Working my way back home and Coming to America

Another Falls named Huka, I'd learned my lesson and

went in daylight and held tight to my wallet
Thermal waters in Taupo
Called the Paris Hilton of waterfalls, in Whangarei,

because its most photographed and not that impressive
You know what there haven't been enough of (any of) on

this blog?? SHEEP, I mean there's 40 million of them here. Made a stop at Sheepworld, which

should be called Sheepletdown, although they did

have some sheep painted pink oddly enough.

Some of you have expressed some concern that it doesn't seem like I'm working hard enough for your tax dollars...well have no fear, I've been "working". I would also like to mention that I'm supposed to learn about NZ while I'm here and how can I do that without a bit of touring around? I also spent several days reading and researching on the idyllic beaches I stopped at. I coordinated meetings in a few towns at other universities while I was passing though as well. I received a few positive reactions to my research, good contacts, and reaffirmation of how glad I am that I'm based in Wellington.

One thing I've always loved about various cities I've lived in (Boston, San Diego) is the view of the city skyline that all of a sudden pops up after a turn or a tunnel and greets you to say "welcome home". Well, Wellington is one of those cities. When you come down State Highway 1 back into the city, you come around a turn and then there it is - all of Wellington Harbor and the city, spread out before you. Just reaffirming there's no way I'm moving to Auckland. Still working on that...

So as a sum up to my trip, I finished it off by giving a nice Finnish guy that I met at my backpacerks a ride back to Auckland. I now know a more than I ever hoped to know about Finland, including that Swedish is a required language for them to learn and that they're not too fond of the Swedes. An added bonus to giving this guy a ride, other than the conversation, was that he figured out that I do in fact have a cd player in my car (again sometimes I'm slow, see former post). I then stopped for some meetings in Auckland and decided I didn't need to spend much more time there and got back on the road to get more of my journey home underway. I made it to Taupo before it got too dark and the roads became too windy, all along enjoying finally listening to my book on CD. Taupo is in the Center of the North Island (aka home to my research) and is on a big lake (Lake Taupo) which is the result of a large volcanic eruption many years ago.

To illustrate the smallness of NZ, I was just cooking up some dinner after I arrived, and ran into an Aussie woman who had been in my room in Leigh (where I scubadived, they save dived, don't correct me, two weeks ago). When I was in Leigh I had also run into another Fulbrighter strolling down the beach (there are only 11 of us here and she lives two hours from there).

Anyway I was only in Taupo as a stop-through, but made the most of it by spending the next morning doing a hike and lounging in some thermal waters. Got back on the road to Palmerston North, where I had a few meetings set up since there is an agricultural university there. I also caught up with another Fulbrighter based there and we shared stories of fighting to live on our Fulbright stipend, kiwiisms, and research struggles. Caught up with 3 Fulbrighters total on my tour, pretty good since 5 of the 11 are in Wellington already.

Arrived back to Wellington and had to rush right to another meeting. See, aren't you bored by all this work/research talk? In the two weeks I've been away, autumn has definitely arrived, and its probably 10 degrees (thats Celsius) colder than it was up north, but still sunny and pretty.

A few things I learned on my little Northern Tour -

-Although distances seem short, they take longer cause the roads are so curvy. I spent two weeks in one small part of the country and still didn't see everything. Those of you coming for two weeks, get ready for a whirlwind and quite a bit of driving

-I would like to have a discussion with NZ about planning for tourism. Tourism is one of their biggest industries (after agriculture and forestry and other primary industries), and yet in my mind they are not thinking like a tourist. For example, tourists want to come and eat lamb and take advantage of all the dairying with delicious cheeses, not eat fried meat pies. Even vegetarians want to see that the 40 million lamb are here for a reason, not just socks. Where are you hiding all of the lamb and cheese? Frankly, every menu should have a lamb sandwhich of some sort on it, forget the sausage roll and fish and chips. Second, although NZ markets itself as NZ Naturally or Pure NZ, all of their tourism locales/shops border/or totally embrace cheesy. NZ, you need to work on toning down the cheese factor which is not why people come here and counter to your marketing image. Although still cute/kitschy now, I fear for NZ becoming Myrtle Beach in 30 years...

-I have yet to meet a single American on my travels in backpackers and such, and yet have met a whole host of Germans. Germany's population is around 80 million and ours is over 300 million. A few Germans I met said that at any given time, at least 2% of Germans are traveling overseas, which explains why there are so many of them here and everywhere. I wonder what our percentage traveling/living overseas is? I also keep hearing from people that they don't understand the reputation of negativity about Americans, since they've only met "nice ones". I've explained that we leave all the terrible ones at home in order to ensure that we have enough people for a tea party.

On that note - finally booked my U.S. tour today!!! Without going into the many airlines I spoke to and mileage accounts I had to access - you can find me in the U.S. from June 10th-20th. Ten days, three cities - San Diego June 10th-13th, DC June 14th-16th, and Rochesta, NY June 16th-20th. Hope to see you at one of my soon to be sold out appearances.

So this week, back to class and work. I also have to speak at a conference about biofuels as a favor to my old job. They needed a headshot for the conference website, and the only photo I could think of/find on short notice was one of me getting ready for my 10 year high school reunion, including hearts on my Mom's wall in the background. I'm so professional. Already been warned that some human rights activists will be there rallying against biofuels, so from one hot topic to the next. Then off to Kapiti Island this weekend for another noho (Maori sleepover). Don't worry Mom, I won't take sleeping pills this time, unless I have to....