Wildfoods Festival Weekend Wildness

I've been practically non-existent on this thing but can you blame me? I'm in New Zealand!

Anyways, here's a list of stuff that I aim to write about at some point:
-Orientation
-Awkward Week in Dunedin (includes Germans!)
-Classes and Uni
-A List and Explanation of Some Cultural Differences
-Flat Life
-Homesickness and (hopeful) Integration

But for now, I'd like to discuss the memorable weekend I just had, especially since it's fresh in my mind:

Leigh Bullion, bless her soul, invited me to go with her and some of her friends on a road trip to the Wildfoods Festival in Hokatika, on the west coast of NZ. I had to make a decision to skip out on two of my lectures (which doesn't ever happen for me at Cobly unless I'm traveling home), with one of them seemingly important for a paper that I have to turn in before this Friday (it was a Tutorial in which the paper topic was discussed in class). I allowed (yes, allowed) myself to skip when my flatmate Laney said she would tape record the "tut" for me (which I borrowed from a Canadian friend). We left Dunedin at about 4:30, and we drove to Wanaka. In the car was myself, Leigh, Leigh's Kiwi host Olivia, Jur, a girl from Amsterdam, and Jeff, from Maryland. It was utterly spontaneous and it was going to be interesting to see how this group of people was going to interact (Jur and Jeff were completely new to me).

Wanaka is the sleepier version of Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of New Zealand (of the world? AJ Hackett created the bungy jump there). It's absolutely gorgeous, and it's set on the picturesque Lake Wanaka with Mt. Aspiring National Park and the Southern Alps as the backdrop.

Leigh and I grabbed some fish and chips for dinner. Fish and chips are a New Zealand staple that I had yet to try for myself. I found that they like lots and lots of salt on their french fries. =) We met up with the others and desperately tried to find a place to stay for the night, and we ended up checking into Base Hostel just in the nick of time. All 5 of us got to stay in the same room, which was really convenient (I had stayed in a hostel in Te Anau with the Kepler group and there were some other randoms there that probably didn't like the fact that we woke up at 6:30 to get ready to leave for Dunedin).

The next morning, Leigh and I made sure that I was going to be able to get a ticket to actually go to the Festival (as that was the main point of me going, really). In the meantime, Jeff and Jur decided that they wanted to go skydiving, but the only time that was available was at 5 p.m. While the rest of the group was a bit skeptical about the late start time for our drive to Hokatika (we knew it was going to take at least 4 hours), I was able to procure a ticket through the I-site at Hokatika. (By the way, I-sites are incredibly useful for tourists in New Zealand, as they'll book tours, hostels, etc. for free). We had a ton of time to kill, and we decided to take the hour drive to Queenstown. A local told us to take a different road to get there than the one we were planning, saying it was going to be more beautiful and actually take less time. Hell yes!

Queenstown, my friends, is simply majestic. I had seen pictures of Queenstown from my friend Dana, another Colby student studying at Otago, and had absolutely salivated over them. The weather and the scenery did not disappoint. It was beautifully epic, as it is set on a lake carved out by glaciers and situated in the mountains. I had to get more of the town, so Leigh and I took a gondola to the middle of a mountain. It was absolutely great, and I got some beautiful pictures (not yet on facebook, but they'll get there eventually).
Leigh and I luged a little bit, before meeting up with the others to drive back to Wanaka for their skydiving adventure. I didn't end up going skydiving (my mom was grateful for this when I talked to her on the phone today), but I have a friend (Ryan) who is pushing me to go with him. If I have time and the desire, I can assure you it'll happen. But it didn't feel right and I'm trying to budget myself (it would've easily doubled the amount that I would've spent that weekend). Anyways, Leigh loved it and so did Jeff and Jur. We left really late though, and I really think it would've been spectacular scenery. Except it was really dark. And it took us 6+ hours instead of what we thought was going to be 4... so we arrived at our campsite at about 2:30. There had been a lot of partying by the people that had made it there earlier, so the noise kept me up until about 4. I woke up at 8 the next morning to Americans getting ready to go to the festival, so Leigh and I decided to depart without the others (Jur and Olivia are not morning people).

Hokatika, the location of the food festival, wasn't anything spectacular, but they had set up street vendors on the main thoroughfare. I spent a ton of time admiring the greenstone/pounamu/jade nephrite (NZ English/Maori/Scientific versions of the same thing) necklaces. They're really beautiful and they're incredibly special to all residents of NZ. Greenstone is NZ's most precious stone, and considered by the Maori to be a taonga (treasure). The Maori, in fact, would send search parties to the West Coast to find as much pounamu as possible because it could be carved into jewelry but also into weapons and tools (being an incredibly hard stone). There are different carvings that symbolize different things, but it is one of the greatest gifts and displays of love one can give.

To the main event! The Wildfoods festival! I had heard a lot about this festival, from Connie, one of my two Kiwi hosts, that it was an absurd drunkfest with lots of ridiculous things to try. The latter was definitely true and the former was only partially true. The food was absolutely great, and it's definitely stuff that I don't think I'd find anywhere else. I was greeted by the removal of live Huhu grubs (one of the festivals signature dishes) by men chopping deteriorating wood and picking them out individually. I had to try it:
It surprisingly didn't taste like much--the body was very juicy and the head was a bit crunchy. Anyways, on the day I tried a bite of kangaroo, chocolate worm truffle, ostrich pie, whitebait (fish specific to the West Coast), a wild pork bbq sandwich, and rose petal wine. All of it was surprisingly delicious =) I couldn't bring myself to try pig's brain cheese--looking at it made me want to spew. I also now have the best "2 Truths and a Lie" icebreaker game.

The rest of the day was spent at the beach (it was 20 degrees Celsius and sunny), reading about NZ and playing disc with friends from the Dunedin Ultimate team (Lewis and Simon, two awesome Americans).

We left the next day and had to make a long trip back to Dunedin. We went through Arthur's Pass (which connects Christchurch to the West Coast) and we were collectively stunned by the scenery, and we also ended the day with a trip to the Moeraki Boulders. These are enormous spherical stones chilling on a beach in Moeraki. Probably my second favorite beach in New Zealand behind Tunnel Beach in Dunedin (more on that later). New Zealand... Rocks! (FotC, anyone?):
It was a good time, but it was also great to get back home as well. Next up for my adventure in NZ is a tramp on the Routeburn Track, the second Great Walk I will have attempted since being here. I'm a lucky SOB, that's for sure.

Cheers!

The Kepler Track

So this entry is going to skip Orientation and details about my current living situation in New Zealand to talk about a grand adventure in Fiordland National Park. I had been really wanting to go backpacking in New Zealand and knew that I was going to be quite disappointed in myself if I didn’t take the opportunity to go tramping in one of the prettiest areas of the world. The problem, though, was that I had a huge mental stigma against backpacking, stemming from the lack of fun I had had when I was a boy scout. There weren’t many trips that I particularly enjoyed, and backpacking itself was more of a hassle than a pleasant experience. So I hadn’t really done anything significant outdoors for a while and I felt like a lacked a lot of experience that would have been necessary to explore the wilderness.

However, a good friend of mine named Ryan George (a sophomore Math major at Rice University) has an intense passion for anything outdoors, and he brought up the names of famous New Zealand tracks that he wanted to do while he was here. He brought up the Milford Track (the most famous?), Routeburn, and Kepler as possibilities on the South Island. We explored all of our options, and Kepler seemed to fit the best. We would take about 4 days of hiking and we found that it was relatively easy to get to (there was a bus stop in the gateway town of Te Anau that was accessible via Intercity Bus from Dunedin). Everything sit to fit really well but there were still logistics to work out. Did we want to camp (and attempt to save money) or did we want to make it easier on ourselves by staying in huts (more expensive, but then we didn’t need to bring a tent or fuel or worry about water)? I would’ve gone either way, but we found out that the campsites were definitely cheaper (and we could even stay at one for free). We decided to go that route when we found out we could rent equipment (tents and a gas cooker) from the University’s gym for a pretty reasonable price. We then recruited more people to come on board—Liz was on from the beginning, and we got Leigh and our friend Gwen (junior Geology major from Dickinson College) to join too. Everyone was stoked for the possibility of spending some significant time outdoors, away from Dunedin. This prospect was brightened by the weather forecast—cold initially but warming up with lots of sunlight. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

We got everything organized (food wise and packing wise) and got to the bus station with not a whole lot of time to spare. However, when we all took our seats, we were incredibly pumped. I was really, really giddy on the way over, full of excitement and anticipation. I was definitely nervous but also felt like I was in good hands. Ryan had done some backpacking trips recently, Gwen had done a NOLS course for a month in the state of Washington, and Leigh was a COOT leader back at school. Liz was going to be able to push me when I needed to be pushed, and I could do the same for her if she needed me to. We work very similarly on the Frisbee field, and we have no problem challenging each other or getting the other to get past their mental blocks.

We arrived in Te Anau too late in the afternoon to get our journey started (I feel mostly to blame for that one), as I thought we’d be able to make it to our campsite. However, the Dep’t of Conservation was closed and we needed to get our tickets—it looked like we were going to be in for a longer day than anticipated since we weren’t going to be able to make it to the Brod Bay campsite. We camped out really close to the DOC so we could get started as soon as possible the next morning. We set up our tents and got ourselves familiarized with them, and then the ladies went out to take some pictures, explore town, and they wound up bringing back some cookies n’ cream for all of us to eat. One last little luxury, I suppose. Ryan and I hung back (I felt the need to watch our stuff) and chatted, delving into some really deep questions (the one that he got me on was “What does all this beauty mean to you?” and it would take a long time giving my complete answer. However, it was cool to hear how we differed in our opinions, as he is much more religious than I could ever be).

We got going the next morning as soon as we could—we got our tickets from the DOC and made our way to the Control Gates. Our first day of hiking was really successful. The day cleared up, we went at our own pace, met up with some friendly Australians (we started to play “tag” with them because each of the groups kept passing the other), and were driven by our adrenaline and excitement to get going. A couple of highlights included some humongous limestone bluffs (Gwen was quite happy about that) and making it past the tree line. We had a magnificent view of Te Anau and the Murchison Mountains (which we later learned held a specific type of flightless bird that had been rediscovered in 1948), and Luxmoore Hut was a welcome relief from the wind at the top of the mountain. Luxmoore had been described as the hut with the most beautiful view on all of the Great Walks tracks. I'd let you decide for yourself, but Blogger is being fussy. Check out my FB album (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034692&id=15403302&l=c1432)

The rest of the group went to explore the Luxmoore Caves. I was completely exhausted and needed to be re-hydrated. I took a quick nap and got prepared for dinner with Leigh, while Liz and Ryan almost got lost in the caves (I’ll let Liz tell that story). We ended up hanging around the dinner table in the hut, where we wound up meeting some Germans. Ryan and Liz had started to explore the caves with a German named Sebastian, and Sebastian had met three other Germans named Christian, Philip, and Kevin. We were all introduced, and we played Spoons together. It was clear that they were a wonderful group of guys, so we looked forward to seeing them the next day.

The second morning was about a 17 km hike from (Lucky) Luxmoore Hut down into the Iris Burn Valley to our campsite. It was the most beautiful day, in terms of scenery. We left the hut and started making our way up to the top of Mt. Luxmoore (about 1400 meters). The weather wasn’t initially cooperative (as it was cold and foggy) and when we made a side trip to the summit of Luxmoore it hadn’t really improved. However, Ryan went back up and hung out for a bit longer, and the day cleared up, leaving absolutely beautiful views. We then made our way to the Forest Burn Emergency Shelter (it was very scenic) and stopped for lunch. We met up with a Quebecois we had met on our busride over (also named Phillip). We took off and were met with better views as we went along. We walked along a ridgeline and had great views of the Murchisons and various fiords and sounds. I took my first naked-in-nature shot, with Leigh, and it was fairly harmless (though I got teased, for sure). I wouldn’t have done it with other people or if I weren’t in New Zealand. Plus, the picture had a great background!. The next stop was the Hanging Valley Shelter, where I tended to my first couple of hotspots. 91 switchbacks later, we had made it to the Iris Burn campground, where we were molested by sandflies the whole goddman time. They were so annoying. Leigh and I could barely stand them (on top of being hungry for some dinner), which left me in a very foul mood. Fortunately, that was alleviated by food, Leigh’s humor and my subsequent laughter, and playing spoons with the Germans again, keeping everybody else up in the hut.

The third day was a long day on the Track (another 17+ km) from Iris Burn to Shallow Bay. We started late in the morning, not really making breakfast because of the sandflies again. We made a side trip to the Iris Burn Falls (which we had failed to wander to the day before). It was a short hike, but very cool, and it felt great because I could finally dunk my head into some water. We sang camp songs to keep us entertained and to get the day started. We walked past the Big Slide (a landslide that occurred in the 1980s) and alongside the Iris Burn for most of the day, walking through many different types of landscapes and at a downhill gradient. My feet hurt, though, my only really bad day with my relatively new boots, and was relieved to arrive at the Moturau hut. We waded in Lake Manapouri and tended to the right foot. We had to say goodbye to Chris and Marcie, a couple from UCLA who had spent the past couple of years on a working holiday visa in both Scotland and New Zealand. We had originally met them at Luxmoore, where they noticed my Berkeley tee (Marcie gave me some shit about that). Chris explained that they had managed a lodge for 10 months before using their remaining time to travel and tramp through NZ. They had gone on Milford Track, a track I’d love to do, but they had to book it in June in order to make it. Unfortunately, though, we had to walk another half hour or so to get to our (free) campsite; however, there was no water at Shallow Bay and Ryan, Gwen and I filled up all of our water containers. The Shallow Bay campsite wasn’t really a campsite (or maybe we didn’t actually make it to the official campsite), we just used some space on a beach by Lake Manapouri. We were all grateful for the relative lack of sandflies, getting into the crystal clear water, and cooking. We were joined by Ben (UVM) and Eli (Skidmore), who were on a weeklong vactation from their Rethinking Globalization International Honors Study Abroad program. These two were absolutely amazing; they were wandering free spirits that weren’t really tied down, had seen and experienced the world in ways that I couldn’t even imagine (they had seen all the stuff I had read about in ES297), and seemed so much older and wiser than all of us. It made me really self-conscious, but they made for great conversation. It was clear that they were in the middle of having their minds blown, and seemed genuinely frustrated with how the world was currently functioning (much as I see it). But they had taken active steps to fight it, it seemed, and it was worthwhile talking with them. We made a campfire, and were joined by a Kiwi named Theresa who had just graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and seemed as if she were trying to find herself and where she wanted to be situated in NZ. All 3 were vagabond-esque, staying at places for free and taking things/life as they/it came. It was sweet to see, and made for awesome conversation.

The fourth day started with an attempt to try to make a shuttle from Rainbow Reach back to Te Anau (all of us were aching for some civilization), and we spent the morning trying to find a place to spend the night (relatively cheaply). We ended up going back to the place we stayed the first night, but we wanted to be indoors. For lunch, we went to the “perfect” restaurant, the Naturally Fiordland Pizzeria, which had pizza, wine, coffee, internet, etc. We spent our afternoon there, where we reunited with the Germans (to our wonderful surprise—we hadn’t gotten their pictures or said goodbye). The group celebrated with a bottle of wine, and it was a great way to unwind from our tramping. We prepped dinner, ate way too much ice cream (again), and topped it off with some champagne. We caught a bus the next morning, in which I detailed some of the lessons that I learned while tramping:

1) I really like backpacking and will actively look to do more of it, both at home and at Colby.

2) The best part of traveling were the people that we met along the way. We ended up running into the same people at our daily destination, and everyone was willing to meet each other.

3) I’m pretty good at perceiving the people I want to surround myself with (I knew during orientation I wanted to hang with Gwen and Ryan, and they’re absolute gems).

4) More traveling needs to occur and it will occur.

5) Our concepts of home were challenged by Ben and Eli, who had been relatively homeless. I’ll call home a place where I feel comfortable and I’m surrounded by loved ones, which is why Foster City, Sequoia Lake, and Colby are homes to me.

6) There is not enough time in life to remain unhappy. I’m going to make the most of New Zealand. I’m going to do what I love and not be constrained by what I think everyone else wants me to do.

Yeah! New Zealand!!!

My Plane Flight to New Zealand or How I Got Jemaine Clement’s Autograph

I left the fam in San Francisco, seeing them (and my aunt and uncle’s family too) for the last time in five (!) months, and my plane flight down to the Los Angeles airport went very smoothly. We actually flew along the California coastline, and I recognized everything up until Monterey. The Bay was really beautiful, and it was a great reminder of home and how much I love it and will miss it over the upcoming months. When I landed in LA, I had to switch terminals (which is not nearly as easy it is in other airports – the Atlanta airport comes to mind – and go through security again to get into the international terminal. Waiting for me there, though, were my close friends Liz and Leigh, as well as other Colby kids who were going to on the same program as we were (I already knew Sarah and Duy, and met Erica, John W., Dan O, etc.). I was torn between sitting with the very obvious group of Butler kids and hanging in the corner with Liz, Leigh, Sarah, and Erica. I tried to be a bit social, but wasn’t really managing very well (in my own opinion, of course, novel situations are quite uncomfortable for me). Anyways, about an hour later, Leigh calls me saying “Michael, I just saw Jemaine!” I immediately assumed that Leigh was pulling my leg. It was the running joke for all of the kids going to New Zealand that we were going to see/stalk Flight of the Conchords. I thought it was absolutely preposterous that out of all the famous New Zealand people that I knew (Bret and Jemaine), one of them was going to be on our flight to Auckland. I ran over to Leigh, though, when she assured me she wasn’t lying (her face was quite sincere when I saw her), and she tried to point him out to me. He was walking up the stairs to the Air New Zealand VIP lounge. I inspected the outside of the lounge with Duy and figured that I couldn’t get in there in an inconspicuous manner. I immediately texted Colin, my brother, and a couple of friends. Colin suggested that I ask for a picture with Jemaine, but I figured all I could ask for without being a complete d-bag was an autograph. Leigh and I plotted and figured she might be able to snap a picture from afar without being too nosy. Our opportunity came when we saw Jemaine heading towards the gate. He obviously wanted to avoid a fuss and came at the last possible moment to check into the flight (he was going on Air New Zealand’s equivalent of first class). Leigh and I freaked out. I grabbed my stuff, and with a pen and my travel journal ready, trembling, I said to Jemaine, “Jemaine, may I have your autograph?” It seemed like he was a bit taken aback by this gesture (which I feel like he’d be used to by now) but he asked me what my name was. I managed to mouth a “Michael” and he wrote: “Michael, Hi. Jemaine.” (picture coming, I promise) I think I also managed to say “I’m a huge fan of your work” at some point, but it’s really a humongous, adrenaline-filled blur at this point in time. I remember turning around (after thanking him) and seeing Leigh’s smiling face, with her saying “I’m so proud of you Michael,” and me showing anybody and everybody that wanted to see. I turned back and there was a girl asking for Jemaine’s digits and another guy wanting to take a picture of Jemaine with his camera phone. A very audible buzz arouse at our gate when everyone realized that Jemaine Clement (!) was on our goddamn flight to Auckland. What were the odds? I was in a glow for the rest of the flight, riding the high of getting the autograph of one of my heroes (yes, he and Bret are heroes of mine by their sheer amazing-ness and creativity). What a way to start my adventure to New Zealand, eh? The Jemaine sighting wasn’t completely over, though. He, like everybody else, had to pick up his bags at the baggage carousel. This was another opportunity that I couldn’t let up, either, While Liz, Leigh, and I were staring at Jemaine and his friend, I decided to grab my camera and take a pseudo-photo of Jemaine by having Liz and Leigh pose and have Jemaine in the background. Here are the results:

Ridiculous.

Kepler Track

Hey All!

Tomorrow, I'm going to be leaving for a 5 day 4 night backpacking trek (not a hike) on the Kepler Track in Fiordland National Park. I'm going to be hitting Mt. Luxmore (topping in at about 4,000 ft.) along the way. Hopefully it won't be too rainy (the forecast for Te Anau changed for the better, today, and hopefully it'll stay that way). Anyways, I'll be unreachable for a bit (gladly), but should be back in Dunedin on the 19th of Feb.

I do promise, however, a story about getting Jemaine's autograph, describing (with detail and hopefully pictures) Orientation, my move into the flat, penguins and rugby, and a recap on Kepler. It's a lot to promise, but I haven't really had the time to sit down to do any of this. Happily, it's still a bit of a whirlwind.

Love,
Me

Kia Ora!

Hello (or as the Maori and Kiwis say, Kia Ora)!!!

Life's pretty sweet in Dunedin, as I just moved in to my flat. I had a great time at Orientation and am enjoying myself immensely so far. The whole "living for myself thing" is certainly going to take hold this semester (grocery shopping, bill paying, adventuring, etc.).

The unfortunate part is that I've got no consistent email or phone access, so more posts will come when that occurs.

For now, everything's going swimmingly. I'll be hopefully exploring Dunedin and the many things it has to offer before traveling to different parts of the South Island next week. We'll play it by ear, and it'll be great!

-Michael

Hello All!

1/30/09
Foster City, California

Hi everybody! Thanks for coming to check out the blogging of my adventures in New Zealand! I haven't had one of these since my Xanga days in high school (I wonder what happened to that, anyways...). I can't promise riveting material on a daily basis, but I'll do my best to share my highlights of the upcoming semester in Dunedin!

It's going to be a blast. And I'm leaving tomorrow. =)

-Michael