-NZ has hands-down the coolest trees. One day, if/when I figure out how to effectively post pictures on here, I will devote an entire entry to my favorites: the radiata pines, the kauri forests of Northland (and Tane Mahuta, the 2000 year old tree), the treeferns and all these low-branching trees I keep seeing everywhere that are just DYING to be climbed.
-Auckland is a pretty sweet city. As a girl who grew up in the shadow if NYC, I was afraid this city would feel constricting and small. Its got a little cluster of big buildings with 24-hr food stands to make me feel at home, but mostly it's sprawling suburbs that just sorta turn into farmlands. The parks are usually big, old, grassy volcanoes; the one which is closest to me, that I can see out my window, is Mt. Eden, a really nice and view-rewarding walk, although I discovered the other evening that some evenings, it doubles as a cow pasture (and this LI-girl was too scared to cross their path haha). The weather also has been nearly perfect since I've arrived. Rain usually ends within an hour (there have been straight-up washouts though) and when its sunny out, its just hot enough, like in the 70s, and with a breeze...gah, so nice. Fall's just around the corner though, the oak trees in the domain are dropping a few leaves...
-My friends here are awesome. I feel much less lonely in this foreign country than I feel back home or at Stony Brook. I think the best part is that my dorm has a 6pm dinner buffet, where we all know we'll see each other and ask how everyone's day is, plan excursions/nights' out, etc. Its like a little family, of Kiwis, Americans, Brits, Irishmen/women, Swiss, Canadians, even Zimbabwean etc. Cooking dinner by myself in my SBU apt is going to feel so lonely next fall... Also, probably because we're mostly exchange students, everyone wants to DO things; back home its like pulling teeth sometimes to get people to do anything. Its also nice to be developing a friendship with a new pseudo-relative, my cousin's cousin Leslie.
-I have a problem of collecting books...already have two geology books, a book of NZ science, a bird book. Devonport, a New England-type town just across the harbor, has 3 used bookstores...I needed to restrain myself from buying all the various nature books and publications, etc (they had a section on arctic-antarctic...gah!) I've resigned myself to sending them home economy-style when I have to leave, but still, restraint must be exercised.
-Time is passing too fast here. I have sososo many places in this beautiful country that I want to go and, in my trips so far, I have discovered that just about EVERYWHERE is pristine and pastoral; the memory cards fill up so fast! The landscape of NZ seems so much more dynamic (because it is, geologically speaking) than back home, so I want to see things for purely aesthetic as well as nerdy-scientific reasons. Alas, I am still a student here, and although I really do classes thus far, I am constrained temporally by projects, papers and days in the field...its so amazing to me that just about every marine science/geology/geography class has field trips, but it makes complete sense because just the Auckland area itself has such a diversity of environments. Being a any sort of natural scientists here is just perfect...
Ok, thats my thoughts so far. This weekend = 2 daytrip field trips to Auckland west and east coast beaches for coastal geography; we use the data and sediment samples for the rest of the labs this semester. Next weekend will hopefully be Rotorua with my friends and then the next weekend is mid-semester break, already! Slooooow down, time, please...
Happy spring ya'll!
~Ashley
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