Tour 2, Day 2

New Zealand is AMAZING. Absolutely pristine and exquisite. It's not hard to see why they chose it as the location for shooting Lord of the Rings - it has an almost other-worldly beauty and looks untouched except for an unobtrusive 2-lane road that you're on. We've seen so many gorgeous things just from the bus, but also yesterday did an hour-long walk around Lake Matheson that was absolutely gorgeous, and this morning some of us did a 3-hour hike up to, around, and back down from a glacier. I had, as my mother likes to say, put on ALL of my clothes since most of what I have is geared more towards an Australian summer than a New Zealand autumn (winter - it is COLD here). At one point I was wearing a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, hooded sweatshirt, fleece and windbreaker, with a baseball cap and the hood of the sweatshirt tied over it. My hands and face were still cold, but at least my calves and feet were cozy from the huge woolen socks and thick heavy hiking boots they made us wear! One of my fellow tourists was kind enough to take a photo of me inside an ice cave and has promised to send it to me, so that was nice.

The people who didn't go on the hike did the heli-hike, which was a short helicopter ride up to a little further up on the glacier, an hour of wandering about, and then a helicopter ride down. I liked the full hike, even though my feet and ankles had taken a beating by the time I got back down to the bus. It's a unique environment in which a glacier lives peacefully alongside a temperate rainforest (read: BEAUTIFUL walk up - we walked through streams from waterfalls and wooded hillsides on either side of the glacier). I was also surprised to see moving water on the glacier, through cracks. Gorgeous.

Tomorrow's main activity will be hang gliding for me (other options are bungee jumping and sky diving and horseback riding - we're in Queenstown, adrenaline capital of the world where many crazy activities were invented).

Kangaroo Point!

Trivia answer: Unfortunately, Rachel, the answer is actually (a), but bonus points for the reasoning out! (Mmm, flecks of coal...) Manchester refers to the section of a department store (or Target, or whatever) that sells linen and towels and things. I learned this the hard way when I tried to buy a new shower curtain for the house and ended up giving the saleslady the look of blankness ;)

New trivia: What is the capital of Australia? (Bonus points if you can name which state/territory it's in!)

Sunday the book group had a barbecue. We were there for probably three hours and talked about the book for maybe 15 minutes, but it was all good fun. Meg and I walked there and then back to her house together, so she could lend me a blanket. March 1 marks the official beginning of fall here, and the weather has changed a bit. It's still hot during the day (well, as hot as it was this summer, which is to say, not so much - it was an extremely unusually cold and rainy summer, so they tell me) but really cool at night. So cool that with my windows closed and winter pajamas on, my sheet was not enough to keep me warm. So Meg lent me a heavy wool blanket and I have been sleeping like a champ!

The barbecue was at Kangaroo Point, which is one of the peninsulas formed naturally by the Brisbane River's winds and twists. I think it's almost directly across the river from the part of downtown where I work. There is also a fairly substantial cliff face (not exactly sure what from) in the park that is very popular with the rock climbers. I took a few photos down there, they're on the "Photos on Picasa" link to the right.

We've also had a couple of people interested in the room, and one came by last night. She's already friends with a few of Alex's friends (that's how she learned about the room - she just dropped in) so I have high hopes. After she finally left, I rounded up the kids and we took off for Ray's mom's restaurant where we had a full-on feast as a little going-away party for me. It was a good time. Here's a photo of us housemates (and Mark, who also happened by last night and got swept up in the group):

L-r: Mark, Mia, Alex, me, Ray, Dan.

Pizza, pie....

“Looking for fellow ex-pats to share a turkey sandwich with on Thursday,” my posting on gumtree.com.au said. Kay from Nebraska took the bait and we met up in her neighborhood of Bulimba, not for a turkey sandwich after all, but for pizza. It was delightful to share our memories and talk of our families’ traditions surrounding this most American, and least commercial, of holidays. Then we headed back to her house where her roommate Kendra, also from Nebraska, was making pumpkin pie – from a pumpkin! They don’t sell canned pumpkin here, so Kendra actually roasted a pumpkin, which no one here thinks much of because they eat it as a vegetable like that all the time! Who knew? Anyway, it was delicious and tasted exactly the same, so kudos to Kendra and her mad baking skills. It’s just not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. I did buy some potatoes today to make mashed potatoes though, which I have been craving for a few days now ;) I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings!

Oh, there’s so much to share! I had an eventful past couple of days. Let’s see… Kendra gave me a ride home Thursday night, which was a bizarre experience. I kept thinking cars were going to come right at us! I also sat in the front seat, left side, and it was weird not to have a steering wheel in front of me. Ernie, the American at work, said that you get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, but the weirdest thing is biking in the road because it seems like you never know where the cars are going to come from.

Speaking of transportation, I took a ferry for the first time yesterday. Let me back up for a minute. On Thursday, I was contacted by someone from a company with a connection to the law firm I’m working at, because my boss had suggested maybe I could pinch hit over there while one of their employees took a month-long holiday. So we made a plan for me to head over there Friday morning. As it’s based at the University of Queensland, which is across the Brisbane river to the west of me, I took a bus to the ferry and then it was just a quick 5-minute ferry ride down to UQ. On the way back, I just took the ferry right into “downtown,” which they call the CBD here (Central Business District, also known as “the city,” all other neighborhoods are called the suburbs). That second ride was half an hour and did not sit so well with me, but I can handle the ferry for five minutes. It was actually rather pleasant and peaceful. The river is not very wide, maybe half a mile. So I’ll be working at that company for about three weeks, starting Thursday. Both the company and the law firm are closed over the week from Christmas to New Year’s, so I’ll have to find some way of entertaining myself.

Speaking of holidays, yesterday, and entertaining myself… I went to a synagogue last night. It was definitely a very Orthodox service and I probably won’t be going back there, even though it’s right in the CBD and very convenient from work (well, for now). There is another synagogue in Coorparoo and a third one in Camp Hill, which are other “suburbs” nearby, so I’ll try those out.

It is raining right now. It rains really hard and with virtually no warning, for about half an hour and then stops completely. There is no wind so my windows have been wide open all this time and nothing has gotten wet. One of my housemates did have laundry outside that got soaked, though. You take your chances, I guess. The summer here is the rainy season, which is not what I expected. I expected warm, even hot, and sunny all the time and really it’s mostly hot, humid and overcast if not actually raining. But apparently March and April are good times to travel, so that’s good.

For Tom, who asked about the supermarket – I went again and paid a bit more attention, but yeah, it’s basically similar to a US supermarket. The one by my house is not as big as your average Safeway or Meijer, but it gets the job done. They don’t have weird things, at least not that I was paying attention to (I didn’t go looking for kangaroo meat, for example, though it might be there), but there are fewer things in general, just less of a selection. Fewer fruits and veggies – oh and apples are awful and mealy here, fyi. Mangoes are excellent, though, to make up for it. If I have an occasion to get to a supermarket elsewhere in the city I will let you know how it compares. The one by my house is a Coles, which is a chain, and they sell their own reusable bags for just $1, so I got two for lugging my groceries and probably one will follow me back home, which is fun because it says “Australia” on it.

Oh, and just to clarify, I called my 50-person office “small” because I was comparing it to the last place I worked, which had 200+ people. The new place has about 70 people.

One more thing about the water-saving: there are two buttons to push on the toilet, one for a half-flush, usually designated by a half-filled circle, and the other for a full flush. Use at your discretion. What a great way to save water!