Why I love Kiwis

There seem to be some misconceptions about New Zealand. This is an attempt to thwart them!

First some basics:

New Zealand is in the pacific ocean, east of Australia:

It is not part of Australia. Don't ever say that here! The Kiwis and Aussies like to poke fun of each other. Here's a funny Aussie video:

Some say they are enemies, but it's more like cousins. Now what are Kiwis you may ask?

Kiwis are NZ's favorite native bird:

Kiwis are also a fruit (known as kiwifruit here):

Finally, kiwis are what New Zealanders call themselves:

The moon is here in NZ. It is the same as the moon in the States. It's out at the same time, it's in the same phase, it's the same side:

The stars are here too. Some are the same, others are different. For example, we can see Orion, but it is upside down relative to how you see it in the Northern Hemisphere. You can see many more stars than at home, because we are a very small country in the middle of the ocean. I've never seen brighter stars! They are just amazing. 

The sun still rises in the east and sets in the west. We do not have to walk on our hands all the time :) Nothing is "backwards" or "upside down" here. We still have breakfast in the morning, and dinner in the evening. As of Sunday, April 3rd (happy birthday Drew Shirley!), when we go off daylight savings time, New Zealand is

+12 hours relative to Greenwich Mean Time. So we are 16 hours ahead of EST. This does not mean we find out who wins sports games before you (not that I'd care). It does mean that we will be celebrating Easter while it's still Saturday for you. 

Kiwis love rugby. It's like football, only not. Other than that, I have no idea. Every time I've seen it on TV, it just looks like big jumping piles. NZ's national team is the All Blacks. Their name comes from the color of their uniforms. Their symbol is the silver fern:

The silver fern (ponga) gets its name from the color under its leaves: 

Silver Fern

Kiwis are also hilarious. I love them. This is one of the safety videos they show on the Air New Zealand flights (which I saw on my way to Auckland):

There are a few other safety videos worth watching...I'll leave that to you to search out...needless to say, they would never be deemed "appropriate" in the States :)

That being said, Kiwis are much more casual and chill about things than Americans. Everyone is very laid back and willing to help you out. As my MSU advisor told me, "In Australia they say, 'no worries, mate.' But in New Zealand they really mean it!"

Many people walk around barefoot here, guys and girls alike. Some Kiwis I talked to were amazed that you wouldn't be let into, say, an amusement park without shoes in the States. This also occurs when it's cold out. Another odd clothing thing here are stubbies. 

Many guys were them. You get used to it after awhile. 

It just makes it easier to pick them out from the international students.

And then there's the mullet:

I've seen some serious mullets. They are really "cool" here. 

Kiwis drive on the left side of the road, and the steering wheel is on the right side:

You really get used to it. I was watching a clip from a show online, and they were driving in the States, and I really thought there was something wrong about it. 

NZ has no squirrels, snakes, bears, or crocs. There are many less poisonous things than Aus!

NZ also has different plugs. You have to flip the power on from the switch, which I think is really cool. The uncool part is that up is down here, so I constantly get confused trying to turn on the light.

Turning on my lamp, however, is quite complicated. I have to plug the actual plug into a power converter, which plugs into a plug converter, which plugs into the wall. Then I have to flip the switch to turn on the power, and finally flip the switch on the lamp. Yikes!

The Maori are the "natives" to New Zealand. They arrived about 800 years ago. Aotearoa (OW-tae-ah-ro-ah) is what they call NZ. I am taking a class about their culture (nga tikanga maori), so in a few months I'll be able to tell you more about them. They have a chant called a haka. The all blacks perform a haka before each game. It's pretty intimidating:

'Pams' is a huge food brand here. NZ also has delicious apples. My favorite are the Nelson grown galas. 

The best food here, though, are TimTams. They are delicious chocolate cookies. There isn't really a 'kiwi' dish here. They do like their fish and chips though. And jello:

It's a staple to every dessert. Literally. Another of their favorites is hokey pokey. Delicious! Here's my food shelf, all bought at New World:

Here's another funny Kiwi ad:

It took me awhile to really understand what they were saying...the kiwi accent can be hard to pick up sometimes. 

Now that's something else: Kiwis and Aussies do not sound the same at all. Just listen to one of the few thousand videos I've already put up. 

Flight of the Conchords are a kiwi band that was pretty popular in the States a few years back. Here's some clips from them on NZ vs Aus:

I really could go on and on posting videos. I won't. Ya know, maybe. 

Just a few slang words:

jandles = flip flops

kia ora = hello, what's up (in Maori)

sweet az = sweet (az can be added to any adjective to mean a lot)

cheers = thanks

After spending a month here, I really do like the Kiwis. They are much more laid back and chill than Americans. There's lots of little things that they do that make me love them very much. 

Lincoln Uni

I have been in classes for two weeks now. It's such a change! Because of the delayed schedule, we only have ten weeks of class total. We have two weeks off for fall break at the end of April. We are going to the fiordlands!

I am taking four classes: evolutionary biology, soils science, maori cultural studies, and perspectives on the environment. They are all very interesting. Lots of reading, and no homework! That's a big change for me.

I live in Centennial 2.

There are four pods in each building. My pod has four other students, and we share a kitchen and bathroom.

My bed

My desk

 My podmates are Emma (from Oakland), John (from Colorado), Nick (from Colorado, but he is doing his full degree at Lincoln), and Grace (from Auckland). Everyone likes to cook, so we always have good food! I get dinner every day in the dining hall.

A very typical meal here

For everything else (and then some) we get food from the New World supermarket. It's about a half mile from my dorm. 

New World

I go too often and get too much food. But it's all good!

Don't forget to park your trundler!

A few days ago Emma, Kelcie, and I walked into Lincoln Village. It's very small. Not much to see!

Lincoln village

Unfortunately, we won't be able to go into CHCH at all while we are here. 

Being at Lincoln is very different from Michigan State. It's so small! It only takes five minutes to get to my classes. So I am always early for class here. I overestimate how long it will take. 

My prof called these rock kabobs

The campus is very pretty though. It's definitely fall here!

For my perspectives class, I have to do a mapping assignment of the campus. So Thursday I walked all around campus finding things for the map. It was a beautiful day! For about a week we had rain and clouds and cold. But thursday, friday, and saturday were very nice. Yesterday it almost got up to 30C, which is 85F! It was a nice break from the cold. But, comparatively, it's the end of September. The days are getting shorter and fall is here! I love fall. 

Beautiful tree

On my walk thursday, I got to go to the vineyards, which are just off campus. It's very beautiful there, and there were sheep!

Sheep!

I also got to see a nice sunset. Lincoln is in the middle of farm country. There is not much to do at all. About ten miles from Lincoln is Banks peninsula. 

The hills of Banks peninsula

It's hard to get to without a car though! 

Overall, Lincoln Uni is great. My schedule is much more relaxed than it would be at MSU. I'm obsessing about the trees and birds. I also (as you can tell) got my "new" camera! I read up about it, and took some pictures of the sky. They look better when they are bigger.

The southern cross is about in the middle

Which brings me to my next point - I uploaded many of my pictures of Lincoln onto picasa. You can access them right here: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/112091875103829024217/LincolnUni?authkey=Gv1sRgCNbeof3Q7reFKQ&feat=directlink

Just copy and paste the link. If it doesn't work please let me know!

The other day a crazy fantail took over the bush outside my window. Here's a short video of it:

Overall, New Zealand is quite similar to the States. One thing that constantly reminds me is the fauna. About 80% of all species here are endemic (live only in NZ, nowhere else in the world). It really is a remarkably beautiful country, even the farmland! 

Return to Lincoln: 10 March

The return to Lincoln was a long day. It involved a 40 minute walk to the ferry station, a 3 hour ferry from Wellington to Picton, a 5 hour bus ride to Christchurch, and then a 30 minute taxi ride to Lincoln.

But oh my goodness, New Zealand is beautiful.

We had a two mile walk through Wellington to the ferry terminal. We got to walk next to the highway and trains! It was a bit scary. But once we made it on the ferry, it was amazing. I've never been on a boat that big before! We had breakfast, a real one! And there were places to lie down and stuff. They had plane seats, which I found humorous.

View out the ferry

Once we made it into Queen Charlotte Sound, it was so beautiful!

Queen Charlotte Sound

The north and south island are only 20km apart at the farthest. Most of the travel time is going through the sounds. The water is so deep blue. It's picturesque. 

The sounds

You could go to the top of the ferry and look out. It was amazing. The wind and sun felt really nice and it was so beautiful it hurt to look at. 

When we made it to Picton, I thought it would be the Gary, Indiana of New Zealand. Not at all. It's a beautiful little town on the ocean, almost like Paihia. 

Picton

We saw a beautiful pied shag on the rocks.

Pied shag

It was so warm we all took off our sweatshirts and stretched in the warm sun. 

Our ferry in the back

After an hour though, our bus left for Christchurch. We drove along the coast. New Zealand is so amazingly beautiful! 

We were driving right next to the water. No people, no boats, no houses. Just water. And lots of seals! And birds! And just on the other side of the road were tons of mountains. Snow covered. New Zealand is so beautiful!

Driving 

We had a short stop in Kaikoura. I went down to the water. The beach was covered in stones, little black stones. It was great. The water wasn't that cold, but cold enough. It was hard to walk though, because the stones hurt. It was just like northern lake Michigan. 

The beach at Kaikoura

It was so amazing!

It was a great end to our wonderful trip in the north island. 

Wellington: 8 Mar to 10 Mar

We finally made it to Wellington! It's a very hilly city, much like San Francisco.

Wellington street

We got there just as the sun was setting. It was very beautiful. I also happened to look just at the right place and see the tiny crescent moon :) 

When we got off the bus, we asked the driver which way to go. We must have looked quite lost, as he gave us a ride to our hostel, way on the other side of town! Like I said, all the kiwis are nice!

We got up early the next morning to go to the Botanic Gardens. 

Botanic Gardens

They were huge! They had some awesome flowers. But I loved the trees. Many were labeled, so I went around writing in my book the ones I saw. It was pretty sweet. 

Possibly Pohutukawa

Something happened though. Between me loving the trees, and my friends not, we got separated. And then full out lost. I went and had an adventure through the trees. Then I followed the path "to-the-city". I wound my way through a cemetery. Lots of 19th century people were buried there. They were some of the first european settlers in New Zealand. It was actually pretty cool. But it was a pretty big place and eventually I decided I ought to go back to our hostel. I got lost on the confusing streets. I went down a few steep hidden staircases. I found my way back eventually! 

Meanwhile, my friends were in the flower gardens......

Ferns!

After not being able to find me, they finally left. By way of cable car! (I told you Wellington was like San Francisco)

View from the cable car

Right after I finally found my way back to our hostel, they turned up. So it was all good! We went to Te Papa, a famous museum. It was pretty cool. They had lots of things about the earth forming, and the ancient animals, and the Maori culture, and all that good stuff. There was also a photo collection of Brian Brake's. It was pretty cool. He's NZ's most famous photographer. This is his most famous piece:

From the Monsoon collection (from the web)

We walked around the city a bit more. 

Wellington

We walked down Cuba Street for a while. I went into a yarn shop...and got some yarn! Woohoo! 100% NZ wool. I'm planning on making it into a hat. I don't have the right needles here with me though. 

(Just as a side note, be appreciative of anything hand knit you ever get. Knitting is fun, don't get me wrong, but lots of time, patience (!), and much of your sanity goes into knitting. Especially if it's lace. If you miss one stitch, you realize it three rows later when there is an extra stitch, and you have to pull the last three rows out stitch by stitch. Which is painful. And time consuming. And soul draining. But I digress.)

Not much else happened in Wellington. Jen got her nose pierced. That's about it. 

If you plan on moving to Wellington, be prepared for hills!

And just a bit of humor, for all you double rainbow lovers...