second last new zealand update batch

i have only 2 days left to write about (and a little – the day of departure where we left at like 5 am), but i decided that i’ll put up the last few days that i’ve already written anyway.

the weekend here went awesomely – i spent another full day at the beach, almost bought a dress, and realized i can now carry 7 kg worth of groceries for about 25 minutes.

enjoy the entries!

for photographs start here and end when you get bored :)

23 – feb 10: frans joseph to hokitika

the day began with the bad news that my bag still has not arrived. after some phoning the YHA in haast, it turned out that my bag is still in haast as of this morning. wtf mate… it was sitting there for a whole day? argh!!!

anyway, the choices were put as follows:

  • for an extra charge get the bag delivered to the glacier today (what i especially don’t get is that it was supposed to arrive *YESTERDAY*. okay, maybe same-day is impossible, so then *TODAY*. but if i did not pay, when in the world would it get here?! like 10 days after i leave new zealand? i don’t get it AT ALL. cause the guy who i spoke to initially definitely understood that i was leaving this place in 2 days) after 1pm. when after 1pm? no one knows.
  • for a doubly extra charge get it sent to hokitika, where it might – might – get by tonight.
  • leave it in haast and waste 4 hours driving there and back to pick it up.

    after some hesitating and deliberating i decided to wait here and try getting it here. if it doesn’t come today then i will leave my chirstchurch address (the hostel), and try to get it delivered there asap. argh. i miss my toothbrush, glasses, shampoo… FLIP FLOPS! dang it.

    the nice thing about this town is that its so small, and the gas station attendant is doubling as the post office guy, and the hostel owner actually knows him (in the sense that she said “oh he’s a nice guy, you can talk to him and give him your cell number). after talking to the post office guy, further positive information came along – he said that the package should get here by 1:30pm. so, for now we’re hanging out in the hostel. it is 11:26am – we had breakfast, and at this point anja is reviewing photographs on oleg’s computer, and i decided to blog. i am 8 days behind!

    some hours later…

    so, upon spending the next 2 and a half hours blogging, at 1:30 (half an hour after the approximate 1pm deadline) i went to the post office/friendly local gas station/mobil. unfortunately, the guy said “another half an hour”, and i demurely went back (having bought an ice cream to celebrate the shiny blue skies and warm weather and to cheer myself up in general) to the hostel.

    some minutes later…

    20 minutes later a postal truck pulled into the hostel with a MAGICAL SINGLE PACKAGE in his hands! yup! my bag has ACTUALLY FOUND ME. apparently this whole concept of “mailing” “stuff” is not entirely flawed.

    in joy and celebration we have jetted out of the hostel on the road to hokitika, which has been described as the jade capital of new zealand (and possibly THE WORLD, although i’m not sure). another waterfall of flyers describing things and places as “the best kept secret in new zealand” has accompanied the visit to this town. remind me to not really trust new zealand with secrets, as they tend to publish them in official visitor guides.

    hokitika also greeted us with rain, and thus we have decided to hang out at the very posh, very large, very cool looking hostel, with a very calm and friendly australian sheepdog, sid. (funny that i can remember dogs’ names but not people’s…) here i’ve found a book by grisham, “the broker”, which addicted me right away. around 11:30pm the realization that i just won’t finish it (and i can’t take it cause the hostel libraries work on the principle of take-one-leave-one), so i went to sleep in our 3(people)-for-1(room). anja hasn’t been able to find a place in that hostel, but they very nicely made her a bed on a mattress on the floor, and other than that was a bunk bed, leading to generally cozy accomodations.

    • 22 – feb 9: at frans joseph

    our cozy group of three – anja, oleg and myself – have all booked ourselves some day trips for the day at the glacier.

    the craziest trip was booked by oleg – ice climbing. this is when climb a chunk of ice using boots with very sharp points, and a pair of axes. the safety is a top rope that’s hooked to you, and a guide belaying you. of course, i think that’s the reasonable part – the part that is very UNreasonable, is the part where they gotta start at 7:45am.

    the next craziest trip was booked by anja – a full day (8 hour) walk on the glacier, with 6 hours spent on the ice, and start time at 8:15am. walking on the glacier entails putting on special shoes with spikes in them (“ice talons”), and then following the guide around the glacier using paths that are created especially for you.

    and my calm trip was the 3/4 day trip, which is longer than the half-day trip, but not as grueling as the full day trip. to quote from the brochure “with lots of photographic opportunity” – so given how tired and under the weather i’ve been feeling, i decided to take this “opportunity”. the fact that there were two starting times – 7:45 (right…) and 10:30

    thus, my morning was fairly calm – given how usually at 10:30 we have to be packed and out for 30 minutes, and the only thing i had to do was dress, eat breakfast, buy a bottle of water and be there.

    on that note: dress.

    basically, the choice of wear on the glacier is something that dries quickly on the bottom, and 4 warm layers on the top. well, the warm layers part wasn’t tough, because i was pretty prepared on that aspect . but the quick dry pants wer an issue, cause i only had 2 pairs of pants (pyjama, and cotton brown ones). i also had 3/4 length pants, which in hindsight is what i should’ve worn despite them not being quick dry (jeans and cotton), and lastly i also got a pair of shorts. like, summer shorts. which is what i was told to wear on the glacier.

    while being slightly sceptical, we do what we gotta do, so in shorts and 3 layers (it was a very sunny warm day) i went off, making it about 3 minutes before our group of 26 people has launched.

    after outfitting us into super waterproof jackets and big boots (you don’t wear your own shoes cause you will be outfitted with the afore mentioned ice talons, i.e. a big set of spikes attached to the foot) off we went on a bus ride to the bottom of the glacier. of course the bottom of the glacier is really about an hour’s walk from the parking lot (with ice talons in a bag, and i took my wide angle (attached) and kit lens for the polarizer filter, cause i had no clue how shooting all that bright white snow will work out, and 1.25 liter water bottom). so, that was a nice, brisk start to the day.

    at the bottom we’ve split into +adventurous and -adventurous groups, where i went for the slower paced -adventurous. in the end we covered pretty similar terrains, and given all the stuff i was carrying and my generally not-the-best shape, i was pretty happy with my choice.

    the hike up the glacier’s face was fast paced and tired us all out quickly. later on, in the evening, oleg remarked that the initial climb was tough for him as well. after that initial push, the adventure began.

    the advertising said that we’d feel “refreshingly surprised at the sense of your own achivement”. that was indeed true, as we have spent an insane amount of time climbing into, out of, and going over cracks and crevices in the ice. at one point, the friendly old british man (who, together with his wife, has already been on an iceberg in the canadian rockies), asked me after we went through a particularly long, narrow, twisty, ice passage – “so, are your legs quick-dry?”. apparently they were, as they rarely felt cold, and my biggest concert through the hike was when should i stop and shoot, and when should i hug the camera and squeeze. since everything went well with only positive remarks from the well equipped guide (“how are the papparazi doing back there?” when me, and another british couple, where the guy was also shooting with a DSLR, started lagging a bit behind)
    anyway, the evening was spent with some food, some rest, some spa, some beers, and oleg and me aching from the excersize. oleg was totally aching, where as i was totally aching mostly in lower body. anja was totally fine from her experience. :)

    i advice looking towards the photographs for the way it looks. but, lessons learned for today:

    • glaciers are made out of ice
    • ice is cold
    • therefore, glaciers are cold (sometimes)
    • bringing the thin, light, synthetic pad that my dad gave me made me the only person who sat in warmth ON the iceberg during lunch
    • ice melts. making squeezing through crevices possible.
    • those spikes on the bottom of our shoes saved us many times today
    • climbing through big ice cracks and hiking over big chunks of ice feels like climbing within an icecube, but cooler
    • glaciers are made out of big ice cracks and big chunks of ice
    • therefore, glaciers are cool (always)

    21: feb 8: haast to frans joseph.

    upon departing haast, we sleepily stumbled into the car and left towards the next exciting thing – the glaciers. the trip towards the glaciers was punctuated with naps (for me), a few stops at pretty roadside locations (waterfalls and rainforests), and the realization that i forgot a whole bag of stuff in haast about 2 hours into the 4 hour drive. we decided that i’d call them and ask them to send it forward to glaciers with someone else who’s staying there, as haast is mostly and essentially a stopover for people going to the glaciers from wanaka.

    the excitement of the day was delivered in a form of a root into which we “crashed” (i.e. a road kinda jammed into). the car was fine, and after a car servicing station deflated the wheel and took out the wood, oleg (the driver) was fine too. :)

    the evening was magnificently peaceful, with a lovely sunset over surrounding mountains, and a game of chess. i played some random guy, one out of many chess players who seem to gather there daily. i lost, 1-2 (we played 3 games). in the first game i had a very elegant mate, but in the last one he completely annihilated me.

    the next day we all had big adventures awaiting us, so we went to sleep fairly early.

    20 – feb 7: wanaka to haast

    in the morning of leaving wanaka, we have picked up another travel companion. a german girl of 20 years old, named anja (yes, anja, like the russian name! so cool.) she will travel with us to the glaciers (through haast, where she has found a dorm bed in a nearby hostel). in terms of general travel it makes our car arrangement different – all my bags are in the backseat now (as they are the smallest, who’d thunk that), anja is sitting in the front, and i sit at the back with my laptop. this is perfect because i don’t have to keep up a conversation with anyone :D and i end up falling asleep A LOT. which is great cause i constantly feel like i’m lacking sleep.

    so the drive to haast was punctuated with a few stops at pretty places (waterfalls and such), and that’s pretty much it. in haast we picked up food, and since i still felt tired and kinda sick (lightheaded), anja and oleg went to explore the local forests, and i stayed in the huge, open concept 2 floor YHA hostel. which actually SUCKED cause their oven didn’t really work from the first time, and they had a pronounced lack of dishes, in my opinion.

    anyway, the day was not very exciting (overcast and grey too), but that’s exactly what i needed. the photographs anja and oleg brought back (they both have drebel 350d, hers is silver) are verrrry pretty, but i felt SO tired that i don’t regret that i stayed in one place, and had a day off.

    evening dinner was pasta with ground beef and tomato sauce. the YHA hot plates sucked, and we never did end up eactly figuring out how they work, but everything got somehow cooked, and was made into a pretty tasty dinner.

    i blogged some in the evening, and slept painfully with my burns, and very loud rain and wind throughout the entire night.

    valentines in sydney

    posting stuff i had written earlier. 

     

    valentine’s day has surrounded us from the start, with appropriate “life” shows on the television. then off to the e-card office to get our student ids, and off to the orientation we went.

    since you didn’t have to be at the orientation, i’ll save you the 95% boredom, and let you know of the 5% fun:

  • the security guy made a nice and informative presentation of the dangers on and around campus, and also of the services provided by security. he also was pleasantly self mocking, raising many a laughs from the crowd
  • the part when they were talking about size of australia, the guy asked if anyone is from canada, and a weighty part of the audience cheered. i was the only one to cheer AND clap, thus some remembering i’m from canada
  • of course when he said china right afterwards i heard toronto so i cheered again, which brought some confusion, making some people believe i have some connection to china.
  • and when a little later he asked if anyone is from russia and i was the only one in the entire 200 person room (oleg’s approximation) who went “YEAH!” and raised my hand, made most people to remember me as russian

    • a lot of canadians went as exchange students to this university. some statistics about who i’ve met today:

  • 50% of met were from canada
  • 5% from design, 30% from mining degrees, 50% of other engineering/cs, 15% business
  • 4 mcgill, 1 schulich (3rd year, says he knows of our hesi), +1 u of t, 4 queens
  • i saw 7 french girls, 1 canadian/russian girl (the only other russian speaking person AFAIK), again,

    the day after the orientation bbq was spent running errands, failing at setting up internet (for a few reasons that i figured out later in the evening with oleg), buying some sushi rolls for dinner out of self spoilage, and then a very pleasant evening of blogging, and watching olympics on the tv.

    among other pieces of knowledge gathered today, was that our illusionary roomates (i.e. the ones who are not to be seen yet) are in new zealand until the 18th (day before tim arrives), and they are party animals, and the flat is essentially a big hangout house for most of the time.

    after having some wine, sleep is scheduled to happen in 10 minutes, at 1am. tomorrow’s orientation starts at 9:30am.

    • flat mates

      


    img_2618_    Originally uploaded by olya.

    going in vein with my luck, i have gotten some awesome people as my flat mate. other than oleg, there are 3 more people living with us:

    elen: a 25 year old girl from norway, she is here finishing up her masters thesis in safety (engineering branch). she just moved into the flat.

    lesley-ann: a 22 (i think? or so) adorable irish girl, who bakes and cooks a lot, has the most awesome cute and original shirts. she’s been here for half a year already, and comes from the same university as kevin. she is studying law.

    kevin: a red haired traditionally irish guy, who rock climbs, plays soccer and cricket (well, everyone plays cricket here. i’m watching a bunch of people, including our flatmates, playing cricket in the lawn outside our balcony as i type this). he also is studying law.

    the flat itself has 2 floors. i’m on the ground floor together with oleg, living room, kitchen, and 2 bathrooms (each with a toilet, sink and shower). on the second floor there are 3 bedrooms in which elen, lesley-ann and kevin reside. it is reasonably messy, there’s always a lot of booze on hand, and about 2-3 nights out of the week someone will be sleeping on the couch on the balcony, on the spare mattress in the living room, or on the living room couch.

    my room is very decently sized, with a neat closet, a nice window, and a desk with drawers. unfortunately the bed is single, but its pretty comfortable for a dorm. i’m unhappy that its all carpeted, and that i can’t find anything to put on my walls – no posters or cork boards. will try to find a cheap magnetic board today.

    all photos. my class schedule.

    coogee beach


    coogee beach

    Originally uploaded by olya.

    today while walking back from the bus from the beach, i went through the university. i saw a small, adorable 4-5 year old boy walking amonst all the undergrad and graduate students, in hurry to get to their class. white pressed shirt, neat shorts, proper backpack, neat shoes… one shoelace untied. heading, completely alone towards a long row of stairs down.

    he noticed me noticing him, and when i started walking on the stairs i decided that i couldn’t not do anything. so, i turned around, made eye contact again, and asked if he’d like me to tie his shoelace. surprisingly, he didn’t say anything, just looked at me kinda sadly, stopped and put his untied shoe forwards. i carefully tied it into a knot, stood up and said “here you go”. he looked at me without saying a word, and after just-a-bit-too long pause i said “take care” and walked away, listening for sounds of someone stumbling, just in case. nothing was heard.

    when i reached the bottom of the stairs, a minute later maybe? a rushed, in-tears young girl asked me in a very worried voice “do you know where the library is?” thankfully that i already learned, so i pointed her on her way, with traditionally olya description “big building with at least 10 floors, says UNSW on it in big letters, go this way”. she seemed relieved, and thanked me as she started to run off.

    thus, today i’ve spent 4 hours on a beach, read almost a whole book, ate some ice cream, learned some matlab, cleaned my room and the kitchen, and helped two people. not a totally wasted day right?

    and, with posting this i’m breaking free of my dry-phase of blogging. i have something typed up. it’ll be coming soon. its just tought to get back into the typing routine.

    tim goes all “manly”


    (see all the photographs for this entry here and here.)

    after having been forced to watch women’s figure skating short program the night before, tim had decided that he needed to do something manly, thus we went to manly bay.

    the view off the ferry was AWESOMETASTIC as you can see in these photographs (courtesy d70).

    upon arrival to the bay we walked around, and fussed with their 24 hour tourist center. in the photograph you can see the pad for operating on the screen on the left, and the screen is on the right, and in the middle is tim trying to make it tell us where we can find japanese food.

    after more walking and stumbling around, we found an acceptable japanese place where we had an excellent all-around japanese meal (sashimi, sushi, tempoura prawns, teriyaki chicken, rice, edamame, miso soup, ice cream, all for 2 plus a bottle of nice wine at 26/person! like, wow.)

    the ferry back was equally pretty, and the bus from the quay to unsw was eventful as it was *full* of crazy drunken frosh students who were singing out loud the entire time. it was like a school bus, not a city bus.

    note: for some reason anything from www.olya.org isn’t loading now. i dunno why. it was working earlier and ftp is okay. i guess it will work later again?