Sharks and Politicians

Two posts in one day? Unheard of!

I now have three weeks left here. I have mixed feelings about leaving. On the one hand, it'll be weird to say goodbye to so many friends, many of which I probably won't ever see again. I will also miss the scenery, the fresh air, the accent, and the general friendliness of the people here. On the other hand, I am very excited to go home. I've been feeling more and more of a draw to return home during the last week or so, and I think this feeling will increase as my days here decrease. I remember a scene in "Jaws" when Quint recalls the disaster of the U.S.S. Indianapolis. He said that the worst part of his five days stranded in shark-infested waters was the last few minutes that he spent waiting for helicopter to pick him up. I would hardly equate my beneficial time here to a horrible experience like Quint's, but I think I can relate to becoming more and more anxious for something to happen the closer it approaches. I'm looking forward to how different things will look to me after being here for 4.5 months. I already look at many situations differently in my head. This is certainly proof that I've grown as a person, although I'm not yet sure in what respects. I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

Two days ago I joined a friend of mine who was walking down to Parliament. He's a political science major and was going to watch a session. Watching the collection of New Zealand's representatives, I drew many comparisons between the U.S. House of Representatives and New Zealand's Parliament. It's certainly very similar in structure. There's a speaker who delegates the proceedings, and the individual "MPs" (Members of Parliament) do not speak directly to each other while questioning. The one major different that I noticed was the level of noise allowed in the chamber. Every time an MP got up to speak, they were heckled and degraded on all sides. I soon realized that this extreme opposition was mainly due to the high number of different parties represented in the room. Where the U.S. has two major parties, the New Zealand Parliament has seven parties present in the proceedings. I began to find it comical how immature and rude the MPs were to one another. I couldn't believe these were the leaders of a country. I know Congress can get a bit loud sometimes, but it was nothing like this. They literally screamed and heckled every single speaker, leading to a pointless escalation in volume until the Speaker finally stood up and called for order. There's no gavel, by the way. He just stands up. Sort of cool. After the call for order, the heckling started up again. John Key (The Prime Minster of New Zealand) was there as well, so I got to see him speak finally. It was a great experience, and it made me want to re-visit Congress again when I get back. 

One positive thing that I've noted about New Zealand is their treatment of their native population. The Maori are treated with immense respect here, and I don't think they realize how good they have it in relation to Native Americans or the Aboriginals of Australia. Maori language is an official language of New Zealand. Most signs have Maori and English translations on them. The heritage and culture of Maori life is ingrained into the culture here...every kiwi I know is privvy to a large number of Maori terms and words, along with traditional songs and tales. They teach them to children in grade school. The Maori also have their own TV station in their native language, and have several seats in Parliament, along with their own political party. Can you imagine so much opportunity and respect given to the Native Americans? We basically gave them some reservations and told them to talk amongst themselves. I didn't see the Maori MPs speak at all during my visit to Parliament session, but seeing their party represented in the government made me realize just how different the kiwis are to Americans in their treatment of their native population.

Last night I laid down some tunes with some friends of mine. We had access to an electric guitar/amp, a piano, a drum set, and an acoustic guitar. I mainly stuck to playing rhythm acoustic (my soloing skills aren't too fantastic), but I experimented a bit on the drum set after a while. I admit I wasn't exactly show-stopping material, but I feel like I'd get better with practice. My problem is the bass drum...the coordination sort of mirrors tapping your head and rubbing your stomach, especially when you're trying to play the pedal on an off beat. Anyone who's spent time around me knows that I'm a fan of tapping a beat on a table or my legs, so it was really cool to be able to finally channel my rhythms through a drum set. Yet another thing to check off the list of things I've learned here in New Zealand.

I'm now hoping to check out the south island for a week or so after exams. It'll leave me a few days to get my thing together before I leave. It'll probably end up being a bit rushed at the end, but it'll be worth it if I'm able to see the other half of the country; The only part of the south island I've seen is its snow-capped tips off in the distance viewed from Wellington. 

That's about all that's new for now. See you in three weeks.

Onward and Upward!

My free week has been very, very productive and eventful. The weather has been half beautiful and half downpour (in keeping with standard New Zealand weather procedures). On the rainy days, I have been learning the wonderful board game of Risk from my kiwi neighbors. I consider this extremely productive and unfathomably beneficial. However, I've also been fully taking advantage of the nice weather by exploring outer reaches of Wellington. There are uncountable tracks, forests and rolling green mountains surrounding the greater Wellington region, and the last couple of days have consisted of nonstop exploration. On the 19th, some friends of mine and spontaneously decided to scale a mountain that we saw in the distance from Oriental Bay, the Harbor of Wellington. 

We chose a random staircase going upward, and basically followed the logic that anything going upwards was a step in the right direction. This method proved to be foolproof, as we found ourselves on top of the mountain several hours later. Being on top afforded a view of the suburbs outlying Wellington from the otherside of the harbor, along with yet another unique perspective of the city itself. 

From this height, Mount Victoria itself (a frequent object of mountain scaling) seemed to be small and insignificant. I considered myself high and mighty, and remarked that I couldn't get much higher than this. I'd say this trip consisted of about five kilometers. It was a decent challenge, not too straining, but enough to make me feel alive and active. 

I really enjoy tramping...it allows me an opportunity to get out of the city region and see more nature. I've decided that I really don't like living in a city. It's too claustrophobic and man-made. Although Wellington has more fresh air than probably any other city in the world, it's impossible to filter out the sound of public bus systems, cigarette butts and honking horns. This, I am sure, is the same for any city in the world. I enjoy suburbs and quiet communities. My explorations around the suburbs have therefore provided me with some very peaceful and contended moments (even when the mountain wind literally moves my body with its force).

My tramp on the 21st was much more substantial and epic, constituting 15 kilometers in 5 hours. I woke up around 7 (this is very early for me, by the way..I'm a 9-9:30 guy), and jumped on a bus with some friends. As the sun rose, we walked through a quiet suburb and ascended the nearby mountain chain. This chain consists of the tallest mountains surrounding Wellington City, and is known as the Skyline Track. 

Leaving the streets and entering the mountainside

It was incredible...the view from the right was of the ocean and the very distant but startlingly clear snowcapped South Island, and the view from the left was Wellington Harbor, seen even higher than ever before. I was amused to glance upon the mountaintop from a few days previous...it was as small as Mt. Victoria once looked from that very summit. This made me consider the relativity of things and how we judge things according to our position and size. Perspective is important. I also don't think there's ever a point where you should stop and consider yourself "done" having scaled as high as you can go in tramping or in life. Always onward and upward.

We stopped for lunch at what appeared to be "the summit"...a lookout which afforded a beautiful view of the entirety of Wellington. The lookout structure contained a stone table which provided the direction and distance to major nearby landmarks in kilometers (Antarctica, Mt. Cook, Sydney, Invercargill, etc.) This was really impressive and the weary traveler feel as if they had conquered something massive. However, I soon learned that we were not yet 25 percent done. Turns out 15 kilometers is, in fact, a very long distance indeed.

The trek was long, hard, and epicly windy. However, I can say with confidence that I had a great time and a great experience. At certain heights I felt myself being almost pushed over int othe abyss. The wind is so powerful that it rips through your nostrils and forces its way through your nasal passages. It feels like there's some sort of liquid in there, but it's just very potent wind.

Highlights of the trip include: two very cool old men who wandered the mountainside with walking sticks and beards, 

a stretch of half a kilometer of track consisting of nothing but pure mud, wind turbine farms speckled over the mountainside,

a random brick chimney in the midst of a wooded area, 

impressive piles of cow poop that were larger than a small human (I did not take pictures of these), and the Cow version of Gandalf the Grey. Let me explain.

On several occasions, we came across a minor cow barricade. These cows usually dispersed at the first sight of humans, and nobody was the wiser. About halfway through our long journey through the mountains, we turned a corner and found ourselves directly in the path of two solitary cows. They weren't eating or looking off into the distance. They stood very still and stared right at us. We all stood still for a moment or two. If the fields of New Zealand had  tumbleweeds, one would've blown by in the middle of the frame.

 

Tom slowly got some grass and offered it to the cow. It was a simple peace offering meant to request safe passage. Grass giving, it would seem, carries a different meaning in cow language. The cow jerked his head and began to literally charge us. All seven of us displayed near superhuman reflexes by hurtling ourselves onto the side of the cliff walls, climbing up out of range of the cow. It was clearly a priority that no non-cow entity pass through this point. The two cows continued to stare up at us from an uncomfortably close proximity. After a few minutes, the cow realized that we were not coming down. We proceeded to scream scary sounds at it simultaneously until we scared it enough to run off into the distance. This has been a true story. New Zealand cows hold their passageways sacred.

The 15 km track proved to be a quite a feat, and the wind was so strong at points that we had to literally lean against it to prevent tipping over the other side. The scenery changed from rolling green fields, blue ocean, murky forests and wind turbine farms. One of these turbines powers 1000 homes. I had no idea they were that economical. Overall, it was a fantastic experience. It was also a huge challenge, and the nap that I took afterward is in contention to be in the top 5 of all time. 

Here's a link to the album of photos I took. Give them a gander, they're quite nice if I do say so myself.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024540&id=1487820100&l=08efde5b8e

Fun Fact

It's just been brought to my attention that I'm on URI's film media home page. Wooooo. The picture is from over a year ago and I don't even remember it being taken, haha. I'm moving up in the world.

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/film/

DONE!

Fifteen weeks and one day since I began my journey, I'm officially one hundred percent done with my classes here in New Zealand. The only things that I have to worry about is two final exams on the 4th and 5th of November. I'm really excited for my last 4 weeks here, I'm finally going to be able to go do things without worrying about assignments and getting up early the next morning for 9 a.m. classes. I'm also going to have much more time to update this thing, which I'm sure everyone is thrilled about. 

This week was pretty great in relation to a regular school week. Being as it was my last week of lectures, I took it relatively easy in the attendance area, if you know what I mean. A little bit of sleeping in won't kill you. Class grades here basically consist of two papers and a final paper/essay. So if you've finished two of your papers and have already researched your third, there's not much incentive to drag yourself out of bed, especially when freedom is so close. 

I'm proud to say that went on epic laser tag marathons twice in the last week. This place downtown has a Thursday special: four hours of straight laser tag and any video games you want in the place for 15 dollars. Laser tag is more of a workout than I thought it would be. Also, I think it should be counted as an olympic sport. The intelligence and strategy that goes into laser tag is unparalleled. Sadly, I lost my watch the first night I played laser tag after taking it off to play. I think someone took it. Ah, human nature. It's funny how vulnerable my wrist feels after wearing that watch for four months; I was never a watch-wearing person before. It was a necessary sacrifice, though, for the amount of fun that I had. Me and my flatmates/neighbors did a lot of 3 on 3 games last night, and I slept really well afterwards. The intense physical exertion (including diving, climbing on places that should not be climbed on, and crouching/hiding in uncomfortably small places) combined with the mental strain and paranoia of someone trying to shoot you around every corner really takes its toll on a man. My knee's won't be back to their normal non-red state for a week. I'm convinced that my flatmate Lauren picked up an invincible vest. We executed coordinated velocirapter-inspired "distract and attack" movements on her, and our point-blank range shots would not deactivate her suit. Because of this technical anomaly, the females won the majority of the games.  I for one would rather have a loss than a tainted victory.

My plans for the next 4 weeks involve a lot of fun and a small amount of schoolwork. I think I'm going to join my flatmates and a few of our neighbors in another road trip. They're going around the North Island again, but they're going to a lot of places that I didn't go last time. Because of the fact that we're taking two cars (which don't have to be rented because people own them) and the fact that potential for good weather is exponentially greater (it's mid-spring now), I swayed myself into agreeing to another road trip. Sure, it was tiring, but I'll get to see even more of the country before I leave. Seeing New Zealand is what I wanted to do by coming here in the first place, and all the schoolwork made me lose sight of that. So anyways, we'll probably be leaving Tuesday and getting back on Sunday. This trip is also a bit shorter, so maybe I won't be as drained getting back as I was the last time. I'm planning on doing a couple bungy jumps at Lake Taupo and maybe some river kayaking. The jumps at Taupo involve falling just far enough that you're dipped into the river headfirst, before being plucked back out and flung back into the air. I can't wait. Again, it's a great feeling having school over, it's been a huge inhibitor in the amount of fun things I can go do. I feel like a lot of possibilities have opened up. After we get back, I have to write a quick paper, hang out for another week, and take two exams. I'm not to worried about them because they're for my english classes. After that, it's nine days to home. 

Oh, fun fact. Remember those scary monkey noises I heard in the bush at night when I volunteered on the island? The next day I found out what the noise was coming from. Matt needed our help moving speakers embedded in the woods and powered by the sun. He told us that these speakers turned on at night and emitted loud mating calls of endangered bird species, encouraging them to come to the island and mate there. I asked him if the birds sounded anything like homicidal monkeys, and he affirmed my suspicions. What we had heard the previous night was a prerecorded mating call. This made me feel much better about my personal well being. So the rest of that day was spent setting these speakers up on the side of a steep forest hill. The weather wasn't perfect, but that was alright. It made for a very exciting ride back on the ferry. Fabien and I stood on the top of the storm-swept vessel and got pelted with ridiculous amounts of wind, hail, and spraying salt water. My face was dry red from all the salt for the next few days. Again, though, completely worth it for the exhilarating experience of approaching Wellington harbor like a world-weary sailer, beaten along on the salt-crested waves.

Everyone who goes to England always has their stereotypical "Mind The Gap" picture, 

so I thought I'd take a New Zealand version.

My flatmates and I took a trip to the Rivendell filming locations a couple of weekends ago. Again, the weather was fairly lousy (this is really becoming a trend), but I still had a great time taking it all in. We're planning on going back and camping in Rivendell, maybe going rafting down the river. It's funny how you can almost sense the magic in these places, even though they're very much a part of the real world. It smells different as well, probably from all the plants I'm not used to. Still a plant-y smell, but different. Walking through the forest, we found a couple of swinging vines hanging from the trees and decided to pull some Tarzan moves. Here's the thing about vine swinging. You stand on an elevated ledge, grab onto the vine, and swing. It's a very fun experience going forward. However, the mind fails to acknowledge the fact that as you reach as high as gravity will allow, you're going to go backwards. So after all of our vine, swinging experiences, all of us had some respectable bruises on our legs and backs from slamming into the large trees on our accelerated journeys backwards. Again, completely worth it for the UPWARDS swing. Life lessons here, everyone.

I'm trying something new this week. My friend Allen and I are going to practice a couple of songs together on the guitar and go busking. Busking is a term for playing guitar on the street. I hadn't heard it before but apparently it's common. Playing on the street is big in Wellington, particularly on Cuba street where most of the culture is. I don't expect to make a great amount of money doing it, I'm just looking forward to trying it out. I just hope nobody discourages us by throwing tomatoes and other unsavory vegetables at us. We were going to go tonight, but it's raining, so maybe Sunday night will work. I've been trying to think of simple songs for two people to harmonize with, and I've come up with "Teach Your Children", "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley, "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd, "Don't Look Back In Anger" by Oasis, "We Can Work it Out" by The Beatles, "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" and "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young, and "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who. The playlist is growing. We're about to practice for a bit, so I'll talk to you very soon. Take Care

Bill

"We Have To Go Back!"

I'm rounding out into my last week of school here, which is very odd. I'm really looking forward to having more free time to see things around Wellington and the North Island before I leave next month. Last month I was able to squeeze another trip to Somes Island in, and though it left me with a rather heavy workload during this week, I think it was worth it. I got a lot of international students together who were interested in going, and my number ended up being about 10. The Department of Conversation rangers on the island are extremely cool, and I kept in contact with them in order to arrange timetables and accomodation. We were able to secure a house very similar to the one I stayed in last time, with a few minor structural differences. As it turned out, only four of us were able to stay overnight on the island. Everyone else had to get back to write essays, etc. I was happy to have successfully spaced my workload out in order to get another much-needed taste of New Zealand's natural beauty.

I really enjoyed the ferry ride over, as the sun was bright and the sky was clear. It's nice to take these weekend excursions, as sometimes school and my routine way of life here in Wellington sometimes gets mundane and stressful. Being on the ferry and out on the water allows me an opportunity to look back at the city from a new angle. Seeing it grow smaller and as only part of the grand harbor of New Zealand puts it in perspective both literally and mentally. Though it presented itself as a minor risk because of my decision not to buy a case, I decided to carry my guitar along for the ride, hoping for some nighttime jams in the nature reserve. It was a bit cumbersome, but totally worth it. I even played a bit on top of the ferry in the middle of the harbor. Never thought I'd do that before. So yes, an uplifting ride over on the ferry, everyone was happy about the weather and the weekend ahead. The guitar playing/sing alonging didn't hurt either. I went along with two guys from France, Two girls from China, a guy from Signapore, two American girls, and a guy from Signapore as well as one kiwi. As a matter of fact, two of them were friends from my road trip. They've all become pretty good friends of mine and I was proud to have them all along to show them the island that I'd had so much fun on. 

I was glad to see Matt again, he's the ranger that helped us with accommodation last time around. I was able to get more opportunities speak to him much more this time, mainly due to my role as the unofficial "organizer" of this trip. Last time I came I was just part of a big group and didn't have much time to converse with the rangers. He was extremely cool, and he told me about his newfound guitar skills and other interesting facts about the island as we hiked up to our house. Good news: this time our walk up didn't involve carrying a large sewage pipe up the hill. Big improvement. In any case, I was really happy to be able to hold conversation with Matt more this time around because he seemed to be a really interesting and personable character last time we stayed. 

This is Matt. The guy one the left, that is. The other one is me.

There's a small, cave-like island jutting just off from the main island, and Matt informed us that it was the permanent home of an immigrant man infected with leprosy in the early 1900s. As I mentioned before, Somes Island acted as an Ellis Island equivalent to New Zealand, and quarantined anyone that was sick in their large containment centers. This man basically lived in a small cave in his own lonely island for the rest of his days, with food and provisions dropped off by a plane overhead. I couldn't believe it. It was bad enough that, after traveling so far, he never got where he was going. He was also condemned to look at it from a distance for the rest of his life, never setting foot there. It was just beyond his reach. I guess you need to hear things like this every once in a while to realize just how much your life isn't as bad as you sometimes consider it to be.

The work this time around was much less structured and taxing, probably because we were coming of our own accord and weren't part of an organized group such as Australearn. Alas, we did not engage in anything as exciting or daring as "Extreme Planting", but we did take part in some Extreme Weeding, I suppose. We cleared suffocating 3 foot tall grass from around new plants. I had a particularly fun time doing this because I found a really cool serrated knife that could be affixed to my waist with a holster. In short, it looked like a sword, so I was happy. It was much easier to cut the grass with a knife than a hedge trimmer. I'd say we cleared/mulched/replanted about 40 different plants before packing it in for the day around 3:30. 

At this point, clouds had covered the sky and the wind had certainly picked up. We toured around the island a bit before the day-trippers had to journey back home on the ferry. Upon reaching the top of the island, I experienced a level of windiness that I had never felt before. I could literally stand on the edge of the abyss, lean forward, and the wind completely held my weight. And my cheeks did that roller coaster thing again. So all in all, though the ideal weather didn't hold out the entire day, New Zealand once again proved that every aspect of its weather held its own treasures. The last twenty minutes before the ferry departure was spent on a desperate sprint around half of the island to the docks, as we found that we had poorly judged our time. What a place to have a run. Some of the sights on the way:

Watching the last Saturday ferry depart

And then there were four. The rest of the night we had off, and spent thoroughly exploring and relaxing on Somes Island until well after dark. I've come to the conclusion that spending a night on Somes Island is one of the most unique and special experiences that one can experience while being in New Zealand. There's something about the complete silence and isolation from the rest of society. You're able to look back on civilization from a distance across the bay, taking it in as a separate entity and quietly considering it without distraction or influence. I guess this ties in with my thoughts coming over on the ferry. It was my kind of night. I'm a person who likes more laid-back environments, more one-on-one experiences with small groups of people rather than large, loud and crowded areas. 

We were napping on the trails and I decided to take cool pictures

"Get Off The Road!"

In other respects, the Somes Island nighttime experience also just really exciting. There's an entire nature reserve full of animals ready to be explored in the dark. Some of them like humans more than others, I learned. Side Bar: I petted a tiny penguin this time around. We didn't get it on camera because it decided it didn't like me after I petted it and ran away, but we got a pre-curser to the event: my stealthy approach.

Some more highlights of the night included a quiet reverie on the summit, inspecting abandoned WWII gun turrets, and a rather frightening experience with hostile animals noises coming from the nearby bush as we hung out at the island's lighthouse. They sounded like really angry monkeys, but also seemed to be getting more numerous in content and sinister in nature. I will admit two things regarding this situation. 1) I am a man, and 2) I was scared. Nothing wrong with that. You'd be scared to if you heard these noises. So we somewhat stealthily made our way back through the forests to our house. We had some quick food and waited for the generators to stop (they cut out at 11:30), and proceeded to round out the night with some peaceful guitar playing and candlelight chats. 

I've got to get to an essay now, but I'll be back on with Part 2 in a few days. Take care.