Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 - A Time of Celebration and Good Memories

While it was a free day, much of it was spent finishing course journals and the slide show and preparing for the last get together at night at the Famous Grouse Hotel and Restaurant.  We gathered together the students, lecturers, and friends - all essential in making our adventures successful and fun!  With thanks, we celebrated our time together and enjoyed a music video by Jamm and Tupelo along with a slide show of our New Zealand experience.  Not wanting to think about going home, we relived memorable times together over the last five weeks.  Special thanks to our students for diving into our adventures with great enthusiasm, our guest lecturers for sharing their time and expertise, and our friends and families for their support.  Thanks also to our students for the special Koha treasures - very thoughtful and special.  They, and especially our time together, will be cherished.


P.S.  Too bad it was cloudy so we missed out on the Southern Lights!

Free weekend July 23rd-25th

 Mitre Point at Milford Sound

View of Queenstown from the gondola

Woke up extra early on Friday along with Seth, Ashley, Kirstin and Dania at around 6am. It was worth it though because we had to catch an early morning flight into Queenstown from Christchurch. After a very generous ride from Meryl, we got on the plane and about 45 minutes later we were in Queenstown. We spent the day walking around the shops and checking into our hostel. Queenstown was very unique. I loved how everyone walked around either carrying a snowboard or skis, making it an ideal skiing town. While Dania set out to try her hand at rock climbing, the others and I took the Queenstown gondola up a mountain to where we had tea time in a café.  Seth, Ashley and I tried out luging which was so much fun. That night we ate at the famous burger restaurant, Fergburger, and it was the best burgers we've all ever had.

Riding in the gondola

The next day, Saturday, had to get up extra early again in order to get on the coach ride to Milford Sound. It took a good while to get to Fiordland national park from Queenstown, but the scenery on the way was amazing. On the way we made one stop at Lake Te Anau, New Zealand's second largest lake, to have tea time. Driving through the national park was breathtaking and the tour bus made a few stops so we could capture some photos of the natural landscape made up of beech forest and snow-covered mountains.

Lake Te Anu

Fiordland National Park, largest national park in New Zealand.

When we made it to Milford sound, we hopped on a cruise that took us out in-between the mountains. It was definitely one of the most spectacular things I’ve seen. At one point we were directly under a waterfall. It’s so fascinating to think that that region was once a valley covered by a glacier. Sunday was our flight back into Christchurch and we basically just spent the afternoon relaxing from a wonderful free weekend. 

  

Cheers! -Julianna

July 21, 2010

Kia Ora!
     Our day started off early with a trip into Christchurch for a few presentations. Our first stop was at Environment Canterbury, or ECan, for a talk with Wayne McCallum, the Regional Biodiversity Coordinator. His presentation revolved around the Canterbury Biodiversity Strategy (http://www.canterburybiodiversity.org.nz/). Wayne discussed why there was a cascading order of biodiversity strategies and how they are used in their projects. What stood out the most to me was how ECan has been able to get the community involved in everything they do. Hopefully we can have the same community involvement and enthusiasm back home!

     Once we finished at ECan, we headed to the Christchurch City Council offices for a few more presentations. First up was Trevor Partridge, who spoke to us about managing biodiversity in urban areas. He talked about the regulatory framework and governance structure behind planning in the city. It was made clear that implementing biodiversity projects is not an easy process. Zoe Dewson spoke to us afterwards about managing waterway biodiversity in the city. In the past, Christchurch waterways were primarily managed for the comfort of its residents. Now they are managed for multiple values: ecology, landscape, recreation, heritage, culture, and drainage. This change in management practices results in higher biodiversity and better water quality. The overall message I got from today's lectures was that projects that aim to increase biodiversity require a lot of planning and community involvement.

      After dinner, Mark drove us into Lyttleton to watch a local band, The Eastern Family, at a place called Wunderbar. It was a really cool and funky bar that looked as if it used to be a thrift store. The entire band wasn't performing but the music was still great. We even bought their album! Altogether, it was a fun way to end the day.

The Eastern Family

-Dania

Friday, July 9th - West Coast Adventures, Part 2

We headed north from Greymouth along the West Coast scenic drive toward Punakaiki and Paparoa National Park. Adventures during the day included looking for jade and mudstone on the beach in Barrytown; 

saying hi to a Weka and exploring the "Pancake Rocks" in Punakaiki; 

and a long afternoon hike along the seemingly prehistoric Pororari River.  

At night we learned to weave a few Maori flax items like fish and flowers before heading out to a local cave to see glow worms.  The view of the milky way and shooting stars before bed was equally spectacular (the stars felt so close we thought we could touch them).

Lyttlelton Light Festival

Above: Fireworks from the bridge by Lyttelton Harbor

Most of the communities outside of Christchurch in the Canterbury region are very small.  We live in Lincoln which has a population of about 3,000 people.  There is a strong sense of community in most of the small towns in the area.  Friday night we went over the Port Hills to the small harbor town of Lyttelton for their Light Festival.  After a short procession of most of the school-aged children in town and their parents and some music at a central stage set up in the middle of the town, there were fireworks at the harbor.  Mark would say the best part of the evening was the little fried doughnuts from one of the street vendors.