Winter

Marked by an anticipated snowfall in the mountains, winter has finally arrived here on the South Island of Aotearoa.  It briefly snowed today in Dunedin, however it did not stick to the ground.  I have been told it rarely does.   

We found some snow on the hills above
Dunedin this weekend

  

Impromptu Road Trip

This past week Nick and I were lucky to have found ourselves with time off from work and decided to go on a little road trip adventure.  We packed a lot into our 8 day adventure, here are some of the highlights.

BOULDERING AT ELEPHANT ROCKS

These rocks are located in a farmer's paddock.  This is Nick making his way through the crack between these rock.

Can you see the elephant?

Weekend Adventures!

Having just spent the last 9 years of my life in Juneau, where you must travel by boat or plane if you wish to go beyond the main 47 mile stretch of road, I have come to appreciate roads, that is those that connect to other places.  Of course part of the charm of Juneau, in my  opinion, is the fact that it is quite isolated, due to the proximity of the sea, steep mountains, glaciers and icefield, which make building a road that connects Juneau to other places difficult.  [For those who are not from Juneau, there has been ongoing debate for a very long time about building a road from Juneau]  Needless to say, I rarely found myself craving the open road while in Juneau because the landscape just didn't allow it and I was quite content hiking on familiar trails and viewing the glacier, well that never got old.  Now, living in Dunedin, I have fallen into the habit of leaving town for the open road just about every other weekend.  

From a mountain south of Dunedin, looking over farmland.

my mihimihi

I recently took a brief, one day, introduction to te reo Māori, or the Māori language.  In this class I learned about basic pronunciation, how to say some colors, and how to construct my mihimihi.  A mihimihi is and introduction, a way to make links with others, a statement of who you and where you are from in relation to several things.  Some of these things include a mountain and water source that you associate with being home, your nationality or ethnicity, and your whakapapa (family and genealogy/ancestry).

Mt. Washington, one of my mountians

Mendenhall Glacier, one of my rivers

It's like Lord of the Rings!

If you have ever watched Flight of the Conchords, you may have noticed a facetious poster on Murray’s office wall that features a lovely photo of New Zealand landscape with the caption: New Zealand, It’s like Lord of the Rings.  As I have traveled and tramped in various places in NZ, I have overheard many a traveler gasp and claim, “wow, it’s like lord of the rings!”  Meanwhile, I made a point to not say those six words, knowing how cliché they are.  After all, before we came here and briefly after telling someone we were heading to New Zealand, they would inevitably state, “you know that’s where lord of the rings was filmed” or “I’ve heard it’s just like lord of the rings there.”  Then we went to the Matukituki Valley for a weekend of tramping and camping and there I was unable to contain myself as I exclaimed, this is like lord of the rings!  See for yourself…

A Photo Tour of Dunedin

Welcome to a photo tour of a few parts of Dunedin!  Dunedin is a very large city land wise and is made up of many diverse suburbs.  Population wise, Dunedin has about 100,000 people living here year round and about another 25,000 students who come for the academic year.  Here are some photos from St. Clair, the "inner city" as they call it here (also known as downtown), Maori Hill, and the Otago Peninsula.  

St. Clair beach looking south

St. Clair Beach looking north

ch-ch-ch-changes

When moving to a new place, there are inevitably changes or adaptations that occur in our behavior, language, and perspectives of everyday things.  Sometimes these changes are deliberate and quite consciously made.  For example, I now drive and ride my bike on the left hand side of the road, I use the expression “can I make you a cuppa?” when interacting with New Zealanders (most especially the elderly folks I work with), and I have decided hanging your washing out on a line is far superior to using a clothes dryer.  Other changes

Baaaaaaaaa!

This might be rather cliché, but I must have an entry devoted entirely to sheep.  Sheep abound in New Zealand, well at least in the places I’ve been to on the south island so far.  

Coffee

For years I have flirted with coffee.  At times I'm a committed connoisseur, other times I swear it off completely.  When we left Juneau, I decided to have a last hurrah with the hot and steamy beverage.  After all, we were embarking on a several week road trip USA (mainly to bring our dog, Kayan, to stay with friends in Colorado) and what’s a road trip in the states without coffee???  I would fully indulge myself and then planned to break free of my caffeine love affair once we got to New Zealand, because I assumed the hot beverage of choice would be tea.  WOW, was I wrong! 

Cappuccino, note the chocolate powder on top!

Travel

Nick spotted two sets of familiar shoes as we descend the stairs to baggage claim.  With each step our friends were revealed to us from toe to head.  Suddenly our tired bodies and minds, from 33 hours of travel, felt an overwhelming joy and slight mania at having arrived.  We exchanged hugs and some stories of our travels as we waited for our bags to take their turn around the carousel.  On our drive to M and J’s home fireworks exploded in the sky.  Apparently everyone was excited about our arrival.  Well, that and it was Guy Fox day.