Christchurch: "Had to be better than before."

The last time we were in Christchurch for any length of time was when we first arrived in NZ. We stayed with a family here who were nice but, as it turned out, not really a ton of fun. It was cold then and we found Christchurch to be generally boring and lame.
Needless to say, our expectations for this final week were not too high. We figured that we would enjoy our stay with Julian, Bridget, Seraphine, and Xavier because they are lovely and welcoming people. But beyond that we assumed we would just be busy getting rid of stuff and arranging ourselves for departure. Boy were we wrong! We've had a really fun time this week and may have even changed our view of Christchurch.
Last week we met an American couple (Hank and Marla) in Wanaka in the kitchen of the motor camp we were staying at. It turned out they are leaving from Christchurch on Wednesday too. We bumped into them again here in Christchurch and they invited us to come rock climbing with them on Friday. I was a bit intimidated because they are like bad-ass, super, travel-the-world-to-look-for-awesome-climbs, climbers and we are... well... not. But they led us to a place near by that was just right for beginning climbers and we had a blast!

After climbing we brought them back to Julian and Bridget's house and then we all took a bus downtown and had a night out. Several bars and a Kebab place later we took a cab home and we had (I assume) a great time!
Today we woke up feeling chipper and awake (or something) and went to have lunch with Rusty, Wal, Ami and Shannah. Rusty's parents live in Christchurch and so they all came up to visit and to give us one last farewell before we're off. It is always great to see them. Also we needed to give them back their camera and they are buying our phone so there was a practical element. By the way, that means that if you'd like to reach them you can call our number after we get home. they are lovely people and I'm sure they would love to chat. After lunch, a walk on the beach, and a stop at the local Savemart (like Goodwill but bigger) we came back to Bridget and Julian's house to set up for a Young Friends dinner/party that they were having. So we spent the night tonight hanging out with all the Christchurch young Quakers which was great. Better yet, we were able to give away a bunch of our stuff and we sold our car! Selling the car is a huge relief and it is nice to know that Susie is going to a good owner.
Rusty and Wal also came up to Christchurch in part because they are interested in attending Quaker meeting and they wanted to check it out. We will see them tomorrow at meeting and then we'll have lunch one last time before they head back to Waimate.
We have been so fortunate in our travels to meet wonderful people everywhere we have been. It is really sad to think that we will be leaving them all so soon. However, we try to take some solace in the fact that we have invited about half the population of New Zealand to come stay with us whenever they are in the States. We wholeheartedly hope that they all take is up on the offer.

Matt

Beautiful Banks Peninsula

The Banks Peninsula, that little piece that sticks off the east coast of the South Island, is just two hours drive from Christchurch. We didn't go to the Banks Peninsula during our first visit to Christchurch in August, but the timing worked out just right for us to spend a week there. I had to wait a week between my first and second rabies shots, so we spent a week on the Banks Peninsula. For the nth time the Quaker community has been amazingly generous. First of all we stayed with Julian, Bridget, & family in Christchurch. We met them at summer gathering in Dec-Jan and saw Julian again while we were staying in Wellington. Julian put us in touch with another Quaker family from Christchurch who has a bach (beach/vacation house) in LeBons Bay on the Banks Peninsula.



Derry & Elizabeth generously let us stay at their bach for a week while we explored the Bank Peninsula. What a cool old house! It's probably the oldest house we've been in in New Zealand. The newspaper they found covering the upstairs walls was from 1881 so it's at least that old. It had the feeling of a good guest house that was loved and lived in. The house had 14 beds in 4 bedrooms, plus a sleep out! Obviously they enjoyed being able to host lots and lots of people when the occasion arose. There was a great collection of books, games, and puzzles.

For the first three days at the bach the weather was cloudy, drizzly and generally kept us inside reading and doing puzzles. We drove to the nearest sizeable town (=has a petrol station and small grocery) and hardly saw anything but mist and clouds. Above a certain elevation we were simply in the clouds and couldn't see a thing. We did a lot of reading and listening to Harry Potter books on mp3.


Matt built a 14-story card house with our 3 decks of cards and many of theirs. Then he tried to make a hole in the middle to stick his arm through and it all came down.


I did this 1000-piece postage stamp puzzle all by myself. Somewhat insanely, I worked on this puzzle for 7.5 hours straight from start to finish while listening to Harry Potter and eating chocolate chip cookie dough. Matt didn't put in a single piece.

Last Friday the weather cleared up spectacularly. We really would've missed out on the amazing Banks Peninsula landscape if we'd only been there for those three dreary days. Friday and Saturday were both beautiful so we did a lot of Geocaching and went to some great places. The scenery is very dramatic with huge hills and beautiful bays. The Peninsula is the remains of two extinct volcanoes, one centered on Akaroa harbor and the other centered further north towards Christchurch. The Banks Peninsula was once a volcanic island, but gradually the Southern Alps eroded and the debris formed the Canterbury plains, eventually connecting the Banks Peninsula to the mainland.


This is looking roughly west across Akaroa Harbor with the ocean in the background.

We found Geocaches at two different native bush reserves that had HUGE totara trees. In September Matt and I each planted a totara in Waimate to offset some our emissions for coming to New Zealand. Some day our trees will look like this...



...or like this!


My favorite Geocache from the Banks Peninsula was on a tiny little peninsula (43°46'19.66"S, 172°55'33.12"E) at the northern end of Akaroa Harbor. It's a good example of why we love geocaching, because we might have considered it but probably wouldn't have actually hiked out there. It was the site of a large Maori pa (fortified village) but when it was attacked by other Maori there was no escape and many, many people were killed there.


We thought we were supposed to take the narrow path along the ridge of the narrow bit but it was terribly treacherous and eroded. We were walking on a tiny ridge only about 20 cm wide in some places at least 10 m above the water. It wasn't until we got to a dead end that we realized there must be an easier way. Indeed, there was. We could simply walk along the shore. But, our efforts were not in vain. While navigating the narrow ridge I spotted two Hector's dolphins on the west side of the peninsula. The Bank Peninsula is the favorite hang out of the Hector's dolphin.


You can see the steep, narrow bits behind me. I saw the Hector's dolphins off to the left.

On Saturday night we were going to do one last Geocache in LeBons Bay in the hope that we might see blue penguins coming in for the night. On the way we ran into two Israeli girls looking for a campground that closed 2 years ago. It was dark and they'd only been in Christchurch so far in NZ, so we suggested they stay the night with us at the bach since there certainly were enough beds. The next day we took them Geocaching and had a nice time hanging out with them playing cards and board games. We told them all the great free camping places we found since they were also traveling around in a station wagon on the cheap.



Keren and Hadas Geocaching with us in LeBons Bay.

On Monday we went back to Christchurch and stayed with Julian & gang again. Tuesday I got my 2nd rabies shot and we headed to Waimate! That's where we are now. More on that later. One post is enough for tonight.

Carrie

Sea kayaking and other adventures

This morning we went sea kayaking for the first time. Our hosts, Helen and Derry, are kayakers and graciously let us take their kayak to sea! Matt and I have both done a little bit of lake and river kayaking, but this was our first time on the ocean. We paddled around two small islands near shore that are full of birds. Heaps of spotted shags hang out there and some are starting to make nests so we saw them fly right in front of us with beakfulls of nesting material. We also watched some terns diving into the water for fish.


We left our camera with Helen so she could take a picture of us.


Our Friendly hosts, Derry & Helen

Shortly after our little kayaking trip, Helen & Derry headed out for a two-day kayaking trip. We've had an excellent time exploring Golden Bay from their home. The weather has mostly been beautiful. Takaka, the nearest town with a grocery store, seems to have a lot of artists and hippies so it makes for interesting shops.

For the Glenview-ites reading the blog, you'll understand that I just had to follow a sign that said "The Grove, 1 km."



It turned out to be a beautiful little scenic reserve full of nikau palms (NZ's native palm), rata, and other native plants. We had a great time watching fantails flit around us looking for insects to eat. There were also awesome limestone formations. It would be an excellent place for kids to play all sorts of imaginitive games.


Where's Matt?

We also visited the incredibly clear Te Waikoropupu Springs (Pupu Springs for short). They said it is the clearest water in the world, second only to water under the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.


This picture hardly does it justice. People used to be able to dive or snorkel at certain times, but it is now closed to all human contact with the water. The springs are sacred to the Maori and they are trying to control the spread of a noxious algae, didymo. You can't touch the water, fish in it, or fill your water bottle from it let alone fall in it because didymo can reproduce itself from ONE CELL stuck to your damp bathing suit or shoes and take over a river.

Tomorrow we're leaving Golden Bay and heading towards Kaikoura. We're planning to spend tomorrow night in Picton and drive the rest of the way to Kaikoura on Wednesday. Whales, here we come!

Carrie

!@#$%^&*(*&^%$#@!@#$%^&!@#$%&*!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sandy’s stuffed. No kidding. She lasted 23 days. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! With the $1200 we paid for her (plus dead Lu) and the $100 for towing at her death and the mechanic’s time for exploring the extent of the problem, it works out to $56 per day for Sandy (not including diesel). We could’ve rented a car for less than that. We felt like Lu’s time had really come when she conked out and we hold no grudge against her for dying. But Sandy, c’mon. You were a diesel engine with only 250,000 km which means you were supposed to last a lot longer.

Here’s how it happened. While couch surfing in Nelson with a cool guy named Steve, we met a French couple, Emilie and Jerome, who were also staying at Steve’s place. They just got to New Zealand a week or so before and were having a bit of bad luck (they bought a van from another French couple in Christchurch for $2000 and less than an hour outside of Christchurch on the SAME DAY the thing kicked the bucket and they had to hitchhike back). We really liked them and wanted to help them out, so we offered to give them a ride on Wednesday to where they were headed next. It was right on our way anyways. We were headed to Golden Bay (west of Nelson) to stay with some Quakers.

Sandy was really full with four people and accessories but we made it work. We even fit in Jerome’s guitar. We dropped them off in Takaka and wished them better luck for the rest of their travels. About 20 km from Takaka the engine just shut off as Matt was driving along. He didn’t notice until he tried to give it gas and nothing happened at all. We rolled over to the shoulder of the road and tried to restart the car. Nada. It sounded like the battery was dead. We popped the hood and there was some smoke (not steam) coming off the engine (we didn’t think that was a very good sign). We couldn’t check the water in the radiator until the engine cooled down quite a bit, so we left the hood up and got back in the car just as it started to pour rain. Wednesday’s weather was pretty crazy and fierce. It was alternating wind, sun, drizzle, and driving rain.

When it cooled enough to get the radiator open, we added about 2 liters of water. After a few minutes a whole bunch of steam came out which seemed like a terrible sign to me because that suggested that it had been empty. We noticed that the little piece of cooling system pipe that Colin replaced for us (see Optimist’s Week and Pessimist’s Week ***Colin- we want to you know that our car did not break because of the hose you put in! Sandy's problems were unfortunately larger than that.***) right after we bought Sandy had now completely burst, so water was pouring out of it. We still couldn’t start the car.

I called the Quakers we were going to stay with because it looked like we would be late for dinner. Jude gave me the number of the Collingwood mechanic and told me to call them straight away because it was 5:05. We caught them just as they were about to leave for the day and they came out with a truck about 15 minutes later. It turns out we’d nearly made it to Collingwood; it was just about 2 km down the road around a bend where we couldn’t see it.

Craig, the mechanic, added more water to the radiator and jumped the car (the battery was dead). Much to our relief, it started up. He told us to follow him back to the garage but pull over if the heat gauge goes above halfway. After about 400 m of driving the gauge rapidly went up so we pulled over and Craig towed us with a rope the rest of the way while we steered the car. We left Sandy at the garage and they gave us a courtesy car! We were completely amazed that this mechanic in a tiny town had courtesy cars, but that was great. So we continued on our way to the Quakers (and proceeded to go the wrong way because I thought they were in the wrong town…) and we eventually made it.

We were hopeful that Sandy was ok (except for a burst hose and maybe a worn-out battery or something). We called on Thursday and the news wasn’t good. From what they could tell without taking the engine apart, she at least had a cracked head gasket (minimum $1200). But it could cost up to $3500 if it was a cracked head. Obviously not worth it. AHHHHHHHHH!

We couldn’t afford another $1200 lemon. So we mentally prepared ourselves to go carless. It would mean sending a lot of things home or to Christchurch where we could then fly them home. It also means less independence for the rest of our travels. We could rent a car for short periods of time when we want to go off the beaten track. But it would change our trip somewhat.

When we went to the mechanic to collect our small library and the rest of our things from Sandy, Craig (the great mechanic) said he’d already looked around for another car. Lo and behold, there was a little red Nissan Sentra hatchback for $500. We’re now a bit gunshy, but the cost of bus and train tickets for the rest of our trip would probably add up to more than $500. So after a test drive to the nearest ATM to withdraw the cash for our THIRD car in New Zealand, we decided to go for it.

So, welcome Susie the Nissan Sentra. Coincidentally, all three of our cars now have been Nissans. This is probably the least risky car we’ve purchased in NZ since the same mechanics have worked on it for the past 3 years and the garage has a great reputation as being good and honest. We were lucky with Lu and unlucky with Sandy. We’re really hopeful that this will be our last car on this trip. If this one fails us, I think we’ll hitchhike or buy bikes.



Craig said that Sandy’s fatal overheating wasn’t our fault and the cooling system was probably already damaged when we got her. He also said that these particular diesel engines are total crap and it probably went further than most. So Sandy’s not worth anything for parts but she is going to a good cause. The Collingwood Volunteer Fire Department recently purchased The Jaws of Life and Sandy is going to be practice fodder for training their firemen. A fitting end, I think.

All this car madness has put us waaaaaay over budget so we’ve got some lean times ahead. We can’t sleep in this car (the mattress definitely didn’t fit), but we are presently benefiting from the wonderful hospitality of Quakers in the Golden Bay area.

Carrie

Back to the South

We have spent the past three days in Wellington visiting friends (most of whom are Friends). Tomorrow we will say farewell to the North Island for good (basically). With only 64 days left we need to cover the remaining corners of the South Island (mostly the North-west clockwise around to Christchurch), spend some time with our friends in Waimate, visit with Elizabeth (who is returning to NZ for a month in April), sell our car and all our stuff, and end up at the Christchurch airport. We have now spent more time on the North Island but somehow (I suppose it is because we began our journey there) it feels like we are returning home to the South Island.
We'll be out of internet contact until at least Monday because as soon as we land in Picton we'll be heading out to walk the Queen Charlotte Track which is a four or five day hike through the Marlborough Sounds (41°10'53.24"S, 173°59'11.68"E). It should be beautiful and I'm sure we will have much to report when we get back online.
Until then, farewell and to make the time pass more quickly I leave you with this picture of the hill we visited that holds the Guinness Book world record for the longest place name (40°20'45.49"S, 176°32'24.50"E). By the time you are through pronouncing it out loud we should be done with our hike.


Matt

p.s. I set the above image as the image when you look up Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu on wikipedia. I'm a published photographer!

We're off to Waiheke Island

Tomorrow (Monday) morning we're taking a ferry from Auckland to Waiheke Island [36°47'0.21"S, 175° 2'40.54"E]. We're staying at a Quaker-owned mini-retreat center there until Thursday. I think we'll be out of email touch until then.

Carrie

Painting at the Settlement

Since last Friday we’ve been at an intentional Quaker community in Wanganui, a few hours from Wellington on the west coast of the North Island. The Quaker Settlement started about 30 years ago. Each family has their own house and are responsible for their household finances and possessions. In the middle of the houses are shared conference center facilities that can be rented to outside groups. Everyone in the Settlement pitches in to maintain the common facilities.

About every 10 years the houses and common buildings at the settlement need to be painted. This year they organized a work week offering food, fun, and accommodation in exchange for painting and other help. Matt has been masking windows and doors and I’ve been painting. There were heaps of people here over the weekend but there aren’t quite so many now. Mostly it’s just us and the settlers painting with a few other people.

The upcoming Earlham program to New Zealand is planning to spend a few weeks here at the beginning of the program. The facilities here are perfect for a group like that- small rooms with shared sleeping accommodation, big kitchen, dining facilities, teaching space, and gardens.

If you’d like to read more about the settlement, here is a link to their webpage:
http://www.quaker.org.nz/groups/the-quaker-settlement
and there are pictures here:
http://www.quaker.org.nz/groups/photographs-of-the-settlement

We're not sure where we're going or what we're doing next. Hopefully we'll figure that out today!

Carrie

Summer Gathering of Aotearoa Friends

From December 28 to January 5 Matt and I were at the 50th annual Summer Gathering of Aotearoa New Zealand Friends (Quakers). Fifty years ago they started getting together over the summer holidays to bring together Quakers from all over the country. This year, about 170 people attended and there were at least 140 people there at any given time. The location of SG changes each year but this year it was just outside of Wellington. For the Quakers reading this, SG is not the same as Yearly Meeting. They have that in the winter I think. Summer Gathering is more fun and fellowship than business. Many of the meetings throughout the country are quite small and SG is an important time for making and strengthening the ties within the Quaker community. One thing that totally surpised me was the fluent use of Maori by some people, especially during the opening and closing meetings of the week. Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand. It means "land of the long white cloud."

A typical day started with breakfast, a half hour session reflecting on Quaker principles or practices, a half hour meeting for worship, morning tea, and a choice of sessions about Quaker history, other Quakerly topics, or crafts. Then we had lunch, free time, afternoon tea, and afternoon interest groups. Interest groups covered a range of topics that individual Friends had interest in, eg. what's going on in Palestine from a recently returned member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, how to fit your home with solar hot water heaters, salsa dancing, environmental activism, scrapbooking recent Summer Gatherings, or what Earlham plans to do in NZ with 18 students for 4 months. Next was dinner, evening session (eg. Quakers and Money- how do we earn it, spend it, share it? or Are Young Friends (16-3?) different from other Friends?), evening tea and then just hanging out until you decide to go to bed.

There were quite a few Young Friends (YFs) and we had a great time getting to know them through ping pong, card games, and jumping on the trampoline. Earlhamites might also be interested to hear that Kiwi YFs play their version of Wink called the Kissing Game. Before they play, they cover the floor with mattresses. This is a good idea. There were 20-30 people playing in our game so it took quite a few mattresses. Everyone sits in a circle with a partner except for one person. The odd person out calls people into the middle by name or attribute (everyone with brown hair, everyone born in NZ, etc). If you are called, your goal is to crawl to the caller and kiss them on the face. Meanwhile, your partner is trying to stop you. If you are the first person to kiss the caller, you become the caller's new partner and your old partner becomes the new caller.


The Kissing Game aka Wink (with mattresses instead of grass)

There were a few injuries. Alex dislocated and broke his finger and I got a huge lump on the back of my head after getting knocked with a knee. My injury just needed a bag of frozen peas but Alex went to the hospital and ended up with a finger splint and cast on his arm. After Summer Gathering Alex was kind enough to let us stay at his flat for a few days.

All in all it was a great week. I saw some people from the Dunedin meeting who I really liked and participated in some interesting discussions. We made lots of friends from all over the country and doubled the number of people in our phonebook. I think we're going to be spending more money texting now that we have some friends in NZ! It's awesome to be part of such a great community of caring people far from home.

Carrie

Earlhamites are Everywhere

As many of you know, Earlham College (our alma mater) has an excellent array of opportunities for students to study off-campus. I went to the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) and Kenya on Earlham programs led by Earlham professors. One of Earlham's first off-campus programs was in the southwestern U.S. About 15 students and two factulty members traveled around in vans for 3.5 months to learn about environmental issues. As with all Earlham programs, the specific courses offered on each program depend on the expertise of the leading faculty. Southwest field studies, as the program is known, also involved a lot of outdoor sports such as hiking, kayaking, rock climbing, etc. Recently, Earlham has had trouble enticing students to go on this program and faculty to lead the program. As a result, they have decided that the time has come to retire SWFS. Instead, Earlham will be offering a semester-long program in environmental studies in NEW ZEALAND beginning in Janauary 2008.

Jay Roberts had the idea to start a program in New Zealand. He is Director of Wilderness programs and teaches experiential education and environmental issues. He and his wife Marcie will be the first leader of the program during the [northern hemisphere] spring 2008. Bill Buskirk, professor of Biology, will hopefully lead the program in spring 2009. Bill was pivotal in the creation of both Southwest Field Studies and the East Africa program, in addition to leading countless other programs. So, Bill and Jay were the ideal team to scout New Zealand for program ideas.

This is where we come into the picture. Bill was one of my three letter writers for graduate school applications, so we've been in touch over the past few months, but I had to write to Jay to get a copy of their itinerary about a month ago. Jay planned a whirlwind 13 day tour of both islands. It just so happened that our schedule overlapped nicely with Bill and Jay's scout trip itinerary. They left Indiana on Christmas Eve and arrived in Auckland on December 26, missing Christmas Day entirely. I arrived in Auckland earlier on the 26th. I met Bill and Jay at the Auckland Friends Center where the three of us spent the night of the 26th. I had the pleasure of helping them get oriented on their very first day in New Zealand. We went to the Auckland musuem and spent a while in a bookstore looking at useful books. It was great- I got to recommend non-ficton for other people to buy! I felt so useful!


Inside the Auckland Friends Center (Quaker guest house)

Bill and Jay managed to stay up until at least 9 pm on their first day. I went to bed shortly thereafter so I could wake up early to meet Matt at the airport on my birthday. I already described most of what we did on that day with Jay and Bill in my previous post so I'm not going to repeat it. Earlham's NZ program might pass through Rotorua but they probably won't spend a lot of time there since they're planning to spent most of program on the South Island. Still, it is a popular destination within NZ and the future program leaders wanted to get as much of an idea about the country as possible in two weeks. We parted ways with them in Rotorua so they could get to their hostel before dinner. Matt and I went our separate ways for a few days. They went to the Quaker settlement in Whanganui (more about that later) while we went straight to the Quaker Summer Gathering on December 28 near Wellington.


Jay Roberts and Bill Buskirk

Summer Gathering was about 150 Quakers from all over New Zealand in one place for a week. What better networking opportunity could Earlham professors setting up a new international program ask for? Bill and Jay arrived on the afternoon of the 30th. I made some announcements about their visit so there was a great turnout of Quakers interested in hearing more about the program Earlham is planning. Jay did an excellent job articulating their goals and preliminary plans for the program. About 20 people stayed for an hour and offered a wealth of useful suggestions.


Quaker networking at its best

This meeting was fascinating for me because some day I'd like to be doing exactly what Bill and Jay do: plan and lead international programs for undergraduates. I loved hearing the perspectives of thoughtful, broadly educated Kiwis from all over the country (and quite a few expat-cum-kiwis).

There were two other Earlhamites at Summer Gathering which was exciting but hardly surprising. One was Seth Webb '96 and another went to ESR (Earlham School of Religion) in the 90s. I love meeting Earlhamites all over the place. It's a small but amazingly ubiquitous community.

On New Year's Eve we met up with Bill and Jay again in Wellington to go to Te Papa, New Zealand's AMAZING national museum. We spent about 3 hours there that day and hardly put a dent in it! Then we got great Indian food for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon at Karori Wildlife Sactuary, also in Wellington. Many birds that are highly endangered have been reintroduced to Karori Sanctuary, so we had an awesome time birding with Bill.


Birding with Bill

Sadly, we said goodbye to our Earlham professors after birding at Karori because Bill and Jay got on a ferry to the South Island first thing on New Year's Day. They had an awesome itinerary lined up for the rest of their short trip to New Zealand. Bill, Jay, how was the rest of your trip? We were thrilled to be able to spend time with some dear Earlhamites. I'm sure the new program is going to be a great success.

Carrie

We are Quakering

Just a quick heads up. We are spending this week at a New Zealand Quaker gathering near Wellington. Unfortunately we are not near enough to Wellington that it is easy for us to get online so we are fairly well removed from internet access. As a result we will probably not be blogging for several more days at least. Check back again in a week or so and we should be back up and running. Happy New Year everyone!