In Which I Learn the Importance of Warnings

Kia ora!

Ah, the high seas. The subject of a vast quantity of literature, the inspiration to many a depressed and not so depressed writer, and "the big blue wet thing" to Fozzie the Bear, it is also the focus of much of this week's activity for me down here in New Zealand.

I can safely say that I have now "sailed the South Pacific", after a day trip to Akaroa. Situated on the Banks Peninsula, and about an hour and a half drive from Christchurch, Akaroa was originally settled by a rather disappointed group of French colonists who didn't realize that they would be living on English - not newly claimed French - soil. Originally set up as a fishing port, the town is accessible only through a narrow harbor surrounded by rock, and while plagued with bad wind at times, it is also home to a large variety of sea creatures.

One main purpose of the day trip was to take a marine wildlife cruise. Opting for a less expensive cruise, a friend and I decided to fore go the modern boats and instead booked two seats aboard a classic sail boat. Excited, we plodded around town, killing time until our tour left. The ride started out uneventful, and I never realized how slow a sail boat goes in comparison to modern boats until the captain cut the engine and unfurled the sails. But oh what a beauty the Fox II was! It was a glorious feeling, being on board a wooden deck, wind in my face, a cheesy sentimental sailing music on in the background as we glided through the green waters of beautiful Akaroa harbor. At that moment in time, I could have left everything behind and sailed onward into the awaiting Pacific.

And then the wind came.

Roaring at 38 knots (roughly 43 miles per hour for the non-nautical out there), the captain quickly decided that the sails were coming down, and from then on the expedition grew colder than I realized it would. However, after a long wait, I finally spotted a shape in the water. A bird, a plane, another piece of seaweed coming back to haunt me for my sushi eating? No! It was none other than a Hector's dolphin, the world's smallest and rarest dolphin! Only found in New Zealand, the Hector's dolphin is a tad shy, but a must see for any marinist who has an interest in ocean life. On the voyage, we also glimpsed a little blue penguin, as well as albatross. Albatross galore, and more around a fishing boat we followed back! While not as big as I've been told they can get, nevertheless the albatross is quite a bird of stature, and looks a lot like a nasty seagull that could take off a finger.

Near the end of our taste of high seas piracy, we took shelter in a cove near a nest of shags (NZ cormants), and had coffee and hot chocolate. By this time, my travel friend and I were soaked, due our disregard for the "this will be a bit wet" warning as we stood at the bow of the boat. The view was beautiful, despite my left underarm being the only dry portion of me, and the rest of the ride back was peaceful and spent near the dry stern and in the sun. My friend and I barely made the shuttle back to Christchurch, under watchful eye of a cranky and rather sullen shuttle driver.

My piracy had not vanished, however, as Karisa will be pleased to know (I should be ready to sail on the Star of India soon, and Amber, you will be going)! After a mall trip on Thursday to see "Watchmen", which came out an entire day earlier in NZ than in America, another friend and I hopped the Intercity Bus to Kaikoura, two hours north of Christchuch.

I never realized how often I take PLNU's ocean view for granted until we reached the coastal shores of Kaikoura. At seeing the waves splash against rocks and send bewildering spray into the air, I realized that the ocean front and the desert were the two landscapes I would always feel the most at home in, and that while Christchurch was beautiful, there was something about seeing the ocean that made me a bit homesick for the sun and surf of California.

At Kaikoura, after a night interruped by air raid sirens (it took me awhile to realize that, no, we were not being bombed, that there was no tornado, and that the alarms were for emergency personnel, such as firemen), I arose early on Saturday to go dolphin swimming. We'd been told that dolphin swimming was a must do, and setting aside the expense, we signed up for an early swim at 8:30am. The sea that day was "moderate" and there was a "sea sickness warning", but convinced I hadn't inherited any of my mother's genes and would do fine on the boat on two granola bar and some fruit, I ignored the suggested ginger tablets like most everyone else and went about dreaming of Flipper-esque dolphins converging as I jammed myself into a wet suit.

Kaikoura is known for its dusky dolphins, whales, and fur seal colonies. Whales are a year round animal in Kaikoura, and featured are sperm whales and humpbacks, while orcas are a more seasonal occurrence. The type of dolphin I would be swimming with is called the dusky dolphin, and it's a rather big dolphin that is two toned. Social by nature, and friendly, the dusky dolphin travels in large pods, and play and sleep all day, then catch squid in a submarine trench near the Kaikoura coast all night. All marine life is protected in New Zealand, and marine trips are strictly limited - with dolphin swimming, trips are limited to two boats of 13 people per tour, and three tours a day! Other attractions involving marine life in Kaikoura include: albatross watching, helicopter whale watching, whale watching, seal swims, snorkeling, and diving.

On the boat, we found dolphins about twenty minutes off of South Bay's shore, and to our surprise, we were told over 500 dolphins would be sharing the water with us today! Tightening our masks and zipping up the wet suits, we waited for the horn to tell us the propellers on the ship had stopped before slipping into the cold water. And what a breath taking sight! Instructed to swim with our hands at our sides, face down, and making singing noises in our masks, we soon attracted dolphins by the dozen. We all practiced our dolphin impressions, dolphin kicks, and echolocation skills as we were surrounded by inquisitive dolphins. Upon seeing dolphins going by, one could catch a dolphin's eye and start to swim in a tight circle. The dolphin, intrigued, would follow and engage you in a game to see who could go the fastest. The dolphin won every time! Diving would also attract a dolphin's attention, and while we came up spluttering, the salt water was worth being able to interact with some of God's most graceful of creatures.

On the fourth time into the water, I realized I was getting cold and feeling a bit off, but not wanting to waste an opportunity, I went back in. Upon getting out, I realized that I should probably have stayed behind. Shaky and feeling naseous, I spent a good portion of our "photo session" with the dolphins attempting not to lose my breakfast, and of course the "moderate" sea was taking its toll on this attempt! I am regretful to inform that my pictures of the dusky dolphins are limited, due to a bout of sea sickness.

The rest of Kaikoura was not nearly as exciting as swimming with dolphins, unfortunately, but I did have a nice hike out to the seal colony (though only one seal was spotted), and I have many a gorgeous panoramic views of Kaikoura! The town itself is a lot like Akaroa - small, sleepy, and by the water front. It is, however, more touristy, and the guide on our dolphin encounter stated this fact. The guide agreed, however, that the dolphin swim at Kaikoura was worth it, and he himself had been on many dolphin tours akin to the one in Kaikoura, and none were as interactive or satisfying. There are some nice things to small towns, however, and I enjoyed a morning to myself with my Bible, watching the sun rise over the ocean.

Thus, I left Kaikoura, sunburned from sitting on the veranda, of all places, and extraordinarily pleased to have sated both my pirate-self in the need for the ocean as well as my child-self in swimming with dolphins. The experience, over all, was illuminating, as it demonstrated that I could survive in a hostel quite easily, by myself, at the other end of the world, and I'm growing more confident in my own abilities and more assured that I can do most anything I set my mind to. Also, I've found that hostels really are not as scary as the movies make them out to be - I met a very nice German boy and girl who stayed with us one of two nights - and I'm looking forward to more sight seeing and hosteling in the future!

For now, however, my adventures on the high seas have drawn to a close as this wayward ship finds its berth once more in room 2, flat 36, in Ilam Village. Like the prodigal son or a range weary cowboy returning home, I am relieved to be back where I can attend to my sunburn and sleep without hearing the wail of alarms. To all who are sleeping by the sea tonight, a special hello to all of you! And to everyone, I hope that you are all doing well, and that your spring breaks, day off, and weeks are going well.


Cheers,
Nicole

Luke 11:33-36

In Which Papers Start and I Have Homework

Kia ora!

Well, it's official. Classes (called papers here) have started and I'm now back to joining the ranks of university student-dom. Which also means homework has started. Yes, I can hear everyone laughing sweet laughs of revenge, but at least I only have three classes worth of work? :)

The first week of school, as always, is one of those learning curves. I thought I had gotten all of my books, and was rather proud of myself, until I entered my 20th Century Novel class. BOOM! Add nine novels/anthologies we're reading, and suddenly I have nine books on my book list! "Ok," I thought to myself, "I guess that's not horrible..." Then my Australian Writing class comes around, and SHA-ZAM! Another seven novels! The horror! Naturally, I resolved to just go buy the books, but lo' and behold, books here are MUCH more expensive than at home. Because of importing everything, an average book costs about $20 NZD. Often more. Meaning that all around campus this week is the dying cries of student's wallets and bank accounts, and the evil maniacal laughter of the campus bookstore. I ended up finding some used book stores to browse, and got a good portion of my books, but wish me luck as I search for the other half!

About classes though: attendance is not graded. Only one of my two lecturers (I have the same lecturer for both literature classes) keeps track of who shows up, but that's only to figure out why people don't do well on the evaluations. Thus, your grade depends on as few as two evaluations, or up to four. Evaluations, for my three classes are the same, and break down like this (in terms of percentage of overall grade):

Essay 1 25%
Essay 2 25%
Final Test 50%

Talk about sink or swim! One bad assignment and you're down for the rest of the semester. I won't lie that I'm a bit worried about this grading system, but after Dr. Little's America in the 1960s paper, I'm pretty sure I will do fine.

My favorite class, by far so far, however, is Australian Writing and Culture. The Aussies have a very unique set of themes that they write about, and so far I've enjoyed learning about this incredible culture, halfway around the world! At the same time, it's a bit ironic to be studying AUSTRALIAN culture in NEW ZEALAND, but there was no New Zealand literature class with enough hours to make the class count towards graduation. I'm also very much enjoying my War and Society in Europe class, as the lecturer is enthusiastic and super-excitable. I'm one of few people taking it at the 300 level, so the seminar (small discussion group required for most university classes here) is smaller. It should be a good time!

Other highlights of late have been signing up for clubs. Over here, it costs money to join clubs. I don't know why, perhaps that's the only way they make money, but it does. I've signed up for way more clubs than I'll actually be joining (I won't lie, I mostly signed up for ones that were free), but the ones that look most promising are Tramping Club, UCNavs (one of several Christian clubs), and Musical Theatre Club. Among the other clubs here are: ABC - A Brewing Club, Renaissance and Medievel Society, Green Party, Super-Ninjasoc (soc meaning society, and I still have no idea what they actually do), Unicylcing and Juggling Club, Sci-Fi Club, Buddhist Club, Choir, and many, many more.

I also made a trip up to the International Antarctic Center. The Center is fun, though pricey, and it's one of those things that you do once and most likely never do again. It was a fun day though, and I got to see fish that live in -1.1 *C water, survive a simulated Antarctic storm in a chamber that went down to -18 *C with wind chill, and watch blue penguins get fed. Also, the exhibit had a TON of information on Antarctic, and I found out that the coldest temperature ever recorded in Antarctic is -89.2 *C, at a Russian base. We all agreed that it figured Russia had the coldest base! Also, did you know that Antarctic is the coldest AND driest place on Earth? It gets less rain fall than the desert!

I also had no idea that 70% of flights that transfer people down to Antarctic fly out of Christchurch! The Center is right across from the airfield where the Hercules plane lifts off and touches down, and the highlight of the day there was definitely seeing people coming OFF the plane from Antarctic. They were quite identifiable, as their coats were a piece of luggage alone, some where still wearing rubber snow shoes, and they all had red bags that can be seen in numerous videos within the Center. We greeted them as they got off, and welcomed them back to double digits! They responded that they just came from double digits, just double digits in the opposite direction.

Oh how time seems to fly these days! A friend and I are planning a weekend up in Kaikoura to swim with either seals or dolphins before the business shuts down for winter. The hard thing about the New Zealand bus system is booking far enough in advance to get a good price. One bus system, Naked Bus, lets you book for $1 a seat if you book months ahead! The only problem is being organized enough to book that far in advance! But my backpack will definitely be getting a good deal of experience on my back and riding in a bus, as the rates are generally not horrible, and hostels are numerous here. Now let’s just see if I can get rid of the fish ‘n chips smell from my day pack. IMPORTANT TIP! Never leave fish n’ chips in your backpack for more than five minutes…


Cheers,
Nicole

Matthew 21:21-22