…sed mutato nomine te fabula narratur…

After resting and recuperating in Christchurch for a bit, it was time for another adventure. After some deliberation, we decided to “take it easy” and just go for a walk… THROUGH A CAVE! Yep, about an hour’s drive from Christchurch is the Cave Stream, one of New Zealand’s best kept secrets – if only because it is nigh impossible to reach if you do not have your own transportation. It’s a 600-meter walk upstream, through a limestone cave, in water that goes from knee-deep to waist-deep (and is not too cold, if you’re lucky), and it’s AWESOME in the most literal sense of the word. Bonus: in Europe, there would inevitably be a ticket booth, guided tours, all kinds of health and safety measures, and possibly a souvenir shop. Here, all we got was a sign telling us to wear proper clothing, bring a flashlight, and godspeed. So in we went, and good times were had.

Seeing as it is kind of hard to convey how cool the whole experiene was, I’m just gonna skip right to the pictures instead, as they sort of tell their own story (even though it’s hard to take pics in pitch black conditions)…

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Christchurch, as it turns out, is a very nice city, with a nice, small city center and enough to do to keep anyone occupied for at least a couple of days. Thus, I had originally planned on writing a sort of comprehensive travel guide for the entire city, but while writing my review of the Canterbury Museum, I got a bit carried away – so instead of getting my take on the town, here is a review of JUST the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, because I felt like writing one… apparently. There’s a bit on the Antarctic Centre at the end though, so feel free to skip most of this article  if you were planning on going there and skipping the museum!
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I finally, FINALLY got around to selecting, resizing and enhancing some pictures I took during the tarp of the trip that I have already written about (8-13 February)(click on “New Zealand” for more info). Enjoy!!

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Had I been writing this here update on the day I should have written it, I would undoubtedly have named it after a well-known internet phenomenon featuring islands and boats. By now, I know better, and I’m saving that one for later. With that being said, today WAS another adventure, even though one would have expected it to be relatively normal.
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I really, really should update this blog more often! Forgive me for I have sinned, it’s been a week since my last update and all that… but there’s SO much to do here!! Well, I guess I’ll just have to dig deep into my memory banks and see what I can come up with. Accuracy is not guaranteed, but excitement is, as we cycle up the Old Coach Road, and wander across Ohakune some more.
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Waking up in Wellington, I was surprised that the dreaded jetlag seemed to have no effect on me. I was just a groggy as I usually am after waking up slightly too early. Fortunately, there was no time for my usual slow start, as there were buses to be caught and breakfasts to be had: we were on our way to Ohakune, one of the possible HQs for the dreaded Tongariro Crossing!

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Flying, if you ask me, is a weird – if not unsettling – experience. Especially when traveling long distances, I always get the feeling that my mind and/or body are telling me that I’m moving too fast for my own good, that being stuffed into a big metal tube and whisked across the planet is not the way man is supposed to travel. Usually, when I fly, the effect is too small to properly appreciate (Berlin to Amsterdam is, for example, a relatively short distance), but when I had the pleasure of journeying halfway across the globe to New Zealand, what I think iamounts to the longest possible distance on a commercial flight, this effect hit me once again, like an old friend playfully punching you in the gut (albeit slightly too hard).

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In November and December 2009, I went to Vienna (for a Hludowicus Project Meeting), and to Frankfurt (for a T&I project meeting). In between those two, I spent some time working in the ever-inspiring OEAW, where the coffee and company is good and plentiful, and strolled around beautiful Vienna in what turned out to be the last few nice days of the year (weather-wise, that is). Went to the Leopold Museum to see Munch and the Uncanny, went to the Albertina to compensate for this expressionist onslaught with some nice Impressionists impressions, went to the Wien Museum to experience the excitement of Vienna in the 20s and 30s (all great exhibitions by the way!), got lost in the labyrinth that is the Wiener Altstadt, got some trinkets at the Christkindlmarkt, went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum to gawk at Old Dutch Masters, Egyptian stuff and Charles the Bold, and felt revived by all this high art and culture.

Also, I drank quite a few beers, gluhweins, Rieslinge, and other beverages there, saw Modern Earl perform in some basement with some of my new-found friends, and had an overall good time! So thanks to everyone involved for making that happen!! (and an extra-special thank-you to Gerda for letting me stay at her apartment! You rock!)

Seeing as it has already been some time since all this went down (holidays, you know), I figured I’d just let the few pictures I took do the talking. Just a few, I’m afraid, as I actually had to work as well, but still, they seem kinda nice… Read the rest of this entry »

Here are the limericks written during the RMA-study trip to the Alsace, 1-6 November 2008. Some are by me, some are by students, all are idiosyncratic and personally approved by me!

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So, from 1 November – 6 November 2008, we went to the Alsace with the RMA students of Utrecht University… here are the terrifying results!

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