Two add'l hours of sunshine + five degrees warmer = NZed is about to get awesomer

Some evidence of the storm the size of AUSTRALIA
Te Mata Peak, took me fifteen min to get to the top
Just enjoying some Te Mata cheese mid-work day
Taking a break from interviews for some cheese and wine

I tried really hard but couldn't finish all the cheese, probably

another reason why this is not really an alone activity. I spent

three hours here (Te Mata Cheese factory) reading for my research

eating cheese and nursing this glass of wine
Full moon little stroll in Napier on the Spring Equinox
Beaches of the East Cape, first place to see the sunrise

in the world
Finally made it to the East Cape, which I definitely

want to go back to, especially this place which has my name written

all over it - Champers Hotel

WOW - the World of WearableArts show,

and boy was it wow, sorry this picture is so bad. Its basically a fashion, art, music, cirque

du soleil show wrapped into one extravanganza. The finale of

fashion week here in NZed. No pics allowed inside so you'll

have to use your imagination.

After experiencing the wow of WOW,

forcing Alice to have a tourist moment with me.

So I should start off by saying that my harassment and impersonation skills really did me well in the last week. I spent the last week traveling around the North Island interviewing Maori representatives of business/trusts/incorporations on their business strategy in the context of climate change. Here's a few themes of what characterized the week:

-Before I even left Wellington, all over the news they were reporting a storm the SIZE OF AUSTRALIA, that was headed for NZed and was going to brutalize the country. Only NZed would characterize a storm that was really nasty and menacing in relation to Australia. What it meant was huge winds and rain for most of the country - so basically the rest of NZed got to experience what it's like to live in Wellington. And like the South Island needed more problems, they got pummeled with huge snow and winds which took down the rubgy stadium in Invercargill.

-So huge snow, super! An opportunity to ski one last time before spring really takes hold, or so I thought, so I packed my snow gear with my interview gear and figured given how business time works in NZed that I could fit in some skiing among interviews. Well I can't say I wasn't warned about this, but apparently when it snows really hard here, instead of clearing way for skiiers, they actually just shut down the mountain. And no, not for a day, but for the last ten days. But didn't you just get 15 inches of fresh powder? Oh yes, but we have to avalanche bomb, and apparently that takes over a week. So I carried my ski gear around for a week, no use. I'm still crossing my fingers that they will finally be open next week and that there will actually be snow left. Otherwise, snow jacket bought on TradeMe = $70, used once, not ideal.

-I hadn't traveled alone since Stephanie's visit :(, and I happened to go to a lot of the same places we visited, and let me tell you it's not nearly as fun to go places alone for "work" than it is for tourism - I know, groundbreaking stuff here. But I was also reconfronted with the traveling alone scenario. For some reason, traveling alone makes other people REAL uncomfortable. I would like to offer a few bits of advice here on this blog (more to come, it's gonna get real preachy so stay tuned) - when you see someone traveling alone, know that they are okay. They are not a leper or a prostitute, nor do they require your company. They are probably just fine sitting there internally chuckling about their future blog post, and no it's not weird that they're studying and highlighting in a bar/restaurant. And note, staring doesn't make them feel more comfortable, so cutting that out would be great.

-While traveling for my interviews, aka integral to my research that I came all the way from the US to do, I received an email from the Fulbright office here about our final presentations (I'm in denial and really CAN NOT believe that its only two months away). Said email stated, "For your presentations please focus on your life experiences here, we've already heard a lot about your projects, so no need to go into those". WHAT???? Now I should say that before coming here people used to say to me, "Isn't the Fulbright just like an extended vacation for smart people?" And I would scoff and say, "No, its serious, you have to produce a very reputable, peer-reviewed documentation of your research". Well fine, its an extended vacation apparently (depending what you make of it;). And more alarming/devastating to me in this email is that I lost the final person/group that I thought cared about my research/had to listen to the details of it, now who will I talk to about it?? Oh, Allison you're going to get an earful....But on that note, I better get busy living if they want to hear about the rest we've been up to, at least if all else fails I have a lot of pictures of me posing like statues to fill my final presentation with.

-In my continuing effort to bring you more Kiwiisms, I met a nice Irish bloke at one of the backpackers I was staying at who lives in Gisborne and we got to cackle together about Kiwisms, and share our Irish and American perspectives on them. For instance, why are maths and laws (the study of, meaning I have a degree in laws) plural and sport is singular. Do Kiwis have more math and law than we do? Cause I know we have more sports, so our s to their singular does make sense I suppose....My Irish friend enlightened me as well on how Ireland follows Americanisms more than Britishisms because of you know that wee bit of history between them. Have I also mentioned how much I love listening to Irish people talk?

-In a random fact that I keep forgetting to mention on this blog, there's a news program here called Capital Insights, makes me smile everytime I hear it and compare what they share/comment on and what I do

-And this week marked daylight savings. So while I had to watch you all gallivant around in your sundresses and talk about swimming and bbqs for the last four months, its finally our time in the sun. And I plan to do my best to make you real jealous as it starts to get warm here.

-And in breaking news this week - the actors in the Hobbit are protesting the labor contract for the film. Imagine hundreds of tiny actors huddled together in labor talks at a news conference here in Wellington. Peter Jackson is pissed, since now the production company is threatening to move the filming to Eastern Europe. Umm, I'm pretty sure they don't have hobbits in Eastern Europe, they're only here in Middle Earth - non-negotiable

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