Radio NZ

I have reason to believe that the whole of New Zealand radio and even bar music exists on one continuous loop of the same few songs.

New Zealand's soundtrack:

Heart of Gold
Romeo and Juliet (that new Taylor Swift song)
The New Jason Mraz song where it sounds like he's saying "Well you've done dung" etc.
Somebody to Love by Queen
Always on my Mind by Tiki Tane
Bohemian Rhaspody
...and that pretty well accounts for it.

Perhaps you can tell, but I've been road tripping as of late on the North Island (updates to follow within the next few days...before I actually leave this country), and we've been listening to a lot of radio. There is typically only one station that that comes in half way. Fortunately, we're in Wellington now, though, and we get I think three stations--yay!

Comparison

Samantha Russell
International Studies
April, 2009
NZ-US Comparison



The United States through a Funhouse Mirror
(subtitled Samantha rambles semi coherently for far too long)



Life in New Zealand, at first glance, isn’t all too different from life in the United States—everyone speaks English, the building structures are familiar, and heck, even some of the fauna is familiar—house sparrows, starlings, black birds, rabbits, etc. However, upon further examination, one finds that New Zealand is more like a parallel universe version of the United States. Yes, everyone speaks English, but one still has trouble understanding what is being said. Yes the buildings look the same, but the floors are numbered differently, and often the doorknob isn’t where it should be, and don’t even get me started on driving habits! In the following paper, I will address and compare two important aspects of life between New Zealand and the United States; transportation and food.
I know I alluded to the fact that I may rant on and on about what scary drivers New Zealanders are, however, I do not intend this to be the focal point of my comparison—there exist some pretty reckless drivers in the United States as well. I will address public transport, self-propelled transport, and, as automobiles.
Christchurch, much unlike Stevens Point, or really, the majority of the United States has a fantastic intra-city network of transportation. It is easy to travel from the outskirts of town to the city centre, and relatively easy to find one’s way back home. Perhaps this has something to do with the size of Christchurch, however, even with the limited bus service of Stevens Point, such ease of transport is unheard of. The service along with the people one typically travels with, I’ve been told by Philip Catton, has become a bit, as the kiwis say, dodgey, however, whenever I’ve been “commuting” I have found that my fellow bus goers, regardless of their state of sobriety, have been polite and respectful on the bus. Everyone, from the school children in the mornings to the sketchy drunk men on the last bus towards my home, never fails to thank the bus driver with a, “Ta,” “Cheers, mate,” or even a plain old “Thank you, driver,” before stepping off of the bus. I have my doubts that this would happen anywhere in the United States, not even in the Ashland/Washburn county B.A.R.T (Bay Area Rural Transport) system.
Even more impressive, is that it is incredibly easy for one to travel between cities via bus. On the news, I’ve heard tell of many busses regularly making rounds from Picton all the way down to Invercargill. I’ve even personally used transport between Christchurch and Akoroa. While these services are offered by private corporations and are a bit more expensive than the city bus, the pricing is still reasonable and highly encourages many to refrain from renting individual vehicles and instead use mass transit. Though the services, I am sure, are geared more towards the touristy set, the “locals” use the service as well. While en route to Akoroa, I met a young girl—roughly aged nine—who was explaining to me that she uses this shuttle every other weekend to visit her father, who lives quite a ways away. Reliable, easily accessible, inter-city transport would be an asset to Wisconsin as well as to the United States.
As a result of green-washing, I was under the impression that Christchurch would be far more bicycle friendly than it is. It is easy to bike in Christchurch, don’t get me wrong, it is a flat city with plenty of sidewalks and not-so-busy roads that will get me where I need to go. However, there are bike lanes. Initially, this seems like a fantastic idea! Save the pedestrians by getting the cyclists off the sidewalk and giving them their own lane. Initially, I loved this idea. However, not long after I began biking around Christchurch were my dreams dashed to pieces. It is alarming, and frankly dangerous, to be biking along and to be passed by a semi-truck full of cows or other similar livestock. My balance was disrupted and I was a bit disoriented by the noise and suddenness of it all. Bad things could have happened. The bike lanes in Christchurch are often flanked on either side by traffic lanes. This makes biking neither an appealing option nor a safe one. In the United States, and in Stevens Point especially, concessions are slowly being made to the cyclists, though other places are less fortunate. It would be prudent to learn from the alarming nature of Christchurch’s biking lanes, and design other places to be more cyclist friendly.
Cars, I’m sure grudgingly, are a popular mode of transportation in New Zealand. However, the busy streets, aside from behemoth semi-trucks, are packed mostly with small, fuel-efficient cars—not the gigantic, monstrous, ill-used trucks and sport-utility-vehicles that are so common on American roadways. Even more surprising about these vehicles is the awareness they have of those travelling outside of metal boxes around them. Motorists in New Zealand actually observe cross walks here, and will go to great lengths to actually stop and wait for pedestrians to cross through them. In the United States it would seem that cross walks are more zones where pedestrians can cross, and in the case of an accident, can legitimately sue the motorist.
Food is a highly important thing for people in both New Zealand and the United States. I was and am still happy to sample the differences between what passes as what between the two cultures. The largest differences I have found can be categorized into beverages, availability of unique products, and restaurants.
Tea is the hot drink of choice it would seem, from herbal tea (pronounce the h) to stand old gumboot tea. The affection of New Zealanders to this beverage accounts for a great deal of money spent on tooth whitening products, I am sure. Unfortunately, the love of such leaf based brews leaves New Zealanders a bit blind to the American hot drink of choice—coffee. Coffee in this country is simply awful. It amounts to something similar to what one would find running in sewers with some frothed milk on top. There is however one endemic beverage that, if it isn’t horrible, at least I’ve grown accustomed to. That is, the flat white. The flat white initially looks and sounds like an average latte. However, it would seem that in order to make it what it is, the milk must be burnt or scalded until it is very nearly crispy and the espresso shot(s) must be made from old grounds in a poorly packed filter. Hot Dog!
Milk, an important addition to both coffee and tea, is something of question here. While New Zealand is quickly becoming the dairy source of Oceania, the concept of freshness seems to be beyond New Zealanders. Milk here, instead of being pasteurized and served practically out of the teat like in Wisconsin, is rendered to milk powder and then reconstituted for sale domestically and abroad. This leads to such shocking sights as milk being stored in grocery stores as a dry good, or finding milk in the pantry in one’s home. This also leads to an indescribable, awful taste to the milk. It is like one is drinking abominations of the industrial revolution. Other differences of note in the beverage sector include that sprite here is called lemonade and sodas don’t taste only like high-fructose corn syrup—something manufacturers in the United States ought to take note of.
Lamb, kumara, and feijoas are common ingredients in everyday dinners in New Zealand. The availability and expenses involved with these products make the consumption of such goods in many parts of the United States at best impractical and at worst impossible. Prices of lamb at the right time of year, in New Zealand, can be cheaper than any turkey or chicken products—meats that are typically fairly cheap in the United States. Given the volume of sheep in this country, this is not surprising. Kumara, a sweet potato introduced by Maori settlers, is also a very popular addition to a hearty autumn’s meal, either as a mash, a soup, or just roasted. It most certainly would fill the niche of the American yam. Feijoa is just coming into season now, so it is a recent addition to my dietary repertoire. Feijoa is a semi-tropical fruit that one eats plain by cutting it in half and scooping out the innards, by eating it minced on ice cream, or by brewing it into a tea. It has quite a musky taste, and I can think of nothing to compare it to. Also of note is the ease of which one can access good, bad, or mediocre Indian food in this country. This is probably a result of a higher Indian population than occurs in much of the United States. Frankly, after trying butter chicken, and other fantastic curries, this is tragic.
-Restauraunts and tips


Works Referenced


Butler, Sue. New Zealand - Culture Smart! a quick guide to customs and etiquette (Culture Smart!). London: Kuperard, 2006.

Gone to Gondwanaland. 25 Apr. 2009 .

Heavenly Creatures. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. DVD. 1994.

Sione's Wedding. Dir. Christ Grahm. Perf. Oscar Kightley and Iaheto Ah Hi. DVD. 2006.

Thompson, Christina. Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All A New Zealand Story. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2008.

Wolfe, Richard. “The People’s Bird.” New Zealand Geographic. Jan/March 2000. Vol. 45. p. 12-21.

Racism and Name Changes

In New Zealand, there as been discussion recently of changing the name of the North Island from "The North Island" to "Te Ika a Maui" or, “the fish of Maui”, based on the Maori myth that the island was formed by Maui’s (a god) gigantic catch. The South Island will no longer be refered to as The South Island either, rather "Te Wai Pounamu"--the land of the greenstone, a sacred jade-y looking rock. Frankly, I think that the Maori names are much more charismatic than North Island and South Island, though they are a bit more laborious to type and say. I also don't think that anyone loses any skin off of their noses for the change, and that those who like North Island and South Island would be able to continue to refer to the islands as such without any reprecussions.

However, there is a girl I know, for anonymity's sake, we'll call her "Pamantha." Pam is living with a fairly conservative familiy presently and they have no soft spots for the Maori (or African Americans--definately not Obama fans, or homosexuals--that Tamati Coffey won NZ Dancing with the Stars last night was a tragedy on a number of accounts). Pam heard them talking this evening and was shocked at what she heard. Apparently, the name change is insulting to the English, who saved the Maori from eating eachother and destroying any sembelance of civilization on the islands. A visitor to Pam's dwelling even went so far as to say, "When will it fucking stop?" meaning that the Maori have gone too far with changing the official names of things to be more traditional (think Mt.Cook=Aoraki etc). Apparently, also the Maori are conspiring to take the land by naming it in their language and apparently, the implications of an indigenous people actually having some control of the land that has been colonized, is quite scarey.

I know that it is easy for me to be shocked and a bit judgemental about other's attitudes--I am an outsider myself after all, and cannot possibly have an understanding of the intricacies of Pakeha/Maori tensions. However, shocked I am. I always find racism shocking and am always surprised when it rears its ugly head--especially among people that I consider reasonably well educated and "urban"--rather than some back country red-neck who's never been more than 25 miles from home. But there it is, friends. No place is free from the evils of this world.

Heavenly Bodies

"Samantha? Is that you up there?" Philip (one of the Ethics professors) called up the stairs at 4:30 on morning, just after I had registered for classes at point. I ventured into the damp, frigid night in my pajmas (pardon, we're metric here...pyjamas) and bare feet to look through Philip's telescope. This morning provided a fantastic view of Jupiter and four of its moons, as well as a view of Neptune, myriad nebulae, and a neat look at the moon. It was a good night.

When the schist hits the fan

The sounds of Kea and bitty little Tomtits filled the air as my group--a mix of four other co-travelers and myriad Europeans--climbed through the rainforest. When I say climbed, I mean climbed. We forded glacial fed rivers, we climbed up water falls, and we scuttled as quick as we could through rock slide areas where we were most strongly advised to grab the chain "railing" with both hands. At long last, we reached a bed of schist. We were handed Alpine stocks and told to get our crampons on. After a quick briefing, up the ice stairs we went and there we were; on the Fox Glacier.

Our guide (an Australian of course--because there aren't any actual Native New Zealanders in this country), was an old hand and happy to show us all sorts of wonders--moulins crevasses, tunnels, ice caves--you name it, we saw it. We also had the privilage of hiking through an older crevasse and the option to throw rocks into cracks to see how long it took to hear them hit something. I was struck by the most brilliant, fantastic blues that I have ever seen and was only sure that death was immenent once--we had less than a foot wide of a trail to walk on and if we fell or slipped, down into a crevasse we would have gone. It turns out that dying on a glacier is not in my top ways to go list--at least with bungee jumping or skydiving, it's one hit and lights out. On a glacier, you slip, are likely paralyzed somehow, and stuck in the dark and cold for a couple of days until you finally wink out--I'd rather be attacked by a shark.

It got a little cold and uncomfortable when it poured buckets for half an hour--fortunately the guide company provided rain gear and I remained reasonably dry but for my feet.

It was fantastically bizzare to see the rainforest through glacial crests, but awesomely beautiful at the same time. The hike back was a little rough as by that time my muscles were putting up quite a fuss for all of the rigamorole that I put them through, but we managed and lived to see another day.

Rainforest to Glacier

On this day, we took an optional hike to the Franz-Josef glacier where we met up with two UWSP grads (Tina and Ian) who managed to score some sweet temporary jobs with the Department of Conservation (something for me to consider in my near future).

That the road to where we were going had been washed out and was only recently re-opened should have been taken as a sign--not a bad sign, just a sign. The hike was a prime example of a game some co-travelers and I have dubbed "not a trail." IT was fantastic! We went ankle deep in mud, climbed some water falls, forded a few icy rivers of glacial melt, and had to hop, skip, and jump our way across some deeper sections of trail. I hadn't expected the hike to involve so much climbing, either. Well, I suppose if we're going to be technical, it was bouldering. I loved every damp, muddy, bruising second of it! All of it was through a temperate rainforest with the pleasant sounds of bell birds and tomtits all around.

We had lunch on the trail infront of a small lake that majestically reflected the mountains and the glacier and then proceeded to climb what I'm pretty sure may be the world's longest hill at a most uncomfortable gradient.
Because Tina is considered a guide, she was able to read conditions and safely take us right up to the face of the glacier, where we took a few group shots and generally had a grand ol' time--after more extreme hiking of course.

Afterwards, Dr. J treated us to a lovely pizza dinner and festivies and good times were had by all.

I've given up on posting pictures--my apologies. Facebook albums will have to suffice.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=75173&id=500764078&l=c93257275d

West Coast Rules

I found my way into Hari Hari's school gymnasium just sdown the raod. I was greeted by a mixture of my co-travelers and the locals--a thick-necked, blunt faced, large handed rugby player' a squirrely little sheephand; a woman who brought her three week old son (Oliver) with her, and myriad other kiwis. I was glad to find that I was not out of place in my union suit, a pair of denim shorts (because my posterior button is missing), chacos, and a stocking cap to keep my hair out of my eyes.
Backetball in this country is much more physicall than basketball in the States. NOt to pretend that I have anything but the most rudimentary understanding of basketball in the US, but I had an even harder time this evening figuring out what was going on. I loved it. It ended with a Speights in the schools gym, and though we lost, we have another shot at it on Monday.

Photos from the Rematch-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=75176&id=500764078&l=b8385d023d

Hari Hari

Presently, I have found myself at UC’s field station at Hari Hari on the west coast of the south island. The drive over was long, but gorgeous. We're here as the last stretch of our Environmental Ethics course. As always, it's lovely to get out of Christchurch and I do enjoy field stations. Three days in and this trip is FAR less emotionally charged than our last trek to a fieldstation. We have four more days though, so it's anyone's guess.
To get here we drove through the mountains and saw a lot of bridges that wouldn't count as bridges in the US. One in particular was a long one lane bridge over a braided river that was also a train bridge. Eeek! We also shared the road for a time with a cattle drive. We spent most of the 4+ hour journey singing to songs that nobody quite knew all of the words to. Favorites were "Walking in Memphis" and Third Eye Blind's (and one of my personal favorites) "Semi-Charmed Life."
Yesterday we went on a hike. The trail, technically, was closed because a good portion of it kind of fell into the sea. However, we followed the white-baiter's bushwacked trail and eventually met up with the main trail. It was good to get out and move some and it was pretty cool with the ocean on one side of me and Mt. Cook (Aoraki) and Mt. Tasman to the other side. I did get a sweet picture of a fantall, too. We spent what seemed like forever picking our way through boulders that weren't really a trail as the tide rose. We then walked across a moonscape, found quicksand, and re-wrote all of the songs that we could think of that contained the word, "girl" to have the word, "squirrel." It was a good hike.

Today it rained. It rained a lot. It stopped for a while and now it's raining again. Bucket loads of rain. Pouring raing. Rainy rain. I love it. I've missed rain. I can't wait for summer thunderstorms!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73998&id=500764078&l=1bf8bc1887

In addition, Philip brought his HUGE telescope and showed us Saturn and myriad nebulas. It was pretty sweet. Also, on Spaghetti night, Jane thought to push some tables together, through a table cloth on, and pick wildflowers and stick them in a vase. It was really nice.

Easter

Easter away from home wasn’t quite as heartbreaking as I had expected. Sue left me with a chocolate bunny before she went to Australia, but I was mostly alone. Fortunately, my co-travelers were in a similar boat. We opted to make fried rice together and attempt to do homework. We also enjoyed fried bananas on hokey pokey ice cream. Overall it was nothing like the egg rolling or ham eating of previous Easters, but it was a good, honest celebration of spring in the Northern Hemisphere…and zombies.

Tour of Christchurch

At long last, I found myself able to take a tourist day in Christchurch. I met up with Lisa and, less excited about our original intentions of becoming pierced and tattooed, we set out for adventures. We made our way to Cathedral square where we noticed an aquarium that he hadn’t yet been too—incidentally, had I not been stuck in school, I would have had ample time to volunteer there as well, as it is run by the same folks who run Orana. We saw sharks being fed, some cod, a native frog (Hamilton’s?), a kiwi, and some wicked freaky eels.

Next up was a ride on the tram. A 25 minute guided tour around the city with stops at attractions that were closed for the day, or we had already been to. It was good. We learned that Colombo is the longest street in Christchurch AND the capital of Sri Lanka. I don't think that the tram driver loved his job.

Lisa had coupons to canoe on the Avon River, so we thought we'd try that. Unfortunately, the place was closed by the time we got there. So was the Brewery--it was Easter Monday though.

We ended the day at Dux De Lux with a plate of Nachos. It was a lovely afternoon in the sun.

I apologize for the bizzare hodge-podge of pictures at the beginning. Something isn't quite right in my editing and my computer is reading the images as numbers, instead of images. They are still published as images, I just can't see them to arrange them attractively.

Contentment on a Seaseme Seed Bun (or, I suppose, if I must, "Cheeseburger in Paradise--and I don't mean Michigan")

Today was a grey, rainy, autumn day and I found myself lacking something as I waited in the drizzle for my bus at the Riccarton mall. I meditated a bit in my disconent and came to the conclusion that a cheeseburger would be most fantastic right at that moment. Immediately after that thought came the realization that I was just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Golden Arches--yes, that's right, McDonald's rose behind me in all of it's red-tiled glory. And friends, I gave into temptation. I had another six minutes before my bus arrived, and they do call it fast food for a reason. I went over and sold my soul for a quarterpounder with cheese. While I was asked, "Do you want cheese with that?" (Incidentally, yes, yes I did), moments later, I skipped through the door and back into the drizzle to munch away my dissatisfaction.

I do not typically like fast food. Really, that I had egg mcmuffins this past winter on a couple of occasions is odd and a product of necissity (and perhaps, a lack of initiative on my part). In the past, I have actually felt ill after eating McDonalds (and Burger King, and sometimes Hardees, though a chili burger was nice after SCUBA). This time though, it was wonderful. The bun was lightly crisped and not at all soggy like I was expecting, the onions weren't to excess, and the ketchup was good ol' american ketchup, not this fruity watered down weird-o tomato sauce that I've come to expect with my chips.

Since eating that heavenly wad of grease, I think that I've developed at least 16 new zits, but it is worth it. It doesn't need to be repeated, that experience, but at that moment I experienced nothing but pure joy in ingesting Ronald McD's finest. A memory that I shall savor.

Native Frogs

Samantha Russell
Field Biology
New Zealand Conservation Issues
April, 2009


New Zealand’s Frogs are Croakin’!
(which is ironic, because native frogs don’t actually vocalize)

“When pesticides, agrochemicals and heavy metals find their way into ponds, streams and lakes, bad things happen to frogs,” said one article in New Zealand Geographic. New Zealand is no exception to this claim, and adds that bad things happen to frogs when new predators and new parasitic fungi are introduced, as well as when habitats are lost.
Native New Zealand frogs, like the much of New Zealand's fauna, are a bit different from their amphibious counterparts throughout the rest of the world. New Zealand's frogs don't have a tadpole stage--that is to say that they hatch as fully formed little froglettes--and are incubated and cared for, briefly, by their father. New Zealand frogs also don't have webbed feet--convenient as they don't require standing water or really much water at all to reproduce--nor do they croak which is convenient as they lack an external eardrum as well. These are all things that link New Zealand's frogs more closely to Jurassic era frogs; another remnant of New Zealand's Gondwanaland connection. Fossil records indicate that they have changed little over the past 150 million years.
Prior to any human colonizing New Zealand, fossil records show that there were seven species of frog; spread throughout the North and South Islands. However, presently, there are only four species of native frog, three of which are at a critical risk of extinction. As alluded to above, New Zealand native frogs are threatened by non-native fauna, pollution, habitat loss, and an introduced fungus; Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Chytrid).
There are two main sources of competition from animals introduced to New Zealand; the Kiori (Rattus exulans Peale) and the Eastern Banjo Frog.
New Zealand frogs evolved in conditions without any mammalian predators. That is to say, the frogs developed in an environment where their main predators were birds that hunted by sight. Therefore as a primary defense, New Zealand frogs simply freeze when threatened. The introduction of rats, and later other mammalian predators like weasels, stoats, and ferrets, sharply reduced frog populations. The frogs hadn’t developed evasive techniques or even defensive poisons to defend against these new predators and the consequences were tragic.
However, currently there is some research being done to determine whether or not mice pose a threat to New Zealand’s frogs. Maud Island Frogs were found to have successfully bred on the North Island and a comparative study of population survival is being carried out. If mice are found to not be a threat, a wide variety of new land will become available for potential frog introduction projects.
The Eastern Banjo frog introduced from Eastern Australia also poses a threat to New Zealand’s native frogs. The Eastern Banjo frog competes with native frogs for food and habitat, and has even been known to eat the smaller, native frogs.
Pollution is another huge threat to New Zealand’s native frogs. Because of the duality of an amphibian’s life (being that they thrive on both land and water) and because amphibians absorb much of the world around them through their skin, they are especially vulnerable to toxins. Runoff from agricultural centers, roadways, home yards, parking lots, etc carries poisons to the frogs where they are internalized and deformities occur. These deformities not only weaken the already dwindling gene pool of the frogs, but also reduce the number of frogs able to contribute to that gene pool. Runoff isn’t the only source of toxins that affect the frogs—all forms and types of pollution occurring in New Zealand, and globally, trickle down to affect frogs.
Habitat Loss is another issue that affects New Zealand’s native frogs. The frogs once were found throughout the damp forests of New Zealand. However, as Maori and Pakeha alike have altered the landscape in geologically recent times through burning, building, and conversion to sheep friendly land, the forests have dwindled as have the frogs.
The issues of global climate change are also affecting frog habitats, according to a New Zealand Geographic article. Much of New Zealand’s forests occur in and around alpine zones. As the world warms, alpine regions also warm, and are moved to higher elevations and are thusly reduced in size. This limits native frogs’ habitable regions.

Sign at Orana Park by S. Russell

According to Bruce Waldman and Julian Motha, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Chytrid is a fungus that infects keratinized (for example, the epidermis) tissues of the host. Most types of Chytrid are not known to infect vertebrates, so it is unusual and a bit alarming that it has been found in frogs. Waldman and Motha say that, “Many consider Chytridiomycosis a new emerging infectious disease that may be driving global amphibian decline and species extinctions.” They also mention in their article that something may be affecting amphibians globally that is reducing their ability to fight off previously manageable pathogens.
Chytrid is thought to have entered New Zealand through the pet trade—non-native tadpoles carrying the fungus may have been released and transmitted the fungus to the native population Other possible transmitters of the disease include on the boots, field gear, fishing equipment, boats, etc. Waterfowl have also been cited as potential transmitters.
Further investigations into the transmission, causes, and effects of Chytrid are currently being done throughout New Zealand, with quite a bit going on at University of Canterbury.
Presently, the exact numbers of all four species of frog are unknown—it’s awfully hard to do a frog census, when no one is croaking. However, two species (Archey’s frog and Hamilton’s frog) are listed as New Zealand Nationally Critical, the Maud Island frog is Nationally Endangered, and Hochsetter’s frog is listed as at risk. Archey’s frog is listed as a number one conservation priority by the international Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered program due to its genetic distinctiveness. New Zealand’s Department of Conservation suggests that individuals can help preserve frogs by reporting any sightings of native frogs, photographing them if at all possible, and recording the type of habitat, time, and date that the frog was sighted in. The DOC also implores individuals to avoid touching the frogs. These actions taken to help generate more information about the frogs, along with efforts to curtail pollution, carbon output, habitat encroachment and the spread of non-native predators can help to preserve and protect these highly unique remnants of Gondwanaland.


















Works Cited

“DOC’s Work with Frogs.” http://www.dog.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/reptiles-and-frogs/frogs/. 4 April 2009.

Hansford, Dave. The New Zealand Listener. “A Great Leap Forward?” November 2006.

Hansford, Dave. New Zealand Geographic. “Two degrees from Oblivion.” Sep/Oct 2008.

“Tiny NZ frog leaps into conservation history.” http://www.newzealand.com/travel/media/press-releases/2008/2/08_feb_29_nzfrogshatch_pressrelease.cfm. 29 Feb 2008.

Waldman, Bruce, and Julian Motha. Surveillance. “Chytridiomycosis in New Zealand Frogs.” 28(3) 2001.

Assimilation?

As I was biking home yesterday, I was thinking about what I could write about to update the blog. This past weekend, I saw a documentary at a DocFest in town, had some standard curry, and went to the Sunday market with Sue, Andria, and Lisa. That none of these seemed spectacular and in need of immediate blog attention, I think demonstrates some sort of a shift in my New Zealand experience. I think that perhaps, I've developed sense of the swing of things. In one way, this does make my experience slightly less magical--not everything is shiny and new anymore. In another way, however, it's a new sort of magic. I like it. Though, I am still looking forward to Wisconsin again.

Also, how excellent is it that I live in a place where I can rate curry? I love that the most.

A quick comment on corgis

Honestly friends,

What kind of city has a flock of corgi statues?

This is a charmed world in which we live.