Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand....

It's official. After living in Wellington for six months we've now ventured out to the South Island. We left on August 24th, our second anniversary, via a quick, direct flight to Queenstown. The flight was amazing as a good chunk of the South Island's west coast is snow covered mountains. I spent most of it staring at the scenery instead of reading my book - that's how beautiful is was. :)

Upon arrival we collected our bags and were whisked away to our hotel. Although we arrived before check-in time our room was ready within a few minutes. While we were waiting I couldn't help but watch a group of young guys as they were checking out. They were bedraggled and grouchy as they sat amongst their mountain of luggage in the lobby. One was on crutches while another had one arm tied up in a sling. It was then that the I overheard one of them say to the others, "Let's never go on holiday again!". I couldn't help but giggle. Soon thereafter we checked in, ditched our bags and set off to start exploring the town. From the moment we arrived I kept thinking, 'This is so much like Bozeman'. And it was, a small ski town, wedged in amongst the mountains. Talk about deja vu. Except for the fact that it wasn't cold at all and had no snow. We heard later that the slopes were more icy than snowy. In town we saw person after person limping around on crutches or cradling an arm in a sling and/or cast. Yikes.

Walking into town, just seven blocks from our hotel, we took in the view. Yeah. I kept saying, 'It's so beautiful!'. :)

We soon realized that Queenstown really was a town because after walking a few streets we saw most of the bars and restaurants that we had talked about and wanted to try. We walked out to the waterfront to check out the beach, the boats and cruisers.

 

Then we had to make a trip to Fergburger. A couple weeks ago we had never heard of Ferg but apparently it's all the rage in NZ. We read about it's high user ratings online and even got a recommendation from one of the guys that works at our favorite Indian restaurant in Wellington. The burger was huge, perfect as we like to share, and delicious!! While it was still definitely different from a burger that you'd get in the US I'd have to say that it's the best kiwi burger we've had so far. :)

After Ferg we toasted the day at Pub on the Wharf while enjoying the beautiful view. Timmy quickly noticed this pup as he was running around the square, having the time of his life saying 'hi' to everyone and scoring treats from most people. :)

Next we went in search of dessert and within minutes we had found Patagonia Chocolates. They had all kinds of delicious treats including gelato, cheesecake and of course chocolate. We settled on four dessert shooters: Vanilla Bean, Creme Brulee, Boysenberry Cheesecake and Chocolate Mousse.

Um, yeah. We made short work of these tasty bites. :)

That night we set off, via shuttle, to the Onsen Hot Pools. We had both looked at this attraction separately and thought it would be fun to try. So we booked a pool with candles and wine to celebrate our anniversary!! :) Upon arriving we were escorted to our hot pool and soon after we were soaking up the warmth and taking in the ambiance from the candles. One of the walls rolled up and away so you could see out and feel the cool air while still being snug and warm in the water. :) An amazing experience!!

The next day we took in the Queenstown Gardens despite the fact that it was rainy. We then spent the rest of the day exploring the shops around town and grabbing a drink at a cozy pub, 1876, until that evening when I went to attend the first session of the conference.

On Sunday I went to the morning session and when I got back we decided to go exploring via one of the walking paths around the lake. The rain had cleared up and we were determined to get out there and enjoy the incredibly warm temperatures (14-15 C or low 60s F). The path provided us a nice long walk - just shy of five miles (and that put us only part way around the lake).

That night we decided to go into town and experience a Queenstown wine tasting. There's a place right in town where you can taste any (or as many) of the 80+ wines they have 'on tap'. I realized you usually see this with beer and not wine but this place was very different from anything we had ever seen.

We strolled in and were given a card that would keep track of the wine we tried throughout the night. If you saw a bottle that you wanted to try all you had to do was insert your card and press one of three buttons. Each distributed a different amount of wine into your glass. I loved that you could try just a sip. If you didn't like it then you weren't stuck with a whole glass wondering how you could get rid of it. :) The wine available for tasting was organized in groups so we started out with the signature NZ wine, sauvignon blanc.Then we moved on to the chardonnay and pinot gris. When we hit the riesling section I knew I was home. So delicious!!

We ordered an h'orderves platter, sank into the comfy leather chairs and continued to enjoy trying different wines at a leisurely pace. It seemed apropos to finish up with some dessert wine. Overall, a wonderful way to try a variety of NZ wine!! :)

On Monday I went to my morning as usual and then we set off to get some lunch and visit a cupcake shop that was sponsoring a fundraiser for the SPCA. Tim had seen signs around Wellington and wanted to make sure that we showed our support when we were in Queenstown. At Cup & Cake I had a carrot cake cupcake while Tim chose a red velvet beauty. While there we were able to visit with a super cute shelter pup, Winston. :)

Instead of having a regular afternoon session with talks from various scientists the students presented their posters. I presented a poster describing some ongoing lab work. A master's student had started the project but was unable to finish it before she graduated. So I ran an experiment the week before the conference and put a poster together to present what we had thus far. While preparing for this presentation I vacillated between panic and general peace of mind. One on hand I was worried because, with the exception of one experiment, I had not conducted this research and therefore did not have as firm a grasp on it if I had done it myself. Over several weeks I spent time reading papers and trying to sort it out in my mind. At the times I thought I had it, then I would continue to read and become confused again. Altogether a very frustrating place to be. In the end I took a deep breath and told myself that I've presented several posters over the last few years, some of those at the sometimes-incredibly-intimidating Neuroscience conference. When I came to the poster session I was nervous, as always when I present, but as students, professors and scientists stopped to chat with me about  the project I started to relax. I was able to articulately explain what we had set out to investigate and what we found. In the end there were some questions that I could not answer but I wasn't upset because that is the nature of science (I'm not a chemist or molecular biologist so those questions will always get me). Overall, I'd say that my first kiwi poster presentation was a success!! After my session had ended I went around and had a great time talking to other students about their projects. Hello, nerds. :)

After the sessions ended I trekked back to our hotel to find the sweetest gift from my Timmy. It was a bottle of Misha's Limelight Riesling - my favorite wine from the tasting!!

On Tuesday I set off to the morning session but when I got back we decided to go out walking. After a leisurely stroll through town we found ourselves at the bottom of the 'hill' where the ever famous gondola starts. We decided there was no time like the present to ride up and see the amazing views!!

That night, Sue, one of the professors in our department, invited all the students (and Timmy) over to her flash suite for a steak dinner. We arrived to find all the students huddled around the h'orderves. Sue was juggling the task of preparing several dishes simultaneously in the kitchen. We sat down to succulent steak, crisp salad and deliciously soft bread. The evening was a great time spent relaxing, reflecting on the conference thus far and enjoying the good eats. Savoring our bottle of Riesling we chatted the night away while everyone else managed to plow through Sue's recently acquired case of wine. :) Happy faces all around.

Wednesday was the final day of the conference. They held a double morning session that ended with the student awards. One for the best student poster presentation and the other for the best student oral presentation. Sadly, neither award was won by a student from Victoria despite the fact that we had some good posters and two good oral presentations. :)

Tim and I grabbed lunch at a cafe in town before we were off to go ice skating!! With the temps much colder inside than outside we strapped on our skates and stepped onto the ice. As always I was unsteady at first, every move feeling unstable. From minute one Tim was at ease on his skates, dancing circles around me as I cautiously moved along. Soon I was feeling more confident and Timmy helped me improve my technique. I was even able to work up to skating backwards a little bit! Amazing! It was the best time I've ever had skating. I only wish that we had the opportunity to skate in Wellington. Unfortunately, there is no ice skating to be had. :(

We skated as long as we could, to the point where our ankles were going to fall off. :) Skating worked up an appetite so we walked around by the lake and in to town. We shared a Ferg burger and fries followed up with gelato!! Yum!!

Queenstown: Simply amazing!! :)

Southward bound....

Tomorrow, our two year anniversary, we embark on an adventure to the South Island! We've only been on the North Island so far and are looking forward to exploring Queenstown. From what I've heard, it's a ski town and, as you might expect, has beautiful views. It makes me wonder how Bozeman-like it will be. :)

When I joined the Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience Lab in May I soon learned that most of the students were planning to attend the Australian Winter Conference for Brain Research in Queenstown at the end of August. I immediately assumed that I wouldn't be able to attend because I had just started in the lab and I probably wouldn't have any data. The other students kept asking me if I was going to attend and when I hesitated they encouraged me to talk to my advisors and see what we could figure out. At our next advisor/advisee meeting I broached the subject and immediately my primary and secondary advisors, Bart and Dave, respectively, were whipping up ideas for a poster and offering to help fund my way. Happily surprised, I figured, "Why not?". So I will be presenting a poster that summarizes some research that was conducted just as I became a part of the lab group. The majority of the data is not mine but I did run an experiment last week to round out the data set.

I have to say that going to a conference and presenting what feels like someone else's data is quite daunting. To date I've presented at a couple very small conferences in and around MSU; in addition, I've presented twice at the biggest conference for brain and behavior research: Neuroscience. But each time I was presenting data that I had collected myself. So this feels very strange. I've read as much as I can in this short amount of time about the topic and am bracing for impact. I'm not too worried but there's apprehension there. In talking to my advisors and the other students I've been reminded that if I don't know the answer to a question it's perfectly acceptable to diplomatically say, "I don't know". It may sound strange but it's a small comfort.

When it was official that I was going to present at AWCBR I wanted to see if Tim could come along. Sure enough he's been able to get away from the lab this next week and we're taking advantage of this time to travel and explore more of NZ!

Pics to come!!

Mini Wellington Tilt Shift Time Lapse....

One of my friends from the lab, Alana, sent this to me. As she put it: "Wellington super mini!".

Adding and substracting the letter 's'....

Some things are just slightly different in NZ. Just enough that you notice. For example, instead of saying 'math' you would say 'maths'. And instead of saying 'sports', as in 'sports trivia' or the 'sports page' you would say 'sport'. These don't appear strange at first until you actually hear someone say them. Take a second and say them out loud. I know, it makes you giggle a little. :)

Couldn't resist....

Walking around this past weekend we happened upon these two tiny vehicles. I laughed out loud. Compared to the Fiat the Mini looks downright beefy (and believe me it's not just the camera angle). :)

Decisions...

Even after six months (six, can you believe it?) in Wellington we are continually finding new restaurants, cafes and bars (pubs) that we want to try. I fear that if we move away after graduation we will have barely scratched the surface of Wellington's gustatory delights! :) With that said we aim to keep exploring and trying as we go - it makes for such a good time.

This past weekend we went out to watch the All Blacks play the Australian national team, the Wallabies. Our venue choice was a new one: D4 on Featherston. Good atmosphere, except for the smokers coming and going through a sliding patio door out onto a balcony. Shutting the door proved to be a challenge for most of them. Born. In. A. Barn.

The following day we went out for lunch with Tim's lab group. With spouses and families in tow we probably numbered forty-five people and had the longest table I've ever seen set up in a restaurant. :) The eatery was another new one for us: One Red Dog. Great food, good company and fun decor! We will definitely go back. :)

Just kidding....

A few blog posts ago I had said that we were settling in for the long haul in our teeny, tiny apartment. And that was the plan until very recently. When we first looked at units in our complex we saw the small studio that we ended up renting as well as larger studios with patios and one bedroom apartments. At the time we were unsure of our financial situation as this was before I had been accepted into the PhD program and awarded funding. The little place was perfect in the beginning as we didn’t have much to fill it and the price tag was fairly reasonable. But it did come with some limitations. For example, we could only fit eight hangers in the closet. Count them. Eight. In our place in Bozeman I probably had eight hangers just for tank tops or sweatshirts, never mind all my blouses, skirts, slacks and sweaters. Another issue was condensation. We had a huge window which we would open when we were home but whenever it would rain we’d have a drippy deluge of condensation streaming down the window. Along those same lines the bathroom was at the opposite end of the apartment as the big window so it always resembled a steamy jungle no matter how much we ran the fan. I’m afraid our bath towels never dried out in the six months we’ve been in NZ. Bleh.

Knowing that our lease was up in the middle of August we decided to reconsider our options, within the complex and beyond. We didn’t find anything outside the complex that was worth the asking price so we asked if any of the large studios with patios were available. To our great delight we were in luck and had the opportunity to look at one a couple weeks ago. Compared to our little place (remember it’s 22 square meters/232 square feet) the larger studio seemed enormous. With an extra 10 square meters/108 square feet inside and 5 square meters/54 square feet patio outside, it felt so decadent! We expressed our interest in renting the unit and soon learned that we could move on the 25^th of August. Um, that’s great except that we’re going to be in Queenstown for a research conference where I’m to present some ongoing research from our lab. Tim is coming along and we’re making it an anniversary trip of sorts! Fortunately for us we were then told that another unit, also a large studio, was available from the 15^th of August. We signed on the dotted line and moved into the new unit on the 11^th of August!! Thankfully, it wasn't a rainy day. :)

So the move was insane. Insanely tame. Just imagine for a second moving a small smattering of items from a tiny studio apartment just 60 meters/200 feet down the courtyard. Yeah. It took less than two hours to walk everything over to the new place. The next day we spent about the same amount of time cleaning and I’ve got to say it was the most painless move I’ve ever experienced. And I hate moving. With. A. Passion. But this was more than doable. I had to laugh as I considered all the work that went into sorting everything back in Bozeman, taking carload after carload to the thrift store and giving things away. Then still having enough stuff to fill a largish moving truck. We started that process months before we left Bozeman. Talk about perspective. :)

Even though we’ve been in the new place less than a week I get déjà vu all the time. Many elements are identical to the old place so it’s like we’ve already lived here for a while. But at the same time there are several things that are different. It’s, like, the same, but different. :) Instead of coming into the building, heading up the stairs and around the corner we now keep going out into a beautiful center courtyard. The glass overhang is lovely when rain is falling so you don’t have to run to your door.

Well maybe the last few steps where you exit off of the path and onto our patio!

Since you enter through the only entrance, the patio door, and onto the living room carpet we decided to get creative with these green, AstroTurf-like, mats. The windows to the right of the door can be cracked open (but still locked if need be) all the time so our days of fighting water vapor are over. :)

Stepping into the living room we have the same couch, TV and desk that we had in the other place but now they have their own space within the unit. Beyond the couch you’ll recognize the same wardrobe/Murphy bed setup that we had previously.

If you continue to venture past the bed you’ll enter the kitchen which also has the same setup as the other unit. Except that everything seems to be nicer and newer.

In the old unit I could barely reach the top shelf in the cupboards and had to resort to climbing on the counter or creative manipulation of salad tongs to retrieve items. This new kitchen has cupboards that are even taller. When we were first moving items in here Tim had one of the cupboards open and was filling it with canned and dried goods. I wasn’t paying attention and as I turned around I heard him gasp as I walked under the open cabinet with less than an inch clearance above my head. I had to laugh. If I can walk under the open cupboards there’s no way I’m going to be able to get anything from the top shelf. The next day we resorted to buying a step ladder; it’s useful on a daily basis. :)

Now our washer/dryer combo is in the kitchen instead of behind a sliding wall so that makes it easier to do laundry when Tim is in the kitchen cooking. Before we had to trade off and move the wall back and forth to get at what we needed. Small joys. :)

Next, we have the item I deemed most decadent: a full closet. Ok, I never thought about it until I didn’t have one. This is amazing. We can hang up more than eight hangers in there as well as store our suitcases, shoes and a variety of other items. A-mazing!

 Lastly, we come around to the bathroom which is much the same as the old place except that it’s quite a bit bigger. Again it all feels so luxurious and open - we are loving it!!

The singular hassle came when we attempted to have our broadband (internet) switched over to the new unit. First, we were unable to find help with this issue when we visited a Vodafone store. "You have to call the customer service line for that....". Ok, fine but we'd rather talk to a person, in-person. So I called them up and learned three interesting things: 1) it would take them 5-9 business days to switch the broadband over (really....?!), 2) it would cost $100 NZD to make the switch (again....really?!...our physical address isn't changing...remember we only moved 200 feet down the hall), 3) somehow we were now living in a different coverage zone and would be charged an additional $10 per month. Sigh. I questioned the customer service rep about all these issues and came away from the conversation unsatisfied and perturbed. Ok, so I just have to take your word for it that we live in a different zone and there are essentially no options?? Sigh. We've decided that we'll see our 12 month contract through to the end and then shop around to see if there are better options out there.

Overall, the move was painless and we are happy and snuggled into our new, slightly bigger, tiny place. :) Check out the patio view from inside. We are loving the fact that we see green and will see it year round!!