Speaking Up, Cooking Classes, and Denny's

School

The postgraduate room at school where we go to research is quickly filling up with new students. Most of them are History master's students, a couple Art History. The semester starts next week, and even though postgraduates can start at any time, it makes sense that those continuing on from undergraduate and honours would be starting around this time. It should make for a more lively room.

I had a few hours of work last week for the Academic Skills Centre helping facilitate discussions for English-as-a-second-language students. The staff showed the first few minutes of a funny video on the history of the formation of the New Zealand accent (http://youtu.be/bV_UmOvV1vs). I have noticed the different vowel sounds. In the video they say that gradually the short "i" like in milk is turning into a short "u". They exaggerate it for comedic effect, but some people have sounded almost like that here.

I composed a short survey to send to postgrad students as part of my effort to build a better community and ran it by the professor I had the meeting with in December. He sent me back a really nice email saying that thanks to that meeting, he had made postgraduate support one of three strategic priorities for the year and was assigning someone to implement the Year of the Postgrad in 2015. How awesome is that! I figured he was working on things behind the scenes, so it is really nice to know that my speaking out was worthwhile. I also spent some time last week emailing an academic science fiction association in the U.S. about how it really needs to do more to support postgraduates and get with the times in terms of Facebook groups, organizing helpful materials, and attracting the younger generation of scholars. We all know how institutions that can't keep up end up fading away.

Food

I've completed two classes of the four-session cooking class I signed up for through a community center. In the first one, we made Osso Buco (beef stew with red wine and tomatoes) and Pan-fried Tofu. This was my first time having tofu. It wasn't too bad. Kind of a strange texture unlike anything else. The stew was a bit too sweet for my liking, but it was my first time cooking with wine, so I think I'll try experimenting a bit more with that. In the second class, we made fried noodles with bok choy and spring onions and steamed chicken with shitake mushrooms. All the vegetables were new to me, and I am proud to say I tried all of them and even actually liked the mushrooms! They weren't as mushy as the little ones that are normally dumped in food, although they still look weird. The teacher is from Malaysia, so she knows how to make good Asian food with the right sauce combinations.

We finally found a cheaper restaurant option here, and it is good old Denny's, classic American diner. It is celebrating 25 years in New Zealand this year, although the Christchurch one just opened recently. It has the usual items like pancakes, French toast, omelettes, skillets, and sandwiches. No waffles though! They are not as big into waffles here for some reason. We both ordered French Toast and then chocolate peanut butter lava cake with ice cream and whipped cream, and hot fudge cake with ice cream and whipped cream. Needless to say, we were stuffed. No tipping required, and we were on our way. This kind of American dessert contrasts so much with the Chinese dessert of "pumpkin cake" we ordered at a Chinese restaurant that we could only take a bite of: sesame seed-covered pumpkin shells filled with black bean curd. Not what we were expecting to say the least. We wondered how many other people ordered that not knowing what it would be.

Arts and Fireworks

School & Work

Admittedly, I haven't done much for my research since the trip to Queenstown. I've been working on several editing projects and planning upcoming trips to the North Island and Australia (finally booked our flight to its east coast -- very much looking forward to it!). The English PhD student in the cubicle next-door who is rarely there and never speaks finally talked to me and actually offered me a grading job for the semester! Also found out that her research is something to do with Star Trek television shows. She needs a group of people to grade papers for the one writing class that engineering students have to take (because employers complained that recent grads couldn't communicate). Add that to my other three part-time jobs and I will have quite a schedule when the school semester for undergraduates starts on February 23rd. Of course, I don't have a schedule yet because everything is done so last-minute.

There were two research presentations on-campus by the two candidates for a part-time English faculty position, so it was interesting to see this part of the job interview. The first just received her PhD last year and is looking at representations of women in horror films; the second is an American who moved to NZ over a year ago whose research is on contemporary women's representations in literature and film through the lens of literary theory. They were very different, so I have no idea whom will be chosen. The first was a graduate of the department, so there could be some bias there, although the decision-makers might also be looking for a fresh perspective.

D and I have been having several discussions about arts education, and a particularly intense one after I read aloud parts of this long but informative article on liberal-arts education (link below), how it has changed, what people think it means, and whether or not it is still valued/valuable in various societies. I haven't yet formulated an essay on the topic, but I feel like one is in the works in my mind.
The Chronicle of Higher Education's "The Day The Purpose of College Changed"

In a similar vein, one of the reasons I nominated myself to be on the committee of the university's feminist society/club was to help ensure there are opportunities for education on women's issues and civil rights on-campus. Along with the recent cutbacks in many of the school's Arts programs (including American Studies) was the removal of the Gender Studies programs, which means that currently there is only one class on gender, in the Sociology department, which is only offered occasionally. This seems odd for a well-regarded university of over 14,000 students. So I was successfully voted in and will be doing my part this year to incorporate educational events for interested students into the club's schedule.

Outdoors

We went on a hike in the Port Hills which was particularly hard because it was a hot day and all uphill. The hills were brown but we still enjoyed good views of the ocean and harbor on either side at the top.

Another day we went on one of the trails at Halswell Quarry Park. The blue-gray Halswell Stone from there was used to build many of the city's buildings. The city has done a nice job of preserving the history with several boards around the 30-minute trail. 

For some reason, Christchurch likes its fireworks shows. The third show since November was on January 31, called "Sparks". The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra played movie themes for two hours beforehand. The weather was bad -- it drizzled the whole time and was windy -- but that didn't deter them from lighting off the fireworks.

Home

D had a packet of San Francisco sourdough yeast mailed to him and, after days of prep, successfully made a loaf of bread with some of that sourdough tang he so enjoys. Later, he made another batch and will keep the starter going in the fridge to help it become even more sour-tasting. This kind of bread-making is definitely an intensive process. I made pumpkin pie (with a homemade crust) for the first time for a friend's going-away board game party. It turned out pretty good! Thank you, Libby's canned pumpkin. I advertised my financial guide ebook on social media (a little side project I finished last year) and enrolled for a short cooking class at the local community center which starts tomorrow. My sunflower bloomed and our car passed its Warrant of Fitness test (required every 6 months for older cars). Yay! And today we went to the park to hear the Scottish Society Pipe Band play bagpipes and drums.

Drive Home

It was time to drive back to Christchurch, but I was so looking forward to stopping at that Cromwell fruit stand again, I had two bad dreams that I had accidentally driven right past it. There were several tour buses stopped this time so we had to fight the crowds (many of whom were snapping photos of the fruit like they had never seen it before). But I had my fill: raspberries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, and cherries. D got some manuka honey, too. Some of the fruit I bought to give away as gifts to our neighbors who watered our plants and other friends. But the rest was for me! (D is picky and doesn't like most fruit -- I know, crazy.)

We drove by a Lord of the Rings location: the largest battle scene of the films (The Battle of the Pelennor Fields) was filmed in the plains near the town of Twizel.

At Lake Pukaki, I fed the ducks. One of them was catching the dropping bread in its beak before it hit the ground. That was a cool duck. 

The real highlight was a rest stop just a little ways further at Lake Tekapo, with awesome views of Aoraki Mt. Cook and the surrounding snow-covered peaks. If the pictures look kinda fake, that's because it looked fake in real life too -- there was a surreal shimmer to the scenery. The water's color comes from ground glacial rock. There's a famous Church of the Good Shepherd with a killer view at another part of the lake.

A little while later, the beautiful warmth and sunny skies turned to dreary, rainy ones which continued all the way until we picked up our cat and went home. Unfortunately, he had to go the vet while we were away because he got something in his eye and it closed shut, but it had already cleared up with some ointment. We had to give him another few applications, and he fought us all the way. Nobody likes having stuff put in their eye!

Everyone said the temperatures had been roasting all week, but now they had turned cold enough for me to turn on the heating blankets. One thing we've learned about New Zealand: you can never count on the forecast to be right, or the weather to stay consistent enough to make any solid plans involving the outdoors. I anticipated having nice picnics outside on this trip and the weather was supposed to be nice and sunny in the Queenstown area...until it decided to rain almost every day. It's what happens on the coast, but it takes some getting used to.

Queenstown

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Queenstown -- finally! We went on a 10:30am lake cruise (Lake Wakatipu) which was nice and relaxing. We had good views of the town and the mountains and a nice guide. One of the big brags for the lake is that it is 99.9% pure, so he pulled up a bucket and let us all try a glass. Have to say, pretty good. You certainly couldn't do that in the U.S.!  

We went to the underwater observatory which wasn’t much – a bunch of trout, eels, and diving ducks waiting around for someone to feed them. It was included in our lake tour, so that’s the only reason we went. 

Even though the sun was beating down, we took a walk around some of the lake and checked out the botanical gardens with lots of roses in bloom. Then we got Patagonia ice cream and headed back to the hostel to relax and read in the lounge. I really enjoyed that view. Since it was discount Tuesday at the movie theatre, we saw the third Hobbit movie again, but this time in 3-D and high-frame-rate. Not much of New Zealand in that movie, unfortunately -- mostly green screen digital effects.

Arrowtown

Our next stop was Arrowtown, a gold-mining town populated by thousands of Europeans and Chinese seeking their fortune during the late 1800s. It has gone to some lengths to preserve a lot of its Chinese history, with an outdoor mini-trail populated with signage and restored houses from the former Chinese settlement.

Lord of the Rings stops:
We visited the Ford of Bruinen where Arwen takes Frodo across the river to escape the Nazgul. It was definitely recognizable from the movie. We also walked through a forest to the Gladden Fields were Isildur lost the ring in the river.

The Lakes District Museum was worth the admission. Sure there were several grammatical and punctuation errors on the signs. But overall it had lots of interesting information and a basement area with an old carriage, teaching classroom, bakery and blacksmith room replicas, and mining equipment. It also didn't neglect the Chinese history of the area.

That was about it for Arrowtown. Next we drove to another LOTR location on the Kawarau River: the section of the Anduin River where the Pillars of the Kings (or Argonath) were digitally added. Right across the street was another great view of the river, from the bridge where bungy-jumping originated. A.J. Hackett Bungy is still operating and letting people jump off the bridge after forking over lots of money. We watched two people jump and were glad not to be them!

Glenorchy

After the day at the glacier, we drove to Glenorchy, about a 40-minute drive up the side of Lake Wakatipu. It was a nice drive along the cliffs with views of the lake, a couple islands in the lake, the mountains, and the hillsides.

The town itself was fairly small. We continued past it on our way to a couple Lord of the Rings and Hobbit locations. The first was around Paradise where Beorn's house, the land between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood, Isengard, Amon Hen, and Lothlorien were filmed. Unfortunately, we were stopped partway through one of the forests by a creek too large for our car to be able to ford. The scenery was pretty, but I couldn't help but notice how similar it was to some of the coast of California. I think someone coming from a city or the plains would have been more startled by all of the features. It made me appreciate my experiences in California, for sure.

Paradise 1

Paradise 2

where Isengard was digitally added in LOTR

Back in Glenorchy, we parked in a lot by the lake to eat our lunch (in the car, because it was sprinkling and very windy out). I noticed a big black dog on the beach barking as it tried to get two ladies to play fetch with it. I assumed the dog was theirs and was feeling up for some socializing. We got out of the car, started throwing the stick for the dog, and struck up a conversation with them about the dog. Turns out, they were tourists and the dog actually belonged to locals and knew it could get people to play with it by visiting the beach area (a new crop of tourists every day!). Later it was joined by a golden retriever. One of the ladies was from Australia. Her friend was from the U.S., and it turned out she had a PhD so we talked about the lousy job market, and she offered advice on how to get ahead once we received our degrees. It was a very encouraging encounter -- one of those occasional travel experiences you don't seem to get as many of when you're stuck in your daily routine. We parted ways, then as we were filling up at a gas station down the main street, she ran into us again and gave us her business card so we could stay in touch.

On the way back to Queenstown, we stopped to hike at a couple other LOTR locations near Closeburn and Twelve Mile Delta: Ithilien, where Sam saw the oliphants, the place where Sam cooked the "coneys" or rabbits, and the spot where Frodo, Sam, and Gollum watched the battle between Harad men and the Rangers of Gondor. It was here that we unknowingly were bitten by bugs on the trail and had to deal with a few itchy bites on arms and legs the rest of the trip.

in the Twelve Mile Delta area 

Rob Roy Glacier Hike

I planned on doing the biggest and longest hike -- the Rob Roy Glacier Hike -- on our first full day after arriving in Queenstown to ensure we would have the energy to finish it. And it's a good thing I love glaciers, because it was a hard day for sure. To get to the start of the track, it was an hour to Lake Wanaka, then another hour, which I hadn't realized.

rough idea how far the glacier area was from Queenstown

The last 30km were on an unpaved farm road, and 30km doesn't sound like a lot until you're on an unpaved road for that long and your hands are going numb from the vibrating steering wheel and you're wondering when you are finally going to be done with it. We saw a glacier on the way there which helped encourage us to stick it out. Like the guidebook said, there were 9 fords to cross on that road. Thankfully, none were too bad. When we finally made it to the parking lot, we were glad to see many other cars there and other hikers preparing to start out.

this was a promising sight while on the dirt road -- a glacier!

I was not prepared for the blasting winds and droplets of rain/river water pinging my face as we traversed the first section of open fields. It literally stopped me in my tracks and almost bowled me over several times. I was tempted to turn back, but I saw that the track went into forest ahead and figured that that would cut down on the viciousness of the weather.

We made it across the swing bridge and settled into a slow but steady hike with our rainhoods on to keep out the constant sprinkling. We hadn't hiked in a while, and it was uphill most of the way. We reached the Lower Lookout after 2 hours and were tempted to head back, but the view wasn't that great and since we'd come all this way, we decided to keep going the 30 minutes more to the Upper Lookout. So glad we did! The view of the waterfalls and several glaciers was great, despite the rain making it difficult to photograph. It's hard to capture the sounds of the hike -- the river running alongside most of the track was so loud, it was hard to think sometimes, but that's part of the enjoyment of hiking for me. The wind blew one of the waterfalls sideways at one point which was fun to watch.

view from the Lower Lookout

view from the Upper Lookout

Glaciers are awesome!

The hike back was difficult because of having to go downhill -- hard on the knees. A few groups of fresh hikers passed us and I felt relieved to be on the way back to the carpack, not just starting out. Of course, now we had to go back another 30km on that dirt road. We did get to witness sheep crossing a bridge in front of us and took a video of them running and leaping to avoid the car. Their "bahs" are so cute! We stopped briefly in Wanaka to stretch our legs, then made the drive back to Queenstown.