Istanbul Part 2

The Inter-noise conference which I was attending in Istanbul went well and there were sessions for building acoustics or room acoustics everyday which was brilliant. In all, there were 1000 participants from 50 countries around the world. I never know who I will see at the conferences and therefore I am always pleased to see people that I know. There were several professors from DTU at the conference as well as people who I have met at prior conferences. Plus I had the chance to meet most of the people who are publishing in my area of research which is one of the main reasons to attend the conferences. I am always exhausted at the end of a day of listening to presentations and speaking with people during the coffee breaks because you have to be on the whole time. But it is certainly worth it for the chance to learn what other people are researching.

There is always a banquet at a conference and this year it was held at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum in the old town part of the city. We traveled to the old town by bus and entered the gates of the Topkapi Palace beyond which was a beautiful grass covered and tree lined courtyard. We walked along one of the stone walkways down to the museum and were greeted by about 100 tables ringed by chairs wrapped in cloth which was tied in a bow on the back.

We were told that the museum would remain open for twenty minutes so that we could have a private viewing and so we quickly entered the large, stone building. The award-winning museum has been undergoing renovation throughout the past decade, winning the Council of Europe’s Museum Award in 1993. The museum contains numerous works carved from stone including the very ornate Alexander the Great sarcophagus which was so named because it was believed to be the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great because he is featured prominently in several of the scenes carved into the sides of the sarcophagus. However, after the sarcophagus was named, it was found that the resident was not Alexander the Great but someone else. Nonetheless, it is an amazing piece of work. The museum also contains the first written peace treaty in the world, concluded after the Battle of Kadesh fought between Ramses II of Egypt and the Hittite king Muvatallish in the 13th century BC. The treaty itself is written on stone tablets. If you are ever in Istanbul, the museum is certainly worth a visit.

As we exited the museum, we were met by waiters with trays of drinks and tables spread out in the courtyard with hors d'oeuvre including the best green olives that I have ever tasted in my life. Seriously, they were amazing and I fear that they have absolutely ruined the now tasteless olives that I grew up with. During the dinner, entertainment was provided in the form of dances. The very first dance was performed by members of the Mevlevi Order.

The Mevlevi Order or the Mevleviye are a Sufi order founded by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi in 1273 in present-day Turkey. They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of Allah). The ritual whirling of the dervishes is described as an act of love and a drama of faith. The whirling possesses a highly structured form within which the gentle turns become increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes strive to achieve a state of trance. The music that accompanies the whirling from beginning to end ranges from somber to rhapsodical and its effect is intended to be mesmerizing. It is said that the chanting of poetry, rhythmic rotation, and incessant music create a synthesis which, according to the faithful, induces a feeling of soaring, of ecstasy, of mystical flight.

As the Whirling Dervishes were introduced, we were all asked to stop eating and talking out of respect for the dancers and then drums and flutes began to play their mesmerizing tune and the Whirling Dervishes who were dressed in white robes with long, cylindrical headpieces began to spin. At the start of the spinning, they had their arms folded across their chests, but soon they raised their arms so that their bodies were in the shape of a Y. They held this pose for the rest of the whirling. The whirling went on and on for quite a while as they shuffled their feet to keep themselves in motion. It was interesting to watch.



The morning after the conference ended, I arranged to meet my friend and colleague, Lars-Göran from Sweden at the Blue Mosque in the old town. It took me an hour to get to the old town via the funicular and tram, but it was an interesting way to travel rather than to take a taxi. The Blue Mosque with its domes, semidonmes and six slender minarets is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Istanbul. The mosque is so named for the blue tiles on many of the walls of the interior. The Blue Mosque was built by Sultan Ahmet I to placate Allah after humiliating defeats of wars with Persia. He ordered Architect Mehmet Pa?a to begin construction in 1609 and the whole complex was completed in 1616. Like many other mosques, it also comprises a tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. When the number of minarets at the Blue Mosque was revealed, the Sultan was criticized for presumption, since this was, at the time, the same number as at the mosque of the Ka'aba in Mecca. He overcame this problem by paying for a seventh minaret at the Mecca mosque.

I had expected to have to queue to enter the mosque, but we were able to join the other tourists passing the long line of sinks on the side of the mosque to arrive at a side door. The sinks or ablution fountains are for people who are getting prepared to pray in the mosque. Before praying, one should wash his/her face, arms, neck and feet as well as their mouth and nose. Signs near the side entrance to the mosque noted that women were to cover their bare heads, arms and legs and everyone was to remove their shoes. Shawls were provided if needed and plastic bags were available so that you could easily carry your shoes with you. As you approached the door, your feet welcomed a very thick carpet which was over the entire floor of the mosque.

The mosque is nearly a square and covered with a dome that is 24m in diameter and 43m high. The dome is supported by four colossal columns which are 5m in diameter. These "elephant feet" consist of multiple convex marble grooves at their base, while the upper half is painted, separated from the base by an inscriptive band with gilded words. The mosque has 260 windows which let the sunlight diffuse into the building and today are assisted by chandeliers. At its lower levels and at every pier, the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles. At the upper levels, the walls are painted.

A three foot high gate which ran the length of the mosque separated the tourists from the area where prayers were said. On the far end was a staircase which led up to the minber, or pulpit, where the Imam stands when he is delivering his sermon at the time of noon prayer on Fridays or on holy days. However, the priest never climbs to the very top as a respect to Prophet Muhammed.

The Blue Mosque is open to visitors outside of prayer times. The prayers occur five times a day and the times rotate according to the sun’s position.

After leaving the Blue Mosque, I bid farewell to Lars-Göran who had to go to the airport to catch his flight home and I went over to see the Aya Sofia which is next door to the Blue Mosque. The Aya Sofia is not as ornate as the Blue Mosque, but it is important to remember that it predates the Blue Mosque by 1000 years and is a marvel of engineering.

The Aya Sofia or “Church of Divine Wisdom” was constructed between 532 and 537 by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian as a monument to Christianity and the rise of the eastern Roman empire. It was the patriarchal church of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the religious focus point of the Orthodox Byzantine Empire for nearly 1000 years. The Aya Sofia remained for centuries the biggest church in the world only being surpassed by the church of St Peter in Rome several centuries later. The dome of Aya Sofia is a spectacular feat of architecture especially considering the limited building methods that were available at the time of construction. The massive dome was designed to give the visitor an impression of the greatness of God and until it was completed, no one was sure that it could actually stand. Only the best materials were used for building the Aya Sofia, including marble walls and flooring and gold wall and ceiling decorations. More than ten thousand people were employed during this construction.

Unfortunately, Istanbul is located on a fault line. Earthquakes in 553 and 557 caused cracks in the main dome and the eastern half-dome to appear. The main dome collapsed completely during an earthquake on 7 May 558. The emperor ordered an immediate restoration. This time, the architect used lighter materials and elevated the dome by 6.25 meters, thus giving the building its current interior height of 55.60 meters.

In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and Sultan Mehmed II ordered the building to be converted into a mosque. The items of Christian worship were removed, and many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over. Islamic features were added over the course of its history under the Ottomans.

Christans claimed that the Aya Sofia was rightfully a church and Muslims claimed that it was a mosque. To end the fighting, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, cleverly transformed the building into a museum. The carpets were removed and the marble floor decorations appeared for the first time in centuries, while the white plaster covering the mosaics was painstakingly removed by expert restorers. The massive church has undergone other renovations over time and even today, the dome was filled with scaffolding as the latest renovation is being completed.

The Aya Sofia was quite busy when I visited and the stairways leading to the second floor were stiflingly hot. However, I was rewarded with great views of the city and of the Blue Mosque through the windows. Touts were all around the entrance and many people wanted to take me to see some sort of cistern that I am sure was next to a carpet store / antique store / postcard shop. I declined.

On Saturday evening, I had the privilege of attending a wedding celebration which was held on a boat cruising the Bosporus. The wedding was between my friends Claus who is Danish and Emine who is Turkish. I knew Claus from DTU and I had met Emine at the Inter-Noise conference in Rio de Janeiro two years prior. The actual marriage ceremony had taken place in Denmark a year before but they wanted to have a second celebration in Turkey for their Turkish friends and family, many of who could not get visas to Denmark. The timing of the conference was not coincidental because both Claus and Emine are acousticians and knew that a lot of people would be in town for the conference.

In the invitation which had been sent out, the guests had been given two locations for pickup by the boat, one on the Asian side and one on the European side. I opted to take the funicular to the dock and so left plenty of time for the trip, just in case something went wrong because I did not want to miss the boat. I was so punctual in fact, that I was an hour early. I knew that I was in the right place because I saw other wedding parties boarding boats, but it was a relief once other guests who I recognized began to show up a half an hour after I arrived. A short time later, the bride and groom arrived shortly after that in their wedding dress and tuxedo. Claus’s family from Denmark had come as well as a lot of Emine’s classmates from Aalborg University where she had gone to school in Denmark.

Once the boat arrived, everyone boarded and there were drinks and hors d'oeuvres on the top deck as we set sail. After a while, everyone was invited downstairs to where dinner was to be served. There wasn’t actually a wedding ceremony as one had already occurred which was disappointing because that would have been really interesting. But, the dinner was a lot of fun. I was at a table with a professor from DTU and his partner as well as several women who were friends of Emine from high school and a friend from Istanbul. Dinner was a buffet and included lots of food and lots of sticky desserts. Afterwards there was dancing to Turkish music as the boat moved up and down the river until it was time to go. Most people got off on the European side and after goodbyes, I head off in a taxi with a few of Emine’s friends to Taksim square where they were going out for the evening. I was invited to go out with them and in hindsight, it probably would have been fun, but my mind was on packing for my flight in the morning and I didn’t want to be out in the rain in my suit for long since it would soon be stuffed into the bottom of my backpack for a few weeks.

The next morning, I had my last breakfast at the hotel and met my ride to the airport which had been arranged through the conference. The Istanbul airport was large and busy and had a security checkpoint as soon as you entered the door for people and bags which I haven’t decided is a comforting or worrisome thing. I had a Leatherman in the bag that I was going to check and when security saw it, they asked to make sure that I would check the bag. Once I told them that I would check it, everything was fine. I was a bit surprised by this and was pleased that Lufthansa had a second security checkpoint at the gate. I had a bit of trouble at check in because my carryon was too heavy. This was the first time that I had my carry on weighed and I was in trouble because I was carrying both my laptop and my SLR with its heavy lens in the same bag. But, it worked itself out and later that afternoon I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany.

The following were referenced for information about the Blue Mosque
Guide Istanbul
Wikipedia

Istanbul

Ankara is the capitol of Turkey, but Istanbul is seen by many as the cultural heart of Turkey. Originally called Byzantium when it was founded in 660 BC, the city straddles two continents, Europe and Asia with the narrow body of water called the Bosphorus lying between them. In AD 330, the city was renamed Constantinople by Constantine the Great, who made it the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The history of the city includes being sacked by the Crusaders in 1204 and being captured by the Turks in 1453. In 1930, the name of the city was changed to Istanbul. Today Istanbul with its skyline studded with domes and minarets, is home to 14+ million of the 68 million people living in Turkey.

That Istanbul is a crossroads is shown in the way that its inhabitants dress. Men were generally dressed in long pants and a button down shirt, but women’s dress ranged quite widely. One would see women dressed in western clothes next to women wearing headscarves or burqas. One of the people at the conference told me that he had met a couple wearing western clothing and flashy jewelry and he was surprised to learn that they were visitors from Iran. He also told me that he had been up to the pool on the roof of his hotel and was surprised to see women in bathing suits that must have been sold by the centimeter, they were so small.

That women can choose whether or not to wear a headscarf is due to the secular government of Turkey. The constitution of Turkey asserts that the country is a secular and democratic republic, deriving its sovereignty from the people. Although an overwhelming majority of the population, at least nominally, adheres to Islam, the state neither has an official religion nor promotes any, and it actively monitors ("active neutrality") the area between the religions. All of which is why when Abdullah Gül became the 11th president of Turkey on August 28, 2007 there was strong and highly vocal opposition from ardent supporters of secularism in Turkey. Central to the controversy, were concerns that Gül has an Islamist agenda based on views that Gül expressed earlier in his political career. Furthermore, the president’s wife wears a headscarf, which is seen by some as a symbol of political Islam. The army, which has long regarded itself as the guardian of the country's secular constitution, voiced its opposition to Gül’s candidacy during the election process and there were street protests in Istanbul and Ankara leading up to the election.

The parts of the city which I visited were modern and the streets were wide and tree lined. Even the back streets were tree lined. The buildings around Taskim Square where I haunted were mostly four story tall, light colored buildings. The bottom floor of the buildings were mostly shops including cafes, restaurants and electronics stores. The sidewalks on both sides of the street were often busy with people. On the back streets near my hotel, the sidewalk was separated from the road by metal pylons attached to the brick of the sidewalk. However, I saw people loosening these and moving them in order to park the cars on the sidewalk. There were touts on the streets who were more annoying than anything. I was asked several times where I was from and if I would like to see their antique / carpet / souvenir store. The touts were mostly around my hotel and in the old town.

There were a lot of cars on the street, especially at night when the city seemed more alive than during the day. The traffic was more orderly than in China, for example, but not nearly as orderly as New Zealand. There were, however many more people concerned with directing traffic. My hotel was located up a series of small, one way street and I saw men standing at the corners, directing the large busses and the cars one way or another. It seemed that was their job because the men were always there directing traffic.

The public transportation in the city included busses and a subway as well as trams on the European side that rumbled down the street. From Taskim square there was also an underground funicular which only had two stops. I didn’t realize this the first time that I took it and wound up going down then up before going back down. Not such a great ride for 1.20 ($1 US), but it saved me a trip up and down the hill. Only some of the trams cross Golden Bay which divides the European side and none of the trams or trains connect the European and Asian sides. To get across, one must take a ferry or cross over the Bosporus via one of the two bridges. A subway tunnel and a third bridge are planned, but the government does not want to announce its proposed location out of fear that the property values in the area will skyrocket.

The weather was definitely warm when I was there at the end of August, but not terribly so. However, walking up the street when the sun was high in the sky was no fun in a dark, wool suit. I spent most of my time in the city in the Taskim Square area which is the financial center of the city. Radiating off from Taskim Square was a pedestrian mall lined with hip restaurants, cafes and bars where both men and women crowded the streets. The later the hour, the more crowded the pedestrian mall became. However, several people who ventured out of the tourist areas told me that they only saw men on the streets.

My hotel in Taskim had been chosen from a list of hotels on the conference website. I chose one that was about ten minute walk from the conference and certainly not the most expensive on the list. I chose well because a number of other people from the conference were also at the hotel and so it was nice to be around people that I knew. Hotels in Turkey are rated with stars and my hotel was a four star. However, everyone agreed that the hotel would not be four stars elsewhere in the world because the rooms were just ok and exceedingly dark. It was suggested that the number of stars may be an indication of the service offered rather than the quality of the hotel room because the service was very good. Bellboys were all around and I never had a problem communicating or when I needed to get my magnetic key car magnetized again. Breakfast was included and was fantastic. The extensive buffet included about a half dozen olives, both black and green. I have never tasted olives like the ones that I had in Istanbul. There was also an entire shelf of cheese. Most appeared to be variations on feta cheese with some being really creamy. There were also dried dates, apricots and other fruit, a entire honeycomb from which you could break off pieces to get honey and lots of different breads. Breakfast was a treat.

Food was something that was not at all a problem to find in Istanbul and I was sure to visit Saray Muhallebicisi, which translated means "Rosewater Pudding Palace". The name comes from a popular treat enjoyed during Ottoman times. I had been advised to visit the shop to try the baklavas which were absolutely sinful. They were just dripping in syrup to the point where they were simply uber sweet. There were other sweet shops on the streets as well selling sweets such as Turkish Delight from display cases.

There were sit down restaurants, but of course there were also Donner stores where you could buy kebabs. Typically, there would be a large cylindrically shaped piece of processed meat, about two feet high, spinning on a pole in front of a heater. If there were two pieces of meat, one was lamb and the other chicken. Some of these restaurants had tables inside or on the sidewalk. Others were takeaway. If you ordered one of the Donner, the man standing by the rotating pieces of meat would sharpen his long knife before proceeding to shave off several of pieces of meat for you. The meat was put inside a loaf of bread cut in half in addition to lettuce, hot peppers and maybe a pickle.

Many of the restaurants that I saw doing a bustling lunch trade had the food displayed on the widow. You just went in and indicated what you would like to have and it was rung up per item. My friend, Lars-Göran and I went to one of these for lunch and it was a great experience. We indicated what we wanted and were told to pick up a plastic container of water to drink and rolls form a bin. The restaurant was small, but we had arrived at a good time and got seats at one of the few tables inside the restaurant. The place was bustling and we shared the four person table with others and they came and went. I had chosen two of the items from the counter and I was really full when we returned to the conference.

One popular chain restaurant that I saw was several stories tall and always busting. On the first floor was a counter and behind the glass were all sorts of breads. One favorite was a flakey bread stuffed with meat or cheese or olives. There were also really good cakes. The chocolate cake that I had there was one of the best that I have had. You could also get coffee and I first opted for the Turkish coffee. I didn’t realize when I ordered that I would have to specify how much sugar that I wanted and at the staff’s prompting, I went for medium. What you receive is a espresso glass that is half full of coffee grounds. The coffee is really strong and sweet and is good, but you get too little for my tastes. After the first time, I went with regular espresso. Tea is served in clear, curvy glasses that are about four inches tall.

One of my favorite meals that I had on my own was at a hole in the wall near my hotel. I had seen that the restaurant was always bustling and so one night when I saw that there was a table free outside, I decided to give it a go. I entered and the owner shook my hand and gave me a menu. I decided that the mixed grill looked good and turned to go back outside, but the table was snatched by arriving customers. Instead I grabbed an inside table that was on a landing at the back so that I could see everything that was going on in the restaurant. The owner then brought me a big basket of bread which I had just seen him cut up for me. Fortunately, I got a brand new loaf because I saw that any bread leftover on tables after customers left was reissued to other customers. While the bread was being served, the man at the front behind the counter on the side of the restaurant was busy on the grill. A few minutes later, the waiter appeared with a plate full of grilled chicken, beef, rice and an assortment of grilled vegetables including hot peppers. A sealed cup of water also appeared. The meal was really good and fun because I could watch everyone else. As I finished up, the busy waiter appeared and swept off the cleared plate and my remaining bread and brought me a glass of strong, black tea. The whole meal cost 12 Lira ($10 US) and was really good.

I had little problem communicating with people during my stay. I am hesitant to ask people to speak English to me in a foreign country and when in doubt, I try to communicate by gestures. This usually works, especially if I can point to the food that I want. When I once got a Donner, when the waiter appeared, I pointed to the meat that I wanted and indicated one. He then showed me the bread and the vegetables and asked “ok?” to which I nodded yes. However, a lot of the people that I interfaced with could speak some English and would do so. In fact, I probably could have conducted the entire transaction in English if I had started it that way. The only time that I really needed to be able to understand 100% of what was being said was when I was trying to figure out the trams. I would say the name of where I was going and conductors would point me in the correct direction and so I managed.

ilkopedia, Lonely Planet Turkey and the BBC website were all referenced for this blog.

Hong Kong

Only hours before I was to go to the airport to catch my flight to Auckland and then to Hong Kong, I received an unwanted call from Air New Zealand. The customer service representative explained that the plane that I would be flying on that evening had experienced mechanical trouble and although the flight would still go, they were replacing the original aircraft with a smaller one. The customer service representative painted a picture of hundreds of people now needing to be rerouted because there weren’t enough seats on the smaller aircraft for everyone and I was one of those lucky people. I responded that I really didn’t want to be rerouted because I wanted the time in Hong Kong, and although they still would not put me on the original flight, the routed me through Shanghai and then on a Chinese Airline to Hong Kong. However, my travel agent told me a different story when I contacted her. She told me that there were only a few people being bumped and that I should get to the airport early to see if I could get onto the original flight.

I arrived at the airport early, but anyone who has checked in for an international flight on Air New Zealand in Christchurch can vouch that quick is not a word that one would use to describe the agents that check people into international flights. I waited for a while and when I did get to the desk, I tried to get on the original flight. The agent walked me over to ticketing to see what could be done, but to no avail, I was going to Shanghai and would arrive in Hong Kong with only a few hours to spare before my next flight. (I have made my peace with Air New Zealand since then, but it was really disappointing at the time.) The agent was very nice and she even offered me access to the lounge to make up for the problems which I appreciated. I must say, if you ever get the chance to go to the lounge in Christchurch, definitely do it. It was a really nice series of rooms made with wood and stone materials. There were scrumptious pastries, small snacks, coffee and lots of wine for the customers to help themselves to during their stay. In the rush to get to the airport, I had forgotten to eat dinner, so I was very happy with the spread.

My flight to Shanghai departed at 11PM and I arrived in at 8AM. I have never shown up in China without a visa before and never expected to do so, but it wasn’t an issue since I was only staying in the airport. When I reached the immigration officer, I was asked to wait to one side until I was collected by another officer who issued me a transit visa. Unfortunately, I was only in Shanghai for four hours, so I didn’t have time to take the Maglev train into the city which would have been a treat. Instead, I checked in for my China Eastern flight and discovered that although Air New Zealand has put a hold on the seat for my flight, they had failed to give China Eastern the billing code or something like that and so my reservation had been canceled. Unless something could be done, I would be stuck in Shanghai without a flight. Fortunately, China Eastern got me on the plane which was otherwise fully booked. Unfortunately, China Eastern put a new luggage tag on my bag that was only to Munich, not to Istanbul, something that would later haunt me. So, after just a whistle stop in Shanghai, I was off to Hong Kong.

The last time that I was in Hong Kong was seven years ago when I broke my ankle while teaching in Yantai, China. WorldTeach, the organization through which I was teaching, flew me down to Hong Kong to see a specialist because I was getting mixed diagnosis in Yantai. My visit at that time was only for a few days and being on crutches had reduced my mobility a bit. This trip unfortunately would be even shorter, but so I was just hoping to eat some dim sum, to look at the architecture in Hong Kong, to take the ferry to Kowloon and then to wander the streets until it was time to go. However, due to the stop in Shanghai, I did not arrive in the city center until close to 3PM.

To get from the airport, I took the Airport Express train which makes the trip from the airport to the city center in only 24 minutes. In addition to the main line, there is now also a spur to serve Hong Kong Disneyland which opened in 2005. The special, Disney themed cars can carry up to 10,000 people per hour. Hong Kong Disneyland is the smallest of the five kingdoms and the resort was built with many settings following the rules of Feng Shui. However, the park is expected to expand over the next fifteen years to reduce the complaints of overcrowding.

During my prior visit, I had found a fantastic dim sum restaurant that was multi-floored and each floor was bustling with people. Waiters would wander though the restaurant with carts of wooden baskets of dim sum with different treats inside and you would simply indicate that you wanted a basket to have it added to the pile on your table. Each basket held three or four dim sum, depending on what was wrapped inside. I had wanted to return to the same restaurant and although I had an inclination as to where it was located I was so hungry by the time that I arrived that I decided to go to a restaurant near the train station that the guide book had highly recommended. The dim sum in the restaurant I chose was unbelievable, but I had arrived mid afternoon just as the bustle was ending and so at one point I was the only one in the restaurant. And this restaurant had its patrons order off a menu rather than a cart, so it was not as much fun as the time before, but still good.

After breakfast / lunch, I walked along one of the many overhead walkways that connect the buildings in Hong Kong till I arrived at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSHC) headquarters which opened in 1986 after seven years of construction. The building was designed by Lord Norman Foster and was based upon the principles of Feng Shui as are many of the buildings in Hong Kong. According to Feng Shui, the old Government House should be accessible in a straight line by foot from the main point of arrival on the island, the ferry terminal, but the location of the HSHC building would interrupt this line. To prevent this violation of Feng Shui, the entire HSHC building was designed to be raised off the ground and supported on eight groups of giant pillars so that people can walk under the building. One can stand under the building and look up through the glass floors through the large atrium that occupies the first three floors.

Because the area under the building is protected from the strong afternoon sun, it has become a very popular meeting place for the Filipino house cleaners on Sunday, their day off. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon, there were people sitting on blankets or mats which covered every available square centimeter of the shade with the exception of clearings where people could walk. People chatted, ate, had their hair done and generally enjoyed their day off.

From the HSHC building, I wandered over to the tram going up to Mt Victoria which offers fantastic views of Hong Kong and Kowloon on nice days, but was met by a huge queue. The last time that I was in the city, I was able to walk right up to the tram to get on, but that was a rainy weekday. I would have really liked to have gotten views of the city from the peak, but my short schedule prevented it and I would have to be content with my photos from before.

I made my way down to the Star Ferry which has been described as one of the “greatest ferry rides in the world” by the Rough Guides because it offers great views of both Hong Kong and Kowloon as it makes the seven minute journey across the very polluted harbor. Once on the Kowloon side, I went over to the observation decks on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront where crowds were taking photographs of the Hong Kong skyline. Every night on which there is good weather, at 8PM, there is an orchestrated light and laser show featured on buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbor. The show is called Symphony of Lights and is put on by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and has been declared by Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest, permanent light show. Unfortunately, I had a geocache to find and then I would need to be making my way to the airport and so I didn’t get to see the show.

I stopped by the tourist information office to inquire about the station for the train to the airport and learned that there was a free shuttle to the station from a nearby hotel. Free shuttle? I was on it. The woman in the office marked on a map where the station was located and I set off in search of a quick bite to eat. Fortunately, I decided to pursue the station stop first because it turned out to be impossible to find. I was on the correct street and I actually saw the shuttle twice, but I could not find the stop. I walked all over looking for the stop with my heavy backpack on my back and fear of arriving at the airport late on my mind, but to no avail. I broke down and started to inquire in the various hotels nearby as to where the station was as the time that I had planned to catch the shuttle drew near and then passed. In a panic because I do not like showing up to the airport late, I decided to cross back to Hong Kong where I knew the location of the train station. I was walking along one street when I just happened to spot a sign for the bus I wanted. The sign was inside the parking garage of one of the hotels which clearly explained why I had not seen it before. I allowed ten minutes for the shuttle to arrive before I ran out and grabbed a cab, but it came and I made it to the train station.

The airport train is really well setup because as soon as I entered the station, I was directed to a check in counter for the various airlines. I went up to the Lufthansa counter to check in and fortunately inquired about the destination of my checked bag which was still at the airport. As I feared, the bag was only going to Munich, not to Istanbul. The woman behind the counter was very nice and called baggage to ask if they could find my bag and to put a new baggage ticket on it to make sure that it went to Istanbul. I waited for about 20 minutes after which I received confirmation that my bag was found and I hopped onto the train.

Being my second time in Hong Kong, I knew to look after the immigration form that I was issued upon arrival because I needed it to leave the country. Once I was through security, I had to get to my gate. Hong Kong is a really big airport with 80 gates in a row. I had forgotten this fact and I really had to walk quickly to finally get to my gate as my plane was boarding. The flight to Munich would be an overnight flight and I would have a few hour layover before taking my next flight to Istanbul the next morning.

Inter-Noise 2007

The very long delay since I last wrote about my travels has been due to being quite busy with my research. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to write about the travels that I made in April with Jess in New Zealand, let alone random happenings in Christchurch. The obscene number of hours that I was spending in the lab or in the library with my laptop (I found that the law school library is a great place to hide so no one can find me) were triggered by preparations for Inter-Noise, the international noise and vibration conference that I have been attending for the past few years.

Unlike past years, this year I would be submitting a paper to be delivered at the conference. However, a delay in obtaining the equipment and parts that I needed for my research left me with few choices for what to write. The paper was due on June 1 and although I did scratch up enough information to submit a paper, I was not happy with it and so wanted to be able to really do something in time for the presentation of my work in August. The presentation does not have to be exactly like the paper and so I wanted to be able to present some new work, especially since the top people in the world from my field would be at the conference. I was trying to prove a new idea and I needed a lot of experimental data to back up my claim. Most of the measurements had to be made at night or over the weekend when the building in which I work is quiet. I was trying to measure small variations in vibration and so even little things like someone walking up the nearby flight of stairs or turning on a machine would force me to repeat measurements. However, despite my precautions, all of the data that I accumulated turned out to be riddled with measurement uncertainty. The brand new measurement equipment that the department had purchased from one of the best acoustics companies turned out to be bad.

I painstakingly detailed the problems and after a lot of correspondence with the company that made the equipment, they finally agreed that there had been problems during production and has since refunded the cost of the equipment. I feel good that I got blood from a stone, but that does little to make up for all the data which was lost. So, for the presentation that was to be delivered, I had to spend a lot of time in the lab to redo enough of the experiments to back up what I would be saying. Fortunately, the week before I was due to leave, things began to work and I pulled together a presentation to deliver. Whew.

On 25 August, I left Christchurch on what would literally be a trip around the world. The conference itself was to be held in Istanbul, Turkey. The travel from Christchurch would require a long stopover in Hong Kong which I planned to take advantage of by exploring the city for a day. After the conclusion of the conference, I would stay in Istanbul for an extra day to attend a wedding to which I had been invited. Then off to Western Europe to visit friends and colleagues in six countries before beginning my trip west, including stops in the US and Canada. In all, the journey that I am about to describe covered eleven countries on four continents over a period of five weeks. There would be sixteen flights including three over 11 hours long and dozens of hours on trains including a night train. I am extremely lucky to be able to have made the trip, to have the time, to have an adviser who was keen to have me take a holiday and to have funding available to cover the transportation expenses.

What I noticed during the trip was that going to a new country no longer phases me like it used to do. While waiting for a train in France, I realized that I was excited to visit friends and to go out exploring, I wasn’t nervous or excited to be travelling in yet another country. I still love the exploring and the adventure in the travel, but the highs and lows which can be very high and very low when you are in a foreign place are smoothing out. I still have really good and really bad experiences, but I take them more in stride. In a way, that in itself is cool because it means that I have become so seasoned that I can go to Hong Kong, Istanbul or Frankfurt and make my way without problem. But, on the other hand, the adrenaline and nervousness during my early days of travel which could be annoying when they interfered with my ability to function or to adapt will also be missed.

I also found that the hop across the Atlantic from Europe to the US which used to feel like a long flight is just a few hours in a plane. After making the hop from LA to New Zealand or New Zealand to Shanghai, Europe seems very close geographically to the US.

This was also the first time that I had travelled so heavy. I was carrying my laptop and SLR on my back in addition to my suit and nice clothes for the conference and then more comfortable clothes for the rest of the trip. Never do I want to travel that much with that much stuff again!

Dolphins off the Coast of Kaikoura Videos

In March, several of us traveled up to Kaikoura, about two hours north of Christchurch. Several people went on a whale watch cruise which came upon a pod of dolphins. These videos of dolphins were taken by Gerke.





Købe fans need fear not, he was there, too

Auckland

After we returned from our fantastic trip to White Island, we checked into the comfortable Tourist Court Motel in Whakatane. This was the first motel that we had stayed in during our travel and it was wonderful. The room was large, we had a kitchen and the staff was friendly. It was perfect after so many days on the road and so many hostels. We went into town for a while, but discovered that the downtown closed up around 5PM which was disappointing.

The next day, we packed up our bags, bid farewell to the friendly owners and headed west along the Pacific Coast Highway which hugs the coast along the Bay of Plenty. We were driving through kiwi land including Te Puka, the self proclaimed kiwi capital of the world. We therefore had to stop off at Kiwi 360, an unabashed kiwi experience which offers tours of kiwi orchids, helicopter rides over said orchids, a giant kiwi out front that can be climbed and of course, a gift shop full of unique, kiwi derived merchandise such as kiwi wines, clothes and the Golden Kiwi. The Golden Kiwi is similar to the normal, green kiwi, but has a yellow interior and a smooth skin without the fur of its green cousin and has pointed ends. The Golden Kiwi is the product of plant breeding and was introduced to the US in 1999 from New Zealand. The kiwi itself was introduced to New Zealand in 1904 when a school teacher planted the first “Chinese Gooseberry”. The fruit flourished and is now one of the country’s major exports.

We didn’t take any of the tours at Kiwi 360, but we did wander over the kiwi vineyard next to the parking lot to take photos of the fruits on the vines. Kiwis are delicate fruits and therefore are grown between tall trees that serve as break winds. The break winds make it impossible to see the kiwis from the highway and so the vineyard was the only chance that we got to catch a glimpse of the fruits during our whole trip.


We continued on and after driving on one lane highways for most of our trip, we got onto a real highway about 50km south of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. Approximately one million people, or a quarter of the population of New Zealand lives in the city of Auckland. The city is the world’s largest Polynesian city with twenty percent of the population either claiming Maori descent or decent from migrants who arrived from the Pacific islands. Geographically, the sprawl of the city straddles a thin strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea and it is only a few kilometer walk to get from the harbor on one side to the harbor on the other. To the east lies the Haitemeta Harbor which is the city’s deep harbor port which fills with sailboats during the summer, earning the city the name “City of Sails”. Auckland was host to the Americas Cup over the summers of 1999-2000 and 2002-2003. Looking out into the harbor, one can see islands and extinct volcanoes rising from the water. The city was built amongst fifty extinct volcanic cones and is dotted with parks and green areas, often around the volcanic cones.

The highway we were driving on took us within a kilometer of our hostel and after some planning using my GPS, we were able to pull up in front of the Verandahs where we would be spending the last nights of our trip. Sue had found this hostel online and it was really nice and the owner was friendly. He asked us what we did and after I told him that I am studying for my PhD in building acoustics, he told me about a problem that he is having with the noise of a nearby bar. In addition to the hostel, he owns two other buildings which he would like to make into more rooms and his residence, but a nearby bar makes a terrible racket at night. He inquired about different windows that he could use and how to give his walls a better transmission loss. Sue and I unfortunately, got to hear the noise that night. The sound system of the bar sounded as if it was in our room in the wee hours of the morning which was horrible.

Our hostel was conveniently located about a fifteen minute walk from downtown and in the trendy Ponsbony neighborhood which is regarded as being on the cutting edge of Auckland’s food scene. There were restaurants featuring foods from all over Polynesia and beyond. One night Sue and I tried a Malaysian restaurant which was really good and hopefully a good sample of what we will be having next January. Also nearby was Karangahape Road (K’ Road) which is both praised by urban planners due to its shopping renaissance and maligned by opponents to its seedier parts.

Once we checked in, we headed downtown to see the sights. Dominating the skyline of the city center is the concrete Skytower which was built in the 1990’s and is currently New Zealand’s tallest structure at 328 meters in height. There are of course skywalks where one can look out through the windows to get great views of the surrounding city. Part of the fun is that sections of the floor in the observation tower are made of glass. Signs assure the visitors that the glass is thick and therefore as strong as concrete, but it truly is a bit nerving to be standing on glass and watching people scurrying about far below you. Since this is New Zealand, the tower of course offers chances for adventure experiences. There is the Skyjump where “daredevils who love life” can pay to jump off of the tower for a mere $195. The jump is a base jump by wire and the speed of the jump is controlled at 75 km per hour. Guide wires prevent the jumper from being blown about the building and the jumper is slowed to a gentle stop to land on a tower at the base of the Skytower. If a jumper runs back up the tower without taking off their jumpsuit, the next jump is only $75. There is also an adventure called Vertigo Climb where people pay $95 to climb up through the narrow spire of the TV tower to reach a small platform that is at 270m. It sounds tame, but the climber must wear helmets, overalls and a body harness and must pass a test in a simulator before being allowed to climb.

On the morning of Sunday, January 28 we took the last of our bags out of our rental car to get it ready to be returned that morning. However, first we drove the car to a nearby church for services. I was driving and was already stressed about what we would be charged for the dings in the windshield which may have been why I misjudged a curb while parking, destroying one of our plastic hubcaps. Fantastic. After church, we went to the Domain, an area of semi-formal gardens arranged over the profile of an extinct volcano. The Domain was set aside as the city’s first park in 1840’s and a volcanic spring in the park was the city’s first water supply. The park is also home to the Auckland Museum which was originally built as a World War I monument and today holds one of the world’s finest collections of Maori and Pacific art.

After some time in the park, it was time to face the music when we returned to car to the rental agency. Renting the car had worked out beautifully because we could both fly out of Auckland, leaving the car behind. Otherwise, if it had been my car, I would have been looking at a very long drive as well as a ferry crossing in order to get it home. Now, we just had to see how much the damage would cost. At the counter, I explained that I had just shattered the hubcap and that it was in the trunk. The agent left us inside the office as he went out to check on the car. You have no idea how much of a relief it was when he came back in and told us that everything looked fine and that if we were billed for the hubcap, it would only be a $10 charge and that it was most likely that we would not be billed. After we left the office, I had to sit down for a minute after all of the stress that we would be charged hundreds of dollars for the windshield.

After lunch in a park, we took a ferry across Auckland harbor to Devonport, one of Auckand’s oldest suburbs. A naval station was one of Devonport’s earliest residents, followed by wealthy merchants who built fine villas along the quiet streets. The streets of the downtown area are lined with restaurants, cafes, galleries and stores for knickknacks. After wandering about, we climbed up Mt. Victoria which is one of two ancient volcanoes in the area to get views of the harbor and the city. It was a nice way to spend our last afternoon.

Once back at the backpackers we went out to dinner and then started the task of packing. Sue flew out the next morning back to Boston via Honolulu and I flew back to Christchurch. We had jammed a lot into our three weeks of touring about New Zealand. From fjords to glaciers to walking inside active volcanoes to kayaking to tramping on beaches, it seemed more like ten months than only three weeks. Thank you to Sue for being my first visitor in New Zealand. She was a saint for putting up with me for that long, for not letting me ditch the rental car and for putting up with some bad music and “eat your weight in yogurt” days (it was far cheaper to buy a big container of yogurt than two small ones which meant that we either finished the container before we left in the morning or threw it in the bin. Not being ones to waste food, we at a lot of yogurt).

White Island

White Island is the name of an active volcano located in the Bay of Plenty, about 50km off shore from the town of Whakatane. White Island was given its name by Captain Cook who was the first European to see the see the island. In his logbook, it is noted that “We called it White for as such it always appeared to us.”

The island was formed about 200,000 years ago by the motion between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate which resulted in superheated rock being driven up through the ocean floor. The island is only about 324 hectares in size with three cones currently visible. The active cone is located in the center of the island while the older ones have been worn down by erosion over time. The volcano continues to be active and between 1976 and 1981 two new craters were formed and 100,000 cubic meters of rock was ejected.

Reverend Henry Williams was the first European to arrive in 1826. He described lakes of boiling substances and bodies of smoke with the stench of brimstone. However, the Maori made use of the island long before the Europeans did, catching sea birds on the island and using sulfur collected on the island as a fertilizer for their gardens. The Maori used the steam vents on the island to cook the birds to eat while they worked. Ownership of the island was claimed by both the Maori and the Crown, but it was a Danish sea captain who somehow gained ownership. The ownership of the island then changed hands several times until the New Zealand Manure & Chemical Company (an advertising company worked long and hard on that name) took control of the island with the intention of producing both fertilizer and sulfur ore. However production was abandoned after Mt Tarawera in Rotorua erupted and it was feared that White Island would erupt as well. Production resumed in 1898 but after the fourth year, the production had decreased so much that the enterprise was abandoned.

Ownership of the island again changed hands, but the island was left alone until another attempt to mine sulfur was made in 1913. The workers lived on the island and slept at night in a camp on one of the beaches. However, a massive lahar occurred in 1914, wiping out all of the buildings on the island as well as the men who were working and living there. (A lahar is a mudflow composed of pyroclastic material and water that flows down from a volcano. Lahars are powerful forces capable of moving great quantities of debris - house-size boulders, trees, etc. for long distances in a short amount of time. They look and behave like flowing concrete and destroy or incorporate virtually everything in their path. Lahars can be extremely dangerous, because of their energy and speed. Large lahars can flow several dozen meters per second and can flow for many kilometers, causing catastrophic destruction in their path. One such lahar happened just recently on Mt Ruapehu on 19 March, 2007.) No one knew that the lahar on White Island had occurred until a local arrived on the island to sell food to the workers. While walking through the crater, he realized that everything looked different and that all of the men had disappeared without a trace.

Production was stalled for a time, but was resumed once more in 1923 by a new venture that was fairly successful. Production continued for ten years until the company went bankrupt in 1933. A local family then acquired the island and this same family still owns the island today. The New Zealand government tried to buy the island in 1952, but the Buttle family was unwilling to sell (which turned out to be a very good financial decision). Instead a compromise was reached and the island was declared a private scenic reserve. Today, access to the island is restricted to those using one of four tour operators. Everyone who sets foot on the island must pay a fee to the Buttle’s which is included in the cost of the cost of the tour.

The primary means of gaining access to the island is to book a tour through White Island Tours which sails people out to the island on one of two boats. The cost of the tour includes the boat ride, the tour guides as well as tea and lunch. The whole tour is really well done and everyone was quite pleased with it. The full cost of the tour is refunded if the boat is unable to land on the island due to rough seas. However if the volcano erupts prior to landing on the island, making a landing too dangerous, no refund is given.

When Sue and I had called to make a booking on the boat, we had been worried about getting a spot, but luckily there were spaces. We left Rotorua at about 6:30 AM and were in the town of Whakatane on the coast by 8 for the 8:15 launch. There are two sailings each day, but we had booked the earlier one because it was supposed to have calmer seas and I was glad that we did. We had a smaller boat than the later tour, but for most of our tour we were the only ones on the island which was great for photos. Plus it started raining at the end of our tour so it was nice to be leaving when that started. Our fellow passengers were mostly from Europe and we were approximately 20 people not including the crew.

During the 80 minute trip to the island, a pod of dolphins was spotted and our boat stopped so that we could see them. There were about twelve dolphins in the pod including a baby. The dolphins made pass after pass by our boat, jumping out of the water and frolicking around us. It looked like they wanted to play all day, but we had a volcano to visit and so we resumed our voyage.

During our trip, I spoke with our tour leader who told me that he could see the island on the horizon. However, all that I could see was haze. As we began to near the island it became apparent that the island had been shrouded in steam from the crater. Our boat neared the island and worked its way around to the harbor used by the sulfur mining companies. The small harbor was formed where the rim of one of the craters had collapsed, creating a hole in the steep walls of rock to allow passage to the interior of the carter. The ocean water in the harbor had a yellowish hue to it, due to the sulfur spread all over the sea floor. Beyond the crater wall, we could see the remains of a concrete building and steel gears and equipment strewn about.

Each of the passengers was issued a hard hat and a gas mask. We had to wear the hard hat at all times on the island and we were instructed to use the gas mask if we had a difficult time breathing on the island or if we were caught in fumes from one of the vents due to a wind change. Gasses typically released by volcanic systems include water vapor (H20), followed by carbon dioxide (C02) and sulfur dioxide (S02). Volcanoes also release smaller amounts of others gases, including hydrogen sulfide (H2S), hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen chloride (HCL), hydrogen fluoride (HF), and helium (He). Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a colorless gas with a pungent odor that irritates skin and the tissues and mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, and throat. Sulfur dioxide chiefly affects upper respiratory tract and bronchi. The World Health Organization recommends a concentration of no greater than 0.5 ppm over 24 hours for maximum exposure. A concentration of 6-12 ppm can cause immediate irritation of the nose and throat; 20 ppm can cause eye irritation; 10,000 ppm will irritate moist skin within minutes. I can write from experience that exposure to the SO2 gives you a tingling feeling at the back of the throat and you feel like your windpipe is constricting. To counter this, in addition to the gas masks we were given hard candies to suck on. We the passengers had our gas masks and small exposures to the poisonous and corrosive gasses wouldn’t have a long term effect on our health. But, what about the guides who couldn’t wear the masks and talk at the same time and who were exposed to the gasses every day?

Because our boat could not approach the rocky shore, we were given life jackets and took turns being ferried by rubber boat to an old, concrete dock. Once we were on the island we could peer into what lay inside of the crater walls. Beyond the remains of the sulfur mining operation, we could see the high walls of one of the older craters which formed most of the island. The rock walls were stained white, yellow, red and orange. Within the crater, we could see heaps of rock and stone with steam and mists rising beyond from multiple vents and the crater. The guide pointed out cameras located up on the lip of the crater which are used by scientists to monitor the volcanic activity. However, there was likely to be little to no warning if an eruption were about to begin.

Since there was no way of knowing when an eruption would occur, we were instructed by the guides as to what we should do if an eruption started during the tour. We were told that when the volcano had erupted in the past, it wasn’t lava that had come out of the crater but pyroclastic bombs. The bombs could be as large as a car and in the past they had been sent hundreds of feet into the air. If this were to occur, we were to run behind one of the piles of rock to wait until we were told it was safe to move. In the meanwhile, the crew of the boat would be frantically moving the boat away from the island to prevent it from being sunk by the bombs, leaving us with no way off of the island. Once the bombs stopped flying, they would try to maneuver back to the island to get us. In the case where the water in the crater suddenly rose, we would be faced with a lahar of boiling acid coming at us. I actually don’t remember what we were to do in that case, but I cant think of too many options. The guide had told me that there had been tremors on the island only a few days ago that measured 4.0 on the Richter scale, but these had been determined to be seismic in nature, not volcanic. But basically, we were taking a risk walking about in the crater of an active and unpredictable volcano.

We began our walk into the crater and we were instructed to follow the guides along the trails. Periodically, the ground was marked by white, crystal covered mounds that rose from the ground like bubbles in the crust of a pizza. The mounds were about a meter or larger in diameter and up to 1/2 meter high. There were also flat areas that showed the same white coloration and crystals. We were warned to avoid stepping on these areas because they were formed when a vent under the ground heated water in the soil, creating gas that was causing the bubble and the crystals. The mounds were brittle and we were warned that if we stepped on the mounds, the ground would easily give way under our weight and we would plunge into boiling mud.

The walls of the crater were amazing. There were reds and yellows and browns and the walls were scarred as if a child had run its fingers down the walls. Here and there were areas where holes where steam and brimstone were escaping, leaving bright yellow rings around the holes. The ground over which we walked was marked by areas where water was running or had run in streams. Some of these streams were bright yellow while others were bright red or pale blue.

As we walked deeper into the crater, winding our way around mounds of rock, flowing water and open vents, we approached a vent from which steam and gas were hissing out wildly, creating billowing clouds. While we were gathered around the vent, suddenly the wind changed direction and our group was enveloped in the suffocating cloud of gas. We all put on our gas masks and our guide led us away from the vent.

Our walk towards the back of the crater was taking us closer to the active crater. To look into the crater, we would have to walk up a wall of dirt which had formed around the crater above us. The guide stopped us to tell us that if we went up to the crater, all of the safety procedures went out the window. If there were to be an eruption while we were up there, we would only have seconds before we would be engulfed in a spray of boiling acid and showered with pyroclastic bombs. It was suggested that those who came with family should say their goodbyes before proceeding.

We climbed up to the lip of the crater and down below us was a pool of very pale, opaque blue liquid shrouded in mists. The mists were so thick that we couldn’t see the other side of the crater, but we could hear the violent hissing of the vents on the other side of the crater which were producing all of the gas. The color of the liquid was beautiful, but deadly. The guide told us that the PH of the liquid was measured and that at one point the value had been negative. The guide said that he didn’t know that the PH scale could go negative, but apparently super strong acids could do so. The smell of sulfur was strong in the air and my throat was itching from the gasses.

Needless to say, the volcano didn’t erupt while we were standing on the crater and after standing on the rim for a time, we climbed back down and began to walk towards the far end of the old crater. Along the way we could see an older crater that had been partially filled in by one of the eruptions. We were told about one of the sulfur mine workers who had gone missing one day. His shoes were found near one of the craters, but there was no sign of his body. The theory was that he had committed suicide. However, the guides told us that a while ago, one of the guides had been on the island and had fallen into one of the holes in the ground. Unable to get himself out, he took of his shoes and threw out of the hole so that others would see the shoes and know where he lay. He eventually managed to get himself out of the hole, but our guides theorized that maybe that was what happened to the sulfur mine worker.

We passed more areas of brilliant reds and yellows and more of the tiny vents in the ground. These were really remarkable because you would see a brilliant ring of yellow granules scattered around a little black hole in the ground. The whole thing looked extremely delicate and was probably very dangerous. We saw many puddles of gurgling mud.

Our walk took us back to the site of the sulfur mine and we could wander past rusted gears, the remains of a tractor and the dilapidated concrete walls. We wandered down to the dock where the rocks on the shore were a dark red color that offset the bright yellow water of the ocean. We were instructed to scrub our shoes to get off any of the corrosive substances from them we were taken back to the boat in turns. We were given the chance to swim in the bay and one brave woman took them up on the offer, swimming off of an active volcano. The boat had intended to circle the island before heading back to shore, but strong winds on the other side of the island resulted in choppy water and so they turned back.

Like a lot of things in New Zealand, the trip to White Island was pricey, but definitely worth it. Never have I seen anything like the inside of the crater and it was very exciting to walk on an active volcano.


Check out this link to the webcams in several of New Zealand’s volcanoes

More about the recent lahar on Mt Ruapehu can be found here.

A lot of the information about White Island for this email was found on the Pee Jay website

Additional references about lahars and volcanic gasses:
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado

Volcano Hazards Program (VHP) of the U.S. Geological Survey

Rotorua

If you have ever dreamed of hanging out in a city that smells like rotten eggs, then Rotorua is the place for you! Dubbed “Sulfur City”, Rotorua is one of New Zealand’s premier tourist destinations because there is evidence of vulcanism everywhere. Throughout the city, you can find pits of bubbling, steaming, smelling mud gurgling away. Graves in the churchyard have to be built above the ground because digging in the ground is likely to unearth a hot spring. The hotels all advertise geothermaly fed hot tubs and if you are lucky, there may even be a bubbling pit of mud right outside your window! There are thermal parks around the city with geysers, some of which spurt water 20m into the air, mineral baths, and bright orange or green pools.

The naturally hot water lured Maori to settle around the area. The Maori used the hottest pools for cooking and building their houses on the hot ground to provide heating during the winter. Today, there are a number of Maori villages in the area as well as a number of Maori led tours and the guide books say that it is a great place to experience Maori culture in the form of a concert or a hangi. The concerts are performances of Maori music and dancing and perhaps a bit of hongi (pressing of noses). The Rough Guides describe hangi as meals where the meat and vegetables are steamed for hours in an earth oven. First, the men light a fire and place river stones in the embers. While these are heating, a pit is dug into which the hot stones are plaed and covered with wet sacking. The women prepare the lamb, pork, chicken, fish, and vegetables and wrap them in leaves before arranging them in baskets which are lowered into the pit and covered with earth. A few hours later, the baskets are recovered revealing tender steam-smoked meat with a faintly earth flavor.

The city of Rotorua reflects its position as a tourist destination with a plethora of hotels, wide boulevards crisscrossing the downtown area, all lined with shops, restaurants, bars and more hotels. The city has been a tourist destination since the 1800’s when people came to bathe in the waters in hopes of curing all sorts of diseases and to see the Pink and White Terraces which were formed by sinter deposits of silica from volcanic activity. The terraces were proclaimed as the 8th wonder of the world, but were destroyed when Mt Tarawera erupted in 1886.

While in town, we were staying in a nice YHA affiliate which offered nice double rooms with bath. The hostel was a bit odd in that you were issued your own plates and cutlery which you kept in your room when you were not using them. The hostel was located on the edge of the city and next to Kuirau Park, a large park that was full of thermal vents. The vents were the result of thermal activity that took place in January 2001 when an eruption occurred for about 15 minutes, throwing mud and steam 200m into the air. The park was a great introduction to Rotorua and Sue reported that the vents were even better than Craters of the Moon for which there is an entrance fee. There must have always been thermal vents in Kuirau Park because we saw bath houses where one can swim in the heated water. But, now there were also pits of mud all over the place as well as large pools of steaming water. Houses back right up to the park and I saw one house with open windows just above one of the bubbling, stinking holes in the ground. I suppose that you eventually get used to the smell, but still I cant help thinking that it cant be very nice.

The area around Rotorua is packed with things to do. Today there are thermal parks all around Rotorua and incorporating the word hell or devil into the name is quite popular (Hell’s Gate, Devils Playground, etc. You get the idea). One of the largest is Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve where you can pay to see the bubbling vents and geysers. There are the nearby lakes fishing including the Blue and Green Lakes (which are blue and green, respectfully) for sailing, white water rafting and adventure sport. There are museums and lots of parks including the Agrodome where you can see a forty-five minute long sheep show (we passed) and many opportunities to see Maori concerts and hangi. Nearby Lake Rotorua is the St Faith’s Anglican church which is intricately decorated with Maori carvings and there is an image of Christ wearing a Maori cloak etched on a window so that he appears to be walking on the nearby lake. There is also a bird park where Sue was finally able to see her Kiwis.

While Sue was checking out one of the thermal parks, I went to the nearby Whakarewarewa Forest where a century ago, exotic plants were planted to see if they could grow in New Zealand. What is surreal is that amongst the numerous walking paths, horse paths and mounting bike tracks through the forest are a good number of Redwoods which had been brought from California. The trees were found to grow three times faster than in California and are thriving today.

Unless we were eating our weight in pizza, Sue and I would cook all of our meals at the hostel at which we were staying. One night in Rotorua, we decided to cook some of the Green Lipped Mussels that are found in New Zealand. As the name implies, the shells of the mussels are black, but have a beautiful green color around the edge. We set about cooking the mussels and butter in the hostel’s kitchen. I feared that people would be upset at the smell of shellfish, but most people were really curious about the mussels and where we got them. At $4 a kg, the mussels are amazingly inexpensive and tasty.

After our first day in Rotorua, we had to sit down to figure out what to do next. When we had planned out our whole trip, we had left an empty day in the schedule because we were not sure what to do with it. We poured over the guidebooks and after much discussion and logistical planning, we decided that we would drive up to Whakatane from where we would visit White Island, an active volcanic island located about 50km offshore. We even had to wear gas masks.