Anyone who knows me will agree that, aside from my curtailing of traffic laws when on my bike, I am generally a law abiding citizen. I am especially cautious when I'm in an area where I am unfamiliar with local laws and regulations. So you can imagine how I felt when I made a mistake that landed me in the back of a New Zealand police car yesterday morning.
It all started last week when I arranged for a shuttle company to pick me up from a trail-head at 8:00am on the 29th so I could get back into town to catch my bus back to Auckland. Feeling confident about the arrangement with the shuttle company, I woke up at 5:30 and hiked down from the hut to the car park, arriving a little before 8:00. When 8:30 rolled around, I realized that I had made a mistake in not calling to double check the reservation the day before. Not wanting to wait around any longer, I headed out to the main road to hitch a ride back into town. It was still early in the morning and this was a rural road, so not many cars were passing through.
After several minutes of walking, I noticed what looked like a white sedan with some sort of roof-rack coming down the road. I stuck out my thumb and started to slowly walk backwards. As the car came closer, I noticed that the roof-rack was, in fact, police lights on a sedan version of the Go-Go Gadget Mobile that I've mentioned before. As soon as I noticed it was a police car, I immediately dropped my arm and started walking forward. I cringed as the car came closer and started to slow down next to me.
"Can I give you a ride somewhere?" the officer called out the window.
I stammered for a moment, wondering what sort of a sting operation this could be. Although I knew hitchhiking was common in New Zealand, I was not certain of the exact legalities surrounding the practice.
"Um, yeah, sure," I replied and jogged across the road. The police officer didn't bother to pull off to the side and was in fact parked right on top of the centerline, blocking both lanes of traffic. This, in addition to some innate instinct, caused me to rush and throw my pack in the back seat and then quickly sit down next to it. This put me sitting directly behind the officer instead of the more logical position in the passenger seat next to the driver. It wasn't until we were driving along that I realized how awkward my sitting in the back seat was for both myself and the officer.
While Officer "Joe" drove 35 minutes out of his way to drop me off in Turangi, we talked about the interesting agricultural history of the area and then about American politics. Officer Joe, along with many, many other New Zealanders believes in the 9/11 conspiracy; a conspiracy in which the American government planned and implemented the September 11th "terrorist" attacks itself and used the opportunity to wage war against pre-planned enemies as well as restrict civil liberties. I never know how to respond to this argument. It's just so far-fetched and in a lot of ways, disrespectful, that I can't even come up with a sound reasoning against it. So I politely listened to the officer and then did my best to assure him that, to my knowledge, the conspiracy was untrue.
When we arrived in Turangi, Officer Joe was kind enough to pull into a busy gas station to let me out. This gave me the opportunity to step out of the car with my pack and call back, "thanks for the ride, officer," loud enough for everyone to in the vicinity to hear.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
I'm Off to Ruapehu
I'll be tramping around in the Tongariro National Park for eight days starting tomorrow. I think I've mentioned my excitement about seeing active volcanoes in previous posts. I won't be updating for a while but in the meantime, I recommend keeping up to date with international news at the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
You should also check out this website about honey bees. You can make your own bee there. This is a picture of the bee I made.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Not Much of a Choice
I was helping my flatmate install the Firefox web browser on her computer the other day when I came across a situation that is really emblematic of the position that New Zealanders often find themselves in.
Somehow the website "knew" that we were in New Zealand and decided to give us an option for which version of Firefox we wanted to install. The two choices were:
-Firefox English (US)
-Firefox English (British)
I looked at the page for a second, trying to understand what it was asking and finally I said to my flatmate, "wow, it looks like you have to choose. Do you want the American version or the British version." She looked up at me and in a somewhat defeated voice complained, "but I don't want either." I looked at the page again and responded apologetically with, "I'm really sorry, but it doesn't look like you have a choice."
My flatmate thought for a minute and finally said, "I really don't want the American version, but I think it will be a lot better than the British version, so I guess I'll go with America." We clicked on the "Firefox English (US)" button and as we waited for it to download, we Googled how many McDonalds restaurants there were in the world. 32,000.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Look Both Ways or Die
New Zealanders are generally very friendly and courteous. They do have their qualms with Americans, but who doesn't. When driving or walking around the city, you rarely hear cars honking or people yelling at each other. But behind this cheery and courteous disposition, there is a bloodthirsty maniac just waiting to kill an innocent pedestrian.
It turns out that in New Zealand, pedestrians don't have the right-of-way when crossing a street or road. You wouldn't think it a big deal at first, but trust me, it's a big deal. Unless you are at an intersection with a pedestrian signal (which are not very common in Auckland), you put your life in your hands when you cross the street. Cars just don't stop for pedestrians.
There is a pretty busy street that runs through the center of the University campus. For most of the day, there is a steady stream of cars driving through at about 40mph. Every once in a while, there will be a couple seconds of gap when the traffic lights are timed just right. With something like 50 thousand students at the University, you can imagine that there would be a lot of people trying to cross the street between classes. The end result is lines of students standing on the centerline of the road with speeding cars shooting in front of and behind them. There are four lanes of traffic to deal with so it's almost impossible to make it all the way across without getting stuck between lanes.
Because I am on my bike, I rarely have to deal with this issue, but it's still terrifying to watch a single file line of 20 or 30 students standing in the center of the road with cars whizzing by them. Sometimes I cringe when I see two buses moving in opposite directions sandwich people at the centerline or when a car mirror clips a backpack.
Remember how I said that New Zealanders don't use their horns? Well that just makes things worse for pedestrians. In Boston or New York City, if someone is walking in the street, they will get honked at, but the car will still stop. Here, the cars will come out of nowhere with no warning. They won't honk so you can't tell if they can see you or not.
If I die in New Zealand, this is how it will happen. No falls from steep mountain cliffs, no bike accidents, no volcano related tragedies, none of that. I'm going to get hit by a bus while I'm on my way to class.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
TOXIC GASES MAY BUILD UP IN THE CRATER AT THE TOP
Toxic gases!
I'm planning a week long trip to the Tongariro National Park during the Easter holiday. One of the side trips will take me up to the crater of Mount Ngauruhoe, an active volcano. The New Zealand Department of Conservation website warns trampers to watch out for a build up of toxic gases in the crater.
Isn't that awesome? I'm sure it's safe, otherwise they would probably block off the trail. It's still a risk though- the coolest risk ever.
A cooler risk that I have heard about is the risk of being attacked by a bear while stuck in a bear cage. Someone told me a story about some guy that worked with bears somewhere in Canada who got stuck in a bear cage with a tranquilized bear that was supposed to be tagged and released. I guess the guy was alone and the only way he managed to survive was by cutting the bear's jugular with a pair of nail clippers.
Impressive, but let's see him do that while inhaling toxic gases from an active volcano.
Monday, March 10, 2008
VOLCANO!!!
I know I mentioned before that my flat sits on the side of an extinct volcano and that I have to walk over it every day to get to classes, but to be honest, unless I read that it was once an active volcano, I never would have know.
Mount Eden, on the other hand, is a real volcano-shaped, volcano-looking mountain. For the past couple of weeks, I have been attending the weekly, "Movies in the Park" series. Once a week, there is a free movie shown in the Mount Eden domain which is about 10 minutes from my flat. A few hundred people show up and watch some New Zealand themed film on a giant inflatable screen. The movie is shown at the base of a little extinct volcano and every week I wonder what the view is like from the top.
Last weekend, I finally took a couple of hours and hiked up to the summit. It was pretty impressive. From a viewpoint three quarters of the way up, you can see all of Auckland and then some. I finally understand how sprawling the city is and how close it is to water.
At the top, I was in for a pleasant surprise. As I approached to top of the mountain, the terrain started to level out and I noticed the edge of what looked to be some sort of indentation. The closer I got to the edge, the larger the indentation became. Finally, I was standing right at the edge looking down into a huge, deep volcanic crater. There were tons of tourists around, looking at the gaping dent with somewhat passive expressions, but I guess these people had seen real volcanos, or real extinct volcanos before. I hadn't, so I was amazed. I wanted badly to run down into the middle, but it probably would have been pretty tough to get out and signs were posted saying that the area was sacred and people weren't supposed to go into the crater.
It was pretty cool.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
My Bike
One of the first things that I did when I arrived in Auckland last month was look into buying a bike. I am by no means an avid cyclist, but while living in Boston for three years, I got into the habit of riding my bike everywhere. I rode so much that just walking down the street for ten minutes would make me want to whine about how much my feet hurt and how sore my knees were.
With campus a good 25 minute walk away from my flat, I knew that I had to find a bike and find one fast. Luckily, a quick google.co.nz search told me that the city's best used bike shop was directly across the road from me. I suffered the five minute walk to the shop and set to work putting together my bike.
The shop was tiny. It looked like it was supposed to be an unattached garage, but it didn't look quite big enough for a car. I soon found out, however, that the shop owner stores dozens of bikes and bike parts under porches and in basements of nearby houses. This is where I found the frame for my bike. It was the only frame that looked like it might fit me. It had some wear and an odd pain job, but it seemed sturdy enough. A couple of days later, I had assembled all of the parts and pieces and with some help, I put the bike together. It's a single-speed, but it seems to be working well given the steep, volcanic hills that I have to climb up and down every day.
The best part of the bike is it's attitude. It looked a little funky with the paint and the chopped handlebars, but it also has a political message. The previous owner was not a fan of President George Bush and chose to indicate this with a "ckuf Bush" sticker on the front fork. I agree with the sentiment, but probably would not have made my views so public of my own accord. It's nice though, letting my bike do my talking for me. It's as if my bike is my teenaged kid who expresses himself in ways I probably wouldn't.
My Helmet
After looking at that picture of my helmet, I know what you're asking yourself. Does the Rebel Alliance from Star Wars have some sort of X-Wing fighter training school in New Zealand?
The answer is, no, this badass helmet doesn't belong to the Rebel Alliance. It comes from the next best thing; the Italian cycling industry. I don't know how or when it ended up here in New Zealand, but I'm glad it did.
I also got this cool cycling hat that looks awesome with the brim flipped down or up.
**Update: Some guy at the physical therapy office complimented my hat today. At least I think he did, he talked really fast, pointed at my hat and gave me a thumbs up sign.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
So alone...
*** UPDATE
I found one. I'll stay in New Zealand.
I had a tiny pseudo panic-attack today when I went into several shops and wasn't able to find this particular type of notebook. I don't know why this is so disturbing to me, but it is. It wasn't until one shop manager told me that he'd never heard of such a thing and didn't think they existed that I really realized that I am on an island. A cold, gridpaper notebookless island, with no means of escape.
I guess I'll have to come home... or I could get a 7mm ruled hardcover notebook.
I'd better start looking at plane tickets.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Photos Now Online
All of the good pictures that I have taken/will take are now here:
I'll continue to post stories and pictures here though, so keep coming back.
Trevor
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