Another month gone by. . .

I must apologize for my obvious lack of commitment over the last month to this blog. Between having family here, various school deadlines and the Olympics, we've been pretty busy (not to mention, we used up all our bandwidth for the month watching skiing and hockey online). But now, I have no excuses for falling behind so I'll try to keep up.

A friend of mine from Stitch is opening a shop this weekend. I've been helping her with some of the set up, rolling cloth onto bolts, painting walls, sewing samples. All sorts of fun stuff. In fact, over the past year Fenella, Louise, Ursula and Briar have all coerced me into sewing. My first successful project was a bag made from the fabric we exchanged at Christmas time. Shortly followed by two more, one for me and one for mom. Now, I am onto grander and more expensive designs. I am planning on making a quilt. Albeit, a baby quilt for Kieran, my nephew in Winnipeg (my first - therefore he gets all my firsts).

School-wise, thigns are going well. I'm in the midst of interviews and sending out/receiving questionnaires. It's really interesting seeing what people have to say and I'm looking forward to sharing with my peers in Oslo this June at the International Polar Year conference and in Hobart two weeks later. I will also take the opportunity to visit family in London and Singapore. Although I'm looking forward to the trip, it's an expensive one so won't have much to spend on prezies. Or food once I get back. . .

Stephen is into his second month of teaching. He enjoys parts and not others. Between planning lessons for four different classes (Year 12 physics, year 13 physics, year 10 science and year 9 science), coaching volley ball and badminton, going on overnight geography fieldtrips, and helping organize extra-curricular activities, I don't see him much. But he enjoys it and on Monday watched the gold medal hockey game with his Year 13 physics class and is now baking them cookies for Canada winning the gold.

Life is good here. We both still contemplate the idea of home and where we see ourselves in 5,10, or 20 years. And really, it comes down to when you ask, because it seems to change from moment to moment. We'll just have to wait and see what life brings us. Until then, I'll keep enjoying what I'm given in the now.

A closing shot looking north to the Kaikoura peninsula from the Transcoastal Train as morning light seeps in between the clouds.

Pre-Departure Session

Well, this weekend was our Antarctica pre-departure session. The PCAS (post-graduate certificate in Antarctic Studies) course I'm tutoring in spent 3 days out at the UC (University of Canterbury) geography field station in Cass (a stop along the TranzAlpine railway). We were introduced to some of the gear we'd be using, but mostly it was about getting to know one another better - bonding. With winds up in the 80-100 km/hr range we spent lots of time inside discovering the intricacies of living together and talking about all the fun things we'll be doing down in Antarctica.

Cass Field Station. In the background is the Craigieburn Range with Arthur's Pass just off to the left.

Steve showing off his weather station. While we're down on the ice, this station will be set up by the students and recordings will be taken every day. Unfortunately, due to the high velocity winds we weren't able to fly the ginormous kite he has to take up some of his other instruments.

Here's one of the tents we'll be using down on the ice. There are four poles that are put into the tough outer fly, the inner tent is then hung from inside and the white flaps are covered with snow and the guylines are anchored into the surrounding snow to keep it all on the ground.

This is the emergency tent provided for each group of two people. Whenever we go out of camp we have to carry these emergency bags with us which contain things like a shovel, a saw, food, a stove, a tent, sleeping bags and other useful things to keep you warm.

On the last day, we did a hike up Bealey Spur (overlooking the Waimakariri River). It was a 10km round trip through beech forest, grass tussocks and boasted some fantastic views.

One of the aforementioned fantastic views of the Waimakariri River.

Lake Tekapo

This past weekend I went on a field trip to Lake Tekapo with a Geography course I'm sitting. The course focuses on the various ways we experience place, exploring especially the differening world views of First Nations and Western Science. This weeks trip explored the space of Mountains and Skies up at Lake Tekapo.

Lake Tekapo is about 200km Southwest of Christchurch up in the Southern Alps which run the length of the South Island. It has a permanent population of about 500 people with a large portion of the transient population in holiday home owners. Mount John Observatory sits on the nearby Mount John, and there is steady work being done to try to have UNESCO accept a proposal for a world heritage site that protects the night sky viewing possibilities.
Mount John is the southern most permanent observatory, placed here for its' altitude, latitude, and number of clear nights. Not only do people come from around the world to view the stars of the southern hemisphere here, but the Japanese and New Zealand astronomy communities have worked together to build MOA (microlensing observations in astrophysics), a 1.8m telescope that looks for planets as they cross in front of stars. I believe in its' 13 years of life so far they have found 13 planets the size of Jupiter in far off solar systems. We were lucky enough to join one of their night sky tours. Looking up at the thousands of millions of billions of stars that seem to go on and on forever - and maybe they do. You can learn more about the observatory at http://www.earthandsky.co.nz/

Down to Work

Today is my second day at my new "job" for the next 3-4 years of my life. I have a nice desk with a window above it that looks out into a shady square. I can hear the birds singing on colder days and the cicadas chirping on the hot days. I share my office right now with two other PhD students, one who is just finishing up her dissertation on pond chemistry (in Antarctica) and the other who is currently in Washington doing field work (I'm not sure on what though). My bookshelf is slowly filling with things to read, but right now I'm simply waiting to meet my supervisor, Gary. Everyone seems very nice and they have been very welcoming into their space. I'm looking forward to working here.

Stephen is on his second day of classes as well. He's successfully transferred from Physics and Math to Physics and Chemistry, and will be busy in classes for the next five weeks until his first placement in a local school. He's also taking a Maori Education course, which is mandatory here, that teaches Maori language, culture and traditions to teachers to ensure culturally sensitive people are going into the classrooms. A wonderful tool I think for all institutions to think about.

Hope you're all doing well. Our home phone and internet should be up next week, so I will have some pictures up then.

Cheers,
Erin

First Impressions

Well, we've been here 4 days now and the place is really growing on me. Christchurch is a really neat place and although we haven't taken any "tourist" time yet, I'm slowly feeling more and more comfortable. We have a house, with furniture and a full fridge, all we need is a phone and some regular internet access. Internet will be and is the most expensive thing here. For one month with 3GB (yes, only three) it costs 50$. Apparently having only one cable linking the country to the rest of the world makes for some expensive connection costs.

Some other random differences I've noticed include;
- driving on the opposite side of the road (of course we all knew that - but when you try biking that way, you'd better be extra bloody careful, on the way back from getting our bikes I almost rode out into oncoming traffic because I was looking the wrong way - hasn't happened again since)
- all toilets are low-flow toilets
- the gulls here are tiny little guys with creepy eyes; they also act like very forward ravens, when we were eating lunch at a cafe outside, they would go right onto tables once people had left, pulling food right off the plates
- Japanese restaurants are everywhere (and yes, they have okinomeaki), second place goes to chinese/thai/korean restaurants
- The bus system is awesome; tomorrow we're taking the bus to a nearby town for their weekly farmers market - you can go anywhere
- People speak with funny accents (though I suppose since we're in the minority we do)

Stephen had his orientation over the last two days and will officially start on Monday (your Sunday I believe). I still have to track down my supervisors and talk with them, I think I'll be officially starting on March 1st, but will be able to get going sooner than that hopefully.

The rest of the day awaits, so I will head off to meet it. I wish you all the best and will post some pictures as soon as I can.

Cheers,
Erin