how many people do get to ski in August?

(Pictures courtesy of fellow UASC member Tucker Bowe)