We had a great deal of fun during our trip to Motunau Beach (about 100 km north of Christchurch) yesterday, so I thought it best to share some pictures. Enjoy!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Motunau Beach!
We had a great deal of fun during our trip to Motunau Beach (about 100 km north of Christchurch) yesterday, so I thought it best to share some pictures. Enjoy!
March 27, 2011
Kia Ora!
It has been an eventful month here in Christchurch. As you are undoubtedly aware, Christchurch was struck by another substantial earthquake on February 22, most likely an aftershock of the September 4 earthquake. This tremor (magnitude = 6.3), however, was directly under the suburb of Lyttleton (only several kilometers from Christchurch’s downtown), and was relatively shallow (only 6 kilometers below the surface). As such, the devastation in the city was very widespread, especially in the south and east areas of the city. Much of the downtown was destroyed, and two large buildings collapsed outright. The death toll now stands at 182 people for the city, mostly people who died in collapsed buildings, by masonry falling off buildings, or when they were in buses or cars crushed by debris. It has been a serious blow to the city of Christchurch, in terms of the psychological state of its inhabitants, its economy, and its infrastructure. Kiwis are resilient, though, and I have no doubt that Christchurch will rise again as one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in the southern hemisphere.
Some interesting details of the February 22 earthquake. It was generated by an upthrust slip of the fault that (they now know) runs from the Avon-Heathcote estuary (in the eastern suburbs) southward to the Port Hills. The two sides of the fault slipped by 1.5 m, and the Port Hills are now 40 cm higher. There was substantial liquefaction associated with the earthquake, since much of the eastern part of the city was built on silt. In places, the sand and silt that oozed to the surface was as deep as 3 m. Shag Rock, a small sea stack near Sumner and a highly visible Christchurch landmark, collapsed in the earthquake. It is now jokingly referred to as “Shag Pile”.
Sadly, my favorite café in the city (Le Café at the Arts Center) was badly damaged. Hopefully it will recover. And I hope their service gets better when it does.
A very (!) interesting and well-done website that shows the sequence, magnitude, and location of the earthquakes and their aftershocks can be seen at http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/
My brother Wayne and his family (wife Darcia, and two girls Terra and Trinity) had visited us in Christchurch for 10 days, and had left the city the day before the earthquake. When they were here, we jokingly wished that they would be able to experience an aftershock (being from the earthquake-free zone of Alberta, Canada), but they left without really experiencing a noticeable tremor. We were glad that they left when they did, though, because they had been downtown only two days before the big quake, and had visited many of the places where people died days later. They had dodged a big, earthquake-shaped bullet.
We had a really nice visit with them, and visited many of Christchurch’s attractions and landmarks: the Christchurch Cathedral (whose spire later collapsed), the Museum, The Arts Center (later partially collapsed), Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, and the Botanical Gardens.
Shelley’s work is progressing nicely. She is almost completed the latest trials of her experiment examining the potential effects of global climate change on plant-pollinator interactions. She has been working with bumblebees this year, which is nice. They’ve proven to be an excellent study animal, I think, and they always seem so friendly to me…
We went to Castle Hill to go bouldering a couple of weeks ago. Such an amazing place – beautiful scenery, sculptured boulders sprouting like mutant stone mushrooms from the green turf, and blue skies seemingly perpetual overhead. We had a great time, and I managed to climb a couple of V4 mantle problems quickly (it’s good to know that my mantling skills are coming along). Some of the mantles there are pretty amazing-looking, though, and I confess that many of them look completely impossible to me. Aya and I went ‘adventure bouldering’, crawling and climbing through gaps and tunnels in the rocks, and we all climbed up to the top of Spittle Hill, above the boulders and bluffs of Castle Hill.
Our Vancouver friends Merle and Jared visited us for a few days this month as well. They are bicycle touring through New Zealand for several weeks, although Merle’s knees have been giving her problems, so the ‘pedal-powered’ aspect of their vacation is in doubt. Regardless, we had a great time with them, including a series of memorable meals! We wish them luck on their travels throughout New Zealand and Australia!
This past Saturday we drove up north for an hour to spend the day at Motunau Beach. It is now one of our favorite places in New Zealand. An idyllic little village on a grassy knoll overlooking the Pacific Ocean with the small rocky isle (and wildlife refuge) of Motunau Island just offshore. We walked around the headland from the parking lot to the small sandy beach below the village, where we had a great day looking for paua shells (I found three!), swimming, and looking in tide pools. I was showing Aya the basics of body surfing (OK, I was really holding her under the armpits, but she thought it was great fun), and I went for swim even though the day was a little cool. There were building lots for sale here ($240,000 NZ for 5 hectares right on the ocean!), which pretty much had us mentally moving to Motunau Beach. Lots of sea food, a surf break and swimming beach 100 m from the house, vineyards just down the road, and gorgeous scenery – who could ask for more?
I’ll try to update this blog a little more faithfully in the future…
Take care!
Trent.
It has been an eventful month here in Christchurch. As you are undoubtedly aware, Christchurch was struck by another substantial earthquake on February 22, most likely an aftershock of the September 4 earthquake. This tremor (magnitude = 6.3), however, was directly under the suburb of Lyttleton (only several kilometers from Christchurch’s downtown), and was relatively shallow (only 6 kilometers below the surface). As such, the devastation in the city was very widespread, especially in the south and east areas of the city. Much of the downtown was destroyed, and two large buildings collapsed outright. The death toll now stands at 182 people for the city, mostly people who died in collapsed buildings, by masonry falling off buildings, or when they were in buses or cars crushed by debris. It has been a serious blow to the city of Christchurch, in terms of the psychological state of its inhabitants, its economy, and its infrastructure. Kiwis are resilient, though, and I have no doubt that Christchurch will rise again as one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in the southern hemisphere.
Some interesting details of the February 22 earthquake. It was generated by an upthrust slip of the fault that (they now know) runs from the Avon-Heathcote estuary (in the eastern suburbs) southward to the Port Hills. The two sides of the fault slipped by 1.5 m, and the Port Hills are now 40 cm higher. There was substantial liquefaction associated with the earthquake, since much of the eastern part of the city was built on silt. In places, the sand and silt that oozed to the surface was as deep as 3 m. Shag Rock, a small sea stack near Sumner and a highly visible Christchurch landmark, collapsed in the earthquake. It is now jokingly referred to as “Shag Pile”.
Sadly, my favorite café in the city (Le Café at the Arts Center) was badly damaged. Hopefully it will recover. And I hope their service gets better when it does.
A very (!) interesting and well-done website that shows the sequence, magnitude, and location of the earthquakes and their aftershocks can be seen at http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/
My brother Wayne and his family (wife Darcia, and two girls Terra and Trinity) had visited us in Christchurch for 10 days, and had left the city the day before the earthquake. When they were here, we jokingly wished that they would be able to experience an aftershock (being from the earthquake-free zone of Alberta, Canada), but they left without really experiencing a noticeable tremor. We were glad that they left when they did, though, because they had been downtown only two days before the big quake, and had visited many of the places where people died days later. They had dodged a big, earthquake-shaped bullet.
We had a really nice visit with them, and visited many of Christchurch’s attractions and landmarks: the Christchurch Cathedral (whose spire later collapsed), the Museum, The Arts Center (later partially collapsed), Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, and the Botanical Gardens.
Shelley’s work is progressing nicely. She is almost completed the latest trials of her experiment examining the potential effects of global climate change on plant-pollinator interactions. She has been working with bumblebees this year, which is nice. They’ve proven to be an excellent study animal, I think, and they always seem so friendly to me…
We went to Castle Hill to go bouldering a couple of weeks ago. Such an amazing place – beautiful scenery, sculptured boulders sprouting like mutant stone mushrooms from the green turf, and blue skies seemingly perpetual overhead. We had a great time, and I managed to climb a couple of V4 mantle problems quickly (it’s good to know that my mantling skills are coming along). Some of the mantles there are pretty amazing-looking, though, and I confess that many of them look completely impossible to me. Aya and I went ‘adventure bouldering’, crawling and climbing through gaps and tunnels in the rocks, and we all climbed up to the top of Spittle Hill, above the boulders and bluffs of Castle Hill.
Our Vancouver friends Merle and Jared visited us for a few days this month as well. They are bicycle touring through New Zealand for several weeks, although Merle’s knees have been giving her problems, so the ‘pedal-powered’ aspect of their vacation is in doubt. Regardless, we had a great time with them, including a series of memorable meals! We wish them luck on their travels throughout New Zealand and Australia!
This past Saturday we drove up north for an hour to spend the day at Motunau Beach. It is now one of our favorite places in New Zealand. An idyllic little village on a grassy knoll overlooking the Pacific Ocean with the small rocky isle (and wildlife refuge) of Motunau Island just offshore. We walked around the headland from the parking lot to the small sandy beach below the village, where we had a great day looking for paua shells (I found three!), swimming, and looking in tide pools. I was showing Aya the basics of body surfing (OK, I was really holding her under the armpits, but she thought it was great fun), and I went for swim even though the day was a little cool. There were building lots for sale here ($240,000 NZ for 5 hectares right on the ocean!), which pretty much had us mentally moving to Motunau Beach. Lots of sea food, a surf break and swimming beach 100 m from the house, vineyards just down the road, and gorgeous scenery – who could ask for more?
I’ll try to update this blog a little more faithfully in the future…
Take care!
Trent.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Rain, sun, wind and more rain
Well, the weather continues to be unsettled thanks to cyclonic systems in the southern hemisphere. We have gone from torrential downpour to 36 and sunny, to windy Nor'westers, and back to torrential rains. Tomorrow? Sunny, of course!
We had an interesting weekend....
lets see - we'll start with bad news:
our washer is broken and needs to be fixed
Someone "knocked" our bumper when we were parked downtown. Thankfully, she left us a note (in smudged eye-liner, it took a few wrong numbers before we found the culprit!). Luckily, noone was hurt, and the car still works. Now we get to figure out how insurance works here (luckily she has some, as it isn't mandatory here!). The damage isn't so bad, but bad enough we want to get it fixed, as it will affect the resale value of our car, which we will be selling when we return to North America!
We are still waiting to get our 'bond' (ie damage deposit) back from our old place
Our much delayed new credit cards finally showed up - the day after I cancelled them and ordered new ones.
the interesting / good news:
Trent helped our neighbours (a young brother and sister from Borneo) move out into their new flat (a converted shed? or garage?). This isn't so unusual, Trent is a helpful guy. What is unusual is (1) I have never met anyone from Borneo before, and (2) they asked him if he could help them by renting a trailer and towing it full of stuff to their new place at 8 pm the day they were moving...a little last minute! Now we will see who moves in!
I have excellent vision, despite my "rugby ball" shaped eyes. My left eye isn't as good as my right, but I can see fine. This is the conclusion of a very lengthy eye exam, my first in , oh 20+ years. I have been having tired, sore eyes lately, and had finally admitted to myself that I was getting old and needed reading glasses, but apparently I am as youthful as I like to believe (or at least my eyes are!). I just need to quit working at a computer so much...hmm, my Dr. did reccommend a holiday...
That is all the news. I keep meaning to post photos of our new place, and hope to do so soon!
love shelley
We had an interesting weekend....
lets see - we'll start with bad news:
our washer is broken and needs to be fixed
Someone "knocked" our bumper when we were parked downtown. Thankfully, she left us a note (in smudged eye-liner, it took a few wrong numbers before we found the culprit!). Luckily, noone was hurt, and the car still works. Now we get to figure out how insurance works here (luckily she has some, as it isn't mandatory here!). The damage isn't so bad, but bad enough we want to get it fixed, as it will affect the resale value of our car, which we will be selling when we return to North America!
We are still waiting to get our 'bond' (ie damage deposit) back from our old place
Our much delayed new credit cards finally showed up - the day after I cancelled them and ordered new ones.
the interesting / good news:
Trent helped our neighbours (a young brother and sister from Borneo) move out into their new flat (a converted shed? or garage?). This isn't so unusual, Trent is a helpful guy. What is unusual is (1) I have never met anyone from Borneo before, and (2) they asked him if he could help them by renting a trailer and towing it full of stuff to their new place at 8 pm the day they were moving...a little last minute! Now we will see who moves in!
I have excellent vision, despite my "rugby ball" shaped eyes. My left eye isn't as good as my right, but I can see fine. This is the conclusion of a very lengthy eye exam, my first in , oh 20+ years. I have been having tired, sore eyes lately, and had finally admitted to myself that I was getting old and needed reading glasses, but apparently I am as youthful as I like to believe (or at least my eyes are!). I just need to quit working at a computer so much...hmm, my Dr. did reccommend a holiday...
That is all the news. I keep meaning to post photos of our new place, and hope to do so soon!
love shelley
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Friday, Jan. 28
Summer continues here in Christchurch. The weather has been unsettled - at least to my Canadian eye - but generally warm and sunny. Shelley is knee-deep in bumblebees (as she teases apart how the relationships between plants, flowers, and their pollinators will be affected by global environmental change), I am getting bleary-eyed from staring at my laptop (as I grind through a decade of data that I've ignored and experiments I've been less-than-loyal to, in an effort to wrest scientific papers forth), and Aya and Rowan are simply enjoying the summer and each other's company (it is nice to seem them playing together, inventing all kinds of things, living the spontaneously imaginative and proximate lives of young children). Good times, for the most part.
We've moved house. This was largely inspired by the children's book "Mouse Moves House". It looked so fun, when Mack the Mouse packed up his books, his blue-and-white dishes, and his beautifully framed paintings of cheese into cunning wooden crates, and moved across the hallway using the back of his friend Fat Cat as a sort of furry lorry. Sadly, the reality is somewhat more pedestrian. We're now settled into our new house which is, luckily, very close to the university and Rowan and Aya's daycare.
As such, do not mail anything to our old address. Email me for our new address if you are planning on either mailing us a parcel or visiting.
I am hoping to get to the beach this weekend. I'd like to go swimming, but it hasn't happened much this summer.
Well, back to work. I need to email my (incredibly) young friend Tracy N. this afternoon. I am hoping that she is interested in co-authoring a paper on the role that riparian leave strips play in maintaining understory riparian vegetation in coastal temperate rain forests. I'm hoping she says 'yes'. I'm going to offer to do almost all the work (detailed outlines for introduction and discussion, the methods completely written, the results completely written (including analyses and figures)). Tracy knows more about understory vegetation than I ever will, though, so the paper would benefit greatly from her writing. I will even offer to let her be the first author. We'll see if I am persuasive enough.
Lately I have been missing all my climbing friends. Especially - but certainly not limited to - Laurie S., Greg T., Marco L., and Brad T. It's hard to climb a lot without people to inspire you. My hat is off to you!
Finally, does ANYONE know where I can find a good toque / tuque? A nice, Canadian toque? Long enough to roll up the bottom edge, a nicely-sized pom-pom, knit from acrylic (or wool, even)? If you look, you will see that this, the most quintessential of all Canadian garments (well, one of them, anyways, if you include the anorak, the amauti, the coureur de bois sash, the cree beaded moccasin), is being largely supplanted in our retail establishments by American-style 'beanies', which are mass-produced in China. A disgrace, really.
Take care!
We've moved house. This was largely inspired by the children's book "Mouse Moves House". It looked so fun, when Mack the Mouse packed up his books, his blue-and-white dishes, and his beautifully framed paintings of cheese into cunning wooden crates, and moved across the hallway using the back of his friend Fat Cat as a sort of furry lorry. Sadly, the reality is somewhat more pedestrian. We're now settled into our new house which is, luckily, very close to the university and Rowan and Aya's daycare.
As such, do not mail anything to our old address. Email me for our new address if you are planning on either mailing us a parcel or visiting.
I am hoping to get to the beach this weekend. I'd like to go swimming, but it hasn't happened much this summer.
Well, back to work. I need to email my (incredibly) young friend Tracy N. this afternoon. I am hoping that she is interested in co-authoring a paper on the role that riparian leave strips play in maintaining understory riparian vegetation in coastal temperate rain forests. I'm hoping she says 'yes'. I'm going to offer to do almost all the work (detailed outlines for introduction and discussion, the methods completely written, the results completely written (including analyses and figures)). Tracy knows more about understory vegetation than I ever will, though, so the paper would benefit greatly from her writing. I will even offer to let her be the first author. We'll see if I am persuasive enough.
Lately I have been missing all my climbing friends. Especially - but certainly not limited to - Laurie S., Greg T., Marco L., and Brad T. It's hard to climb a lot without people to inspire you. My hat is off to you!
Finally, does ANYONE know where I can find a good toque / tuque? A nice, Canadian toque? Long enough to roll up the bottom edge, a nicely-sized pom-pom, knit from acrylic (or wool, even)? If you look, you will see that this, the most quintessential of all Canadian garments (well, one of them, anyways, if you include the anorak, the amauti, the coureur de bois sash, the cree beaded moccasin), is being largely supplanted in our retail establishments by American-style 'beanies', which are mass-produced in China. A disgrace, really.
Take care!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Happy Holidays!
Hello Everyone! We hope that you have had a wonderful holiday, and have a terrific 2011! We miss you all terribly, and hope to see everyone in 2011! First will be the family visiting in February! We are all excited, especially A!
As most of you know my mom and honourary Aunt came for a visit, which was wonderful! Everyone had a fun and relaxing summer holiday. They started with a tour of the North Island, and were ready for a bit of Christmas and relaxing in Christchurch. We went so see the endangered yellow-eyed penguin (Hoiho) in Oamaru, and poked around in Otago for a couple days. The penguins were the highlight of the trip for all! We also went to the famous Moeraki boulders (round boulders on the beach), which were cool but there were too many people there for my liking.
We went for a punt ride through Hagley park on Christmas eve, which was quite relaxing and lovely! Rowan keeps asking when we get to go on a little boat again. I felt like I should have seen Toad 'pooting' by in his motor car, and ratty and mole picnicking on the shore...
I don't think my mom and Aunt were too impressed with our boxing day aftershocks - only a 4.9, bt it was centered under Christchurch. Did more damage downtown, and the shops lost even more business on their busiest day! Many places downtown were closed but have since reopened.
Next on the to-do list is to find a place to live - our lease ends in early Feb, and we will have to leave our 'villa'
more later!
S
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Unexpected Events!
Well, the last 24 hours have been very eventful... Let's start with Monday, then work forwards in time until the present.
On Monday evening, I was at U Canterbury, doing a bit of reading to prepare for a phone call I was expecting very early the next morning (to discuss the prospect of doing some research on lake food webs and predator-prey interactions, but that is beside the point for now). I could feel a little rough patch on my lower right third molar (wisdom tooth); thinking it was bit of food stuck back there, I poked at it only to have a sizable piece of my tooth break away! I was surprised, and more than a little chagrined. I take any kind of tooth damage rather personally, and this was a substantial piece of enamel and dentine.
No longer focused on work, I went home. An inspection in the mirror showed that I now had a sizable cavern in the side of my wisdom tooth. To make a long story short, I went to bed so I could wake up at 6:00 the next morning for a long-distance phone call. I had a very nice talk with a DFO scientist, then went to work. I needed to find a reputable dentist, so I asked around in my office. Tanya (fellow quasi-post-doc) suggested her dentist, so I phoned and made an appointment for 3:30.
Before I could go to the dentist, however, Shelley and I had to go to the airport and pick up Shelley's mom (and her friend Sandy) who was arriving in Christchurch at 2:00... and before we could do that, Shelley and I had to go pick up the van we had rented for Shelley's mom's visit (our car can't accommodate everyone). So we managed to get all that done (much to Aya and Rowan's joy and delight), then off I went to the dentist.
Once I was firmly seated in the dentist chair (at Bradley Wood Dentists on Papanui Road), my dentist Jeremy told me that there was no saving the tooth. It was badly decayed on the inside, and had to come out. I had mentally and emotionally prepared myself for this moment. ;)
To be truthful, the procedure was pretty straightforward. The tooth broke into three pieces, and took a fair bit of work to get out (perhaps 30 minutes), but it was relatively painless (since I was well-frozen). I now have an odd number of teeth for the first time since I was a lad.
Now if I was just finished (a) my Christmas Shopping and (b) revisions to my latest manuscript which has been tentatively accepted to a decent scientific journal.
[I've included a picture of Rowan, standing amid the Kowhai flowers on the lawn.]
Cheers,
Trent.
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