Earthquake and triplets

Quick update at the end of a very long day. Was woken up by the earthquake at 04.35 this morning without realising what could have happened. It felt like being on a ship in a rough sea for some 10s of seconds, I got up and went to the living room with my aunts. We still had power, so I turned the computer on to find out how big the quake was and where the epicenter was. Several aftershocks happened shortly, and I decided to start writing up an assignment rather than going back to bed after having texted a few key persons in Denmark.

A small amount of writing got done before the first news was on TV at 6AM and my uncle called from Denmark. Everything got pretty hectic as we were talking on two different phones while watching the news and slowly starting to realise how lucky we had been out here. Christchurch was hit quite severely, and our first thoughts were that it was incredibly good timing that I was at The Paddock for a visit anyway.

Around 8AM we all decided to get moving, had a shower and a bit of breakfast, and all of a sudden one of the angora goats went into labour. It had turned to the most beautiful sunny spring day outside, so we all went to have a look at the action. Since nothing happened immediately, I helped out gardening for 30 minutes or so, before returning to the kidding. Out came one tiny little goat kid, then another, and finally to our big surprise, a third kid was born, 4-5 hours after the mother had started contracting.

All of this pushed lunchtime until 2.30PM or so, and then another couple of hours was spent with the newborn kids out in the sun. At 4.30PM we put the goats in their shelter and went indoors to find dinner and some news on the earthquake. It turns out that nearly all the neighbours around here have had electricity and water cuts during the day, while everything has been up and running continuously at The Paddock.

Dinner, a well deserved beer and news altogether got me realising how big the earthquake had really been. Major damage is still being reported from around Christchurch, the university is closed for a week and all students and staff have been told to stay away. In the physics department we have had reports of severe water damage, a chemical spill and possible structural damage as well as broken glass and tiles. It is truly a miracle that no fatalities have occurred so far; with the quake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, being only 10km under ground and 30km west of Christchurch, things could have gone so much worse.

At this stage, 10.10PM I am still somewhat shaken and incredibly happy to be at my aunts place instead of home alone. I have been talking to my mom tonight, and to maximise the possibility of getting a decent sleep tonight I will be camping under a table or something tonight. It might be silly, but waking up in a house moving as if it was a boat is something that makes you do silly things. The log burner has stayed cold since this morning, and will probably be so for the next week (at least).

The important thing is that the three of us, as well as the newborn goats, are all fine. Slightly shaken, not only in the literal way, but I am confident that we will make it through without problems. As for the studies, all our deadlines are postponed by a week, so I should be absolutely fine there as well. I am curious to see the department though, but grateful that they are taking all the necessary precautions to keep everyone safe.

Comeback 18/5

Here I am again – sorry for the minor dropout over the last month or so. Things have been busy at university, in weekends and all over. But I am happy, life is good and my studies are going well.

Over the Easter break I went tramping solo for five days from Lewis Pass to Arthur’s Pass (pictures at picasaweb). A fantastic trip, lots of time for reflection and beautiful sceneries. I shared the first hut with three other people, the other three nights I had to myself (except for the one night where I had company by a mouse – it even dared crawling onto my shoulder). It reminded me that I should not be limited in doing the things I like to just because the people I would normally do these things with are far away, and so I did the day after my return to Christchurch. Sacha Vee played a fantastic double concert with Oval Office in town, which made my first encounter with the New Zealand funk music a very pleasant experience.

A few days went by, procrastinating everything possible. I did buy a car though, a 95 Subaru Legacy Grand Wagon. I ended up getting an automatic, and I am slowly getting used to the lazy driving. My fingers are crossed that it will perform in the snow during winter.

The last week of my Easter break was spent white water kayaking around Murchison. This turned out to be quite an experience, both on and off the water. The instructors were absolutely fantastic, getting us newbies safely down the rapids safely. I even won a prize for having the most faith in the instructors when capsizing – if we could manage to stay in the kayaks under water, an instructor could paddle over and turn us around. And so I did on the very first day. Stayed in my kayak bottom up, probably for 30 seconds or more, while the instructors messed around before turning me around.

In the evenings, a fire was lit and for some odd reason (maybe excessive amounts of alcohol) some of the guys ended up sitting naked around the fire. I learnt that the drinking culture among some Kiwis is worse than anything I have ever seen in Denmark. I blame the goon (bag-in-box wine, which only comes in horrible quality down here). But they did have a quite funny ritual around the goon as it was passed around the fire. Before drinking (straight from the tap), you had to slap it to punish it for the hangovers it was going to give you the following day!

Back again, I had a few days to write up an assignment on “Chernobyl Today” before lectures started after the break. After a few days of frustration I managed to put it together; and (hopefully) in a decent way as well. Lectures started, and my research project started picking up speed as we realised that we had some pretty serious issues in the computer model I am working on that needed resolving. This turned into a few very interesting email correspondences, among others with one of the guys who had developed the software we are using. It is fantastic to see from the inside how the scientific community is working when you come across something you do not quite know how to tackle, and even more so to be in contact with people around the world trying to figure out the easiest (and best) way of doing something that has never been done before. Today I had an email waiting for me when I came into my office, with promises that we should have the last missing tool for my project on hand before the end of this week. At the same time, we have been approved to BlueFern, the supercomputer at the university. This should speed up my simulations quite dramatically (I had my computer running a simulation for 67 hours over the weekend, so a bit of extra speed is more than welcome), and it is another “minor” thing making the project a lot more interesting than reading for my normal courses.

The past three weekends have offered a tramp to Mt. Tinline close to the Kaikoura range, a visit at The Paddock where a shed was built for Eva’s new nursery, and another tramp to Mt. Taylor – the highest summit in the Canterbury region. Mt. Tinline was a one day trip with a huge group (22 or so), which ended up with only five of us making it to the summit (1747 m). The last bit to the top was quite gnarly, loose and exposed, but the view from the top was worth it. Pictures at picasaweb

Mt Taylor was conquered this weekend with a group of 7 really nice people, and a stunning tramp (More pictures at picasaweb). We left Christchurch Friday at 16, drove up to Lake Heron and walked along a riverbed in the dark to Double Hut. Dinner was cooked, eaten, and the beds were made. We turned in at 22, and for unknown reasons I had a bit of trouble falling asleep. Saturday morning started 7.25 where we got up, had breakfast and left our overnight gear in the hut before heading for the summit at 8.45. Ahead of us was a 1400 m climb, following a ridgeline before reaching the summit (2333 m) and going back the way we came up. The weather was great, especially after the sun broke through the thin layer of clouds around 11, and we saw no sign of the rain predicted by the forecast (another case of the weather forecast being pretty useless in NZ). We made the summit at 12.30, had lunch, took pictures and threw rocks off the top while enjoying the views to the highest peaks in the country. The descent proved a bit of a challenge to my left knee, but we made it down safely in spite of a couple of us stumbling once as the ground started moving sideways down the side of the ridge. We made it to the hut by 16, had a short afternoon tea break before packing up our overnight gear and walking out to the cars. As darkness descended upon us we managed to find the proper track to the hut, sparing us a bit of riverbed travelling, and just as head torches was needed we made it to the car park, around 18. Two hours drive later, three of us found ourselves at our local fish & chips shop, Captain Bens, after another magnificent day in the Southern Alps.

Sunday I went for the annual Ski sale, arranged by the Canterbury Snowsport Association. Some hours later I had a pair of skis and touring bindings in my room, and in a couple of weeks I will get a phone call saying that a range of touring boots are waiting for me to come have a look. Let the winter begin (in a month or so)!

Tomorrow I am going to look at an apartment – hopefully I will succeed in finding a place to stay from the end of June before I have to start studying for my exams. It looks like a decent place on the pictures available, but I will have to wait and see until tomorrow afternoon. It feels great to get started on though; it means that I will soon be out of the expensive student accommodation without proper kitchen facilities. I do not mind that.

Moving, mid-term tests and new toys 29/3 2010

Last week I faced my first mid-term test, and the second was on this morning. It sure is a different way of assessing us used here compared to what I have been used to in Denmark. No aids, no nothing but a pencil, a non-programmable calculator and the 16 pages of answer sheets supplied at the test. The tests themselves have not been too hard, with a lot of open ended questions. The challenge is then to try and figure out what the lecturer wants to hear, and how much time it is worth spending answering each question. For the first time ever I failed to answer all questions satisfactory in a test today due to shortage of time; I have of course answered questions wrong or too short previously, but as far as I can remember I have always had the time to come up with a proper (guess of an) answer. Today it was all rushed and with no time for drinking water or try and let everything come together by taking a short break. But I am pretty sure that I did decently well, and it was sure nice to try out this form of tests before the final exam (even though the test results are part of the final grades, the exam counts for a lot more).

Thursday I changed room from my too noisy and dirty five-bedroom to a small two-bedroom apartment with exactly the same facilities as the bigger one. Same lousy kitchen, but at least I have room in the fridge now! And my new flat mate, a Maori guy studying education is nice, tidy and clean, as well as very friendly and in general much nicer to live with than the ones in the five bedroom unit. The catch is that it has become even more ridiculously expensive to stay here; a room in a private flat can easily be found at half the price of what I am paying to stay here, but they have cut me down to a one-semester contract without having to pay the penalty of 8 weeks rent it would cost me to get released from my original one-year contract now. I still have a few issues to solve with the accommodation office, but I feel so much more at home in the new apartment. If it wasn’t for the cost, I might even had considered staying the full year here, but since I can get my own one-bedroom apartment at the same cost I am out of here as soon as possible.

Moving between the rooms was carried out with the aid of a shopping trolley – so now I know what it must be like being a tramp, at least for four times 50 meters.

After having changed room it has started making sense to get stuff for my room again (I was getting a bit apathetic before since I did not feel comfortable in the room), which has resulted in a set of decent computer speakers, a bad-ass Japanese kitchen knife and the biggest set of LEGO I could possibly find. This was partly to celebrate surviving the two mid-term tests, partly to celebrate my tax refund and partly just because I felt like getting this stuff! The LEGO set should keep me busy for a few nights, since it includes four booklets with instructions on how to build the damn thing – I am SO looking forward to it!

Oh, and the last GREAT thing that happened this weekend was that Nic (my aunt’s partner) made me proper Danish rye bread to take home – my stomach and taste buds are absolutely thrilled! That, on top of another wonderful weekend at The Paddock means I am ready for the last week before my three week April break (where I have to do some studying though…)

Ilam Village, 12/2

A week ago I checked in at the Ilam Village, apartment no. 83 room 1. I got to sleep in a proper bed for the first time in a month, and as from today, three of my four flatmates have moved in as well. My room is probably 4.5x2 square meters, and the buildings are only a few years old, making everything quite new and not worn out like one could fear when moving in at student accommodations. All of the rooms where I live are furnished with a bed (for unknown reasons I have only been given a single when I am entitled to a King Single – big issue, which apparently takes more than a week to solve), a desk and chair, a wardrobe without doors, two pin-up boards and a bookshelf mounted over the desk. Unfortunately, my room is on the ground level, so I have quite a lot of traffic passing by during the day, but as long as I don’t have to study full days in my room I guess I will be fine.

The apartment has two bathrooms, where the showerheads are mounted in the wall only 175cm above the floor. We saw this at a few holiday parks in January as well, but I still can’t figure out why they would do such a thing. It’s not like Kiwis are particularly short, and the money saved on those 20cm of water pipes can’t be much. But with a combination of bending down and leaning against the wall, plus a bit of limbo dancing, I am able to wash my hair, and I would rather have it this way than an old, mouldy tub in a dark brown bathroom from the seventies.

Our kitchen is very sparse equipped, and this is probably the one thing that will bother me the most. We have a tiny fridge, with less than one shelf for each of the five in the apartment, and instead of a proper oven we have a microwave with a convection programme. In addition to this, there is just one plate, one glass, one cup and one set of crockery for each of us, and the utensils are pretty much non-existing. I really do not understand how they can imagine us cooking for five with two tiny pots and a small frying pan… But we will be all right, I have already talked to two of my flatmates about getting extras for the kitchen, and they are more than happy to pay their share.

The most important part, however, is that my flatmates seems to be really nice people. So far I am living with a Kiwi girl and a girl and a guy from USA, and I have no reason to believe that it will be an issue living together with them.

The last week have been spent on getting a lot of practical things sorted before international orientation and enrolment kicks off next week, and lectures begin the week after. I have gotten a mobile phone, a bike and all sorts of different stuff for my room and our kitchen. I have been to visit Eva & Nic, have had the last visitors from New Zealand Explorer before they all moved on – thanks a lot for stopping by, I will miss you guys!, and been for a few walks around the proximity of the university plus a long walk to central Christchurch. My bike will come in very handy, since it is a half day project to walk to the city centre, do whatever needs to be done there, and walk back to campus. By bike I imagine the trip can be done in 15 minutes, making it possible to go on days where I need to study as well. Besides, Christchurch is absolutely flat, and thus the perfect city to bike around. I even managed to find a bike that is neither a road or a mountain bike,  but it took some effort to find the right shop with the hybrid I was looking for.

Tomorrow I am biking to The Paddock and staying there overnight. We will be going to Aprils 21^st tomorrow night, and I am looking forward to meeting some of the people that I will be seeing from time to time at The Paddock, plus seeing a bit of the Kiwi family traditions. Sunday we are all going to the Riccarton Market before Åse & Connie drops by to see my apartment, and in the evening the village offers “speed meeting”, where it will – hopefully – be possible to get to talk to some of the others staying at the village and have a bit of fun. So far, the only introduction the village has offered was an open lunchBBQ yesterday and today, and to be honest I expected a bit more in terms of getting to know the place and people around. I guess it will all come naturally in time, but it sure would have been nice with a tour around the facilities instead of just “Welcome, here is your room and your keys, any questions?”.

When I moved in last Friday, Nic and I went for a walk around the university, and I happened to meet one of my lecturers when we were looking around at the physics department. He seemed like a really nice guy, genuinely interested in why I am here studying medical physics, and just as down-to-earth as I am used to from Aarhus University. It is a big comfort to have met one of the lecturers and seen for myself that they are relaxed and helpful, and given the fact that we are only ten people following the medical physics classes, I am sure I will get to know a few of the staff pretty well, even before I start on my thesis next year.

The Paddock, 2/2

3 days ago I arrived at The Paddock, which will be my second home while in NZ. The last days in Queenstown offered Bungy Jumping off Kawarau Bridge (the original site where A. J. Hackett invented the byngy jump), canyoning close to Wanaka, and a few nights out with the rest of our NZ Explorer team before we all headed our separate ways around the country.

Thursday 28^th, almost all of us went to the Kawarau Bridge to do our very first bungy jump. Some had been incredibly nervous since we booked our jumps the day before, and we were all expecting quite an experience, one way or another. First, the bus was more than half an hour late because of a hung over driver who did not show up, but when we finally got to the bungy site, it was all efficient and cool business. We were asked to line up in front of a counter where we were all weighed, then there was time to go to the bathroom before going out on the bridge, putting on a harness and after just a few minutes in line I got tied up to the bungy cord by a guy named Rambo! From then, it was a matter of slowly jumping out on the platform, hearing Rambo count 5-4-3-2-1-Bungy, leaning forward and letting gravity do its thing. I got a fair bit of water, as asked for, and 1½ minute after stepping on to the platform I were in a boat at the bottom, and could go see the others again, having spent $175. I must say that I expected a bit more of a kick than I got from it, maybe I am just too used to heights and putting my life into some random guide’s hands, who tells me that the bungy will hold? Nevertheless, I am glad I did it with the NZ Explorer guys, and we had a few great laughs when some of the others refused to jump at the guides count.

Friday, I went canyoning with three others from our group, and we had an incredible day of fun and games in The Niger stream, close to Wanaka. Long abseils through waterfalls that just kept smashing water in your face, fun slides – one which ended in a 10 meter drop, which the guides chose not to tell us – and incredible jumps, up to 6-7 meters, where you had to land within a square of 2x2 meters if you wanted to keep your legs from breaking. In total, we spent four hours in the water, and none of us could stop smiling. On top of this, the scenery was just like postcard pictures, all the way down, except for those eight wetsuits and helmets that had been thrown into the stream.

When we got back from Wanaka we had diner, before going out the last time with the majority of the group, who left early Saturday morning. A tired, but good evening out, and the perfect way of saying goodbye to some of our travelmates in the past 3½ weeks.

To get to Wanaka on Friday, it turned out to be cheaper for the four of us to rent a car than to go by bus, and we had to rent it for two days since we needed it before the rental companies opened in the morning. Therefore we had a car available during Saturday, and we chose (a bit randomly) to go to Arrowtown for lunch, an old town where the gold miners used to stay. When we got back, a few hours was spent relaxing and getting everything packed for an early morning Sunday, and around 7PM we went out for diner and had a fantastic evening with good food and wine, and fantastic company.

Saturday I got on the bus from Queenstown to Christchurch at 8.50 in the morning, and had a smooth ride, arriving in Christchurch at 6PM where my aunt Eva picked me up. Since then I have been at The Paddock, relaxing and slowly getting ready to move in at the Ilam Village on Friday. Luckily, I can look forward to a few visits from the NZ Explorer group during the weekend and next week, but from then on it is all down to getting ready to go back to Uni – and I am looking forward to it!