Cat Scratch Fever!!

OK, I don't want to turn into those crazy people who blog about their cats, but check out what Haka did to my hand! BRUTAL!!

Ragged Ass in Raglan

Adam and I went to Raglan, which is about 3 hours southwest on the west side of the North Island. We stayed at Wild Coast which was totally cool. We had isolated cabins overlooking oceans and hills. Kind of like what the Oregon Coast looked like in the 50's.

They had horse expeditions, and it was definitely one of the most challenging rides I had been on in a while. There were very steep hills and a number of times my horse, Sundance, slipped and fell to his knees as I struggled to stay on and avoid the branches gouging holes in my legs. When we got on the beach the guide told us not to let our horses out of control because the horse would take off in a sprint and the rest of the herd like pack would follow. OK-Doky! I've been on a horse riding flat out and it was one of the most scary things to happen to me during my childhood. We did eventually get to run the horses on the beach, which was super fun. Those were some spunky horses! Ride-um cowboy, when are we going again? Just as soon as my ass recovers...Thanks Helen for referring me!

And of course Adam went gliding during this time. See all those hills in the background? Them are good for riding hot air, which is exactly what Adam is thinking about at this moment...

Christmas in Portland OR 2006

Well, better late than sorry....I went to Portland this last Christmas to take care of the house AND to see my family. I really had a good time and it was nice seeing my family and friends. Big thanks to Shar for putting me up and thanks to everybody else who helped me take care of the house.

Here's some pictures.

CATZ!!!! OMG

We did it. This weekend we acquired two cute kittens from the pound.

This is Tica:


Initially we thought that it might be interesting to get a pure bred cat of some exotic breed. We went to a couple cat breeders and were thoroughly disgusted by the treatment of the cats. I just don't think that you can humanely raise a large number of cats. And as soon as they are bred for money it looks like they stop being treated as pets.

Our first trip to the SPCA(pound) was a shocker. We got there at 2:00 on a Saturday and they were completely out of kittens and there were only a couple other older cats there which were by no means ugly or mean. We talked to an attendant and she said that there is stiff competition for the kittens and that we would have to get there at 10:00AM to get a good kitten.

We went back at 10:00AM the following weekend and there were already about 15 people pointing and talking about which ones they wanted. We pushed our way into one of the cat rooms and surveyed the cuteness. There were two kittens that were constantly playing and that liked to be held. They also had interesting markings like some of the pure bred cats we were looking at. Roberta and I quickly agreed and I raced off to make sure no one else got them.

This is Haka:


They have been nothing but cuteness since, well aside from this morning when one of them unleashed a flood of pee onto our comforter. They just jump around and run and play all the time. We got them these little catnip mice that they just love. We have take them aways at bed time or else they will be bouncing off the walls all night.

Here are some pics:

Pictures

First Glider Solo Flight

For the past 7 months I have been flying at the Auckland Aviation Sports Club which flies out of Whenuapai (Pronounced Fen-ew-uh-pie). Today I took my first solo flight which is a major achievement in my gliding career. Prior to 7 months ago I had no real concept of how to fly an airplane.

Today the instructor took me up for a check flight to make sure that I was ready to go up on my own. He didn't say a word on the flight which was a little strange. Usually the instructor is back there chatting away about one thing or another and I am constantly vocalizing my intentions of what I am doing. On this flight I was talking but getting no responses which was an odd feeling. I had to do everything right on my own without the typical confirmations.

I came in for a perfect textbook landing and we hopped out of the plane and he said that it was time to go solo. I strapped in and did all my pre-takeoff checks talking to myself. The takeoff went great and I released at 2000 feet. I flew around looking for some lift and found enough to keep me at 1700 feet for a few minutes but not enough to keep me up for an hour long first solo flight. I came in for the landing and stuck another perfect landing to much amazement of the people on the ground.

After that flight I couldn't stop smiling for an hour. What a great feeling to be completely in control of something so amazing and to see the months of work paying off.

The club is completely volunteer and people seem genuinely happy to be out there helping out. The aviation sector has a lot of die hard members, of which I am officially one now.

For any glider pilots out there, my first solo was in our Grob 103 Twin Astir since our Blanik is out of commission.

Earthquakes and Volcanos - Oh My!

I have yet to experience any earthquakes or volcanos in New Zealand, I can't wait. In Portland we had Mt. St. Helens, which blew big time when I was in the first grade. I can remember ashes everywhere. We had some small tremors in Southern Oregon.

And of course, there were lots of tremors in Costa Rica, not to mention the lava flowing at Arenal. You could watch it flow sitting in hotsprings below.

Check out this link, it looks like Mt. Ruapehu crater lake is going to burst.

Urrghhh Credit Cards and Bills

When we were living in Costa Rica we had all of our mail sent to a private post office box in Texas. The mail system in CR was sketchy regardless, and we weren't full citizens anyway.

Now that we are in New Zealand we are trying to have all of our bills in the US be permanently changed to NZ. Well, rarely any of the billing systems have the capacity for foreign addresses. Urgh!

When we try to buy things online, one of the security things they verify is the mailing address. Well, the way we would write the address is different than the way the customer service rep. figured out how to get it into their system, so they never match. Voila, can't buy anything online when they cross match security stuff. Arghh!

And lastly since I was in the US for two weeks over Christmas break this appeared to be dodgy activity so they suspended my card. I was carrying about a dozen cards at any one point, and maybe one would work at any one time. I'd call them, they would turn it on, then it wouldn't work....GIVE ME MY MONEY!!

OK I'll stop bitching, I found a way to buy some new shoes. NZ has poor quality or overpriced shoes, so naturally, I had to stock up :)

Best Cough Drops Ever

So I went away for a while Portland and got really sick. Fever, coughs, shivers, achy bones. I was in a rough state. I came back and Adam got me THE BEST COUGH DROPS EVER. They were anti-inflammatory, cough suppressants, antibacterial AND it had codeine in it.

Best invention ever. It didn't knock me out or anything, just made my tongue and throat numb, just enough to let me sleep. They were way better than taking those oral anti-whatever that just dries out your whole body. Woohoo for a better health system that lets adults choose their own remedies.

I'm not a big pill taker, but if I'm really sick I will take whatever pills it takes to get better.

There ARE Comments!!

Well I thought I was just talking to myself, keeping a little diary for later in life, because nobody was saying anything. Nobody was posting comments. I thought I was talking to a wall. The stat counter was showing lots of hits. It did seem strange to me that nobody was leaving comments.

Well, I guess there was a glitch and just the other day about 50 or so comments got posted. I'm going to go back and read through them and make some responses. If you left a comment in the last couple of months, sorry about that....I'll get on it soon.

More South Island Pictures from June

Adam's sister, June, just posted some more pictures on her flicker account . They hit some different spots than Adam and I did.

Our trip to the NZ South Island

We recently got back from a two week adventure to the south island here in New Zealand. We heard that the south island was beyond description and that it was something that had to be seen to believed. I would completely agree.



For the next sections you can scroll around google maps to see where we went.

Click for Google Maps

My parents and sister flew into Auckland and we started our journeys. We started by flying from Auckland to Christchurch which is on the center east coast of the south island. We picked up the RV and drove to Lake Tekapo. On the drive to the lake we traveled through flat farmlands with fields of lupen. The first thing that you notice when you get there is that all of the rivers and lakes are an odd creamy light blue color which is very distinctive.

The weather was extremely cold and windy at the start of the trip so we really couldn’t get out and walk around too much in any one spot. Our plan was to camp at lake Tekapo for the night but since we had a fair amount of daylight left we decided keep driving on to Twizel(pronounced: Twy-zehl). My sister’s boyfriend’s cousin is a fly fishing guide/magician/kung fu actor who lives in Twizel although we weren’t able to hook up with him.

The following day we drove to Omarama which is one of the world’s greatest gliding locations and you can see why by the drive there. You are surrounded by steep mountain faces on all sides and the wind blows like it has nothing better to do. We got there and prepared to glide but the weather socked in it got canceled. We were driving out of town towards Oamaru and I remembered that I had left my video camera on the seat of one of the glider so we had to turn around and drive back. By a stroke of luck when we got back the weather had cleared up so up we went. Roberta and I went up in separate planes and worked our way up to about 8k feet and got some great views. I ended up getting motion sickness and had to turn around after an hour but Roberta kept going and stayed up for over two hours.



While we were up flying, my family went up to the base of Mt. Cook which they said was one of the highlights of their trip.

We then drove over to Oamaru and saw the Moeraki boulders. They are these big spheres on the beach that you can check out a low tide. My sister got stuck in one with much comedic value.



Another one of the major highlights of the trip for everyone were the penguins in Dunedin. If you drive out to the point where the albatross reserve is there is also a penguin area. You get there right before dark and sit down next to this little trail and the penguins come in from the ocean in a big flock. They then walk up this wee trail right in front of you. Honestly there were penguins walking within a few feet of us. It was a very surreal experience. The sounds that they were making were amazing.

After that we headed inland towards Queenstown to start the preparations for Routeburn tramp. Driving towards Queenstown we traveled through a ton of farmland and wineries. That area looks like the place to go for wine tours.

We arrived in Queenstown and found an RV park right in town where we could walk to everything. We spend a couple days there before we got the word that they had closed the Routeburn track due to snow and really bad weather. Supposedly there was 6 inches of snow on the top and people were stuck in the huts for 40 hours. I heard a story about these two groups of trampers at a bridge. The river was up and almost over the bridge and the first group decided to chance the crossing. Right after the last person got across the bridge collapsed. They were also helicoptering people across impassable sections of the trail.

After that we headed to Milford Sound where the rest of the family did a 2 hour boat trip and Roberta and I did an overnight trip. Our overnight trip was really fun. We had a whole four bunk room to ourselves and met some nice people from the UK. The only way to describe Milford Sound is with pictures.



Roberta and I decided to get a rental car at that point and do our own thing for a few days. We stayed in Queenstown for a couple more nights and were really glad that we did. We did a little winery tour and had some great wines then went to the AJ Hackett bungie bridge which is the site of the world’s first bungie jump. It is now all packaged and cheesy. They play it off as extreme but there were many other activities that seemed more adventurous and that actually required a bit of skill.



In Queenstown we went hang gliding which was a great experience. You basically get all strapped into this harness and then jump off a cliff with wings attached to your back. The instructor told us to just keep running no matter what until we were flying. We did a little ridge soaring and then landed on our bellies. Fun stuff but I still like flying sailplanes better.

We then drove north on the west coast up towards the glaciers. There are two amazing glaciers right next to each other, the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. The town of Franz Joseph seemed a little nicer so we decided to stay there. The next morning we got up and took a helicopter ride up to the top of the glacier which was definitely a highlight of the trip. Neither one of us had ever been in a helicopter so it was a great experience. It landed on the top of the glacier and we got out and were able to walk around. Check out the pictures to see the sheer enormity of the place.



Our next destination were the pancake rocks. They are a neat formation on the coast with blowholes and such.

From there we headed east over to the Hanmer Hot Springs for a relaxing next to last day in the south island. They weren’t so much hot springs as they were warm pools. I guess we were spoiled by the Tabacon hot springs in Costa Rica and the natural pools in Oregon. We did meet a nice couple of guys who said their highlight hot springs were in Budapest which is now a destination on our life travel list.

The last day we spent in Christchurch and we stayed in a hotel called The Camelot which was medieval themed. We kept cracking jousting jokes with the owner but he wasn’t laughing. Both of us really liked Christchurch as the downtown area was quaint and had some historic charm.

All in all it was an amazing trip and we are planning on doing it again to focus on sights that we missed.

Click for more pictures

Scuba Diving New Zealand: Poor Knights Islands

I took my first scuba diving class at the Orakei Dive Shop.

The next weekend we went to the Poor Knights and it was fabulous. The fish and the rock formations were incredible. I was really nervous about diving. It's actually really scary breathing under water for the first time. But, I highly recommend it. It's definitely a mental and physical exercise.

Poor Knight Pictures Here

Gliding at Matamata for Labour Day Weekend

As you all know Roberta and I have been learning to glide and were invited to take a trip to Matamata for Labour Day weekend to glide away from home our home field of Whenuapai.

The weather forecast was looking bad but everyone decided to go anyway. To transport the gliders you have to derig them by pulling the wings off and putting them on trailers. It is actually easier than it seems to pull them apart. Just pull a couple pins out and POP, the wings fall out.

One of the gliders was towed behind the towplane on the trip down. I volunteered to ride shotgun but one of the other students beat me to it. Luckily they went because the trip down to Matamata in the air sounded scary with low clouds and rain.

We got down to Matamata and started putting the planes back together. They are much harder to put together than to take apart. Especially the Grob Twin Astir. There were about eight of us working to get the wings on for about an hour. Luckily all of us were chiefs. Right before we gave up the wing clicked into place. We should have thought about giving up earlier.

In Matamata there is a huge ridge about 3kms from the gliding field and when the conditions are right you can head over there and fly all day. The conditions were not good that weekend. Most of the time you could barely see the ridge because of the clouds. Oh well, it was interesting trying to land on a small field with regular landmarks.

Roberta's first flight was devoted to loops and spins and stalls and such. The instructor took her up to 3k feet and tried to scare the crap out of her. It didn't work. Roberta is coming along with the flying, she will be doing the Aerotow next time she flies.

Here are some pictures of the weekend.
Clikc for pictures

Part III: Signing the Treaty of Waitangi

This is Part III of what I learned at a two day Maori training at a real marae from a real Maori...see previous posts for background.

The British Empire sent a man by the name of Hobson to wheel and deal with the Maori. In six days he had the treaty signed. Hobson relied on two missionaries to translate the treaty. Obviously, the Maori who weren't getting any obvious benefit declined to sign the first draft presented.

"The meeting ended indecisively and the Maori withdrew to the other side fo the Waitangi River to debate throught the night. They sought the advice of the missionary who told them that it would be in their best interests to sign the Treaty. The missionaries had some influence because Christianity had given the Maori a choice of religion. At the time the Maori world was exclusively dominated by tapu (a state of sanction/sacredness) and noa (common state of being).Some say it was because of the wicked cool robes the priest got to wear.

Anyway, the Treaty had a very important clause that the missionary had inserted after these discussions guaranteeing Maori possession of their lands, forests, fisheries and other prized possessions. The missionary believed that without this promise, the chiefs would not support the Treaty.

40 Chiefs signed the english version and more than 500 chiefs signed the Maori language version. The Treaty differs betweeen the Maori and the Enlish version, which will be the subject of the next post. I'm really not sure how many more posts there will be. My Maori training differs somewhat from what is on Wikipedia so I'll just keep posting what I learned.

Part IV: Content of the Treaty of Waitangi

Auckland Pictures

I'll get to the Treaty of Waitangi after this three day weekend. But, here's some pictures I took of Auckland.



There are some more pictures located here. Please excuse the rants I have about Auckland city urban design and this city that favors drivers and cars over pedestrians and cyclists. They have a long way to go before becoming a truly livable city. I got honked at twice today for crossing a street, legally. WTF? I miss Portland.

Part II: Te Ao Maori, New Zealand Declaration of Independence

Since I work for a crown entity (the government) everybody is sent to a Maori Bi-Culture training. I was really looking forward to it. The training was at a local Marae (Maori lodge). Very Cool! The workshop focused on the Treaty of Waitangi, the Resource Management Act 1991, consultation (or participation) and Teo Ao Maori (A Maori Worldview). The Marae (lodge) where we were staying had a good relationship with Transit, via a freeway in their backyard, though not quite clear how that worked out, but is a good indication of the importance of the relationship with the Maori.

Let's start from the beginning in 1935 Aotearoa (New Zealand) had 120,000 residents living in tribal areas (rohe). Each rohe consisted of a number of iwi (tribes), hapu (villages) and whanau (families). Each iwi had their own systems and processes of belief, religion deities, government, justice, co-operation and sharing. There were some 500 iwi (tribes) at this time.

At this time Aotearoa was frequented by a number of European colonies settling on the coasts whaling and sealing. This is when the British and French rat race started. Similiar to the US, the Brits won by having 34 tribal leaders sign a Declaration of Independence. Who knew, the US isn't the only colony with a Declaration of Independence, they read very similiarly. At this time the declaration also unified the tribes, established a flag, and thus ships could trade with Australia.

After the declaration came the Treaty of Waitangi, which trumps the declaration and is the subject of the next post. Woohoo! Can't wait!

Part III: Treaty of Waitangi

Part I: Entry onto the Marae

I'm putting together a few posts to describe the two day Maori training I went to and some of the things I learned.

There was a special ceremony that the Maori performed before they could let us on the marae. We had to be asked via a song to enter the Marae, we (one Maori lady in our group) had to sing back to request entry and then we walked in a group towards the lodge.

We stopped halfway to the door to remember the dead. Then we were let in the lodge after taking off our shoes. The women were in the front when we walked in but then the men took the front seats when we entered the lodge. They put the women up front going towards the lodge (just in case fighting breaks out), but then inside the lodge the men were suppose to protect and sit in the front.

Then there were a lot of songs and prayers in Maori that I couldn't understand, but it sounded sacred. Then the training became more informal. We were laying on mats inside the lodge during the training, between eating the five meals that we were served each day. It was really a great venue for learning about Maori culture, way better than sitting in a hotel conference room! The trainer said we could sleep if we wanted but it was entertaining enough to keep us occupied throughout the training. It also helped to have a roomful of people who were very interested in learning about Maori history. It was an international group (UK, Croatia, Russia, India, Ireland, US and Kiwi) of students all of whom worked in my office.

I learned during the course of the training that gaining entrance into the Marae is one of the most difficult things to do. Though, I don't really understand why. Just hire a consultant who knows the songs and customs. This is what eventually came out of the entire training, plus an extra 4 kilos because of all the food. No really, I'll be posting more on the New Zealand Declaration of Indepence, Treaty of Waitangi and a brief review of current status of Maori/gringo relations. I think the gringo term holds relevance in NZ as well as Costa Rica.

Imagine there's no Heaven: an Atheist's manifesto

I am beginning to realize that religions are dangerous. Check out this video interview of Richard Dawkins author of The God Delusion:



In the An Atheist Manifesto, Sam Harris argues persuasively why religions are dangerous and thus religious tolerance is dangerous.

Adam and I had a very interesting conversation. Adam is initially opposed to organized religions, the ones that are organized enough to impose their morals on election results. I've had this link on this blog before but I've continued to go back and reread this article and realize new ideas and concepts.

Another interesting phenomenon is the documentary film Jesus Camp.

I was reading the lyrics of Imagine by John Lennon. I was reminded of my general opposition to nation-states or the idea of a nation. I would be interested in reading a comparison of religious beliefs and patriotism. My lack of a belief in a nation-state is even more apparent after living in two other countries besides the United States. It doesn't matter where you live as long as you treat people with respect and dignity. I believe that nation-state boundaries prevents us from treating people with respect and dignity at a macro level by imposing trade barriers, employment barriers, etc...

Well, I have a few more thoughts floating around in my head about this subject, but just have a look at some of these links. It would be interesting to hear about somebody else's reaction.

My friend Bob Paul died in Afghanistan

One of my first jobs out of undergraduate was in Wasco County, The Dalles Oregon. I didn't have very many friends there, so I hung out with Bob and Todd, two city planners in the area. They were literally two of a very few handful of cool people to hang out with in The Dalles (re: redneckville).

Bob was in the Army Reserve. He was eventually deployed to Iraq in the Civil Affairs Brigade and I think he was doing urban planning in Iraq, later he was deployed in Afghanistan. Must have been difficult doing urban planning in a war zone, though I can't think of a better thing to be doing in a war zone then rebuilding communities. I think the world needs more planners and less prayers.

So here's a post for Bob.

Picture from OEF

Weekend Trip to the Coromandel Peninsula

Last weekend we travelled to the Coromandel Peninsula. It was fantastic and just one and a half hours away from Auckland. Here some highlights of our trips:

Hotwater Beach, we dug a pit in the sand during low tide and let the volcanic activity heat the water for a spa like experience. Did I mention it was at night? We were wandering around with shovels trying to figure out where to dig. We found the spot after falling into a steaming hot pools. I saw a couple of shooting stars, very memorable night. And we met a very nice couple from Oz.

We encountered wild turkeys and they were entertaining! See for yourself on our youtube debut:

The next day was beautiful for beachcombing at Shakespeare Cove.

Lots more Coromandel Pictures Here!