Out of Ice

If I thought New Zealand was surreal before, then the experience of looking across a wall of ice to rainforest certainly convinved me that it is. On Tuesday I went for the full day guided tour of the Fox Glacier, on of the few glaciers in the world to descend almost to sea level. The glacier was amazing, literally ice blue in the caves and crevasses, and filigreed like packed down snowflackes on the surface. At some points avalanches had dposited rock and dirt on top of the glacier, looking like someone had sprinkled cocoa powder on bubble bath.
Now I'm in Hokitika, a former gold rush town, with the obligatory wide streets and former pubs on every corner. It is now the centre of the greenstone (jade) industry, and having been here for almost twenty four hours already I'm getting rather sick of the sight of it. So the plan for the rest of the day is to visit the beach and the cemetary, just for something different. I'm sending this message from a fishing shop with a gun display up the back and country music on the sound system - a little scary!
Tomorrow I catch a bus over the mountains back to Christchurch, through Arthurs Pass, and then home on Sunday. This has been a wonderful experience, but I will be happy to be home. No more pillow lucky dip (Fox Glacier is the worst so far I think), no more heavy backpack (I'm going to kick butt at pump class now), and proper kitchen equipment - and getting to see everyone again.

'Mountains, Gandalf, Mountains!'

I'm at a lovely backpackers in Fox Glacier - beautiful gardens, music in the background, the only downside being the spa not working at the moment. I'm trying to remember where I was for my last update, Wellington I think. Anyway, after the minor trauma of losing my credit card there, I got the ferry south across to Picton. I advise not going to the Wellington Museum of City and Sea before the trip, not because it is a bad museum (it's rather good) but because most of the second floor is devoted to ships wrecked in the crossing between Wellington and the South Island. Forebodings aside, the trip was good - a little windy, but coming into Queen Charlotte Sound in the evening was one of the best experiences of my life. Rows of purple mountains like washes of watercolour paint, golden orange light of the sunset streaming out through the clouds.
The next day I went kayaking, which was great fun. We visited a friendly seal and saw giant stingrays, as well as millions of mussels begging to be grabbed and eaten - Papa would have loved it!
Then the annoying bit of playing the trip by ear happened. I'd booked to catch the train down to Christchurch on Saturday, but that night the town was litterally full , and I ended up at a homestay run by the mother of the owners of one backpacker place. It was in the suburbs, and to catch my bus to Wanaka early the next day I had to get a lift into town with one of her sons. With ten minutes to get there, I made it just in time, and still alive, and I am now a firm beliver in St Christopher (and I don't care what the Vatican says about him)!
The mountains are amazing. I'm having a rather postmodern response, in that once they get over a certain height I just can't belive they are real, not images. Yesterday at Wanaka, an 'alpine village' by a lake surrounded by mountains, I kept looking round for an interior (exterior?) decorator to tell them that the backdrops were rather overdone, and far too stereotypical.
Tomorrow I'm doing a day walk up the Fox Glacier. Maybe getting closer will make it more real.

A long-ish update

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, and I haven't really gone into detail, so here is a catchup.

ANZAMEMS Conference
I really enjoyed this - well run, fascinating papers, friendly people. The powhiri (Maori welcoming ceremony) was fascinating, and I think rather unusual given the inclusion of Latin verse to represent the 'visiting' culture. The food was excellent, as was the free wine at the two receptions, and providing free internet (and good-looking computer help-staff) was a nice touch. There were only one or two papers that were duds, and a lot had me both inspired and envious.

Waiheke
I've probably gloated over this section of the trip enough now, and should shut up, but no. Someone said to me that he could recognise Kiwi girls around the world by the shapes of their calves, and after the busy day of tramping around the island I can see why - 184 steps up from Onetangi Beach to the hostel. The 'Sculpture on the Gulf' exhibition was amazing, seeing the island and the artworks at the same time. I've posted some pictures at Flickr (though only a selection due to the vagaries of computers). We also saw some exhibitions in town, trying to avoid the rain. The next day I headed out to the wineries: Saratoga Estate, which was very hospitable despite still cleaning up from the post-Wine-Festival-party two days before; Te Motu, with a French man running the tastings ('This one is more like animal' must remain one of my all time favourite wine descriptions); and Onetangi Road, where a helicopter was departing as I left, having flown someone over as part of a fiftieth birthday present. I even managed to do a little sun-baking, coming up a little red the next day.

AVSA
While most people stayed in college dorms, I was over in a hostel, so I felt a little out of it. But the papers were interesting - my favourite being on the supernatural archaeological object - and I did enjoy it overall.

TranzScenic
I boarded the train at dawn, and stepped off after sunset - a long day and a lot of distance covered. The first part of the trip was through the back suburbs of Auckland, with final glimpses of the two harbours. Then on into what appeared to be Hobbiton-country, an impression reinforced by one building signed as 'Buckland Hall'. On into the Waikoto region, farming country interspersed with swampy sections where the insect noises rose over the rumble-clatter-clack of the train. By Hamilton we had caught up with the weather, and the rain was bucketing down. Then the uphill climb began, through an amazingly textured landscape, jungle-like bush, harshly dry and windswept hillsides, gorges and water running over grey rocks. Occasionally the train passed beehives, looking like stacks of archive boxres that had made a break for freedom, and evolved into a range of colours. All sorts of odd impression - a giant statue of the Virgin Mary on top of a hill, a sheep truck named Shaun, Two graves topped with grand Victorian angels on an isolated hill in the middle of nowhere. I saw all sorts of animals: sheep, cows, deer, goats, horses, pigs, rabbits, ducks - most of the meat-eating options in fact - but also meat-eaters in the form of two hawks. The final part of the journey ran beside the Tasman Ocean as the sun set, the water silver-grey and roughly forbidding.

Wellington
And here I am now, having seen Te Papa (the museum) which was a good experience, though not as fantastic as I had built it up in my head. The interactive part were fun - I'm glad there weren't too many children around to compete with. My main impression of the city so far is the large amount of public art. I think I quite like it here.

And I thought my interpretation was wierd!

Tonight I feel the virtuous glow of someone who has delivered all their conference papers. My Victorian Studies paper today, offering a lesbian reading of Rosa Praed's Fugitive Anne (1902), seemed to hold together. One audience member managed to see the direction my thesis was going in - which proves that it makes sense to other people, and my arguement is not a figure of my imagination! But the most amusing response was an extention of my reading, suugesting that the exploding volcano at the end could be read as an explosion of lesbian desire, the volcano as a giant breast. I'm not quite convinced, myself.

Back from the island...

... and no, I wasn't voted off Survivor-style (Survivor Vanuatu is still playing here in NZ).
Rather, I have spent a lovely three days out at Waiheke Island, which is a bit like Rottenest crossed with Margaret River. Before that was ANZAMEMS - which despite being stuck in a rather stuffy venue managed to pack in lots of stimulating papers. More updates, details and pictures soon.

Hilly and humid

My short description of Auckland has now changed to those two words. The university is straight uphill from where I'm staying (with Lesley and Olivia), and even the five minutes it takes to walk there is enough to get you over-heated.
The conference has been interesting so far - I have learnt to beware of old men who study classics or very early medieval history when it comes to question time - but I have been enjoying the papers. Both Lesley and Olivia's presentations went well, and I'm on this afternoon. We've been making the most of the catering (food very good, coffee very bad) and the free drinks in the evenings.
Now I need to go and finish my paper (and I dare anyone else to take the title of Queen of Lastminuteness from me!).