Hi!

NZ! – a photoset on Flickr

We’re home, we’re home! I’m still reeling from the time change, allergies that I forgot I would have upon my return to Texas, and a few other things. However, I am happy to report that all is well… the semester is off to a lovely start, and you can peep some photos of the big trip by clicking the link above.

I have so many things to blog about I can’t seem to pick one. I will resort to bullet points:

• Travel, for me, is about shaking things up. You shake up your routine, your perspective, and usually some unexpected things as well. This trip did that nicely and, in a few case, not so nicely (like when the airline lost our luggage for the first 4 days).
• People in NZ – locals and foreigners – were unexpectedly clued in to U.S. politics on more than a superficial level. I heard about Hillary’s tears on local radio, for example.
• As I was just discussing with a fellow sociology grad student, Americans are far more American-centric than Kiwis (New Zealanders call themselves Kiwis) are NZ-centric. The news, for example, is global and (seems to) be filtered by the magnitude of the event in question rather than its relationship to the country in which it’s being reported. This is an obvious point, especially for frequent travellers (or people who aren’t American!), but I noticed it.
• I was shy about telling people we were “from Texas” (which we are not, strictly – we just live here) because of the Bush association. I wondered if my feelings were warranted until one day when we went on a wine tasting. After a lot of tasting, I asked one of our group (a psychology PhD student from Holland) how bad it was to say we were from Texas. She said “Pretty bad.” Sigh.
• The highlight of our trip was taking a helicopter ride over the glaciers on the south island of NZ. It was really amazing. It wasn’t something that could be captured well in pictures, but there are some in the set linked above.
• Another very fun time was the Segway tour we did in Wellington. They have them in Austin, and I used to mock people who did it when I saw them (while envying them at the same time). I am here to tell you that Segways are awesome. I love them. I want one. I don’t care how dorky I looked, it was great fun!
• A chunk of New Zealand’s electricity comes from harnessing geothermal activity. How cool is that? There is something very raw about the whole country, and it is especially underscored by the fact that it has spots where the mud is boiling, and the earth is steaming.
• If you come across any Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region, purchase it! It’s delicious! It is not a coincedence that white wine is one of their fastest growing exports.

That’s all for now… maybe more later!

technorati tags:new zealand, photography

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