Heading South

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Where do I even begin? Winter has reared its ugly head bringing wind and even hail at times. This is the first time in my life that my birthday has been in the wintertime! A little update on the Lions series for the rugby fans…the All Blacks won the first Test last night 21-3!

I spent about five days last week in Christchurch, the biggest city on the South Island. They have a large cathedral built in the 1800’s and many art galleries. I visited the International Antarctic Center where the US and NZ researchers train for and depart for the cold continent. There is an education center that has all the info about Antarctica and what it is like to live there one would ever need. They also have an area that has hourly “storms” that let you experience what -18 degrees Celsius feels like. Miserable. Other than that it’s a good jumping off place to visit the upper half of the South Island. I journeyed to Mt. Cook, NZ’s highest mountain (but still smaller than many of Colorado’s peaks). However, it is a very technical mountain and very challenging to climb. It was a training ground for Sir Edmund Hillary before he conquered Everest. I just toured the valley around, but the clouds made viewing Mt. Cook impossible. Also in the area are many glacier fed lakes with turquoise waters and snowcapped mountains surrounding them. A fog had rolled into the area the night before and froze in the cold air leaving frost on ground. I also took another LOTR tour this time to Edoras and met a friend for the Lions game that night.

This past week was filled with trail building, bird surveys in the beautiful Rimutaka Forest Reserve (birds are boring though), a rained out seal survey, another of those freezing cold days on the world’s slowest sailboat, and stoat trapping in Rimutaka. Stoats are introduced predators related to weasels and they eat the native bird eggs. Fortunately, I didn’t get a finger caught in a trap like I did in Coromandel.

My birthday turned out to be one of the coldest days yet. We all went go-kart racing on an indoor track. Toby, our team leader, surprised us all with his aggressive driving. On the road he is one of the slowest drivers, taking twice as long as anyone else to get anywhere. Get him on a track though and get out of the way! Then we stopped at Chocolate Dayz Café (by the owners of Chocolate Fish, but not quite the same) for lunch and coffee. Tonight the plan seems to be to catch Batman at the Lower Hutt cinema.

I am trying to prepare myself to leave Wellington. I can’t believe I only have a week left here. Although I miss home and look forward to many things, New Zealand has become a second home to me and I will always be torn between here and the US.

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