this is summer in dunedin?

Weather is awful. It's cold and wet. This is supposed to be summer. Hrmph.

On What I've Been Up To, Plus Some Random Notes

Hmmm... back on October 15 I went tramping in the Silver Peaks, a mountain range just outside Dunedin. I was invited by Cliff MacAuley from my Rotary club, a lovely gentleman who was also involved in the Droflim Track adventure in May. Cliff picked me up from the Quins, where I was house-sitting at the time. Met up with the other X-Ys (a tramping group in Dunedin) on Duke Street and caught the bus to Mountain Road. Discovered that Mary and Carol, two women who were also on the Droflim trip, had also come along for the day's tramp. Tramped to Green Peak, up Pulpit Rock, along to Mountain Stream, and finally out to Taioma. An all day adventure that culminated in filthy boots and a healthy glow on my cheeks. Made it a few minutes late to the Rotary meeting that evening...

Yours truly in the Silver Peaks

The following Thursday (October 22), Irina's brother Alexei Medvedev entertained our Rotary club with his incredible guitar playing. The entire club was captivated.

Wrote my one and only exam for Hauora (Maori health) on October 24. Had lunch with my other classmates and our lecturer at Vino Vena, a lovely little restaurant down the street. Then dinner at Corstorphine House with two of my Rotarians Nico and Irina Francken plus Nico's daughter Sara. They own a gorgeous bed and breakfast (really more like a mansion) with a gourmet restaurant in the conservatory. Dinner began with an appetizer of bread and dips, with a glass of Riesling. My entree was a tart made with salmon and Bluff oysters, and a glass of Gewuerztraminer (my favourite white wine!). The main was poached salmon, accompanied by a glass of Pinot Noir. And for dessert? Something with the words ganache and passionfruit, certainly delicious, and washed down with a short black. Not only was dinner fabulous, but I was fortunate to hear Alexei Medvedev on guitar for the second time. A great way to finish the semester!

Went tramping on Secretary Island in Doubtful Sound from October 25 to 29, but that's another nzletter altogether.

Beccy and I went to Timaru on October 31 to give a presentation for Timaru North. Thanks heaps to Morgan who hosted us for the evening and took us on a tiki tour of Timaru.

Gorgeous clouds in Timaru

On November 2 we had a flat lunch at Arc Cafe. Steve decided to study instead. The last Saturday we will all be together. Sniff.

Chicks at Arc - Emma, Petra, and Christine

Other than that, I'm continuing to work on my dissertation, the remaining 3 of 8 medical school applications, a publication from my BSc thesis, annual revisions to my Cochrane review, and some random stuff for my MSc thesis back in Halifax.

Might I add that I am continually inspired and awe-struck by the amazing Rotary women I am surrounded by - Courtenay, Cate, Maureen, Beccy, and honourary member Jo.

Please cross your fingers as my applications for medical school continue to be submitted, are out of my hands, and my future rests in the hands of a few members of the admissions committee.

My address from January to April 2003 will be #3-1106 South Park Street, Halifax, NS, Canada, B3H 2W7. Phone is +001 (902) 423-8198. As always you can reach me at my parents' place at 89 Ontario Street, Georgetown, ON, Canada, L7G 3K9. Phone is +001 (905) 877-4116.

At the moment it's rather difficult to manage my time. I have lots of work, but people are already starting to leave and I want to spend time with them.

My cousin Monika is getting married in Sri Lanka next year. Congrats!!!

On What's To Come

From now until the end of December, I'll be hanging around the flat. Continuing to work on the random pieces of academics I mentioned above. November 5 is Guy Fawkes' Day, and the night I will give my second presentation to the Dunedin East Rotary club. Topic? What I've been using their money for during my stay in New Zealand! Maybe doing a few more Rotary presentations. Doing a day tramp with Emma on November 10. Spending about two weeks tramping around Stewart Island with Simon. Going out with other friends, saying goodbye to people. Sniff.

On New Zealanders Versus Australians

Just as Canadians (and pretty much everyone else) like to have a laugh now and then at the expense of a few Americans, New Zealanders like to poke fun at (or as they say here "take the piss" or "take the mickey" out of) Australians. Here's just one example I've gotten by email...

Australia - welcome! Surely, after 20 days of trial by fire, the Australians must now realise that God never really intended this enormous tinderbox to be used for human habitation. Plainly it was created as a giant dustbin, a place far from civilisation where all His failed experiments could be left to their own terrifying devices. "Oh no," said God on the fourth day, "I've gone and made a spider which can kill a man just by looking at him. I need somewhere to put it." So on the fifth day He created Australia. This then became home for all the horrid snakes and the bitey crocodiles and the baby-eating dingoes. And to make sure that man stayed away, He made the land itself completely infertile and filled the sea around its shores with deadly sharks and killer jellyfish. He even built an enormous barrier reef. Frankly, He did everything possible to ensure that humans never went there, short of putting up a sign saying "Trespassers will be eaten". Nobody knows what drew the Aborigines but we do know that the first white man to sail this way was the world's most useless explorer, a Dutchman called Abel Tasman. In a three-year voyage he found Fiji, New Zealand and Tasmania, but in one of the most inept pieces of navigation ever he completely missed the big bit in the middle. That was discovered by Captain James Cook who stepped off his ship, sniffed the air and declared, "Yes. This would make a fantastic prison." He was right, of course. For millions of years Australia had harboured all the world's dangerous animals so why not use it as a waste disposal unit for dangerous people? And even when the transportation of convicts stopped, it was still a good place for people who couldn't get on anywhere else. Think about it. Nobody ever went to live in Australia because of the success they'd made of things at home. "I have thousands of friends, endless party invitations, a wonderful, happy family, a great job and even better prospects. So I'm off." All Australians are descended from Billy No Mates. You'd expect them to have some sympathy with the refugees from central Asia. But no. They've turned their former prison into a fortress and the doors are now firmly closed. Australians stand on their porches with flames licking at their back door, telling us that life over there is peachy. "It's always warm enough for a barbecue," they say. Never mind that the most recent barbie was so enormous and so hot that it had to be extinguished by a fleet of helicopters. They're even using the wildlife as a scare campaign, telling the world what we already know: that the 10 most deadly snakes found anywhere in the world are all Australian. They run PR campaigns throughout Asia, showing pictures of boats used by refugees marooned on beaches with big fat crocodiles lolling nearby. However, the reception from the indigenous wildlife is as nothing compared to the reception you'll get from the locals. It's bad enough for a British person who's only there on holiday. Every time you walk into a pub, you get the same reaction. "Backs to the wall everyone: there's a Pom in the bar," followed by: "Hide your wallet under the soap. He won't find it there." Not desperately imaginative but then what do you expect from a people who named a blue spotted ray that lives in lagoons "the blue spotted lagoon ray", or a range of mountains with snow on them "the Snowy Mountains". And that's before we get to "The Great Barrier Reef". Anyway, if we have a hard time, imagine what it's like for Abdul. In a recent poll, 96% of Australians said they wanted the refugees out, dead, buried, eaten, anything. Last summer an advertisement appeared in one of the newspapers there asking people with a military background to join vigilante-style patrols. Refugees who get caught by the proper authorities are sent to a fantastically remote detention centre near Woomera, where the British did their atomic tests in the 1950s. They can get out easily but it's an 18-day walk to the nearest telephone box and that's doubly hard when you've grown two heads. So what sort of volume are we talking about here? Well, last year the number of people who arrived in Australia illegally from the usual refugee hot spots was 4,500. That works out at one for every 666 square miles. You could put the downtrodden masses from all over the world in the Northern Territories and not even know they were there. Australia says that it took in thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people in the 1970s and 1980s, along with most of Britain's displaced trade union leaders who were no longer welcome at No. 10 for tea and buns. It won't now fulfil the legal and moral obligations of other nations. Well, Europe has a falling birth-rate and can take a few refugees. The Americans are dropping food parcels on their heads. Africa is hopeless and Asia is the problem, which leaves either Antarctica, which seems a bit anti-social, or the very place that was specifically designed to be home for misfits: Australia.

Written by Jeremy Clarkson in the London Times, Sunday January 13th, 2002.

On Some More Kiwiana

Can you handle the jandle, bro?

The words air and ear are pronounced the same in New Zealand.

Months in te reo Maori (the Maori language) [-a- in October and November has macron]

September = Mahuru

October = Whiringa-a-nuku

November = Whiringa-a-rangi

December = Hakihea

Days of the week in te reo Maori [, a after R should has macron; u in Rau has macron]

Sunday = Ratapu

Monday = Rahina