Leaving New Zealand

My flight to LAX leaves today! Wow, it seems like time flew by and I feel like I just boarded my plane to New Zealand yesterday!

My bags were all pretty much packed (from last night).
I ate breakfast with Camilla (who had to go to class at 8am) and then I checked my email and called my mom ( "see you soon :)" )

I also met up with my roommates before I left, and said "bye" to some other friends at The Railway Campus.

Luckily, I could leave my bags at the reception, so I was free to stroll downtown Auckland and find some lunch.

I walked down to the waterfront one last time, and got a burrito at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. I actually just picked the place because they had chairs outside on a deck overlooking the harbour. But as soon as I made a move to take a first bite out of my burrito, something small collided with my hands. As it turns out, little birds also fancy Mexican food, and quite a few of them were brave enough to try to pick my food off the plate.
I finished my meal inside (still a nice view through the window).

Afterwards, I wandered around some more and then returned to The Railway Campus for my bags.

I planned to take the Airbus to the airport again (I took it before, when I went to Christchurch, and it worked out well).
The Airbus just recently changed its route, and there is now a stop that is even closer to The Railway Campus. Somehow, over night, my bags became about 20 lbs heavier... so I was quite glad about the new stop ;)

We arrived at the airport about 45 minutes later. I checked in my bags immediately because I really didn't feel like carrying them.
Since I got to the check-in early (yeah, about 3.5 hrs early!) I was able to change my seating arrangement - my old seat was at the very back of the plane.
Also, with some clever rearranging and repacking, I managed to stay just below the limit of 40 kg (for checked-in luggage) and 7 kg (carry-on).

Relieved of my bags, I had to make one final mandatory stop to pay the "Departure Fee."
As it turns out, everyone leaving New Zealand needs to pay a 25 NZD fee. I'm not quite sure where the money goes (hopefully to some good cause, but I doubt it...).
My friends had warned me about the fee, so I had saved some cash earlier this morning. Instead of a paper receipt, I got a nice little sticker on my boarding pass.

Since I had gotten to the airport rather early, I had a lot of extra time to kill. I strolled through the shops, bought some "last" New Zealand chocolate with left-over coins and played with my laptop :)

At 6:30, I went to the gate, and we got to board the plane around 7pm.
This time, I sat in the middle row in the plane, but the seat next to me was empty :)

As this was an overnight flight, the flight attendants pretty much served dinner and then shut off the lights - "bedtime, everyone" *lol*

To my utter disappointment, they did not show the new Simpson's movie. Instead, I watched "Blades of Glory" (what a silly movie, but funny, too) and "Becoming Jane" (almost boring).
I also slept a little, but not as much as on the flight to NZ - not enough space to stretch out this time :)

The lights magically turned on again, we got breakfast, and before we knew it, we could see L.A. underneath us! As it turned out, the flight was only 12 hours long (when I flew the other way, it took us 14 hours - probably because of the winds).

We got to L.A. on time, but they didn't have a gate ready for us! So we hung out on the runway a little longer (only about 20 minutes, but you could tell that everyone was anxious to get off the plane now).
Getting through the passport controls was quick (*yay* for the green card) and literally 10 minutes later, I was waiting at the baggage claim area.

However, there was no baggage to be claimed...! Apparently, the crew had problems unloading the containers from the plane. About 20 minutes later, some bags slowly came trickling in. However, half of the baggage carousel wasn't working! So they divided the bags between two baggage carousels...

I got so far already today that I didn't care about things like that anymore :) However, I realized how very useful an embarrassing bag can be (did I mention that I bought a bigger bag a few days ago? Well, the right-size bag came in the wrong color... bright pink... think "Barbie's Dream House" here *haha*).

Anyways - it was very easy to pick out my baggage because of the pink bag :)

One final security-officer-squinting-at-my-passport later, and I was out the door and smack in the middle of California temperatures and L.A. smog!

I took the FlyAway bus to the Union Station. By now, I had missed my train (too many delays at the airport) so I booked a new ticket for the later train.

The train ride took about three hours, and I got to San Diego at 7pm.
My journey took about 21 hours.
Now I'm exhausted... I want a shower.

Taking a walk to Opua

Our last day in Paihia! We need to catch the bus back to Auckland at 4 pm.

We needed to check out at 10am, so we ate breakfast and packed up our bags. Fortunately, we could leave our luggage at the reception of the hostel, so we were free to go wherever today!

We decided to follow the recommendations of our guide books, and go for a walk from Paihia to Opua, a little village further South. The walkway follows the coast line, and it takes about 2 hours one way.

Due to the floods and storms a few weeks ago, the trails were still very muddy (you should have seen my pants!!), but we did make it to Opua in one piece :)

However, when we got to Opua, we realized that there was no way back to Paihia (other than walking, of course).
By that time we were sick of muddy trails, so we contemplated walking back on the road.
Fortunately, we met a nice woman in a little store that offered to give us a ride back. She lives in Paihia, but works in the store every day during the week in Opua.

Back in Paihia, we got lunch and coffee, walked around the waterfront some more, and grabbed an ice cream cone.
Then it was time to get back to the Saltwater Lodge to pick up our luggage.
We left Paihia at 4:30, with a full bus and got back to Auckland at 8pm.

Long beaches and Cape Reinga

I got up before 6 this morning, because we had booked a bus tour to Cape Reinga. The bus was supposed to pick us up at 7:10.

Along with many other tourists from the hostels down the street, we lined up at the street at 7 to wait for the bus.
In the end, a total of four busses showed up. We found "our" bus and were on our way to a Kauri forest.

The Waipoua Kauri forest was very impressive. The leaves were still wet (it's a rain forest, after all) and the bounty of different green colors looked beautiful.

We continued our drive up North and stopped in Awanui for coffee. We also got some sandwiches (for lunch later on).

From Awanui, we drove up to the "Ninety Mile Beach."
In reality, the beach is only 64 miles long (some sources say 55 miles, I guess it depends where you start measuring). As the story goes, the settlers back in the 1800s thought their cattle caravans and horses could cover 30 miles a day. They needed three days to walk down the beach, so someone came up with the estimate that the beach was 90 miles long.
According to our guide, the name was never changed to "Sixty-four Mile Beach" because Australia apparently has an "Eighty Mile Beach" (which in reality is only 72 miles long - but that's still longer than 64 miles...). No Kiwi would ever admit defeat to the Australians... *lol*

The "Ninety Mile Beach," by the way, is registered as an official street. The speed limit is 100 kmh (about 65 mph). Driving along it is pretty safe, as long as you stay out of the water (driving through the water with passengers is actually illegal, as our guide explained) and be careful about dry quicksand (we did see the remains of car that got stuck in the sand last easter... the driver could rescue himself but the vehicle is still stuck in the sand, barely visible by now).

Next up, we stopped at a cliff jutting out into the sea. Half of the cliff is sacred Maori ground (tourists aren't allowed there) but we climbed up on the other side and got to watch the raging sea (it was really windy out there!)

A herd of wild horses lives in the sand dunes and surrounding forest. Sometimes, they apparently come out of hiding, but we couldn't find them. There were strong winds going, so I assume they stayed sheltered in the forests.

We did take a drive through the sand dunes, and this is when we truly experienced the potential of our bus :)
Among the four busses this morning, our bus was the smallest. We were a group of only 18 people and our bus wasn't one of the conventional tourist busses - it was a converted military vehicle, all set with 4-wheel drive, a strong engine, and massive tires!

Cruising through the dunes, we stopped at a rather large one - perfect for sand boarding!
My friend and a group of about ten people took off their shoes and socks, and got ready to climb the dune with a boogey board. Once on top of the dune, any style of surfing down is acceptable :)
I didn't go (not really my cup of tea) but Camilla had a lot of fun, and I got to take the pictures to prove it ;)

After the sand boarding, we took off for Cape Reinga, the northern most point on the North Island, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea.

Today, an automated light house stands on the Cape. We went down to look at it (quickly, because the wind picked up again!) and enjoyed the great views.

According to Maori legends, the spirits of the dead people leave Aoteaora (Maori word for New Zealand) at Cape Reinga and travel on to the mythical country of Hawaiki. The spot on Cape Reinga where the souls leave the country is also sacred Maori ground. Tourists are not allowed, and our guide asked us to stay off the forbidden hill. Of course, at some point, someone was standing up there taking touristy pictures (he might have been from a different tour - there were quite a few tourists around).

We settled down in the bus to eat our lunch, when the weather turned stormy in seconds!
All of the sudden, rain storms were pounding the busses, coming in at horizontal angles, whipping around the cars.
The busses (still sandy from driving down the beach) got a good washing, and the spook was over in 20 to 30 minutes.

We turned around and drove back towards Paihia. On our way, we stopped at the "Kauri Kingdom," a cafe and store selling mostly wooden objects carved from ancient Kauri trees.
Nowadays, it is illegal to cut down Kauri trees. However, people found ancient Kauri trees preserved in swamps. Some of them are more than 45,000 years old! Today, people dig up the giant tree stumps and turn them into (expensive) furniture and household items.

We also stopped in Mangonui, a little town on the coast, for some Fish 'n Chips. Apparently, they have the best fish 'n chips in this area because the fish is so fresh (caught around three hours earlier).
I'm not a huge fish 'n chips fan, so I hoped for some other kind of fish, but they really didn't have anything else. The fish of the day was bluenose, and it really did taste deliciously fresh!

For dessert, we stopped at a farmer's fruit store. Stewie, the owner, gave us free samples of fresh organic fruit, like mandarins, oranges, and kiwi fruit.
I bought a small bag of golden kiwi fruit (four for a dollar). Sounds like a nice addition to breakfast tomorrow :)

We got back around 6pm after an eventful day. Now I'm a little tired ;)

Exploring Russell and Waitangi

We hadn't made any concrete plans for today, but after a healthy müsli breakfast (oh, so good!), we set off to the ferry wharf.
We decided to take a look at Russell, the nation's very first capital (back in 1840).

The ferry to Russell took only about 10 minutes.
Russell itself is a very quaint little town, with not much going on in winter *haha*

We walked up a little hill to look at a famous "flagstaff." In 1845, during the "Flagstaff Wars," Hone Heke, a Maori warrior, repeatedly felled down the flagstaff flying the British flag, challenging the British rule in the area.

Down in the town, we looked at some small shops full of useless little knick-knacks. We decided to skip the museum (probably not much different than the one in Auckland) but we did stop by the Department of Conservation house.
The Department of Conservation set up a small museum in Russell, with information about the wild life in the area, as well as some information about the geological aspects of the Bay of Islands (different kinds of rocks on the islands, major volcanic erruptions that shaped the area, etc).
They kept the information short, relevant, and to the point - very nice if you don't have a day to spend at a museum!

We stopped for lunch in a small cafe (the only one that was open around this time of the year). The food was pretty good. We ended up staying a little longer, because half way through dessert, the heavens opened once again. This was the first major rain shower of the day, though, so we just sat it out in front of cups of hot coffee and tea :)

That was pretty much all that was going on in Russell, so we took the ferry back to Paihia and walked North, on the beach, towards Waitangi.

Waitangi is the place where the British and the Maori signed the "Treaty of Waitangi" in 1840. This treaty was supposed to give the Maori the rights of British citizens. However, the English and the Maori language versions of the treaty differed slightly, leading to a long debate (still being discussed today) about the rights given to each group.

We decided not to go into the museum after all (I can only take so many museums in one day... *haha*).
Unfortunately, the walk to the Haruru water falls was closed (curtesy of the storms from a few weeks ago), so we looked around the golf course instead :)

By now, it began to get darker. We walked back to Paihia, played some cards at the hostel (not much of a night life here in the winter) and got a late dinner at the beachhouse.

Setting off for Paihia

I woke up early today to meet up with my friend Camilla. We had booked a bus tour (StrayTravel) and we needed to be at the pick-up location at 7:30am.

The bus showed up a little later, at 7:45 (I had already begun to panic and called the office twice, because I wasn't sure if we had missed it - I knew the bus was on a tight schedule).

We picked up two more people (two students from Canada) at a backpackers hostel and then we got on our way North.

We made a first stop at a giant Kauri tree. Kauri trees are on the verge of going extinct, so it is forbidden to chop them down nowadays. However, the Maori and also the white settlers back in the day cut them down merrily, building everything out of them, from Maori war canoes, to houses and furniture.

This particular Kauri tree is said to be the son of Tane, the great god of the forest. According to Maori legends, Tane helped separate the Earth and the Sky, shaping the world as we know it today (read about it here).
Also, hugging the 800 year old Kauri tree apparently brings good luck.





After a quick drive, we stopped in Warkworth to get coffee. Then we continued our drive North to stop and take a look at Goat Island.
Goat Island is one of many islands along the coast that have no natural fresh water source. Back in the days, the settlers would leave goats on the islands (they seemed tough enough to survive on these barren islands) for sailors that needed supplies of fresh meat.
Ironically, goat island never housed goats. Instead, the settlers left pigs on the island. Oftentimes, however, the pigs simply jumped into the water and swam back to the main lands when they got thirsty... ;)
Behind Goat Island, there is also a group of smaller islands that looks like a crocodile lying in the water. These are the Chicken Islands (I believe they had actual chicken on these islands).

While our driver settled down with the day's news paper, us four tourists climbed down a cliff to the beach. We climbed around some volcanic rocks and watched snappers and blue maomao fish come close to the surface of the water! The whole area is a Marine Reserve so fishing is not allowed and the fish can safely be curious :)
In the summer, many people come to go diving in the area.

By now, the landscape we drove through had become quite rural. The houses disappeared and were replaced by cows and sheep. Around this time of the year, all the little baby cows and sheep are born, and I saw many of them trying their first steps next to their moms in the grass :)
Also, the roads got worse as we continued up North. Even though we were still driving on "State Highway 1," don't let the name fool you... In many areas, "State Highway 1" is merely a gravel road complete with pot holes - and our driver did his best to speed up, down, and around the mountains at a constant speed of 80 kmh... When I started to feel queasy in the stomach, I simply went to sleep :)

Next, we stopped in Whangirai and got lunch at a small cafe. Here, the two Canadians left us (they had registered for a five-day diving course in Whangirai).

We made another stop in Kawakawa where we looked at the (possibly) most popular public bathrooms in the world ;)
This public bathroom, as well as some store fronts in Kawakawa were designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The famous Austrian designer had moved to Kawakawa and was buried there after his death in 2000.
Hundertwasser also designed the "Koru flag," which some New Zealanders would like to see adopted as the official flag. The current flag reminds them too much of the British Empire and British colonialism.

At around 2:30 that afternoon, we reached Paihia, a small village on the coast about half-way between Auckland and the northern most tip of the island.
We booked into the "Saltwater Lodge" backpackers hostel (a 5-star backpacker's place!). Since it isn't high tourist season yet, Camilla and I got a four-person bedroom to ourselves. We also had our private bathroom, and there was a communal kitchen (fully stocked with dishes, silverware, and appliances) and living room area (with couches, tables, a big TV, and a large collection of movies).

We left our bags at the hostel and went about exploring Paihia.
A one-minute walk brought us to the beach. We took a look at the ferry wharf, and ventured up into the rainforest surrounding the small bay.
An easy one-hour hike took us up to a look-out with a beautiful view over the bay. However, as soon as we got up there, it started to rain... :)

For dinner, we stopped at a little restaurant called "beach house" next to our hostel. They had amazing homemade burgers!

Packing

I started packing up my stuff today.
Tomorrow, I'm leaving on a short trip to the Bay of Islands (further North on the North Island). I am going with a friend from The Railway Campus.
The weather has been a little rainy lately (what else is new *haha*) but I hope it'll be a little nicer up there!

For now, I'll leave my big suitcase with my roommates. My flight back to the states is on August 9th :)

Last Day

Today was my last official day at the lab :(
(I'm not leaving New Zealand until August 9th)

That's why we had lots of cake and cookies this morning in the lab!
I really didn't know what to expect, but Allen gave a mini "speech" and the students had gotten me a University of Auckland hooded sweatshirt (which fit perfectly - Jess seems to have a good eye for that!)

Thanks, everyone, for making me feel so welcome at the lab for the past nine weeks - it means a lot to me!
If you ever make it to the states, let me know, I might be around...!

Driving up to Albany

Wow, it's August already!

I had a meeting with my mentors today. However, we ran into a slight problem: Paul, one of my mentors, had already moved his lab to a different university - Massey University in Albany, which is about 30 minutes North of Auckland!

So Allen and I decided to drive up there after lunch. Luckily, traffic wasn't bad, and we made it there on time.
I had seen Massey University before, while on the bus to the hot springs in Waiwera, but I never found the time to go back and look at it some more. It's such a pretty campus; very rural, not unlike UNH, actually.

Paul's new lab is in a little community of science labs. Interestingly, every lab has its own small house (it almost looks like a residential community!) and the buildings are connected by short walkways.
Walking up to Paul's building, I noticed a flashy little car: a sparkling green Mazda MX5 - what kind of Phd student or professor drives such a car??! Maybe I should start thinking about a Phd... *haha*

The meeting went very well. Both Paul and Allen were very excited about the data we collected over the past few weeks. Now I'm almost done - I just need to do my write-up.
Also, the project has become so interesting that they decided to look for a Phd or postdoc to continue it (if they get the grant money).

Two hours later (talk about long meetings...!) Paul offered to take me back to Devonport, from where I could take the ferry back into Auckland. Allen lives much farther away and it would be a long commute for him.

As it turned out, the little green Mazda belongs to Paul! I didn't know that being a professor can come with benefits like that!

Paul dropped me off at the ferry wharf in Devonport and I caught a ferry back to Auckland :D

Later that night, my roommates, two other girls from The Railway Campus, and I went out to eat sushi.

We didn't really know where to go, but there are a ton of Japanese restaurants on Queen St and around central Auckland. We finally decided to go to one that Lindsay had been to before.

The restaurant was very nice - great atmosphere, and *real* Asian customers (the food must be good, then, right?!).

However, as it turned out, sushi did not seem to be their specialty :( The "large mixed sushi platter" we ordered had about 15 pieces on it - not much for five hungry girls (especially considering the big price tag!).
We also had some miso soups, but everyone agreed that the small dinner could only be improved by a generous dessert!

On our way out, I noticed that most customers had ordered a regular meal (meat or fish, with veggies and rice). That would have probably been the better choice - rather than the appetizer plate *haha* :)

Luckily, there was a great ice cream place on the way back home!

Ocean Thirteen

After dinner, I watched Ocean Thirteen with June and Ellen. It was a good movie, but I got a little tired towards the end, so I might have to go see it again :)
What's up with movies that are set in casinos lately? Didn't James Bond also have a casino movie recently...? :D

Going Bowling

I went out bowling today with some friends. One of them, Ellen, had found a Bowling Alley somewhere in Newmarket. We took the bus there (it's very close to The Railway Campus).
I had never really walked around Newmarket before (except for that one time when I got lost *haha*) but there seem to be a lot of stores and restaurants! Maybe I have to go back and explore some more!
We finally found the place - it was on the top floor of a parking garage! Everything looked a little sketchy (including the elevator, where someone had forcefully removed the security camera...). We were a group of seven people - I don't know if I would have gone there on my own ;)
Besides bowling, the place also had pool tables, slot machines, a bar, and a small restaurant.
Bowling was a lot of fun (although I can't really bowl... I believe I lost every game *haha*).

Good thing we didn't get back too late, because I needed to get up early for Monday morning >_<

Taking a Walk

It's not raining today, so I decided to go for a random walk around Auckland Centre.

First, I walked up Symonds St, then down K'Road, Queen St, and finally down to the waterfront.

This is the old cemetary on Symonds St. Most of the graves are from the 1850s to 1890s. Some grave stones have orange stuff all over them - they look a little bit rusty :)



K'Road is famous for its many bars and a few odd stores with mostly original eclectic or vintage clothes. At night, it used to transform into Auckland's red light district.
This is a vegetarian restaurant on K'Road. The round sign (hard to tell) says "Hare Krishna Food for Life":

Chemistry Experiments

We had a Bioinformatics Lab meeting today!
These meetings happen about every other week. The students and professors get together and make plans for seminars, event, or activities, talk about their individual research and the progress they are making, or problems they are encountering. Sometimes, one person prepares a talk about a recent paper (ideally, everyone read the paper beforehand, so that there can be ample discussion... but that doesn't happen everytime ;) )

An important part of the Bioinformatics Meetings is the collection of snacks that people bring. This time, someone brought in "Eskimos," which are little marshmallows shaped like eskimos (although I had a hard time determining any sort of shape other than an oblong blob...).
I didn't try one, but apparently they were very sweet, so someone came up with the glorious idea of burning them (to see how well they burn, and how long they last).



Our marshmallows did not burn too well (no, I don't think we can use them as rocket fuel...) :D

Later that day, I went to see a Chinese movie put on by the University of Auckland Dessert Club. Yes, you read that right - they have an official Dessert Club!

The dessert of the evening was shaved ice, the same kind that I'd had last week.
The movie they showed was called "Infernal Affairs," and it's actually the original version of "The Departed." I didn't know that, but Hollywood did a good job copying the Chinese version - the stories are the same!
I liked the movie a lot - sometimes, reading the subtitles are a little tiring, but it had its funny moments and good music! One of the main characters looked familiar, and I found out that he also starred in House of the Flying Daggers.

International Potluck

Today, the Railway Campus had organized an International Potluck event!
Either you make a dish and bring it, or you pay $2 to get in.
Lyndsay, one of my roommates, and I decided to make some good old American pancakes :)
We got one of those pancake mixes and added some milk - that's how easy the batter was! Frying them was a different story, however...
We didn't have a non-stick pan, so we needed to use a lot of cooking spray. One time, Lyndsay set the pan on fire (I think the pan was too hot when she sprayed the cooking spray)...
But everyone seemed to like them - they were gone pretty quickly!

I tried a lot of different dishes. The German guys made some kind of spicy "Nudelauflauf" (noodles baked with cheese and meat, almost similar to lasagna). In general, there were a lot of "pasta and meat" dishes. June made Korean fried rice with kimchi (and the two other Korean kids did, too, so we had a lot of that *haha*).
There were also some peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies, crepes, a giant chocolate cake, and a fruit salad for dessert.

Overall, everyone had a lot of fun, and the RAs made plans to hold another potluck event soon.

Real Korean Food!

I met up with some friends to get Korean food today!
My two roommates, their friends Sam and Ellen, and I went with our friend June to a Korean restaurant. June is Korean and she is studying at the University for a semester. She offered to take us to an authentic place with real Korean food!

The restaurant was called Kang Nam Station (I think). It's in central Auckland, so within easy walking distance from The Railway Campus.

I don't know too much about Korean food, and neither did my other "non-Korean" friends, so we told June to just order anything for us.
She picked out a Kimchi dish (a "must-have" national Korean dish), something called Beef Bulgogi, and a "Military Stew."

The food was amazing! I even tried the jelly fish (didn't taste like much). It was a good thing we decided to share a few dishes - that way, everyone got to try everything.
I think, I liked the Beef Bulgogi best, though - the marinade on the beef was really delicious.

Overall, we only spent 12 NZD per person, which was so much cheaper than I expected!
Also, we were fortunate to have June with us! For one thing, the waiter didn't speak much English :)

Of course, as soon as I got home, I googled some recipes. I think, I have to try making some Korean food!

Here are a few pictures:

June, Sam, and Lindsay (left to right):



Missy, Ellen, and me (left to right):



The Beef Bulgogi is in the front, and the Military Stew is behind it. The Beef Bulgogi was served on this curved steamer plate (there was water in it and the steam came through little slots in the plate - interesting!)



The orange-reddish stuff is the Military Stew - it had tofu, ramen noodles, rice cakes (or something made out of rice flour), cabbage, and a few different kinds of sausage in it. The green stuff is seaweed salad, a banchan (side dish) that came with the bulgogi.

The end of the Harry Potter Saga

I finished Harry Potter, and I really liked the book!
But I won't tell you the ending.

Reading...

I mostly read today... :)

For dinner, I met up with one of my roommates and a friend of hers.
The friend is from Korea, and we made plans to go out to eat authentic Korean food and watch sappy Korean movies ;)

Harry Potter and the All Blacks

The last Harry Potter book hit the stores today!
I had preordered a book a while ago because everyone expected a huge demand.

In New Zealand, the official time of release was 11:01 am, so a little after 11, I made my way to the store where I had preordered a copy.
However, instead of giant mass of excited Potter fans, I found five bored-looking store employees mingling behind a table full of Harry Potter books!
In fact, I didn't even need to battle little 5-year olds for one of the free, limited-quantity Harry Potter baseball caps...!If I had had a Staples Easy Button, I would have pressed it... :)
The total came to 29.99 NZD, which was 3 NZD cheaper than the bookstore around the corner ;)

On my way home, I saw a lot of people with the books. Some were waiting for the bus, reading the book, some where sitting in the next cafe, eagerly flipping the first pages, and a lot of shoppers simply carried their books in clear plastic bags from a variety of stores.

I actually didn't start reading until later that day, but the first few chapters are pretty good! There is a little more action than in the last few books; the bad guys show up earlier, and they are a little bit meaner. But I won't give the story away... :)


Later that night, I met up with some people from the Lab to watch the All Blacks game at a pub. Today, they were playing the Australia Wallabies in the Tri-Nations Series. In Rugby, the relationship between Australia and New Zealand is similar to the relationship between the Boston Red Sox vs. the Yankees... so everyone was looking forward to an exciting game!

The All Blacks ended up winning the game 26 to 12, so everyone was happy :)

I was glad though that I was watching the game at a pub, because two minutes before the game started, it began to pour sheets of rain! Both my roommates had gotten tickets for the game, and they were soaked through in seconds!

Afterwards, we went to a party at another friend's house. There were a lot of people from all over the world, and I met a few really interesting people :)

Asian Ice Cream

We went for Asian Ice cream today after work. It's called "shaved ice" and comes in all sorts of flavors. I tried the Green Tea ice cream with red bean topping. It was delicious!
This is what it looks like:

Hanging out with the Roommates

I made dinner with my roommates today and we had a lot of fun!
They are both exchange students from the US and they will stay at the University of Auckland for one semester (until November).
The new semester started on Monday.

On Tuesday, my roommates and another girl went to the movie theater to watch the new Pirates of the Carribbean movie. They really enjoyed it, until a guy in the row in front of them started to throttle and beat up his wife! The guy was so big and drunk, though, that no one in the theater dared to go near him, so one of my roommates called the police.
When the police came, she needed to give a witness statement.
That's a lot of excitement, considering she hasn't been in Auckland for more than a week!

(This doesn't seem to be standard practice in Auckland movie theaters, by the way. The two times I've been, everyone was perfectly behaved!)

Fire Alarm!

This morning at the lab started out a little bit different.
We had just settled down for a comfortable little chat (seriously - who wants to do work early in the morning on a Monday?) when the fire alarm went off.

How annoying - a fire drill, when it's pouring sheets of rain outside!

However, we soon realized that this was no drill, as fire fighter trucks and hazmat vehicles drove up the street!
There are a lot of hazardous materials, as well as live animals in the building, so any kind of fire alarm needs to be taken very seriously.

After about 30 minutes in the rain, we got to go back inside. I don't know what happened exactly, but it probably wasn't too serious (since we got to back so soon).

I decided to be a typical tourist and took a picture of the fire truck :)
You can barely see it, but it's in the middle of the picture

A short trip to Devonport

I decided to go for a little walk today around Devonport.
The weather wasn't too nice. It didn't rain, but it was cloudy all day :(

I took the ferry from Auckland - it's so convenient and a lot of fun. However, it was also a little chilly, so as soon as I got off the boat in Devonport, I found myself looking for a place that sold hot beverages!

There are so many cafes to chose from in Devonport, but I finally decided on a little place on Victoria St called "Sierra Cafe." They were a little busy, because it was around lunch time, but I still found a table inside. I got some hot tea and the "Soup of the Day": lentil soup with spiced lamb.

After I got a little warmer, I went back outside and took a walk around.
There are a lot of little shops all along Victoria St. You can find the usual, "touristy" kind of shops, but also a lot of local craft stores and some art galleries.

Then, I walked up Mt. Victoria, one of the two volcanoes in Devonport. The last time I had been there, I had already looked at the other one, the North Head.

The walk up to the summit only took about 15 minutes, and once at the top, there is a great view of the Auckland skyline, Tamaki Drive, Rangitoto Island, and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Pictures are on the right hand side of the page :)

Going Shopping

I hadn't gone shopping in a while, so I decided to go to the mall today.

Luckily, "St. Lukes," the shopping mall, is on an easy bus route from Auckland centre. The bus ride takes only 20 minutes.

St. Lukes looks a lot like American malls. They have a big foodcourt (the sushi selection is bigger and cheaper than in America *haha*), and they even have Dunkin' Donuts and Subways!

There are a lot of expensive stores (window-shopping, anyone?) but there are ways to hunt down bargains, as well.
For some reason, there were a lot of sales today - good for me :)

I did find some clothes for myself (2 shirts and a pair of pants) but just browsing was a lot of fun - the fashion styles are a little different than in the US.

I also grabbed a Mango Smoothie from New Zealand Natural. They have amazing ice cream with "all natural" ingredients - I don't know what they do to their ice cream, but whatever they do, they do it right!

The sun was out!

Yes, today is Friday the 13th!
I can't say though that something bad happened today :)

It was really nice out today (especially compared to what we had going on the last few days) so I left the lab a little earlier.
I took a walk downtown and wandered up Queen St to do some window-shopping.

Every Friday and Saturday, there is a market at Aotea Square. I had been there before, but I still went to look through the booths. They have a lot of clothes, jewellery, souvenirs, art, and greasy food *haha*

This is a picture I took in Albert Park - can you see the huge branch? It broke off during the storm!



This is the entrance to Aotea Square Market - traditional Maori carvings! The building on the right is the movie theater.

Wine, bread, cheese, and Karaoke!

There was a party today at The Railway Campus again.
Tonight, they had wine, bread, and cheese, and karaoke!

Usually, I don't sing karaoke, but some girls convinced me to give it a try.
Camilla, a girl from Denmark, and I sang a song together (I already forgot which one >_<).
Everyone had a lot of fun, and they played a lot of random classics like Franz Ferdinand, Nena, and Tom Jones. Someone even requested the Spice Girls!

I didn't stay till the very end though, because it got so cold in the common area (no central heat).

Harry Potter V

While walking to the lab this morning, I saw a lot of broken branches on the street - that storm last night really came down hard!

At 10:30am, Vicky, Thomas, Melanie, and I left to go see the Harry Potter movie downtown. It only takes about 10 minutes to get there, and since we had reserved seats, we didn't need to show up too early.

The theater was packed with mostly little kids and their grandparents! There was also at least one baby, because it kept on crying during the movie.
Seriously - do you have to bring a baby to see the Harry Potter movie (rated "mature")??

The movie was good! There were some cheesy parts in it, and of course they needed to cut stuff out. They also changed a few key stories from the book's version.
The fighting scene at the end of the movie was pretty cool - lots of wizards duelling!

One of the new characters they introduced is Bellatrix Lestrange. She is a dark wizard that escapes from the wizard prison Azkaban. She was played by Helena Bonham Carter who did a really good job portraying crazy Bellatrix! She actually made more of an impression on me than the ever-evil Lord Voldemort.

Later that night, The Railway Campus served free pizza at a board games night. The pizza didn't come till 10pm (it was scheduled to come at 6pm) but I had made dinner on my own, anyways :)

Stormy Winds

Today was Happy Hour at the lab. In fact, the whole building was celebrating with free wine, beer, orange juice, cheese and crackers.
I don't know if there is a set schedule for these kind of parties, but that would be a good idea!

It was raining all day today!
Unfortunately, the steady rain in the morning had morphed into some kind of thunder storm by the time I walked home!
There was so much wind blowing that I didn't want to risk my umbrella's life... so I faced the icy rain drops instead!

All evening, I could hear the wind howling around The Railway Campus :)

Exploring Waiheke Island

The weather report promised more sunshine and no rain, so, in a rather spontaneous decision, I decided to catch the ferry to Waiheke Island.

See photos on the right of the page!

Also, this is a map of the area:



Waiheke Island is also called "Auckland's Jewel." It's one of the larger islands in the Hauraki Gulf, and a popular vacation spot for both New Zealanders and foreign travelers.

The ride on the ferry from Auckland to Matiatia Bay at Waiheke only took about 35 minutes. It was a little cold, but I stood outside on the boat, because I really liked the fresh air. Also, the view of Auckland from the boat was quite nice. Even the sun was poking through the clouds - that was great, because it had rained on and off for the last week (a little depressing :P ).

I didn't really have a plan of what to do on Waiheke Island. My travel guide suggested a few guided tours, but they were all a little expensive! So I figured I would either rent a bike (apparently there are good biking trails on the island) or go along some of the walking trails on my own.

When I got to the ferry wharf, however, I talked to a guy standing next to the tourist information booth. He said I shouldn't go on the walking trails, because it had rained so much over the last few days and everything was slippery and muddy.
Instead, he suggested I'd sign on with his tour group...

It turned out that he did offer a good deal. In fact, it almost seemed too good to be true! For 25 NZD, he would take people in his van around the island, for around five hourse (half day). A full day was 45 NZD.
He would stop wherever we wanted, suggest little walkways and trails to do, find us good restaurants or cafes for lunch, and overall give us the best experience we could ever have on Waiheke Island. After living on the island for 32 years, he told us, he knew the best hidden secrets the island had to offer...

Another guy and me decided to give the half day tour a try, and we got on the little van (a Mercedes, as the guide, Max Walker, proudly proclaimed).

From the wharf, Max first took us to Oneroa beach. This beautiful beach is on the North side of the island. Max showed us a little trail leading down to the beach and promised to pick us up in 45 minutes at a little cafe on the road close to the beach. The other tourist, Paul, and I climbed down a cliff on a little foot path and walked along the sand. Since it's winter here, there weren't too many tourists around, and only a few locals, so the beach was almost empty! Two little girls, though, gallopped past us on their horses! I collected some sea shells and we climbed across lava rocks and around a cliff.

Paul, more of an outdoor-kinda-guy than me, suggested we climb up a steep hill back up to the street. At first it looked easy, but it quickly became slippery, and the mud caught in the profile of the soles of my shoes, making them even more slippery. With lots of holding on to plants growing nearby, we made it up the hill (although I really doubted my chances - there were almost no footholds, slippery mud, all at at least 45 degree angles...!). I don't think I will try a stunt like that again anytime soon! Besides a cut in my finger (it stings when I type!), I was unharmed, though - I just had mud all over myself :)

We met up with Max again, after looking through some shops on the street. We got on the shuttle bus, and Max took us to Mudbrick Vineyard, which is on the western part of the island.
We got dropped off on top of a little hill. The view was amazing, and we could even see the skyline of Auckland in the distance, as well as several little islands scattered in the sea.

One of the popular attractions of Waiheke Island are the vineyards. They are scattered all over the island, and many of them offer wine tasting. On our way down the hill, we stopped at one of those, Cable Bay Vineyards, and got to sample a New Zealand Chardonnay for free. Then we walked towards the road and waited for our shuttle to pick us up.

By now, another ferry had arrived at the wharf and Max had picked up new customers. He dropped us (now ten people) off at a cliff near a walkway down to Palm Beach. This beach was on the North side of the island again, but further East of Oneroa.

Our group was very international and diverse by now! There was a Chinese couple, a Vietnamese woman living and working in Australia, a British couple, three American women from Colorado, Paul from Australia, and me.

We took our time looking at the beautiful scenery. Part of Palm Beach is actually an official nude beach, but we only saw one nudist basking in the sun. Personally, I found the wind from the sea quite chilly and was happy about my winter jacket...!

Max picked us up at the other side of the beach and took us a little further East, towards Onetangi Beach. This, according to Max, is the most beautiful of all the beaches on Waiheke Island. He didn't forget to mention that he lives on this beach, himself...

By now, we had all developed a little bit of an appetite (it was 3pm already!), so we stopped at one of the two restaurants on the beach. The tables all had a beautiful view of the ocean - it was really quite charming.
I had really looked forward to a large bowl of fresh salad, but for some reason, their menu lacked vegetables! The closest I could get to a salad were marinated vegetables... strange.
I ended up getting a warm soup instead, because as soon as I sat down, I felt the chilly breeze from the sea :) Paul, and the Vietnamese woman both got pork ribs. They smelled delicious, but the "salad on the side" turned out to be a single piece of lettuce - I am not kidding you!
There seems to be a strange aversion to vegetables on this island...!

After our late lunch, we hopped back on the shuttle to drive to an olive oil tasting. We drove back towards Mudbrick Vineyards, to some kind of "olive tree forest." The area looked quite mediterranean, with low shrubs growing on the ground, scattered groups of olive trees, and the rows of grapevines!
The family growing the olive trees invited us into their home (as in: their living room!) The owners, an old couple (he was Maltese!), explained a little bit of the process of pressing oil out of the olives, and offered us some olive oil to taste. They only had two kinds of plain olive oil, though - I had somehow expected a larger variety.
It was very good, but I didn't buy anything.

By now, it started getting darker outside! We drove back towards the North of the island but we just missed the sunset :(
We still got to look at some fancy houses along the coast, though.
Most of the more expensive houses are actually vaction houses of rich people. Max pointed out the house belonging to the CEO of Deutsche Bank. He and his family visit the island at most two months every year - the expensive house with prime view of the Auckland skyline is empty for ten months at a time!

We made it back in time for the 6pm ferry back to Auckland.

Unfortunately, the ferry stopped in Devonport, and it being dark out, Paul and I just followed all the people getting up and leaving the boat. When we realized that we didn't recognize the ferry wharf at all, it was too late, and the boat had left without us!

We checked the ferry time table, and another ferry was scheduled to come in 15 minutes. However, a nice couple offered to give us a ride to Auckland.

Carolyn and John own a little cottage on Waiheke Island. On the weekends, they park their car for free at Devonport and take the ferry from there to Waiheke. They were so nice to drop me off right in front of Foodtown (I needed to get something for breakfast for tomorrow).

Overall, it was a very exciting day! I don't think I would have been able to see so much of Waiheke Island on my own!

In the end, my half-day tour turned into a full day tour for 45 NZD. I think it was still a better deal than for example renting a bike for 30 NZD. We met another guy, who had rented the bike, and he was unable to walk down to the beaches (he would have had to chain his bike somewhere, climb down the cliff, climb up the cliff again later at the same place to retrieve the bike, etc). Instead, he drove up and down (and up, and down...) the many hills. We, on the other hand, effectively had our own taxi that dropped us off and picked us up wherever we wanted - I'm glad I got to spend my energy walking down the beach and climbing various volcanic rocks!

Max was a little overeager and exhausting at times, because he talked constantly! He is mostly a good salesperson - he really oversold his product at times ;)
Of course, there are also fewer tourists around in the winter, and as the owner of an independent 2-person company offering tours across the island, in competition with the bigger tourism companies that offer more structured, but also more expensive tours, he needs to try hard to get customers.

He also didn't fail to show us his house and the two-bedroom (four beds) apartment he rents out to tourists. I have to give him this, though: the apartment is very modern and clean, spacious, has a fantastic view of Onetangi Beach, and is comparably cheap (90 NZD a night during the week, 125 NZD per night on the weekend).
Call him at 0800-kayak2, if you are interested :P

Dipping into a Hot Pool

This morning, I went to take the bus to the hot springs at Waiwera (pictures on the right side of the page!).

Waiwera is a thermal spa resort with naturally hot springs. They have hot pools to soak in, waterslides and fun pools for the kids, a pool with a movie screen, a spa, a sauna, and probably a lot of other stuff I'm forgetting about right now :) The water that comes out of the ground is hot because there is a geothermal aquifier located 1500 meters below the resort.

There is a public bus route that goes all the way from central Auckland to Waiwera. This is pretty convenient, but I didn't realize how long it would take - one hour and 30 minutes one way!

We left central Auckland and drove up North (see the google maps link on the right of the page!). Pretty soon, after we left the city behind, the trees grew taller and more prominent, and the landscape overall became very "small-townish."
I also saw a lot of sheep! Living in Auckland centre, I forget sometimes that New Zealand is famous for its sheep. The only sheep in Auckland are the products made from sheepskin, I think :P
Here, however, there were tons of sheep, cows, horses, and even deer in different enclosures! Some of the deer even had large antlers - I didn't even know you could keep them fenced in like that...

We also drove by Massey University in Albany. One of my mentors is moving his lab up there in August. He told me how beautiful the area is, and I have to agree with him. Overall, of course, it is very rural compared to Auckland University. If you look out the window of a classroom in Auckland, you are most likely to see paved roads and cars. At Massey University, you can see the sheep and cows chowing away on beautiful green grass!
I didn't take any pictures because the bus drove so fast, but this is one I found on the web, showing off the pretty architecture of one of the main buildings.

If I can, I would like to go up there again and look around a little bit.

We continued up North, and I got a tiny queasy feeling in my stomach from the winding roads. Good thing we were almost there *haha*!

The bus dropped me off right in front of the spa resort - very convenient!

I bought a ticket and rented a towel (I didn't bring my own because I didn't really want to carry around a wet towel afterwards :P) and went inside.

This is were it got cold.

I knew that the pools were "outside," but I guess I expected some kind of warm enclosures connecting them, or heated changing rooms, or something... No, nothing of the sort!
Here I was: standing in my winter jacket (the temperature was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit), chilly from the wind - and everything was out there, under the open sky and enveloped by a fresh breeze from the sea (only about 100 ft away).

I took a look around. There weren't too many people there, which was nice. All the pools were indeed outside, but a few of them had some kind of sunroof over them.
I changed quickly and jumped into the 40 degrees Celsius pool *haha* ... and stayed there for the next two hours!
Well, I did take a dip in the neighboring pool, but it only had 32 degrees... that's just a little less than normal body temperature (36 degrees) and I felt it :P

Overall, though, the pools were really nice and relaxing. You quickly forget about the sulfurous smell. Also, they mix a little chlorine and other chemicals into the water to keep it sanitized. Twice, a guy came by to take water samples. Too bad, though, that it was so cold outside. I bet it is really nice in the summer!

Sitting in such hot water for too long, though, is a little tiring :) I changed back into regular clothes and took a walk around the resort area.
There is a little beach close by, a camp ground, and lots of little apartments. Some are privately owned, and some can be rented as vacation homes.
The whole resort area was enclosed by some kind of high cliff full of green, tall trees.

I stopped for a cup of hot tea at a little restaurant, and then I took the bus back to Auckland.

It wasn't too late yet so I thought about going shopping, but I couldn't find the right bus stop for the shopping center. Somehow, the bus schedule I had was wrong :(
Also, as I wasn't surrounded by sulfurous vapors anymore, I could really smell my own hair... *haha*!
So I decided to call it a day and take another shower :)

Back at The Railway Campus, I met my second roommate. She is from Washington and is also doing an exchange program.

Friday is Presentation Day

Rod Page, an alumn Phd student of Auckland University, gave a talk on "The Death of Taxonomy" today. He was a good speaker, and the talk was interesting, but it sounded a little familiar to me (I listened to a similar talk at the Evolution Conference a few weeks ago).
Afterwards, a lively discussion ensued - some people got into an argument, and it was really quite funny for everyone but those arguing :)

Marcel got a job offer from the cow-killing company in the (e)mail today. He wouldn't tell us the exact figure, but I understand the salary is more than he makes now (as the IT guy in Thomson Building). He is pretty sure about taking the offer. Congrats!

movie tickets

I emailed with my sister today. She is celebrating July 4th with friends right now - this is what happens when your family is divided by the international date line and you are a day ahead of them :)

Vicky and I preordered tickets for the fifth Harry Potter movie today!
You can even reserve seats online (the movie theater website comes with a seating chart).
We reserved seats for the first showing at the theater close to the university. That's next Wednesday, at 11am. It's early to see a movie, but maybe we can dodge the crowds?
Thomas and Melanie are also coming - it should be fun!

Tornados in Auckland!

Yes, it's July 4th, but of course no one is celebrating here :)
Instead, we went to work! (I actually forgot that July 4th celebrations were coming up, until two days ago, when I read an article about barbecue preparations in the US...)

The day was beautiful out today - sunshine and 50 degrees Fahrenheit! I was a little unhappy about it, because I was going to spend it inside.
And then, all of a sudden, around 3 in the afternoon, it started to pour! I think I heard some thunder, too... This is how quick the weather changes in Auckland :)

According to the news, this weather situation classified as a "mini tornado"! In Auckland, some houses were damaged and a few roads were flooded.

New Plymouth, a city on the west coast of the North Island, got hit a little harder. The tornado swept roofs off buildings, broke windows, and damaged vehicles. Luckily, no one was injured.

America's Cup:
Besides following the All Blacks Rugby team games, the Kiwis also like to watch the America's Cup, an international sailing regatta. I think NZ has won twice so far; the US has been pretty good in the past, also. (I don't think Germany has a team... :) )
This year, though, the Cup remains in Europe: Alinghi, the Swiss team, beat Team New Zealand 5-2 in a pretty close race (or so I hear) - well, let's try again next time!

I have too much data.

I looked into wikis today to solve my data management problem. Marcel suggested I'd try one called "MoinMoin." I'll play around with it tonight and we'll see if it helps!

Also, one of my two roommates moved in today. She came with a group of 20 students from Loyola College in Maryland to study at Auckland University for a semester.
I ate dinner with her and some her friends. They were all really excited to be in Auckland, but you could tell that some of them started getting tired already. Let's see how many of them will stay awake to go clubbing tonight ;)

Quite Monday

Everything went as usual in the lab - nothing exciting happened ;)

However, I got really frustrated with the amount of data my computer programs produced. It gets so much that I lose track of it - I am getting so confused!
Maybe I need to start thinking of a better way to organize things.

Rainy Sunday

My plan for today was to walk to Victory Park and maybe later to Mount Eden, but when I went outside it was pouring!

Instead, I decided to walk to the Auckland Museum. At least, I would be inside!

The Auckland Museum is in the Auckland Domain, one of the public parks. The park is really nice, great for running or taking a stroll, but getting there from The Railway Campus is a nuisance. One has to cross the big motorway and walk along it for a while.

The museum had some interesting collections. The biggest exhibit focused on the life and culture of Maori, of course. Besides many older artefacts on display, the museum had also organized a traditional Maori dance performance. This cost extra, though, and I didn't go see it since I had seen these performances before at the All Blacks game and the Evolution Conference.

Interestingly enough, photography was allowed in most exhibit halls. See some pictures on the right.

I had also gotten a ticket to one of the current special exhibits called "Egypt: Beyond the Tomb."
The exhibit was really well done. The visitors could follow the path of a young woman called Keku, who lived 2700 years ago, make her journey from embalming and mummyfication through the underworld, and hopefully to paradise.
The Egyptians were obsessed with the afterlife; growing up, their whole life seemed only to prepare them for this path. The highlight of the exhibit was of course Keku's mummy, well-preserved in two separate coffins.

Finally, there was one impressive exhibit devoted to volcanoes. The museum itself is built on top of a volcano, and of course 48 volcanoes lie underneath the whole Auckland region.
The exhibit told us a little bit of the history of Auckland's volcanoes, some recent eruptions (mostly in other countries, though), and presented a scenario of what would happen if a new volcano would erupt tomorrow, in present-day Auckland.

Moving

Today, I got to move into my new, cheaper room! It's a little bit like a three-bedroom apartment, and I will share bathroom and kitchenette with two other girls. The room is of course smaller than my old one, but it's definitely big enough for me (I don't have much stuff anyways).

The whole process of moving my stuff from one room to the other, moving food and kitchen utensils between the two self-cook kitchen areas, filling out the paperwork, waiting for the receptionist to do the room inspection, etc, took about three hours... it was rather exhausting ;)

The other two girls haven't arrived yet. I think they might move in tomorrow.

After I moved all my stuff, I went for a walk downtown. I explored another farmer's market, grabbed lunch at a little cafe, and did some window-shopping.

Overall, though, the weather was lousy and the city smelly.
I hope it will be a little better tomorrow!

Frustrating Moment of the Day:
When I got something out of the fridge at 9:30 at night, I realized that the fridge had never turned on, when I stocked it this morning (I had turned the little knob all the way to "very cold," though).
Why is my fridge not working??
My frozen veggies, meat, ICE CREAM, etc had had a whole day to slowly thaw!

Of course, this late at night, the reception was closed...
I decided to cook all my veggies and the left over meat (only one chicken drumstick, thank god).

Fortunately, on my way to the kitchen I ran into one of the RAs. When I asked him what could be wrong with my fridge, he suggested it probably wasn't broken and I just needed to turn on the power.
Well, how do you do that??

He kindly came with me and demonstrated:
You need to take a stool, climb up on the 6 ft tall fridge, insert a one-foot spoon in a 3 square-inch hole in the top of the cupboard (the fridge is in a cupboard that you can lock) and tip over a switch.

No, I am not kidding you.

The fridge turned on, but I still wanted to cook some of the veggies and the chicken. So if you walked by the Railway Campus kitchen at 11pm, you probably saw me grilling up some food.

For the next three days, I won't have to come up with dinner ideas, because there will be cooked vegetables in the fridge.

Transformers

This morning, I met up with a few people from the lab to watch the movie Transformers. Today was opening day, so we decided to see the earliest show at 10am, to dodge the crowds.
The movies in NZ cost differently, depending on how new they are. Since this movie just came out, it was going to be more expensive. However, Vicky bought "movie money" (basically a bunch of tickets in bulk, maybe ten or so?) and got a discount.

I didn't really know anything about the story, other than there are fighting robots that "transform" into something else.

I don't think I would buy the movie on DVD, but overall it had a lot of funny parts, and pretty cool computer graphics. It was a little bit long, though (2 hours, 24 minutes).

I did make it back in time for the meeting with my mentors.

The meeting went pretty well; I feel we should have had it a few weeks ago, though.

Later that day, Dee helped me set up BLAST on my computer.

BLAST is a tool that allows scientists to compare protein or DNA sequences against a library of sequences of another genome for similarities. This can be useful, for example, when you have a sequence of DNA of unknown function. By "blasting" this sequence against the genomes of other species, you might discover sequences in these genomes that are already known and are very similar to your query sequence. Oftentimes, similar sequences perform similar functions, and then you are one step closer to identifying the uses of your initial query sequence.

Where Did my Summer Go?

I took a trip to downtown Auckland during lunch break today to run some errands. While I was walking through Albert Park, I spotted these trees.





This is when I realized that it is Fall, almost Winter here, and I missed out on a Summer! We also had 40 degrees Fahrenheit this morning... I guess I should have noticed this sooner :)

I was prepared for the cold lab today - lots of layers and hot tea ;)

We have a new student in the lab. Her name is Melanie, and she is also studying Bioinformatics.

Life in the Lab

We got free food at the lab today. A company trying to sell special pipettes for lab work brought cookies, fruit, crackers, and cheese, and a lot of posters explaining these excellent pipettes.
Most people, though, mainly concentrated on the free food :)

Our room in the building was freezing today!
It used to be a room full of computer servers, so it has a solid AC that's turned up all the way for some reason. Apparently, there is also no way to turn it off, either. There are no servers left in this room, by the way...
Tomorrow, I'll get my winter jacket in there :)

Marcel went to a job interview yesterday. He was interviewing with a company that buys cows from farmers across New Zealand, butchers them, and then exports the meat overseas. Their biggest client is Burger Kind in Japan.
Part of the interview was a visit in the factory. Poor Marcel smelled like dead meat for the rest of the day ;) If he gets/takes the job, he will be working as a systems administrator, by the way, so he won't have to do any meat cutting!

Sleepy Day at the Lab

There wasn't much going on at the lab today.

When we got bored with work, Thomas tried to start up the Tanks server.
Tanks is a silly computer game, where everyone steers a little tank across a field, trying to shot as many other tanks as possible. There are unlimited "lives," and the only high score you can get is the "kill count."
It's a multiplayer game, so the whole lab can play at the same time.

Unfortunately, Marcel was out today, and he is the only one who has administrator access to start up the game server... so no game today.

Instead, we made plans to go to the movies on Friday.
The Transformers movie is coming out. Apparently it's based on some kind of cartoon or comic series? I have no idea - I'm always clueless when it comes to pop-culture trivia like that.
Friday is opening day. The plan is to go in the morning, at 10am, hoping it will be a little less busy.

I also had a meeting with one of my mentors today. I had to wait for him for a while, so I started talking to some of the students working in his lab. Of course they have lots of German speakers - seriously, I haven't seen/heard so many German speakers since I went to Germany a few years ago!
The student I talked to also went to the Evolution Conference, so we happily reminisced a little bit :)

Lots of Chocolate Cake

I finally got around to uploading newer pictures. Look to the right and scroll down :D

When I came to the lab this morning, Vicky told me that it was Thomas' birthday yesterday. I don't know him that well, so not getting him a card was fine.
Vicky and her friend got him a present and a chocolate cake. Thomas himself also brought in leftover birthday cake - more chocolate!
The cakes were both really good, but the frosting was a little sweet.

I also got some work done today. I needed to organize my scripts a little bit (otherwise I get confused about what each of them does, in what order I called them, etc).

I also got a password today, for my University of Auckland username. It only took me how long... about four weeks? Bureaucracies work slowly...

On my way home, I found a cute little Japanese supermarket. It was immaculately clean and there was no single item labeled in English - man, was I lost! I picked up some random candy, just for fun, and some Daifuku (you can't go wrong there... most of the time!).
The candy turned out to be a rip-off! There was a little plush animal in the carton, and two hard candies... sad.
I also stopped by the regular supermarket, and picked up some smoked salmon! I thought I should treat myself to some good fish :)

Lina climbs a volcano...

Today, I was off on my own to explore Rangitoto Island, the youngest vulcano around Auckland. It last errupted about 600 years ago.

When I got to the ferry terminal, I realized that the next ferry would leave in an hour and a half, so I decided to stop by Devonport again, and then take the ferry to Rangitoto from there.

In Devonport, I stumbled upon a Farmer's Market. Every Sunday, they sell bread, cheeses, chocolate, vegetables and fruits, honey, fish, and much more.
I bought yummy sourdough bread and chocolate covered strawberries, and then I looked around Devonport some more. There are a lot of cafes and restaurants, and many little stores, that I didn't get to look at yesterday.

I went back to the wharf and took the ferry to Rangitoto Island.
From the Sky Tower, Rangitoto looked like a symmetrical, grey island. Up close, however, one can see that it is mostly covered in dense Pohutakawa forest. Pohutakawa trees show bright crimson flowers during the summer months (December, etc), that's why they are often called "Christmas trees."

The summit of the vulcano is roughly 250 meters above sea level. One can climb it in about an hour. There are also some other walks that take a little longer, but I decided on the summit walk, because the last ferry was going to leave at 4 pm. If I wouldn't be back by then, I would have to camp out on the island for the night!

The walk up to the summit was pretty easy, and there were lots of lookouts on the way up, where one can see panoramic views of the surrounding harbor and some other islands. Most of the pathways were made up of volcanic rocks.

At the top, all the visitors (not many, during this time of the year) had a great view of the Auckland skyline and the harbor. Also, I could see Devonport and its two volcanoes.

The Maori call New Zealand "Aotearoa," which means "The land of the long white cloud." From the top of Rangitoto, I could definitely see a big cloud hanging over the mainland and the skyline of Auckland. Maybe this is what the ancient Maori saw when they first sailed towards the North Island?

I took a walk around the crater of the vulcano, which is by now completely covered in forest. It still looks impressive, though.

At the summit, I met a Brazilian tourist, and we decided to explore the Lava Caves together.
The Lava Caves are big enough that one can walk through them, but they were also really dark. We didn't have flashlights, so we didn't walk all the way through the caves.

We caught the second-to-last ferry back towards Auckland (so no need to camp out on the island!).

Show me the Penguins!

I had made plans today to go to Kelly Tarlton's with Mohsen, another student from the lab.

Kelly Tarlton's is a zoo full of arctic animals; mostly sting rays, sharks, other fish, and penguins.

Kelly Tarlton's is about 15 minutes away from central Auckland, but there is a free shuttle bus that runs every hour.

We didn't make it on the 10am bus, because it was full, when we got there! So we walked around the city a little bit, before catching the 11am shuttle.

Once at Kelly Tarlton's, we first looked at a replica hut of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, one of the earliest South Pole explorers. Scott and his crew did make it to the South Pole in 1912, a little after Roald Amundsen, but died with his four crew members on the journey back to base.
During the expedition, Scott wanted to make accurate records of geographical and zoological observations, so he carried a lot of instruments and photography equipment with him. The hut even has a dark room to develop the pictures!

After Scott's hut, visitors come up to a giant pool full of sting rays. The sting rays are clearly one of the main attractions at Kelly Tarlton's, and they were really impressive. Apparently, the biggest sting ray they have weighs 200 kg and has a wingspan of 2 meters!

Sting Ray (Wikipedia)

One woman was brave enough to touch a sting ray, when it poked its wing out of the water. She reported that it felt slimy.
Later, however, when an animal caretaker fed the sting rays and answered questions from the audience, she explained that the skin of sting rays is covered in acidic mucus that burns skin... I wonder if the "brave" woman ever felt "the burn".

After looking at the sting rays, Mohsen and I decided to take a ride with the "Snowcat" mobile. The snowcat is a small, red car that takes visitors through the penguin land. You can't leave the car, but we did get close to the penguins. They have both King and Gentoo penguins.

After visiting the penguins, we looked at the sharks. The sharks, as well as some sting rays, a turtle, and a whole lot of other small fish are contained in two big aquariums. Visitors can walk through them in a giqan glass tube. This gives the impression that you are really up close to the fish, as they swim past you above your head!

Finally, there was a large gift shop with mostly plush animals. I didn't get a plush animal, but I did get a post card of the King penguins.

But there are only so many fish you can see in one day... So we took the shuttle back to Auckland centre and decided to take the ferry to Devonport.

Devonport is a little harborside village on the North Shore peninsula that extends into Waitemata Harbour. It is popular with tourists for its many restaurants and shops. Also, there are two mountains, Mount Victoria (Takarunga) and the North Head (Maungauika). Mount Victoria is the highest vulcano on Auckland's North Shore, and there used to be a Maori "pa," or fort, on top of it. The North Head is also of volcanic origins. European settlers used it for military defense of the region. One can still see canons and guns on the mountain, or explore the old military tunnels.

Today, we only walked up the North Head. The view from the top is amazing; one can see Auckland and the harbor. Of course, by that time my camera was dead... so you just have to believe me when I say the view was great.

Maori Culture

This is a Koru, an unfurling fern that symbolizes new life (Wikipedia).

Today, we found ourselves in the middle of a small rainstorm. Marcel ran around in the lab, looking for old leaking windows (of which there are many), trying to stop the water coming in.

Also, my swipe card finally works. This means, I can get a cup of tea without asking other people for their swipe card, and I can come and go however I please.

Maori Lesson of the day:
Auckland was originally called "Tamaki makau rau," which means "maiden with 100 lovers" in Maori. "It was a place desired by all, fought over for the riches and beauty of its terrain," says my trusty guide book.

Also, I learned some Maori phrases today:

Kia ora = Welcome or Hi
Kei te pehea koe? = How are you?
Kei te pai ahau = I'm good
Me koe? = And you?
Hei kona = See you later

The pronounciation is similar to German - lucky me!

Today, about 15% of the 4.5 million Kiwis consider themselves Maori, but only a fourth of them speak the language. To improve this last ratio, New Zealand's schools teach "reo Maori," or the Maori language.

Maori Dance

I slept in really late today and decided to take a day off.
Later, I went to get some food (I had left nothing in my fridge, because I didn't want anything to spoil). I also stopped by the mall and took a stroll around.

I found the video I took of the Maori dance at the opening ceremony of the conference.
This is only a short clip (I didn't want to max out my memory card).
Also, there are many more better videos on YouTube ;)

The All Blacks, the New Zealand Rugby team, performs a Haka dance before every game (maybe they are trying to scare their opponents?)

Heading back to Auckland

This morning, I woke up and my cell phone was dead >_<
I forgot to bring the adapter (I had my charger, but obviously, that's useless without the piece that changes the American plug to a New Zealand one...)

I realized, though, that my camera also has a built-in clock - perfect!

I got to pack up the rest of my stuff in the dark. Then I left one of my German books at the hostel book exchange. Maybe someone else will enjoy it. I checked out (that took like two seconds - these hostel people are really efficient!) and made my way to my favorite bakery.

After breakfast, I took all my bags to the convention centre. I left my trolley and bagpack with the coat check people.

This morning's talks were really interesting! One of the girls from my lab talked about her FIV project. FIV stands for Feline Deficiency Virus (yes, cats can get aids, too).

I met up with Keysa and Chris during the coffee break; then I went to listen to more talks. This session had a lot of talks about "Molecular Anthropology." I had no clue what that even is, but I got to listen to a few interesting talks.
One girl, for example, explained how she analyzes the feathers in old Maori cloaks. She tries to find out where the feathers came from and tries to learn more about the travels of the Maori.
Another woman, my friend's mentor, explained how she analyzes ancient chicken, rat, and pig DNA to track the movements of the Lapita people through Oceania.
I did catch one talk that was a little more "computer science" oriented. The guy was talking about theories in phylogenetic diversity and he talked about some of the computational challenges he came upon. He looked at a lot of graph problems (different phylogenetic trees), including some NP-hard problems.

I skipped the last two talks in the second session and got an early lunch (no lines :P). My plane was scheduled to leave at 2:15, and I still needed to find the bus stop and get to the airport.

Finding the bus stop wasn't too hard, I just hadn't realized that it was so far away :P I got on the bus and it took us about 30 minutes to get to the Airport.

Again, the airport staff was really relaxed. I checked in and had an hour of free time to kill. Good thing they have all these candy and souvenir shops just for that purpose! There was also a book store (but books are really expensive here - little paperbacks cost 30 NZD!).

This time, I had booked a non-stop flight to Auckland. Everything went really easy, until we approached Auckland.
Of course it was raining in Auckland, and the last 20 minutes or so of the flight were pretty bumpy!

I grabbed my luggage and headed for the bus stop. It took me 1.5 hrs to get home because the bus driver drove through downtown Auckland (don't do it, I can't recommend it!).

More Indian food

Today, I got breakfast at the Danish bakery!
I got some kind of sticky apricot, raisin, custard bun, and tea, and it wasn't even expensive (5.50 NZD, that's less than the "continental breakfast")

Today, there were a few interesting sounding talks scheduled, and I stayed at the convention center all day.

For dinner, I met up with some friends from the conference. We went to an Indian place called "Two Fat Indians".

We didn't see any fat Indians, but the food was good :)
Afterwards, we went to "Dux de Lux," a restaurant with two bars attached. They brew their own Kiwi beer, but they also have a selection of New Zealand wine.
Of course, we ran into nice Evolution people here, too ;)

When I got back, I packed up my stuff, because my flight back to Auckland is scheduled for tomorrow!

Exploring Christchurch

Yummy breakfast at "base," then I went for a walk around sleepy little Christchurch :)

First, I walked to the Botanical Garden. It was early in the morning, so no one was around, except for the ducks!

Close to the garden is the Arts Centre, a collection of craft stores and cafes, all housed in the old buildings of the University of Canterbury (back then, Canterbury College). That's where Lord Rutherford went to college, the guy that figured out how to split the atom!
All the buildings are built in the neo-gothic style - very pretty!

I also walked past Christ's College, a prestigious all-boys high school. The buildings look very old and impressive, and there are daily tours across the campus for tourists.

Behind Christ's College lies Hagley Park, a large public park with a few golf courses.

After this little excursion, I went to the convention centre, ready to listen to some smart biologists ;)

During lunch break, I walked to the tram station to Cathedral Square.

The trams began operating in Christchurch around 1900. By the mid 50s, the tram stopped official operation, but there is still one tram going around the central city in a loop as a tourist attraction. For 12 NZD, one can ride the tram any time (get on, get off, as many times as you want) for two days (I think).

The conductor also told the passengers a little bit about the historic sites we rode by, and pointed out cafes or shopping opportunities.
The whole loop around the city only took about 30 minutes, so when I got off, I walked around on my own some more.

I also found a cute little Danish bakery - the cakes look delicious!

On my way back I ran into Keysa, a girl I had met at the hostel. We got some cookies at the conference and then went for a walk.

Keysa hadn't seen the Arts Centre or the Botanical Garden yet, so I took her on a quick tour.
We took the time to look at "Rutherford's Den," a little museum located in Rutherford's old Math/English lecture hall. We also saw the "den," where the young Rutherford had conducted his first Physics experiments, and learned a little bit about his time at the university.

After we shopped for some souvenirs, we went back to "base."

Later that night, we walked back to the convention centre for the "Carvery Meal" - free food and socializing :)
A crazy musician with a large afro sang and played the guitar. He was pretty good, but they turned up the volume too much - you couldn't comfortably talk anymore without shouting :((

On our way back, we stopped by a pub called "Bard on the Avon," which apparently is very popular with the local Kiwis. The place was packed, but it was warm :)

(The "Avon" is a river that winds its way through Christchurch - really quite beautiful, take a look at the pictures!)

This day turned into a "sight seeing day" instead of a "lecture day." But I am quite glad I went today, because the sun was out!

First day at the conference

Today was the first day of official talks.

Starting at 8:30 in the morning, most talks were 12 minutes long, allowing three minutes for questions. (Of course, most presenters talked for more than 12 minutes, so there was little time for questions... was that on purpose ;) ??)

Also, we got two coffee breaks, one from 10 till 10:30, and one from 3 till 3:30. Lunch was served between 12 and 1:30.

I have to say, the catering was very well organized and the food was delicious!
In the morning, we had scones and "mousetraps" (baked toast with cheese, vegetables, or pepperoni). For lunch, they served us Indian chicken and curry, rice, and a salad; for the second coffee break, we got little pieces of cake and biscotti.

The talks I went to were also pretty interesting! Most of them were biology talks about very specific subjects, and I couldn't quite follow all of them. I did take a whole lot of notes, and I have a list of terms I want to look up ;)

After the last talk (5 pm) I went for a little walk around Cathedral Square, which is the center of Christchurch. (Conveniently, my hostel is located right on the square!)

The cathedral on the square is a popular tourist attraction and the pride of all of Christchurch. Even though it was dark outside already, I heard some music inside, so I went to take a peek through the half-open door.
A few choir boys were walking towards the altar in the church - the congregation had just sat down for Sunday evening mass!

I quietly sat in the back and listened to parts of the sermon and some songs (all old hymns).
I only stayed for a little bit, because I had dinner plans with some of the girls from my hostel room. We went to a Thai place (there are so many Asian restaurants around here!) crowded with Evolution people.
The single waiter clearly hadn't expected so many customers on a Sunday night, and he could barely run fast enough to serve everyone ;) (at some point, he called for "reinforcements").

At 8:30, we went back to the conference center for the poster session. A few people I knew had prepared posters instead of talks. Now, they stood next to them, and answered questions about their projects.