Everyday Life

Everyday Life

O.K. it’s been 5 1/2 weeks so we are kind of getting a routine down….until I realize how much I have not figured out yet, like, how to make a long distance phone call; or that I need to plan shopping because most stores close at 5:30 on weekdays, 2 PM on Saturdays and aren’t open on Sundays; or the post office is not open on the weekend; or that I better figure out what’s for dinner before getting back from an outing at 7:30 PM because the grocery store closes at 8 PM on most days but 7 PM on Saturdays and Sundays and there are no Chipolte's, Tokyo Joe's or Noodles for dinner options; or that people don’t use dryers around here - do wash when it’s sunny out or it will hang in the house for a few days drying!  So here’s what we’ve learned and now it’s kind of becoming routine: 

Transportation 

Avoid driving if possible...my new wheels are a bike.  Look right before crossing stay on the left.  I do mutter to myself on the road....look right...stay left...look right...stay left.....

Kind of odd looking at a car and thinking twice about who is in the driver's seat. 

Wait - who's driving the car?

I need to take a double take on that one

No confusion about where to sit - just need to think a little harder while riding

Light switches

On is down, off is up.

It's on - is on down and off up because we are upside down?

Garbage

It's hard to get rid of garbage!  Trash is collected every other week and will only be collected in a specific green bag which cost $2 each.  People definitely create less trash here.  Glass goes out with the garbage.  Those bottles seem to stack up quicker than the garbage!  Recycles go out the opposite week.   

Two weeks worth - more trash or more empty bottles????

Work Breaks

One of the nice aspects of work is tea break at 10 AM and 3 PM.  It's like everyone just stops what they are doing, goes and gets a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate (mostly tea) and sits in the conference room chatting for 10-15 min.  Except for the guys who play some sort of cricket if it's not raining.  Tea, milk, sugar, hot chocolate, coffee all provide for free.  The instant hot water heater is the best.

The break room and conference room - temporary quarters because the building they were in was evaluated for earthquake risk and scored too low, so they moved out and are redoing offices right now.  Getting the break room set up must have been a priority.

Several types of tea and other hot drink choices.

Instant hot water for tea -- I LOVE THIS!

Work Fridge

I like the options.  

This speaks for itself.... 

Real Work

I am involved in a few projects so far.  The one taking most of my time right now is a feasibility study for replacing vault toilets with flush toilets at a site with no running water or electricity and lots of visitation....poo is the same here, measurements are different.  Metric was adopted, relatively recently, in the 1960s so sometimes measurements are in metric and other times imperial.

Front door of office (temporary office due to earthquake inspection of buildings) enter on the LEFT side.  Pass people in the hallway on the LEFT side.

New digs--looks kind of messy, makes me look busy..I haven't introduced my cubicle neighbors to food throwing over the wall or prarie-dogging...of course then I'll have to explain what a prarie dog is.

Tennis 

Never played on asphalt or astroturf before.  The net does not touch the ground so people pass the ball to each other rolling the ball under the net. 

The local courts

That's them...I can't find any other women who play...some men at work are nice enough to play with me...it ain't easy...I think the ball spins in the other direction.  It definitely spins ALOT!

I've filled in a few times for a league that plays in a town 25 min. from here. There's usually 3 men and 1 woman per team, they are all pretty darn good players here. 

Laundry
The house we are renting did not have a washing machine. We planned on going to the laudromat but at $4 a load for wash and $4 for 8 minutes of the dryer, we decided we didn't like that plan. Plan B was to buy a washer. I was all ready to buy a new one a few Saturday's ago but got to the appliance store after 2PM on Saturday and it was closed. Lucky for me because the following day, Sunday, Plan C went into action. A used one showed up on Trade Me...the local Craig's List. At 11 AM, I was high bidder at $3 until the last two minutes at 2:30 PM when the bidding war started. I defeated my opponent and was victorious in winning a $43 (US $38 or so) washing machine. I was on a mission. By 6:30 PM, mission completed, laundry was getting clean.

This machine makes me very happy!  Please give me more laundry to wash!

Inside dryer until a sunny day comes along...I'm paying much more attention to the weather forecasts now!

Cheers mates, until next time!

Weekend adventures

It has been a while since my last post because when we travel on the weekend we are completly unconnected from life, i.e. phones, email, internet etc....so no time to update you all on our outings. And during the week, well I am supposed to be here to work! 
Outing to the Glaciers

About 1.5 hours south of Hokitika are two glaciers, Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. 

Both are nestled in the Southern Alps, in the Westland National Park, surrounded by rain forest.  They are the worlds steepest and fastest flowing commercially guided glaciers. They are near Mt. Cook, the tallest moutian in New Zealand at 12,000 feet, and one of them is a twenty square mile snow field.  Over 100 feet of snow each year is added to the glaciers. That snow field has spawned a glacier which moves ten times the speed of normal glaciers. Fox Glacier plows forward at a rate of thirty feet per day. Due to its speed, it survives down to an altitude of 1,000 feet, where it grinds through rain forest. The bottom edge of the glaciers are only a few kilometers from the Tasman Sea.  It's really amazing......glacier, rain forest, ocean....how's that work?  We drove down there and took a hike to see the bottom edge of a glacier.

The glacier itself runs for nine miles. At its end, tourists can approach within 600 feet of its massive face.

Approaching Franz Josef Glacier

Surrounding landscape

Taking it in

In 2009, two tourists ignored the warning signs to get pictures closer to the glacier. They were crushed by a chunk of ice weighing over 100 tons. One of their bodies was found 6 miles downstream. The glacier can be very dangrous.

Flat ranger, one of their most effective safety signs, telling me to stop here. The full size ranger works in my office.  I haven't got to the nerve to ask him for a side by side photo with the real ranger yet.  I'm told this sign and fencing gets moved ever few days as the glacier moves. 

Outing to the Heaphy Hut

New Zealand has an extensive hut system which is turuly one of the most amazing ways to enjoy the country.There are huts everywhere that you can hike to and stay overnight.  It's like back packing without the need for carrying a tent and sleeping pad.  The region of the Dept. of Conservation has 160 huts in this region alone. There are several "Great Walks" - multiday hiking trails (called treks here) with huts along the way.  The Heaphy Trail is one of the great walks.  We went into the Heaphy Hut for a one night stay, just in and out from one end of the trail, although most of the people we met at the hut had hikes the trail from end to end. Our hike was 4.5 hours all along the coast, in and out of the edge of the rainforest.  The 4.5 hour walk gave me plenty of time to contemplate what I really, really did not need to put in my pack for the next tramp in the woods.  This hut is on a reservation system and accommodates 28 people.  The 10th Mountain huts in Colorado are the things that remind me most of these huts.  Most of the huts are first come first serve so we’ll have to start early in the day to make sure we get a roof over our head!

Karamea - the town at the end of the road before the Heaphy Trek - Lea fits right in!

The start of the Trek - says it's 5 hours to the hut




One of several swing bridges on the trek - max capacity 5 people...are they considering that extra dam person on my BACK



The tramp (trail - not the people)




More Tramping

And more

And more.......

Also went through the bush (forest)

The HUT!  This one is sized for 28 people..kind of tight quarters...listened to snoring choruses most of the night.  This hut is being replaced shortly, it's one of Tom's projects.  It won't have much more capacity but will have more floor space.


Back of the hut, view from the toilets.



The toilets!  Yes, they are flush toilets.  Unbelievable.  Everything at the hut is serviced by helicopter.  DOC owns and manages the huts, it's a big part of their operations.

 

One of the things I don't like about New Zealand are the sand fies.  I now know where the term "little bugger" has come from.  They are mean blood suckers but fortunately were only at the trailhead at the start of the hut and around the hut at night.  This is me in sand fly protection gear.  They weren't going to get me tonight.  They aren't bad at the ocean front with a nice breeze either so I was a little over protected for this outing.

Father -daughter contemplation ---- "What a nice mom you have Lea"  :)

A new friend on the trail - he didn't mind if I am a slow hiker.

Surfing and Seals

After our second day of 4.5 hours of hiking, we found a comfortable motel to stay in for the night and rest our feet.  The next day we found a beautiful swimming beach where Greg and Lea took a surfing lesson and I enjoyed swimming in the ocean.The beach was a perfect location to learn to surf because it had constant waves and gradualy got deeper.  Lots of perfect waves!  It's definitely more comfortable swimming in a shorty or wet suit. 

Greg, Lea and the instructor - rented full wet suits and big floaty boards - they both got up

My company on the beach

Surfs up dude (and dudette)

Hang Ten

 The beach is close to a Seal Colony - the babies were born about 1 month ago


At first it was hard to see the seals but then as you got used to spotting them there were several mommas and babies.  There's one in the middle of this photo to the right of the white thing, just above the grass.

Friday Night Happenings in Hokitika

We'll have to compare the most popular two locations but we hear the best fish and chips are at Dulcies.

Take away Friday night meal - Fish and Chips

Back "Home" and fun around Hokitika

We had to move out of the house this week for two nights because the house had been previously rented for a big event here, the Coast to Coast race.  Crazy fit people kayak, bike and run from Hokitika to Christchurch in either one or two days.   Competitors cycle 140 kms (three stages of 55km, 15 km and 70 km), run 36 km (including a 33 km mountain stage that crosses the Southern Alps) and kayak 67kms of the grade two Waimakariri River through the Grand Canyon of New Zealand, the Waimakariri Gorge.  Top competitors take ten and three quarter hours to cover the 243kms while the slowest time ever recorded was twenty-four and a half hours.

There wasn't much to see since they start real early but there were a lot of cars in town with long skinny kayaks on top. 

Anyway we are back "home" now and settling in. 

We've had time last weekend to explore the area a little.  Greg and Lea went to see the Crusaders play rugby.  The Crusaders are a part of New Zealand regional league.  We've got to figure out the rules for that since it's THE big sport around here.  New Zealand hosted the world cup tournament last year and the home team the All Blacks won.  Some players from the All Blacks were on the Crusaders team.

Really?  What are they doing?



A couple of weekends ago Hokitika sponsored a driftwood sculpture competition....people were really creative.  We walk by these on our beach walks. 

Mooooo

We also were shown this awesome swimming hole on a near by river.  Me Jane you Tarzan.  I didn't have the nerve to do the swing rope but did jump in from the tree.  Quite refreshing!

There's (my) Tarzan swinging into the river in a colorful bathing suit! 

Monday February 6, was a national holiday, Waitangi Day.  The holiday marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. In that year, representatives of the British Crown and over 500 Maori chiefs signed what is New Zealand’s founding document.  There were no special events like fireworks around but it did mean an extra day off so we drove north to Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks and beautiful coast line.  At certain tides, winds and currents there are holes and spaces in the rocky formations on the coast that create blow holes or huge spouting of water.  We didn't see that this time but it was awesome.  One interesting event (interesting for us anyway) was that someone had fallen on the rocks nearby and hurt himself bad enough that he couldn't hike out and needed medical attention.  Someone called the emergency number (like 911) and a helicopter came to resue the man and bring him to the hospital.  There is a lot of helicopter traffic around here, I guess it's the easiest way to get access. 

Figuring out the traffic signs.  Unfortunately didn't see any of these critters.

All in a day's work

Second day of work I was able to accompany two different co-workers on site visits.  The first site visit was done to perform a soil investigation to classify soil for a toilet building foundation design.  Second site visit was to grab topsoil samples for lab testing to determine the characteristics of the topsoil to finalize the replanting spec section of a contract to construct a parking lot at a trailhead.  Third site visit was to do a final inspection of a pedistrian suspension bridge.  The first two sites could be accessed by car, through beautiful mountainous terrain with tropical vegetation.  The last site required a 3 mile walk along the coast on the way out and then a hike back on the terrace because the tide had come in and we couldn't walk back along the coast.

Lake at Campground getting new toilet building
somewhere south of Hokitika

Vault toilet to be replaced - new drainfield going in near here.  Just cut the bush (forest) down, test the soils for perc and put it in.  The roots are not very deep.  There are no open spaces to locate a drainfield here.

Extend the vent stack above tree height!

S

Cute excavator (the equipment :)) small and easy to transport on a trailer

Suspension Bridge across Okarito lagoon, the mouth of the lagoon was closed off to the river today becasue of sand deposition.  With some rougher water on the Tasman Sea the deposits will shift and the lagoon will flow freely into/out of the sea.  Looks a little stagnant in this photo.  It was decided to leave the old bridge piers in place for historic and safety reasons. They didn't want cut off piers just below water level incase people jump in.  It was load tested before I crossed!

In-house design by structural engineer.  It's interesting that the only discipline that is kept as in-house design is structural engineering due to laibility issues.  All other design diciplines are done by consulting firms.  The structural engineers working for DOC are highly regarded in the country as being experts in their field.

View of the Tasman Sea on the hike back along the terrace.