A Journey to Middle Earth and Beyond

As though everyday wasn't like being in Middle Earth, we took a trip up the country to get a little closer. A group of 10 of us (names just for fun: me, Sandy, Jessica, Kristine, Nadja, Zack, Guan, Kelly, Monica, and Max) decided to take a weekend trip up to the Tongariro National Park. We left Friday at five o'clock. After wandering our way to pick up Nadja, we make about four U-turns before we manage to get to the proper road out of town. Dinner is a stop at Subway, which is both disappointing, because I've gone this far just to eat Subway, and a little nice because it reminds me of the OPRA trip to Canada and Maine. Driving through the country turns out to be quite enjoyable. Cows and sheep everywhere you look, but none of them appreciate the landscape they're eating. Turns out many towns in NZ love to put up giant statues of very random things. Such as a giant carrot, a plane, a bull, and a gum boot (known back home as a muck boot or rain boot). Bulls the town is particularly funny because they name all their stores with bull in the name: e.g. Consta-bull. We arrive at the Hostel, Ski Haus, at nearly 10:00 that night. While we had all been looking forward to the advertised "spa pool" or hot tub, while we spend an hour it in, it never gets hot. We eventually give up and go to bed. Mt. Ngauruhoe at sunrise. We wake up at 6:00AM to get an early start on what we expect to be a 6-8 hour hike. We get dropped off in Whakapapa Village (pronounced fakapapa, all wh's are f's here) only to discover that it's the wrong place to start and our two drivers have gone to drop off the one car at the end. It takes us seemingly forever to get to the start of the hike, so rather than hiking by 7:30 or 8AM, we start at about 9:45AM. The beginning of the hike is fairly flat and looks a lot like the Dead Marshes. But quickly, the hike turns harder. It's just about 12:00 when we reach the bottom of Mt. Ngauruhoe/Doom and seven of us decide to hike up, while three people keep on with the hike. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is expected to be a 6-8 hour hike from one end to the other. Mt. Ngauruhoe is a 3 hour side trip. From the bottom, it doesn't look so bad. We can see people all the way up to the top walking along what look like trails. However, as we climb, it becomes apparent that walking up a volcano is very different than walking up a mountain. About halfway up, we are really rock climbing. For every step we take, we lose about three inches of our stride. As we're climbing the clouds start to creep up the volcano. As they pass over us, we can feel the cool dampness, which comes as a great relief. We finally make it to the top and I take my first look into the crater of a volcano. The way down is a lot easier than the way up, we just get to slide. We're down by 4 and on for the next 4.5 hours of the hike. We cross the flats, which are quite welcome at this point, but up ahead we can see the next uphill we have to climb. While, I'm not that excited to be going up again, when we reach the top, we find out how worth it it was. The next up is quite small and at the crest we can look down to the acid lakes we've been told about. Apparently a helicopter fell in one once and one of the men from it swam to shore, he had health problems for the rest of his life. Our hostel owner tells us this before we leave, to keep us from swimming in them. Just in case the smell when you get there doesn't put you off from swimming anyway. We can see steam coming up from places around the pool. We set up for another group picture. This time attempting not to slide backward into the acid lakes, while getting into position with all the cameras flashing at us to warn us they're about to go off. There's only one more up before we start going downward for what seems like forever. For the next 3 hours we watch the same piece of landscape change angles over and over as we wind back and forth down over the same hill. After marching through desert like landscape for the whole day, the scenery abruptly changes and we enter a jungle. By now it's getting dark, nearing 8:00, but we're only about 2km from the end. The Tongariro Alpine crossing is 19.6km or 11.8 miles long. Mt. Ngauruhoe is over 7,000ft above sea level, but I have yet to figure out how far up we had to climb. The trip was well worth it, if challenging while we were doing it. I feel highly accomplished, if a little sore. It's not everyday you climb up a volcano. Plus now I have a little more LOTR street credit. The nerdiness lives on!!

Classes Begin and Oh What A Different Land This Is

Monday we all start our papers, some of us a little more confident in what we are taking than other. Jessica for example is doing the trial semester for vet school, so her papers are predetermined all she has to do is choose which of the sets of lectures for each paper she wants. Sandy on the other hand is trying for vet school as well, but they won't let her take the trial semester papers because she already has a Bachelor's of Animal Science. Both of them need to get at least an A average to even be considered for the program. Papers here are apparently much harder than other places. They tell A students to expect C's regularly. Just hearing that is a little scary, let alone trying to actually get an A when C's are the norm. My timetable appears to be worked out, except that one of the papers I'm in is a repeat of one I just did last semester. The problem is, the transcript sent from Hampshire is not up to date and is therefore lacking the classes I took last semester. This worries me because I really don't want to repeat a paper. I didn't fly 9,000 miles to do that. So, after much struggle I find a record of my classes and grades online and send off to Hampshire for a copy of my transcript. With record in hand, I head off to the College of Science to get approved for the four papers I know I want. (This makes the whole thing seem a lot easier than it was. I spent about five days, going to at least four offices, e-mailing the ISEP coordinator, and endless hours online looking at papers and timetables to get this figured out. The whole process has been quite difficult and drawn out.) By Tuesday late afternoon, I finally have a workable timetable and the four papers that I want. I am now signed up for four, 300-level papers (A feat not many attempt, but I feel fairly confident about, because really, it's not the grade that matters, but how much I actually learn by the end). So here they are: Sheep Production, Animal Nutrition, Reproductive and Lactational Physiology, and Animal Growth and Meat Production. All four should be very useful and they all sound quite interesting. In my first Repro lecture we watched an old video called "The Fight to be Male." Wherein they described all that goes into a fetus becoming male and repeatedly told us that the female form is the proper one, where we all start as female and revert to female if testosterone doesn't work properly. So ha, all you men, you should be female. Not really, we need you, but the video was interesting none the less. I already have three projects, due near the end of March, but don't let that fool you. I won't have time to slack off, they're all extensive projects that involve quite a bit of work and research. But I'm excited for the semester and to see what I learn from these papers. Now, not to disappoint you with an entire entry about school work, this is "O Week" on campus. The official welcome here and back to students, both new and returning. So last night many of us attended the Bizarre Ball. This was really just a concert with crazy clothing. We did a shopping trip to pick out some crazy outfits. I'm working on getting a picture to post here and I'll edit the post later to include it. The main feature was a performance by Gin, a famous NZ singer. She was once enrolled at Massey, but never actually made it to moving in or taking classes. Instead she went on to be a rock star. She was quite good really and we managed to wiggle and worm our way to the front so we could both see and be behind the speakers where the noise wasn't entirely deafening. It was pretty crazy, with a lot of pushing and shoving, but still enjoyable. But don't worry, I know it's a school night, but we made it to bed by 11:30 and my first class wasn't until 10 today. Today was clubs day as well and Nadja and I poked around finding some good things to keep us busy for the semester. We signed up for the Equine Club with the hopes of getting in touch with some people who own horses. The club really doesn't do riding as much as lectures about horses, but we'll see what we can do with it. I got some info from Sport Manawatu on local bike/trek trails. I even picked up some information on studying in Germany (at Nadja's insistence) though I don't know if I'll ever use it. We also got signed up for the Young Farmer's club, which offers something farm related, their brochure doesn't say much. However the one I'm most excited about is the Alpine Club. They offer trips practically endlessly. Just to name a few: Tramping in the Ruahines, Overnight tramp in the Kaimanawas, climbing at Whanganui Bay, Tramp the Pouakai Circuit, Tramping the South Island for mid-semester break, Tramp NZ's best 1 day walk (LOTR costume required, oh hell's yeah, nerdyness rocks), Overnight tramp to Totara Flats, walk to Tama lakes, Piripiri Road End caves, and Tramp the mighty Manawatu Gorge. If that seems like a lot, I only listed the most exciting ones and it's maybe 1/3 of the list. How much I can actually do, I have yet to work out, but you can believe I'll be at as many as I can. And, as an after thought, Nadja, Jessica, and I signed up for the surf club where they will teach you how to surf. Should be an exciting semester!

First Weekend Without Jet Lag

Friday is market day on the concourse and marks the last day of orientation. We spend a few hours walking around to the different booths, collecting as much free stuff as we can, including some free food. We also enter to win some trips. Jessica and I get back and decide to take off for town to get some shopping done before the weekend bus schedule starts. We intend to go to The Warehouse to pick up some school supplies, but we get to a Salvation Army first where we manage to find binders for our class notes for $.50 instead of the $4.00 they are at regular stores. We have to stop at KMart to get notebooks though; something that takes 20 minutes because the prices are so high and we don't know how many pages we're going to need. Shopping in a new place with all new names and really high prices turns out to be quite difficult. 7:00 is the free pancake night at The Center. We wait an hour in line for one pancake each. While they were good, I don't think I'd wait an hour again. Luckily I hear that most other times people are in class when it starts, so there won't be such a line. Saturday dawns gray and lacking in buses. So Jessica, Sandy, and I decide to head to the beach when the sun starts peeking through. Unfortunately we all managed to miss the sign for the beach, but eventually we found our way to another one. Waitarere Beach is where we end up and almost on in the car. Just before the road turns into sand there's a sign warning us that "the beach is a road." So we watch out for cars while following directions to the ship wreck that's supposed to be somewhere along the beach. We pass it and only find it when someone we asked earlier about itwaves us over. He points out where about six feet of the top edge is still exposed near the back of the boat and then shows us where is family is digging out the bow. He tells us they were there a year and a half earlier and his grand kids were climbing all over a very exposed bow, now there's hardly any of it left. It was called the Hydrabad and if you're curious about it, here's a good site: http://www.waitarerebeach.net.nz/hydrabad.htm. We find a dead puffer fish as well and make some time to take a few comedy shots. We finish up our adventure by stopping for ice cream in a small shop on the beach where we also ask how to get back to Palmy. We in fact have to pass both beaches we considered going to before making it back into town. For the evening someone finds a "little black dress" party at a local pub. We grab a cab and head into Palmy to "The Office." Turns out, this place is filled with mostly middle aged people and doesn't quite fit our standards for somewhere we want to spend the evening. So we take off and go to "High Flyers" a place much more suited to the college lifestyle. Sandy, Nadja, Jessica, and I break off from the larger group and find a smaller pub area in the back of the club with pool tables. Throughout two games, we observe the local culture. Turns out the Kiwis are major fans of country songs and rodeo. Two big screen TVs are playing calf roping shows and every time a famous country song comes on everyone starts singing along. None us are very skilled at pool and so the two games take quite some time. Finally it's nearing 12:00AM and we decide to catch a cab back to campus. As we leave we catch the end of a fight taking place in the courtyard of the club. Turns out this is quite frequent. I'm not sure the night life here is all that much for me, but it sure is an experience. On Sunday several of us non-Kiwis take part in an Operation Friendship "Kiwi Experience." The first stop: a Kiwi home for refreshments. Unfortunately there aren't enough cars for everyone and it takes quite some time to get everyone to the house. Eventually we do though and before long we're heading out for our second stop: The Manawatu Gorge. I had been hoping for a nice trek through the gorge, but we're running out of time in the day and we end up with just a brisk twenty minute jaunt through a very tropical looking jungle area. Throughout the drive all I can think of is The Lord of the Rings. The gorge looks very much like the river that the fellowship is heading down just before the Orc battle where the company parts and Boromir dies. The third stop is the Turitea Wind Farm. More information on that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turitea_Wind_Farm. It has a great view of the surrounding area, though it is of course, windy. In the middle of the car park is a giant turbine, which you can hear swishing around, and if you stare up at it, you feel like it's about to topple over on you. Very disorienting. The surrounding hills are covered in white and gray windmills. While I think it's amazing and beautiful, my German friend, Nadja, is unimpressed as she lives with them all around her back home. Our final stop is at a local church (to some surprise from us as we had been expecting another Kiwi home) for dinner. They serve us fish and chips (quite different from what we eat in the U.S., mostly in the batter) and then finish it off with ice cream. They have given me so much free food thus far, I have hardly to worry about money or where my next meal will come from. All in all the day has been quite a success and if nothing else, I now know where to go for a good trek if only I can find a way to get there. Just you wait my gorge, we will meet again. We get back just in time for a hall meeting. Most of Rotary Court gathers in the courtyard to hear all the rules we've heard already about what we can/can't do, what fines we get for doing those things we can't do, and what the RAs are there for. They give out shirts for our court, mugs, and little Kiwi bird note holders. Soon after the meeting is over a group of us decides to head over to the volleyball court for a game to mark the end of our pre-class freedom. We play long after it gets dark and finally head in for the night at 9:30. Most people will start their Massey education at 9AM the next day.

Two Nights of Fright and Love

The afternoon is slow as well. I have to attend a study abroad session, where I hope to get my papers figured out, but it's a no go. However they do tell me where I can go to get myself set up with some papers. So I spent a while in the College of Sciences, where James set me up with a temporary timetable. Hopefully once my updated transcript comes through from Hampshire, I'll be able to get one changed to a higher level paper and that will be the end of it. Finally it's 7:10 and we head to the bus stop for our night at the Maze. We arrive about a half hour before sunset and an employee dressed like the Joker explained that, while we were not allowed to touch any of the employees in the maze, they could touch us. This did not boost the confidence of many of the students. No one gained any confidence when someone went under one of buses and pushed a shovel out at everyone waiting either. Our group of five was one of the first let into the maze. Almost immediately we encountered a three headed dog which chased us toward a seemingly circular part of the maze that takes us a good twenty minutes to work out. The whole time we have to repeatedly encounter a pig-man who likes to pop out through the stretch fabric tunnel we keep going back and forth in. Next we encounter a man using a chainsaw on a chain-link fence. Normally, I'm pretty good in these situations, the whole idea that someone popping out at me when I'm expecting it and having it scare me, doesn't seem to make sense. However, when we approach a bridge, Ihave my doubts. I shine the light underneath to be sure there's no one waiting to grab my ankle. Satisfied that I can't see anyone, we start across. About halfway across I turn around to make sure the rest of the group is there and sure enough, a hand comes out to grab my ankle. Talk about the major shivers. It's not long before we encounter a man revving a chainsaw, but this time he's not behind a fence (on reflection, I believe there was no chain on the saw given the details I remember while being pushed away by everyone else). It occurs to me that this entire maze may not be legal in the U.S., which is really to bad, because it's the best I've seen. When Santa tells us that we should go right we go left and encounter a set of doors. While we're deciding which one to take, two employees show up. At first I think they're here to tell us which way out because we have to leave, but I second guess that when they don't tell everyone which way to go and don't stop anyone from going any way they feel like. My suspicion is confirmed when they pass me and one whispers they would go left and the other says they would go middle. Quite a nice trick to set people into a maze with no crazy costume, just jackets with the company names, to confuse people more. Even though we had to wait for an hour to get the bus, it was a good night. We were in the maze for almost 2 1/2 hours. Wednesday night we all got on the buses and headed to a movie theater, rented out for us for the night. We saw Valentine's Day, a movie that is apparently recent, but I had not heard of. It was a pretty funny movie, though I don't think I would advise paying for it, wait till it's in the library. Two good nights in a row and that much closer to the start of classes. I took another walk today and found some wandering trails though the woods I plan to explore further over the next months. I also did some research on local trails I can access from the campus of nearby bus stops. Today we noticed giant bug exoskeletons covering the trees. I think they come from cicadas, especially given the deafening noise surrounding us from the trees. I fear that when I come home I will have become so used to the constant cicada noise I'll find Williamstown too quiet.

The First Days of Orientation

Yesterday was the first full, official, major day of orientation. It started at 9AM and went to 9:30PM. Mostly it consisted of a lot of lectures about things that most people seem to be fairly uninterested in. We heard about immigration, which was strange because they really just went over getting a visa, which we all have to have done just to be here. They did send us for a walk around campus so we could stretch our legs. Unfortunately the tour leaders did not seem to know much about the campus other than the few buildings they regularly use. We had a nice lunch outside in the full sun. This was a pleasant surprise because that morning we had woken up to, and walked through, a downcast drizzle. At 4:00 we boarded a set of coach buses for a tour around the city. While they pointed out some useful things, it was difficult to orient myself while sitting in the back of a bus. We all met up again, this time including all the first year students, at the Arena Manawatu. Here we were welcomed by the Mayor and several higher ups from the university. After a very tastety dinner (one many of us wished had happened about two hours earlier) we were subjected to a presentation about starting life at Uni. While this may have been nice for the first years, it was rather tiresome and repetitive for those of us who have been to school already. They covered topics like: You don't have to drink, don't sleep with someone unless you're really sure it's what you want, how to be away from home, basically all things many of the international students had already dealt with. Never the less, the presentation was engaging and quite well done. Probably something they should consider getting in the U.S. This was our attempt to take pictures with five cameras at once all on self-timers. We have many Americans, two Germans, and one Norwegian. See, we can meet new people!! Today's orientation got off to a slow start, repeating some of the information we had heard in previous lectures. However, several of us decided to participate in the "Team Building" activities. While I'm not sure it got us introduced to anyone new or built any teams, the activities were fun. We got to run an obstacle course through a giant inflatable . . . Thing? No idea what to call it. We had tug-of-war, dodge ball (not so much fun with the type of balls we used), "Bridging the Gap (where you use tires to get across the field with a bucket of water), and something like a three legged race only with two wooden boards attached to your feet and the feet of seven other people. All in all pretty fun and we showed our blue pride, with the blue team taking first place with over 700 points. Our prize: small Frisbee, mini-highlighter, and first in line for the lunch BBQ (by the way, the Kiwis think they invented this, while I'm not sure who did, I know Americans would probably claim it as do the Aussies). The rest of the afternoon is filled with lectures and class enrollment, but tonight holds a Maze for those of us on the blue, yellow, and purple teams. Ah yes, and about the Sunday farm tours we did. Massey farms have over 1,000 sheep and over 1,000 cattle. They also have several herding dogs, which we got to see in action. One of them is specially trained to jump on the backs of sheep to get them to go where she wants them. This is only used in chute situations. There is also a deer farm around here somewhere, though we have yet to see them. More on the research being done on the farms to come. As for now, time to sit in a classroom for the next several hours, with hopefully one break to try to get a free bike from the school for the semester.

I took a walk around campus yesterday to get my bearings a little and stretch my legs. I found that there are numerous places within the campus (including one in the dead center) that one can pretty much disappear into the woods. The trails are clear and there are labels for many of the plants. It's nice to know I can get this far away from Hampshire without having to give up roaming through woods. This was one of the particularly interesting looking trees I encountered along the way. One thing that really separates this place from the Northeast of the U.S. (aside from distance, the equator, and the accents) is the number of different types of trees all growing right next to each other. It's like a mix of New England and California. There are pines I swear are in my back yard in New York bumping up against palms that could have come from my grandma's house in Santa Ana. I counted eight distinctly different trees within a ten foot span along the road. This is the center of campus. The building to the left houses the bank, dining hall, book store, travel agency, ATM, and about six other things I can't now remember. In the back you can just make out the library through the trees. Aside form the ducks roaming around and the birds I hear all the time, but can't see in the trees, there is virtually no animal life. I saw one moth so far and no other insects of any kinds. I suppose I should be tipped off by the lack of screens in the windows, but usually there is a least several types of insects buzzing around. Perhaps it's just been too windy for them. There is one bird that seems to live somewhere in the Rotary courtyard that loves to sing in the morning. The funny thing about it, is the song sounds like the opening to "Caring is Creepy" by The Shins. The oddest thing about the campus that Jessica and I agreed on yesterday, was the lack of squirrels. They abound on the Hampshire campus and you can't go anywhere without one running across your path practically under your feet. Here, there is not a single one. While reading about the history of New Zealand before arriving here, I did come across some things about the flora and fauna. New Zealand separated from Gondwana (the precursor supercontinent that consisted of the land that would later become Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Arabia, and the Indian subcontinent) before the evolution of mammals. Before humans came to New Zealand the only mammal here was the bat and that had immigrated, it was not a native. Without predators birds took over, making New Zealand a famous Birdland. By the time humans arrived nearly 1/3 of all birds had lost the ability to fly and some even had lost their wings. The largest birds were two species of Moa and were about 12 ft tall, weighing 510 lbs. They were preyed on by the great New Zealand eagle which had a wingspan of about 10 ft. When the first Maoris settled, they used the Moa as their primary food source and hunted it into extinction. Easter Island had a similar problem of running out of food quickly and they resorted to cannibalism. The theory for both places is that the people who landed there took several generations to kill off their food source and by the time they needed more they had lost much of their knowledge of sea travel as well as possibly believing they were the only people and place in the world. New Zealand had only just begun to resort to cannibalism (only done in cases of revenge) before white settlers discovered the islands and introduced cows, pigs, and chickens. One theory suggests that this introduction of new species is what saved the Maoris from starvation. On the other hand, the European settlers also introduced rabbits, hares, weasels, stoats, and ferrets which quickly took over. The introduction of the Australian opossum was one of the most devastating and today there is a hunting season for them and they are eaten regularly. I am still awaiting my opportunity to taste test one.

Settling in, also known as nesting.

The flight left San Fransisco on time and directed itself toward the setting sun. I found myself seated next to a boy from a small town three hours outside of the Bay area who was traveling with a large student group. He was to be studying at AUT, but wasn't sure how many of the other student he was traveling with were headed to the same destination. We talked about our mutual feelings of disbelief that we were actually headed out over the Pacific to somewhere so far away. I settled into a movie (Inglorious Basterds) until after dinner was served, when I tried in vain to fall asleep for the next 9 1/2 hours of the trip. Just before landing I decided to liberate one of the Air New Zealand blankets I had used to keep warm on the plane. I'll clear my conscience by giving it back on the return flight, but it's not as though I hadn't paid enough for the flight to get a blanket out of it. Not to mention I have no blankets in my room. In hindsight, I should have grabbed a pillow too. We landed twelve hours after takeoff in a damp Aukland before sunrise and a full hour before our scheduled arrival. I decided to use my extra time to walk between the international and domestic terminals rather than take the shuttle. I went to board my final flight (the third in 23 hours, which by the way was my total travel time) and simple handed over my boarding pass. I want to emphasize this: There was NO security for my NZ domestic flight. No restriction on liquids, no taking off shoes, no x-ray machines, and no metal detectors. Not even an ID was required. Just to give you an idea of how safe this country feels. Whether that feeling is backed in reality has yet to be seen by me. I was picked up by a Massey representative only to find out that one girl I had seen in the SF airport and had been on both my SFO-AUK flight and my AUK-PMR flight, was also going to be studying at Massey. Not only that, she lives in the same housing complex as me. After starting to settle myself into my room (I'll get to that next), this girl, Jessica, and I ventured by bus into the center of Palmy. We wandered aimlessly through the streets surrounding "The Square," a small park like area in the center of town. One thing that strikes me is how much I feel like I"m back in Ireland half the time. Many of the same European qualities are found here. Such as driving on the left and the chain store "Farmers," which has nothing what-so-ever to do with farming. There are other chains, like Woolworths, and companies, such as Vodaphone, that I associate strongly with European culture. After wandering quite some time we both noticed how strange the weather was. Clouds move endlessly through the sky and every time one passes by, the temperature seems to drop by 10*. Luckily for us the rain has stopped by the time we had arrived at Massey campus. Our final stop in town was "Pak 'n' Save," the cheapest, major grocery store around. The best one for students or so the international student representative told us. Exhausted, we took the bus back to campus and parted ways with plans to meet up tomorrow to do something else. Now, here I sit in my room writing this rather than figuring out where I want to put the rest of my stuff. The first thing I thought when I really saw my room was that it kind of looks like a jail cell. Though once I've made up the bed and gotten my clothes away, it really begins not to look that bad. It makes me really appreciate how nice the mods are at Hampshire. This place is not as cozy, but I'm sure I'll grow to love it while I'm here. The room is narrow, but not short. There is no dresser, but enough closet space to make up for it as well as a good amount of shelving space. My welcome package included sheets, one set of dishes, a travel mug, a water bottle, a bag, a Frisbee, lots of welcome papers, and two posters to keep me organized. It is carpeted and that I have to say, makes up for a lot, as well as the full length window that I can open substantially. At least for now it's warm enough I may not have to pull my sleeping bag out at night, what with my contraband blanket and all. Did I mention how excited I was that my computer didn't explode when I plugged it in? I know it says that's how you're supposed to do it, but I'm just so protective of this beast that I don't like to take chances. Also, there's an adorable black kitten and it's black mother that seem to love the stoop outside my window for sunbathing. Orientation starts Sunday, so I'll hold off my updates until I know what it's all about, unless something truly amazing happens.