The adventure has begun! The plan is two weeks on the south island of New Zealand with an REI Adventure tour, then I'll fly to Tasmania, the island state off the south east coast of Australia. There I'll do a 6 day hike of the Overland Track with another group, then spend a week on my own before returning home. A whole, big, beautiful month.
As I'm writing this it's about 4:30 Monday morning (mid morning Sunday in Minneapolis), and I'm waiting for food options to open. My internal clock hasn't fully adjusted (went to sleep at 7 last night and got up at 4), but other than that, I feel fine. The "sleep on the plane" option didn't work at all. I sat uncomfortably with my eyes closed, but if any sleep came, I missed it. On the other hand, the crew on the Quantas flight was absolutely wonderful. Not only was the food actually good, but the service was superb and they were constantly giving us stuff. Eye masks, socks, toothbrush, blanket, and pillow were waiting on our seats; a snack before "bed" consisting of a bottle of water, mints, cookies and chips; hot towels before breakfast, etc. A bit of a contrast from the $5.00 "box lunch" (variations on cheese and crackers) that we had the option of purchasing from Northwest.
By the way, the noise cancelling ear phones worked very well. For anyone who hasn't tried them, they create a reverse soundwave that cancels out much of the drone of the engines. You can hear conversations and other non-engine noise just fine.
One of the movie selections available was Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, so I was pleased to have a chance to watch it. There were lots of folks on the plane who were headed for various research activities in the Antarctic. I sat next to a young woman who was going to measure ice depth, which was one of the things they had mentioned in the movie. She'll be there for a couple months, mostly camping out as they travel around the ice mapping gradients. It's her first trip to the Antarctic, and she was pretty excited. She starts grad school next fall in geology.
Finally arrived in Christchurch about 10:00 AM Sunday, local time. Spent the day finding some lunch and running errands in the city center, then took a delightful walk in a huge botanical garden that is clearly a much loved place by locals as well as tourists. Lots of magnificent trees that you don't see elsewhere. Terrific kids' playground, plus rose and azalea and herb and rock and New Zealand and lots of other gardens. On the walk I came across the gentleman in the picture who played an animated statue. He was a huge hit with the younger crowd.
Christchurch is a low rise city (not much over 10 stories) on the middle of the east coast of the South Island. They are dealing with urban sprawl, and I read an article in the paper that reported on a planning commission decision to go to more density in the city and its surrounding suburbs as opposed to continuing to spread into the rich farmland around here, yet they plan to avoid the high rise explosion that has occurred in many Asian cities.
New Zealand's economy depends heavily on food exports to the US and Europe. Between the rising costs of transportation and the continuing protectionism of other countries, there's discussion of whether they have put too many of their national economic eggs in one basket.
And I read an article in the paper today about a group saying the verdict wasn't in on global warming. An Inconvenient Truth made the point that the peer-reviewed scientific articles are unanimous on the human impact on global warming, while "for some reason", the popular articles are creating an impression of doubt. What baffles me about the "there is no global warming" argument is that even if there isn't, the other environmental, social and political costs of the path we are on are not sustainable.
Today I'm planning on taking a local bus out to a small town on a peninsula and doing a bit of walking on Godley's Head, a rocky point of land. Or, as they say here, Godley's "Hid." What do they say ... the US and Great Britain are two countries divided by a common language? True of New Zealand and Australia too. I find that it's very easy to understand someone who is enunciating clearly, but not so easy when they're speaking fast. And of course, most of us don't enunciate all that clearly in casual conversation, and I'm just as hard to understand for the Kiwis. But everyone has been very patient with repeating. In fact, I'm already seeing why people are always talking about how friendly New Zealanders are. I went into a store to pick up a southern hemisphere star chart and ended up talking with the store keeper for 15 minutes. And like everywhere else, they have a rowdy element; apparently there were lots of incidents and a few fires from fireworks on Guy Fawkes day.
Pictures from today (and tomorrow) are here.
As I'm writing this it's about 4:30 Monday morning (mid morning Sunday in Minneapolis), and I'm waiting for food options to open. My internal clock hasn't fully adjusted (went to sleep at 7 last night and got up at 4), but other than that, I feel fine. The "sleep on the plane" option didn't work at all. I sat uncomfortably with my eyes closed, but if any sleep came, I missed it. On the other hand, the crew on the Quantas flight was absolutely wonderful. Not only was the food actually good, but the service was superb and they were constantly giving us stuff. Eye masks, socks, toothbrush, blanket, and pillow were waiting on our seats; a snack before "bed" consisting of a bottle of water, mints, cookies and chips; hot towels before breakfast, etc. A bit of a contrast from the $5.00 "box lunch" (variations on cheese and crackers) that we had the option of purchasing from Northwest.
By the way, the noise cancelling ear phones worked very well. For anyone who hasn't tried them, they create a reverse soundwave that cancels out much of the drone of the engines. You can hear conversations and other non-engine noise just fine.
One of the movie selections available was Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, so I was pleased to have a chance to watch it. There were lots of folks on the plane who were headed for various research activities in the Antarctic. I sat next to a young woman who was going to measure ice depth, which was one of the things they had mentioned in the movie. She'll be there for a couple months, mostly camping out as they travel around the ice mapping gradients. It's her first trip to the Antarctic, and she was pretty excited. She starts grad school next fall in geology.
Finally arrived in Christchurch about 10:00 AM Sunday, local time. Spent the day finding some lunch and running errands in the city center, then took a delightful walk in a huge botanical garden that is clearly a much loved place by locals as well as tourists. Lots of magnificent trees that you don't see elsewhere. Terrific kids' playground, plus rose and azalea and herb and rock and New Zealand and lots of other gardens. On the walk I came across the gentleman in the picture who played an animated statue. He was a huge hit with the younger crowd.
Christchurch is a low rise city (not much over 10 stories) on the middle of the east coast of the South Island. They are dealing with urban sprawl, and I read an article in the paper that reported on a planning commission decision to go to more density in the city and its surrounding suburbs as opposed to continuing to spread into the rich farmland around here, yet they plan to avoid the high rise explosion that has occurred in many Asian cities.
New Zealand's economy depends heavily on food exports to the US and Europe. Between the rising costs of transportation and the continuing protectionism of other countries, there's discussion of whether they have put too many of their national economic eggs in one basket.
And I read an article in the paper today about a group saying the verdict wasn't in on global warming. An Inconvenient Truth made the point that the peer-reviewed scientific articles are unanimous on the human impact on global warming, while "for some reason", the popular articles are creating an impression of doubt. What baffles me about the "there is no global warming" argument is that even if there isn't, the other environmental, social and political costs of the path we are on are not sustainable.
Today I'm planning on taking a local bus out to a small town on a peninsula and doing a bit of walking on Godley's Head, a rocky point of land. Or, as they say here, Godley's "Hid." What do they say ... the US and Great Britain are two countries divided by a common language? True of New Zealand and Australia too. I find that it's very easy to understand someone who is enunciating clearly, but not so easy when they're speaking fast. And of course, most of us don't enunciate all that clearly in casual conversation, and I'm just as hard to understand for the Kiwis. But everyone has been very patient with repeating. In fact, I'm already seeing why people are always talking about how friendly New Zealanders are. I went into a store to pick up a southern hemisphere star chart and ended up talking with the store keeper for 15 minutes. And like everywhere else, they have a rowdy element; apparently there were lots of incidents and a few fires from fireworks on Guy Fawkes day.
Pictures from today (and tomorrow) are here.
1 comment:
woo-hoo - you made it! How thrilling that you are there, so far away. I had to check google maps to get a sense of where you are - it is far!!!
Keep up the posts, I love reading about where you are & what you're doing!
Post a Comment