Just a Note about a Fire Truck...and Toilets

Random, I know, but it's the only way I'll remember to post these kinds of things! This post, by the way, is in honor of Tim, my favorite firefighter ever...even if he won't give me a sticker for my car.I just rode home from choir in a firetruck! Our flat is right next to the Dunedin City Fire Station and I'd wanted to see about sending some baking over to them in appreciation of all their hard work. Plus, it's always good to be "in" with those that may save your life someday...jk But I was walking home and saw the truck parked outside of one of Dunedin's 500,000 fish and chips places. I started to pass them, but then I realized it would be the perfect opportunity to ask about bringing goodies by. They offered to give me a ride home and since their buddy was coming out with his "takeaways" (the food) I agreed to the transport. It was fun. Now I have to bake something.
On another random subject, and this is mainly for my brother Daniel, the toilets are different here. To flush, you push a button, usually located on the top of the tank. There are two options: for a minor flush, depress the left side, this button is typically marked to indicate that it uses half the water it is capable of flushing. For a major flush, :o) you depress the other button. The older, "less effecient" toilets do not have the minor/major flushing option and only have one button. Some toilets flush quite violently and shower the seat with water. One learns to avoid these particular beasts.
Oh, and Mom, I've been DYING to tell you that for the month and a half that I've been here I have not seen a single toilet that offers paper seat protectors. I told you they're just a waste of time! Of course, we have yet to see whether there will be a greater mortality rate in New Zealand due to this mysterious "derriere disease" contracted through toilet seat contact. Sigh. The world may never know.
One more note of clarification: in NZ, never ask for the bathroom/restroom/ladies room, simply ask for the toilets. It was a little uncomfortable for me at first - seeing as how in the States we try to mask the fact that we need a toilet by using some of the cute words I've previously mentioned. But all restrooms are marked with "Toilets" and that's what you ask for if you need one. I like the open honesty here :o)

The End (Part Three)

North Arm hut was a fun night as nearly everyone was familiar, most of us having stayed together at the Port Williams hut. However, because you can start at either end of the track, we did have a group of 7 Kiwi Uni students and a girl who ended up being the flatmate of a friend and lives just down the road from me. But it was a fun, boisterous evening nonetheless. (I think I like that word today: nonetheless)We were even more squished in our sleeping arrangement that night. Where there was room for three people, we put four. And this night Rue and I slept on the top bunk instead of the bottom. With the combination of extra people, being on the top bunk AND being in the same room as the stove, we were extremely toasty. I woke up at 3am (I'm estimating) roasting and in great use of a toilet. [there's this phenomenon my friends and I have noticed since arriving here: whereas one may have made it through the night without needing to pee, now you can't without dehydrating yourself. my flatmate Angela, who used to only get up once, now routinely gets up three times. Heather, you would go crazy here - I don't drink water for an hour before bed and I still wake up with a raging bladder! we theorise that the water contains a diuretic. that's all there is to it. and the information about Angela has already been posted on her blog site, so I know she doesn't mind me sharing, for humor's sake, of course] So, back to waking up in the middle of the night...The longdrops (toilets, and they do call them longdrops, Dani) are located a fair but entirely understandable distance from the hut. When I got outside I actually thought the sun was beginning to rise because the moon was so full. I was a little worried about a confrontation with an opossom. The one I'd run into earlier was bigger than the average housecat and looked not unlike an overgrown rat. Fortunately, it had rattled my nerves so completely that my bloodcurdling shriek sent it bolting. This time, I made it to the toilet without such an event. The walk was successful in cooling me down and I slept much better until morning. Breakfast was much the same as the day before, only this morning was Easter! Anna had brought chocolate eggs for herself, Mattias and Markus, it was sweet when she whipped them out and set them next to all of their breakfast bowls. After eating we cleaned up, chopped some more wood and got on our way by 10:45am. It was another dry day, but the trail was still extremely muddy. Thankfully, no one fell although we did have some friendly competition to race down the trail. Lots of singing and conversation about home countries and languages. Then we were done with the track and back in Oban. Just like that. But it was wonderful. Rue and I barely made the 4pm ferry after checking back in at the DOC and made it back to Dunedin by 9pm. We'll probably never see Bas again, but Markus is traveling through in a couple of weeks. Bittersweet but no regrets!

Card games, candles, Germans and Dutch men (Part Two)

Rue and I arrived, drenched, at the Port Williams Hut. Situated a stone's thow from the beach, it's a sweet, snug building. One room with bunks, another as the general gathering area. A small house is attatched to the building for the warden (who was there for the weekend with his wife and two teen children). Because we were already wet and we were only the second people there, Rue suggested we go on a "nature walk," in short, more mud. There were tiny signs identifying different foliage and we had a blast just being out in the rain and getting muddy.Back at the hut we changed into dry clothes and hung everything wet on the drying rack above the fireplace. There were two picnic tables and five benches in the room along with two sinks and lots of counter space. The available water is all collected rain, so it was fairly unlimited. The one tramper that had made it before us was Bas, a 23yr old man from Holland who we quickly made friends with. He taught us a card game as more trampers began to arrive. That evening every bunk, plus the spaces where there were no mattresses, was full. Three Germans, Mattias, Anna and Markus, arrived also. Markus started playing cards with Rue, Bas and I so the four of us got to spend some time having fun. The rain came down all night and we stayed near the stove, playing cards, melting candles and singing until late. There is no electricity in the huts, and only one stove, so you generally stay wherever the candles, headlamps and stove are :o)Bas and Markus hit the trails with Rue and I for the next two days. The second day of tramping was the most physically challenging for me. Although there was a lot of boardwalk that had been laid, we were, in essence, climbing up and down stairs for 5 hours. But there was no rain and North Arm hut's location was worth it. The hut itself was a better arrangement than Port Williams', and a breathtaking view of the water was 20 steps away from the front door.

mud and leaves (part one)

Everyday I ask myself, why did I come here to study? It's so much fun just to play!On Thursday (24th), my friend Arista (nickname: Rue) and I set off on a 2.5 hr drive to the ferry dock, right past Invercargill. We'd decided to go tramping on Steward Island, a relatively tiny island off the southern coast of the south island. Sorry about the triple use of 'island'. Originally it was going to be a group of four, but the two others ducked out Wed. night. Rue and I decided to give it a go anyway. First off, just outside of Dunedin, I recognised two hitchers as my friends Josh and Josh (we all came to NZ through AustraLearn) so we picked them up. They decided to ditch their plans for the weekend and come to Stewart Island with us, but tramp on a different track.We barely made it in time for the ferry ($90 return) and settled in with our complimentary tea for the dreaded hour ride. Blessedly, it was calm. The moon was nearly full and I spent the majority of the ride standing on the back deck, relishing in the opportunity to exercise my sea legs again. I could just make out the silhouettes of small, uninhabited, rocky islands when the clouds parted to let the moonlight stream through. It was a glorious and calm evening. We arrived, uneventfully, at the wharf and made our way to Ann's Place, the backpacker that came with raving recommendations. Ann was a lively women in her 60s who greeted us with joy and offered us her last spot - a double bed - which we gratefully accepted. That night was fun except for the mice in the wall that awakened me at 5:30 am. Friday morning Rue and I walked in the pouring rain to get our $10/night hut passes. We had to fill out an intentions form letting others know where we would be and that form included a police notification date, so I felt pretty safe :o) I'm sure it's standard procedure, but I felt special nontheless.We were on the trail by 10:30am and managed to avoid the approx. 4 mile walk to the trailhead by hitching a ride from two of the 350 island locals. "Best of British luck!" our driver offered and his wife waved us a goodbye. We were on the trail by 11:30 am. It rained ALL DAY but it was warm. Rue and I were too excited to be dampered by the rain. We yakked the whole way there, climbing up muddy inclines and sloshing through bog-like territory. We stopped briefly for a snack lunch with three other people that we'd caught up with on the trail. They lived in Wellington, but definitely had British accents. One of the men had lived in Moscow, ID and attended the U of I! Small world. During this break Rue and I discovered that we'd forgotten toilet paper. Of course, being the outdoorsy girls that we are we decided we'd just use leaves for the weekend...or bum some paper off others!We walked along the beach for quite some time before crossing the first swing bridge which was great fun. Rickety, but great fun.

a continuation of the not-so-recent update

I think I've found a church; DCBC (Dunedin City Baptist Church) has great teaching about life and freedom in Christ. It was really encouraging when I talked to one of the young adult group leaders and found out he'd read one of my favorite books, "The Saving Life of Christ." I loaned him another one of my favorites, "The Green Letters," and he's since offered an invitation for me to begin a book club. I'm pretty excited about that! The student group through the church is called "realise," and I'm going to go visit it tonight. I've also been involved with "student life," which, funny enough, is Campus Crusade NZ. But I've met some incredible people, hopefully some of whom will be life-long friends.It's funny, though, cause I can't seem to meet anyone, and am definitely not going to find anyone, who will climb-cycle-run-swim all in one day and/or at the drop of a hat with me. Hmm, funny how once-in-a-lifetime friendships come along like that. They're irreplacable.Ok, I totally lost my attention span again. But tune in next time for the all-expected news of boy. (I promise it won't be too terribly exciting)

the not-so-recent update 174 days ago

As you all have noticed and have probably attempted resisting being irritated by the fact of, I am pathetic at updating my site. Because you are all so wonderful, however, here's what I suspect your thoughts to be. The first strains were to the chords of, "Liz is in NZ now, she must be so busy just just having fun!" which moved to, "Oh, she's now settling into her flat, that'll take some time." Then, "School's started now, she's working hard at getting that sorted." But now, despite all of your grace, I'm afraid I have no excuse. To all of you who have kindly written me notes and sent messages of encouragement, thank you!!! I've loved receiving them. I'm sorry I haven't replied to all of you. Ahh, so here's a bit of an update, hopefully in a nutshell. I'm taking four courses at Uni (you don't call it college here) and they have a lot of reading, but not many assignments. I managed to get my fridays off, so my schedule's sweet as.
oooh, quicker Liz!
Ok, ok.I've bought a bike which I use as transport too and from school...for those of you who know how much I despise walking. (Remember how I'd drive from home to the campus parking lot and ride my bike to class??) But it's a great means of transport because Dunedin's so small. Plus, my flatmates Claire and Angela also have bikes so we're planning a bike trip.To the great delight of Heather, I've taken up running. You were right, it is actually better when you relax and cover some distance. There's a park behind my flat complex and this trail that continues for quite some time up to a reservoir. It's like running in a tropical jungle, alongside a stream, and then you're on top in the sun, next to a body of water.
I do love it here :o)
What else? I've been taking a fencing class. Only a four-week course, but enough for me to realise it's not the sport for me. I'm very glad I did it, I had fun, made some friends, but I stresses me out to be on guard for so long. No pun intended.
Hmm, more in the next post as I'm running out of characters. 941 left.