Strange Fascinations in Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Christchurch (Aug 1 - 23)

Apologies for the lack of contemporaneous posts lately, but it’s been a quiet few weeks with us here down under. In the beginning of August we finally moved out of Kieran and Belinda’s, where we’d been housesitting for the better part of July, and moved into Christchurch, the metropolis of the South Island. Over the past six months we’ve been in and out of Chch more times than we care to remember; all roads in the South Island seem to lead back to here. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it’s a fine little city.

Christchurch as seen from the Port Hills, notice the Southern Alps in the distance

So for the past few weeks we’ve been working, trying to make a couple bucks before Becky’s mom arrives in mid-September. Linda and her friend Don are set to visit for a few weeks and tour the northern part of the South Island with us. At the moment we’re in the midst of working, planning for their visit, and trying to get our act together to head back north through the country in the spring, housesit in Auckland for a wee while, and then we’re homeward bound!

For work Becky’s been working through a temp agency and landed a job with the Chch Convention Centre, helping to set up, break down, and serve conventions and other groups. I’ve been doing a bit of work for yet another brewery, Three Boys, as they move facilities from a one-man show at a small warehouse space to a larger space across the street. It’s a good excuse to try their beers and to see how all the parts of the brewery come apart and go back together again. Becky is definitely working much more than me in this arrangement, which as you can guess she’s totally thrilled about. On more than a few days my most important job has been as a chauffeur.

Our living situation is pretty good as we’re renting a room in a ranch house in Upper Riccarton, which is a bit west of the city centre. It’s definitely better than living in a hostel and is much cheaper to boot. It’s in a pretty good neighborhood near the university and a bunch of shops, and the house is alright as well, although like most Kiwi houses relies on small space heaters and seems devoid of insulation. Currently the propane heater in the living room is empty, making the room pretty much unusable at night, especially since the couches are leather. Freezing!

Our sweet crib for about six weeks

Our flatmate Phil was looking for temporary flatmates until the middle of September, which was perfect for us. He’s a flight attendant in his mid-30’s and before we moved in was sharing the house with his girlfriend. They had a fight and split a little while back, leaving Phil in the house alone until he moves out in September, necessitating renting the room out to us. They must still be amicable because he let her stay for a week when she had a bad case of the flu, whereupon he caught it and stayed in his room for the entire next week, though we’re not sure if he was more sick or bumming. If nothing else this has been an interesting living experience for us.

Becky poses with one of the few Kiwis you'll see during the daytime

What does one (or two?) do in Chch? Since Becky’s been working full-on we haven’t done much besides visiting the beach a few times, going to the movies, and getting around to all the different areas of the city on various excursions. We've been fortunate to get out on some gorgeous "winter" days here, doing some hikes out at Godley Head and in the hills south of Chch where the famed "Sign of the Kiwi" and "Sign of the Takahe" tearooms are perched. We especially recommend the hike around the Sign of the Kiwi. An invigorating hike with gorgeous views followed by a huge ice cream makes for a good day in New Zealand, we reckon.

View of Lyttelton Harbor from the Crater Rim hike near the Sign of the Kiwi

We went out once to the city’s excellent Belgian Beer Café, where we ordered two surprisingly large beers – it was a tasty but pricey round of drinks at NZ$27. Ouch. We’re currently waiting the combination of a good snow before Becky has off on a weekday so that we can go to the main skiing area, Mt. Hutt, before we leave the area. Hutt’s expensive but it does has chairlifts, qualifying it as deluxe around these parts.

Beers as big as our heads...delicious

Since it’s so close to the sea Chch doesn’t really get that cold of a winter, with temperatures rarely ever going below freezing at night. Though paradoxically, we sometimes miss the Vermont winter where people heat their houses reasonably, and you don’t need to wear a fleece and thermals to sit in the living room. Well, wish us the best in keeping warm over the next month as you enjoy the dog days of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and if anything interesting happens we’ll try and let you know, later!

Driving Like A Kiwi

We’ve been thinking about it for awhile, and for the sake of this post, let's say we're sure the one question burning in everyone’s mind is: how do we find driving in New Zealand? And if you weren’t wondering before, aren’t you now? And after all that prompting you’re still not wondering even yet, why don’t you do it just to humor us? C’mon...

Since you ask, we’ve found the driving in New Zealand to be pretty easy on the whole, despite the fact that, in the British fashion, they drive on the left, and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car here. Given how long we’re visiting NZ, buying a car and driving through the country is a necessity, given how rural much of the country is and how little public transport there is outside of the few big cities. Plus, the freedom afforded by having your own set of wheels is just as significant in NZ as it is in the States. Bus tours just can’t compare (on a side note, and this may only amuse us, but every time we see an Kiwi Experience bus, who are infamous for being rowdy piss-tours of 20-year olds through NZ, we feel compelled to shout out “Whoo! Kiwi Experience, whoo!”)

Getting used to driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road takes a bit of getting used to, but isn’t that bad really, it just takes some concentration. For my part, I refrained from texting people while driving for our first few weeks in the country. Most tourist accidents result from the tourist entering the wrong lane on an empty rural stretch of road, driving along for a wee while, and then coming around a blind turn to find a surprised Kiwi coming head-on in their lane. With two of us around to warn each other, we’ve been able to avoid such a calamity. In fact, we might have been a bit too vigilant as passengers in the beginning. To wit, when we first got here we found that being a passenger on the left side was quite odd, as we constantly felt like the wheels on that side of the car were going to go off the road. Our first month featured many “Right, right!” yells before we got over that one, thankfully, since we were fast getting on each other’s nerves.

Me driving on the right side of the car. Is this blowing your mind?

To date Ron Burgundy, our hot 1992 Subaru (say sue-BAR-ooo to avoid confusing the locals here) Legacy, has performed really well for us (knock on wood), squiring us through about 20K km so far with very few problems. Ron doesn’t have a manual transmission, which is good since that might’ve been a bit hairy in our first few months here, especially for Becky. Somewhat confusingly, in NZ the turn signal lever is on the opposite side of the wheel as we know it, resulting in an unintentionally clean windshield for a lot of our turns. Because of this, I expected that the manual gear shifts might be backwards as well. However, they are the same as in the States, with 1^st gear in the upper left, which seems a bit awkward for some reason. Luckily the clutch pedal is in the same place.

Crossing the street also really screws you up at first here. I’ve had “look left-right-left” when crossing the street hammered into my brain for my entire life, and reversing that concept freaked us out the first few days we spent in Auckland. Seriously, we were doing triple and quadruple-takes crossing the streets there, running across mostly empty streets because we were convinced cars were going to just materialize behind us, making exotic turns with which we were unfamiliar.

As for the roads, we’re currently on the Canterbury Plain on the South Island, where the roads have the luxury of being relatively straight and flat. And paved (or tar-sealed in the local lingo), which is nice as well, as when you get out in the sticks a surprising amount of the roads are of the rugged, gravel variety. One thing that is nice is that there’s very little motorway here, probably less than 50 miles of true Interstate-like highway in the whole country. It really isn’t needed beyond Auckland and other big cities, and most of the main highway is two-lane, with the occasional passing lane thrown in. As an example of how un-American NZ highways are, the main highway in the South Island which runs along the sea between Kaikoura and Christchurch has fords to allow rain to run off the mountains above. Not the kind of Fords you’re used to seeing on the road in America. Rimshot! Thank you, I’ll be here all year.

Crossing a river, NZ-style!

Once you get out of the large metropolitan areas, especially on the North Island, the roads turn ungodly twisty on the hills, and in a refreshing change, are largely un-guardrailed. We’ve determined that this is actually probably how NZ most effectively enforces its Warrant of Fitness (WoF) auto regulation. If your brakes aren’t good enough to pass the WoF, they sure as hell aren’t good enough to stop you coming down a mountain pass at 50 kph through the switchback-laden roads. What might be even more amazing is how fast Kiwis love to drive through them. We’ve been passed so many times on ridiculously curvy and steep roads that we can only conclude the country is full of F1-racer wannabes, or that this country has an amazing resistance to motion sickness.

It may seem counterintuitive, but trust us, the key is to take the curves as fast as possible.

In a possibly-apocryphal tale from Matt Pedersen’s father, we’ve heard that the crews that built the roads in NZ were paid by the corner. If you drove the roads here for even a week, you’d be inclined to agree that that was plausible, especially after seeing numerous examples of relatively flat road sections having extra turns where they don’t seem necessary. At this point, we find that curvy road signs are largely superfluous. Some of them look more like a question mark than any road you’d be familiar with. Quick test: are you driving on a straight road? If yes, then you probably aren’t in NZ. Therefore, we humbly propose that NZ change its flag to a Union Jack with a curvy road sign. We kid because we love, but seriously, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. Or if you really wanted to go all the way, have a sheep with a kiwi on its back, holding a rugby ball and jumping over the curvy road sign – even better.

New Zealand does have one truly confounding local traffic oddity: the Gentleman’s turning rule, introduced about 20 years ago to confuse everyone not from here. Basically, if you’re making a left-hand turn and an oncoming car is turning right across traffic, you’re obligated to stop and allow him to go ahead of you, ostensibly for the purposes of keeping traffic moving more smoothly. If you don’t allow him to go, he’ll likely crash into you because he was expecting you to yield to him. For our first few months here, I’d guess about 95% of the Kiwis we met felt obliged to explain the rule to us, even after we swore we understood it. We’ve seen ample drawings, illustrations, walkthroughs, and more than one example utilizing salt shakers as they’ve endeavored to clarify it for us. The GTR is also more than a little unpopular; if we’ve met anyone who’s been in favor of the rule, I certainly don’t remember it. The opinion of Kiwis we’ve met seems to be that it’s a silly rule and NZ is not ahead of the rest of the world on this one.

As a result of the GTR, I’m completely paranoid, looking all over the place for someone who might be turning anytime I’m making a turn. In one of my first weeks here I did remember to wait for the other driver to turn, and in response he just looked at me with a completely puzzled look as to why I wasn’t turning. At that point I thought, “Ha, newbie!”, which I’ll probably have to file under: disturbing signs you’ve gone native…

She Works Hard For The Money (July 9 – 31)

After traveling for what seemed to be the vast majority of our trip in New Zealand, Andrew and I are temporarily hanging up our hobo bags to once gain join the real world of the employed. Although it is easy to believe that one can go unemployed indefinitely, it turned out to not be the case if you value your sanity. Seeing our bank accounts dwindle while the Kiwi dollar has done nothing but go up over the past few months, we decided it was finally time to do what our parents did… get a job, sir!

Finding work in New Zealand is really pretty easy if you put little value in a) the type of work to be done, and b) the location of said employment. Like our brief adventure in the Marlborough vineyards where everyone seemed to be hiring, it took only a few days of “job hunting” before I was able to secure a position in Christchurch. My rather lackluster job hunt consisted of sending off my CV to several job agencies and waiting for the best. Although I would prefer working at a restaurant, the pay rate is far better for office workers, and I figured without the motivational boost of tipping… Anyhoo, I had received a few phone calls by the end of the day and quickly lined up several interviews with job agencies around Christchurch.

I guess it’s good to know that I test well at these things. Both agencies were wowed by my typing ability, which at 90+ words per minute and less than 1% error was “the best they’d ever seen” but considering that there are only four million people in all of New Zealand, I suppose the potential applicant pool really isn’t that big. Thank you, 7^th grade typing class! I also managed a slam dunk on the Microsoft Office applications and even managed to pass the spelling test. Don’t laugh, it’s a surprisingly tough task in the Age of the Automatic Spell Check… The one major concern that the agencies had was with my wardrobe, which is funny since the ad I responded to was specifically targeted to backpackers.

Had I brought professional business wear to New Zealand, they wanted to know. Hmm, let me see, I’ll just check my backpack?!? As a side note, I actually wouldn’t have any professional business wear even if I was working out of my closet at home… Apparently, not bringing a suit was a bad choice as that would inevitably limit the offices I could work in and probably reduce my pay rate (you can’t make the really big bucks without nice shoes). Regardless, within several days of incessant phone tag with the various chipper personalities at both job agencies (apparently the key pre-condition for these positions is to be over-caffeinated and hyper-perky) I had lined up a job working for an engineering firm in Christchurch.

It’s scary how similar working in an office in New Zealand is to working in an office in the States. Things are run pretty much exactly the same way. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but when you travel half-way around the world, you get to thinking they might have a different phone and filing system. I’m currently filling in for a few weeks at an engineering firm while a permanent staffer takes her annual leave in Perth, Australia. Unfortunately, they don’t actually have enough work for a temp to do, so my main task is to answer the phones and “look busy.”

It turns out that I’m terrible at looking busy (luckily I wasn’t tested on that at the agency), so I end up spending most of my day pretending to look like I’m not surfing the web (which I’m quite good at). When given tasks to do (mostly filing), I tend to get them done pretty quickly, because to be honest, they’re pretty uncomplicated. My fellow administrative assistant marvels at the speed at which I get things done and has even commented “we’re going to have to call the temp agency back to tell them to send someone who works slower the next time.” If you can hear a slight thumping sound, that’s probably just me, whacking my head against the desk.

Meanwhile, Andrew’s been doing casual labor for a bottling company in Amberley. It has worked out really well, as it still gives him time to get the chores done around K&B’s and at the brewery. Speaking of which, we’re still at Kieran and Belinda’s these days. They took a holiday to the States and suggested that we watch the house for them while they are gone. I love it here, so even with the hour commute to Christchurch, we quickly agreed to the arrangement. We agreed to split the cost of a load of firewood (the only means by which they heat their house, so it’s important to have some); otherwise, we feed the chooks (chickens) and collect eggs, feed the horses, split firewood, keep the place tidy, and make sure to keep the cows out of the vineyard next-door… Andrew’s also been keeping an eye on the brewery in Kieran’s absence. He had to make a few deliveries, fill a keg, and make some beer shipments, all of which has gone really well. It’s been a little surreal having a whole house to ourselves after months at backpackers, CouchSurfing, WWOOFing. We haven’t taken to walking around the place naked or anything, but we could! We continue to be amazed by K&B’s generosity and couldn’t feel more lucky that we met them during our travels.

Little known fact: real farmers wear pajamas out on the farm.

So we’ve been managing to keep ourselves pretty busy between working, commuting, chores, and the brewery. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to see the All Blacks play the South Africans in Christchurch. Although it was a rather uninspired match, it was still a lot of fun to see the All Blacks play a live match. I think the haka (Maori war dance performed by the All Blacks before every match) is even more impressive in person, but Andrew liked it better on TV. That might just be because they were facing away from us when they did this one. Apparently, the South Africans are looking to revive a Zulu war dance they used to perform in the 1920s for the upcoming Rugby World Cup. It’ll be interesting to see, but I can’t imagine that it will come close to the ferocity of the haka.

And one for the kids...

Immediate P.S.: Well, we'd hardly gotten a chance to post this latest installment and already our circumstances have changed, making it hard to keep the blog up-to-date at this rate. Kieran arrived back from the States a few days ago, and Andrew helped him do a brew and some bottling early this week while I went into work. Unfortunately, they seem to have figured out that they don't really need a temp, so they told me I should start looking into new assignments ASAP, putting me out of work until a new position opens up, hopefully soon. And to think that last week they were considering asking me to stay on longer to sort their long-ignored and hugely-unorganized files! I guess that's how it goes in the thrill-a-minute world of temping... We're moving into Chch today to rent a room for six weeks, and Andrew should be starting to do a wee bit of work at a new brewery, Three Boys, very soon. Keep tuned for further details and keep your fingers crossed so that I can find a new job to do nothing at in the near future! Oh, a note for anyone who's been dissuaded from commenting due to the onerous sign-in requirements: they've been lifted so now anyone can post, with or without a Google account. I hope we can trust all of you not to abuse this, hehe. Adios, muchachos!

Skiing, New Zealand Style (July 5 - 8)

After dropping off our visitors, Kieran and Belinda invited us to stay on for a few more days, as they had other visitors dropping by, and reckoned the more the merrier. A winemaker friend of Belinda’s (look for ‘Blocks’ in your local wine store sometime in the next few years!) and relatives of some of their American friends popped in over the weekend; you can’t stop K&B from entertaining, you can only hope to contain them! For a few days I helped Kieran with bottling, labeling, and other bits and pieces in the brewery while Becky helped out around the house.

With the southerly dumping snow in the nearby mountains, we took a day to do some southern hemisphere skiing at Mt. Lyford, a small ‘club field’ in the mountains north of Canterbury. Getting to the field was as much of an adventure as the skiing itself, as the field lay a good five miles up a snowy, at times steep mountainous road from the highway. Chains were definitely needed, and while we had a set in Belinda’s car, one of the hooks was bent, causing the chain to pop off, so we had to hitch our way up the mountain. For K&B’s son Oscar and the other Americans, they had no problem getting a ride quickly, but Becky and I had to hike for a half hour before we were able to flag somebody down, not good times. However, the family that gave us a ride to the field were really nice people, and as we would soon find is typical of just about everyone we meet in this area, knew K&B.

Andrew looks happy to be at the ski field (instead of walking to the ski field...)

So finally we made it to the top and got skiing in the afternoon, which was great. NZ skiing is different in that it’s all above the treeline, so there’s few natural boundaries and no glades, not that we’re good enough to dodge trees; my skill level is restricted to making it down with only a few falls and negotiating the chairlifts. Unfortunately, since it was a club field, Lyford didn’t have any chairlifts, only T-bars and tow ropes. For skiers, these are just fine, but they are definitely not made for snowboarders. Having never really used either device, I fell off them at least ten times on the day. Let’s just say it’s frustrating to fall on your way up the mountain, a new and exciting experience I’m thrilled to share with you all. It was easily the most humbling day on the slopes I’ve had since I learned how to ride, and I’ve had my share.

In the end, I did figure out how to use the T-bars pretty well, but it involved jamming one end of the bar about as high up my crotch as humanly possible to keep me stable as I wobbled up the hill. I may not be able to have children in the future, but I did get up the hill! And even that didn’t work every time. The ropes were even worse, because as a snowboarder you basically have to wedge the disc at the end of the rope behind your front thigh and hope it holds in place til you reach the top. Verdict: not easy. I’ve decided that both the T-bars and tow ropes can smell fear, and they will show no mercy to rookies. Using them made me unexpectedly nostalgic for the steep and often icy run-outs at the ski fields in Vermont.

Andrew finally masters the T-Bar

Since it was really early in the season, there wasn’t heaps of snow, and the runs were really short, especially when you take into account the work involved in getting up the hill. But it was good to get riding for the first time in a good year and a half, and the views were just great, making it worth it overall. After an exhausting afternoon (at least for me), we had to hitch our way back down the mountain. Oscar and the Americans just caught a ride with the same fellow who gave them a ride up, a new snowboarder who had at least a moderate case of OCD and a predilection for odd porn/tribal/screechy/British/techno music. We caught a ride with a couple of normal-seeming Kiwi blokes about our age.

It seemed like a fine idea at the time, but we got part of the way down and had to wait for their buddy to ski down the back side of the mountain to the road, where he thought it would be a good idea to snowboard alongside the car like a young Marty McFly. That didn’t work out so well, and he picked up some nasty scratches on his board from the gravel. His buddy then proceeded to drive down the mountain like a maniac, doing about 60km/h with chains down a snowy road with no guardrails. More than a little frightening, especially when he did an accidental 180º on one of the corners. Nothing like losing control of the car with a snowy precipice lurking only a few feet away. Luckily that calmed him down and he drove at a reasonable speed the rest of the way. Unfortunately, I think I can still see the nailmarks in my leg from where Becky grabbed me during the spin.

Enjoying the mountain view

From The Catlins to Christchurch (June 30 – July 5)

Once we made the journey back across the Foveaux Strait and crossed Stewart Island off of our ‘Official List Of Things To Do In New Zealand’ checklist, we were off to the Catlins, as Alex and Marie were keen to visit the area. Becky thinks that probably has much to do with their appreciation of remote and untouristed areas. To wit, the guidebooks’ description of the Catlins largely consists of calling it “enigmatic" and leaving it at that.

Look at the smile on this man's face, he couldn't be happier to be in the Catlins. Maybe you should visit us, too.

Driving through the Catlins for a few days, our lucky streak for weather continued and we got some relatively balmy, sunny weather, which was fantastic considering that it was essentially the middle of winter, and it had snowed the week previous in the Catlins. The weather in the area this time around was actually much better than our previous WWOOFing stint in early April, when we stayed through nine days of nearly unceasingly cold, grey, rainy unpleasantness.

He's just sleeping, right?

In our experience, the Catlins really is best when you consider it to be a natural zoo area, where wildlife can be seen (pretty regularly) in its natural habitat. This jaunt through the area definitely had that in spades. We saw heaps of seals and sea lions and even managed to spot two yellow-eyed penguins making their exit from the sea at Nugget Point. With beautiful weather and only two days to spend there, even Andrew and I found ourselves enjoying the Catlins this trip through.

A pair of yellow-eyed penguins - unfortunately our camera battery died just before they started tap-dancing, truly an amazing thing to witness

Making our way further north, we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders again, and took Alex and Marie, our inveterate nature-loving co-travelers, to see the blue penguins at Oamaru. Unfortunately, with breeding season set to begin very soon, the penguins weren’t very active outside of their nests, so they only saw one lone penguin as they walked home from the penguin center. We had hoped to at least catch the penguins that nested in the garage near our backpackers, but the lady at the desk told us that a few weeks ago a backpacker had accidentally run over one of the little penguins, squishing it. The rest of the penguins then left for safer nesting areas; a tragedy as well as a bummer.

Marie and Becky want to know what the big deal about Moeraki Boulders is

Our last major stop with Alex and Marie was to go to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch. We tried to stop in Waimate for a wallaby pie, as recommended by Lonely Planet, but the guy at the counter seemed surprised that we were looking for one, as they only make them at a few special occasions throughout the year. Bad info: yet another reason to ditch your guidebooks as soon as you’re able to. We stayed in Akaroa for a few days, doing a little hiking and kayaking, and taking in the scenery once more. As a volcanic crater filled in by the sea, it’s unlike any other place I’ve ever been. The place really is magic and we were glad to get back there again.

An unseasonably warm and nice day on the Banks Peninsula

Leaving Akaroa, we made our way to Amberley on July 4, where Kieran and Belinda graciously put us all up for the night and even made us a turkey dinner. It was a delicious corruption of the typical American celebration that was certainly appropriate for the cold Canterbury winter night. We taxied Marie and Alex to the Chch airport the next day for their flight back home (they had about a full day of flying ahead before they got to Connecticut, then they were heading on another flight the very next day to Belgium!), and if you know Becky then you know she was a-blubberin’ as we dropped them off at the terminal. After ~2500 km of driving over to weeks, heaps of great experiences, and thousands (literally) of pictures taken, our whirlwind trip around the South Island came to a close. Whew, I think we need a couple days off now…

Stewart Island Is For The Birds (June 28 – 30)

After leaving the Milford Sound, we continued our southward march to Stewart Island. Stewart Island remained uncharted territory for us, as we had scrapped an earlier trip when a southerly storm made the prospect of traveling across the Fovreaux Strait highly unappealing. The weather continued to be surprisingly cooperative this time around, as evidence of the “big snow” never materialized, and the snow chains we had purchased in Te Anau becoming increasingly irrelevant.

We drove into Invercargill for the night to prepare for our crossing the next day. Invercargill was probably the first “real” city Marie and Alex had seen since leaving Christchurch, and they were pretty nonplussed (which isn’t really surprising). As Lonely Planet might put it, it’s best to think of it more as a service town in which one can stock up on food and petrol, as opposed to a destination in and of itself.

A gorge day on Stewart Island

Prior to this trip, I had read how the ferry crossing to Stewart Island is notoriously rough, and with my reliable motion sickness I was concerned that it could turn into a brutal morning. Luckily though, there were flat seas and half of a Dramamine was enough to knock me out for the majority of the ferry ride. This was good as it allowed me to miss the nonstop chatter of a group of teenage girls also onboard. Marie was pretty adamant about not wanting to stay at the same backpackers as the group of schoolgirls, but we weren’t that lucky. On our first night we endured hours of constant high-pitched cackling and their screaming match with some locals (how they met them and managed to have such a loud row so quickly is beyond us). Happily, the next morning they were gone on the early ferry, most likely shipped back by their majorly pissed chaperone.

Parrots abound on Stewart Island - Taking hundreds of pictures, you're bound to get a few good ones

As for the island itself, Stewart Island is pretty remote even as far as New Zealand standards. And traveling there in the off-season only jacks up the remoteness quotient, as many shops and restaurants have closed up for the winter. Perhaps it was because it was the slow season, or maybe we’re really looking like grungy backpackers these days, but we stopped by one small restaurant, knocked on the door, and asked the owner if we could see a menu, to which he responded “What for?” We regret that we did not have a suitably snappy comeback, for shame.

We get up close and personal with a weka, these birds know no fear

One of the nice things about Stewart Island is that even though it’s farther south than the rest of the country (the sun rose at a ridiculously late 8:30 AM while we were here!), the ocean keeps the temperatures slightly warmer than on the mainland, so that for a few days we were once again able to shed our thermal layers and feel our jeans against our skin. It’s really the small things in life, isn’t it?

Marie attempts to disappear into the Stewart Island woods

We were interested in visiting Stewart Island (if only to satisfy any completist need to do everything worth doing in NZ), but Marie, and especially Alex, were really excited to get there. We hadn’t realized before they arrived, but Alex is a hugely keen nature photographer, and he seems to like birds most of all. As Stewart Island is famous largely for its birdlife, this was a match made in heaven.

Most of our stay consisted of hiking on the numerous trails around the only town on the island, Oban. The trails lived up to their muddy reputation, and I’m not sure that my footwear has recovered yet. We saw very few birds in the forest, but came back to town and saw heaps of parrots and other small birds carrying on around peoples’ homes. The bird noise was absolutely tremendous, with squawks, screeches, and whistles the dominant sounds.

We should really be able to say what kind of bird this is

We also spent a lovely afternoon on Ulva Island, a nature reserve where the good folks at DoC have removed all the introduced predators (opossum, rats, stoats, etc.) that threaten the natural birdlife and plants. As a result, Ulva is a birdwatcher’s dream, and we spent several hours slowly meandering along the paths on the island in hunt of another bird sighting. We managed to see wekas, kakas, wood pigeons, and Stewart Island robins, but sadly had no luck trying to spy the elusive kiwi, even on Stewart Island where they are quite numerous.

As Dennis Miller would say, Alex the Birder is definitely in his milieu, babe!

And so, after a few days of getting our birdwatching on, we woke up the next day for the early ferry at 7:30 am, and made our way back to the mainland. Where to next? Well, Alex and Marie are keen to see the Catlins, the remote stretch where Andrew and I spent a desultory, rainy week in April. Guess we’ll be giving it a second try, wish us luck…

A Special Report from the Field (Guest Bloggers)

A two week trip to New Zealand is for most a dream that usually stays a dream. However, circumstances were in the favor this year of your two faithful scientists, Alex de Kerchove and Marie Schreiber. First, we passed our respective graduate school defenses [we thought it would never happen], which gave us something to celebrate. Second, we had had heard that two wild Hobosum uncommonus were seen running around these two islands on the other side of the world. This very rare subspecies of Homo sapiens, originally from North America, is known for mastering the “hanging-around” behaviors that we always wanted to study in greater depth. We thought that with a little bit of skill, and a lot more luck, we would catch sight of them and observe them for two weeks in their natural habitat. This study would allow us to then write a final report, which could help further protect the whole species! They had almost escaped our observations by taking a “Job,” which, as a rather repressive form of captivity, would have most likely killed them. Luckily, Marie has strong powers of persuasion and brought them back to their senses by convincing them that working could be fatal and most certainly unnecessary. Thankfully we have been able to save these two Hobosum uncommonus from an unkind fate, which allowed us to plan our two-week expedition by their side.

Alex looks deeply troubled by the scientific research he and his partner, Marie, are about to embark on

Surprisingly, we found the two individuals quite easily in the wilds of New Zealand. There was a Male and a Female Hobosum uncommonus that we named A, as Andrew, and B, as Becky, respectively to facilitate their differentiation. A and B were docile and hanging around in the airport as we arrived in Christchurch. We felt extremely lucky not to have to track them for days through the mountains and rainforests before finding them. A was friendly, but skinnier than what I was expecting; B was very communicative and slightly louder than A. Our plan was to stay as quiet as possible to avoid disturbing their natural behaviors and follow them wherever they went in the hope that they would lead us to their favorite habitats, and maybe let us encounter other individuals from the same or similar subspecies. The main goal of this research is to gain a basic understanding of the typical behaviors of the Hobosum uncommonus, such as communication, feeding, and reproduction. The following short report includes our direct observations and our thoughts on how to protect the species properly in the future, with extensive support from more that 800 photographs (which can be seen on request).

Becky stalks her prey through the New Zealand wilderness

General Behaviors

We quickly realized that bathing was not a priority for these two individuals. We tried to adopt the same cleaning schedule so that we would be able to maintain a similar corporal state. This behavior would suggest a strong aversion to water; however, B showed us early in our trip that she highly liked hot springs, even in freezing weather. We tried to stay in these warm waters as long as she did, but unfortunately failed and left after wrinkling like a prune. We wouldn’t be surprised if in few years we find B back in captivity working in her own spa.

Alex and Marie keep their distance after a few days without bathing...

Additionally, changing clothes twice a week was considered good. Understanding this behavior to be environmental friendly (by saving water), we adopted the same behavior so as not to frighten A and B … and we loved it! It also made our life easier and we almost regretted bringing a whole bag full of clothes [Note for future explorers: bring only one of every thing].

Enjoying a rain shower, while we also wash our clothes!

The Hobosum uncommonus were able to hike very steep climbs typical of the mountain ranges in New Zealand. There are no gradual grades. We were surprised by their very quick hiking speed and apparent high endurance; we were unable to keep up! But we will understand this as a result of us being graduate students, which obviously made us soft.

On top of the mountain at Nugget Point

Social Behaviors

At night, the Hobosum uncommonus would find places where other Hobosum would regroup and interact. A and B were commonly very interactive and liked collecting stories from others in order to strategically plan their route according to the weather and other Hobosum preferences. We highly enjoyed sharing their meal at night and further social interactions with others from the species. However, we are afraid that we affected their natural behaviors by having forced them to eat later than usual and having introduced them to the Aperitifs (snack and drink before dinner) and intensive chocolate consumption.

We had the chance to spend most of our nights in New Zealand sharing the same room as A and B and had the opportunity to observe the absence of any peculiar nocturnal behaviors. However, strong differences were observed between A and B in their required sleep length: B would always be up first in the morning to start the morning meal, while A would only come out of his duvet when food was ready and coffee on the table!

We also got the opportunity to meet wonderful Kiwi friends of the Hobosum uncommonuss: Belinda and Karen. A and B had developed a strong relationship with these Kiwis while wwoofing at their particular, an activity specific to the species. We highly enjoyed spending the Fourth of July at their place and shared one of their turkeys for dinner, sampling endless varieties of beer and wines: a social behavior that I (Alex) particularly appreciated. After experiencing the hospitality of these Kiwis, we finally understood the real draw of New Zealand.

Another form of kiwi spotting in New Zealand

Feeding Behaviors

For morning meal, the Hobosum uncommonus was satisfied with muesli and banana slices, which was sometimes completed with a slice of toast with jam. Indispensable was the instant coffee that allowed our bodies to wake up and warm up after the freezing nights – indeed, Kiwis are very “environmental friendly,” and, with their limited resources in energy, they reduce their house heating to the strict minimum, as it is of common sense that heating a room is a luxury.

For midday meal, the Hobosum uncommonus has a strong preference for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels, and apples: a menu that seems rather appealing until it was repeated over several days in a row. An urgent need for a ham and cheese sandwich would then develop and satisfy us for few days before returning to PB&J.

For evening meal, we were surprised by the excellent diet adopted by the Hobosum uncommonus. The meal that any mother would be proud of would consist of fruits, veggies, meats, and a starch. We had the pleasure of experiencing their cooking skills and sharing our cooking skills with them, since we would alternate cooking duties every other day. We also appreciated the great interest of the Hobosum uncommonus to accompany dinner with a bottle of local wine or beer, which allowed us to become familiar with the New Zealand I very much enjoyed sharing A’s passion for tasting local lagers, ales, and stouts from the small breweries encountered on along our way. beverages. We also toke advantage of the developed knowledge of the species on microbrewed beer.

Rest assured, Alex didn't only take photos of the Hobosum uncommonus!

Reproductive Behavior

Not observed! Reproductive behaviors remain unknown. Photographic evidence suggests, however, that physical contact between A and B exists and is important in their relationship.

Conclusion

During our two weeks in New Zealand, we were very lucky to be able to see for ourselves all of the fun and excitement that A and B are having while they discover New Zealand as a country. We were able to finally understand their desire to constantly be on the look out for Kiwis: the people, fruit, and, most importantly of all, the bird. We were also finally able to understand how it felt to live in such an undeveloped and untouched habitat. We found that each discovery lead to more beautiful beaches and mountains that one could only imagine. But most importantly, we were able to travel around with A and B for two weeks altogether, which was definitely an adventure worth having.

A Report by Alex de Kerchove & Marie Schreiber