Finding a wagon and learning to raft guide

Buying a car can be stressful!  I learned this two weeks ago when searching all over Auckland and cyberspace for the perfect set of wheels.  Using three major selection criteria—reliability, affordability, and capacity to carry lots of gear—I decided I was best off getting a station wagon.  After attending the local car auction—read: high stress purchasing experience—and placing an unsuccessful bid on an Opel Astra, I decided more research was required.  Since I had purchased some ski gear previously on trademe (the kiwi version of eBay) I decided to start there.  The only problem was how to go check out the car and make sure it was operationally sound.  The best option presented itself by attending the Ellerslie Carfair, which draws hundreds of buyers and sellers, and allows you to have the car checked out by mechanics on scene.  The only problem was that the carfair is on Sunday and, as you know, I generally like to get out of Auckland on the weekend.  Well, that weekend I stuck around and it paid off.  My Rotary counselor Paul Monk kindly met me at the fair and we together checked out a ’98 Mazda Cappella, which I was interested in.  We took it for a test drive and it ran smooth, so I offered to pay cash on the spot and got the price lowered a few hundred dollars.  As a result, I have a nice car to go exploring New Zealand this summer (and on the weekends too)—see pictures below.

Between research for my thesis, a geovisulation project I am working on, and involvement in various outdoor clubs and Rotary, I have been staying busy.  The research is going well, though obtaining GIS data from government agencies (particularly the Auckland Regional Council) is proving to be a sticky issue.  I’ve been reading lots of interesting articles and thinking through ways to generate and analyze traffic models, which should prove useful.  In addition to my thesis, I am auditing a geovisualization class, which requires students to create their own project relating to visualizing spatial information.  I chose to gauge perceptions of Auckland’s ethnic diversity by mapping census data and deriving diversity levels throughout the Auckland Region.  I then altered cartographic variables in ArcGIS (classification scheme, color, and aggregation level) to generate multiple maps a basis for comparison, from which I created an online survey.  To get the data I wanted on perceptions I made a big push to get the survey out and ended up maxing out the web host’s limit of 100 responses, which I am satisfied with.  Now I’ve been going through analyzing the results, which I will present in class.

The past few weeks have been lively for my Rotary involvement.  I’ve now finalized my presentation schedule, which has me traveling all over the Auckland Region over the next few months to speak with Rotarians.  In my presentations I speak about the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar program, my background, Rotary District 5010, and my master’s thesis topic.   My first few presentations to the Rotary Club of Newmarket (my host Rotary Club) and the Mt. Roskill Rotary Club have gone very well and I am looking forward to the upcoming engagements as well.

Over the past two weeks, the canoe club (a misnomer as everyone in the club seems to kayak or raft) put on a raft guiding course to teach members how to be competent raft guides with the club’s two new boats.  The course was run by Dave, a club member from Tasmania who has worked as a certified raft guide in both Australia and Canada.  We did two evenings of theoretical training before hitting the water this past weekend and putting our skills to use.  We rafted two sections of the Rangitaiki River, first an easy grade II section on Saturday, followed by a far more exciting grade III/IV section on Sunday.  Amazingly we did not lose anyone out of our rafts on any of the rapids, so we had to set up staged rescue scenarios.  All ten of us taking the course had a great time though and learned some valuable skills to include throw bagging swimmers, lining rafts down dangerous rapids, unwrapping stuck rafts, and safe whitewater swimming techniques—in addition to guiding rafts that is.  I’m looking forward to putting these skills to use in the coming months, helping others enjoy a safe and pleasurable canoe club whitewater experience.