My flights to New Zealand went off without a hitch despite my prior stress over the weight of my bags and the packaging of my bicycle. Security in Boston removed enough of my careful packaging of my bicycle that the frame was pretty badly scratched up with some deep gouges in the frame, but I would not find that out until later. They were strict about that, but amazingly people brought drinks onto the plane out of Boston. They had bought them in the terminal and the crew had missed them bringing them onto the plane.
I had a really long layover of 7 hours in San Francisco, but it passed by quickly and before I knew it, I was on a half empty plane on the way to Auckland. Everyone on the plane who wanted a row to themselves to stretch out had one and I slept well despite Air New Zealand’s attempts to prevent people from sleeping across three seats. The armrests only raised to forty-five degrees which meant that you had to slide under the armrests and deal with them digging into your side if you wanted to lie down. I was glad for the extra space to sleep and to spread out my meals. Although I was ecstatic at the size of breakfast, it was served at 3AM so that we could eat before our 5AM arrival and so the meal did not keep me filled until lunch.
Once in Auckland, I was pleased to pass customs in only fifteen minutes, which was much better than the hour and a half wait that I had faced a few years ago. New Zealand takes the threat of the introduction of foreign species very seriously and last time that I was here, I had to have my boots disinfected because there was a patch of mud on them. My dread about biosecurity wanting to take my bicycle out of the box despite my careful cleaning of the bike proved baseless and I actually wound up chatting with biosecurity for a while before exiting and checking my bags for my flight to Christchurch. It was at this point that things went awry with a flight that might or might not be canceled and with having to collect my oversized luggage along with others who were also bringing skis and bicycles to Christchurch, but it all worked itself out in the end.
As my friend Jessica (formerly of Ecuador, now in NYC, but currently living in Brazil) once wrote, it is one of the best feelings to arrive at an international destination knowing that you have someone waiting to meet you. In this case, Dr. Pearse, my advisor at Canterbury University was there to collect me and my bags
to take me to the flat that I had rented till the end of the semester in October. I am currently living at housing just off campus made up of several four story buildings, each with eight suites. Each suite has six bedrooms with a shared kitchen and bathroom. I am going to be honest and write that the idea of this living arrangement scared the pants off of me. I have been living on my own for years now and I dreaded the idea of the loss of privacy and the sharing of bath and kitchen (the later because I am meticulous about my kitchen, something I learned in China where one had to be to prevent contamination from unpurified water for example).I chose to live in the student housing, called Ilam<> Village after it had been highly recommended to me by an associate professor at Washington University who had just recently graduated with his PhD from the University of Canterbury. I
had tracked him down using google and he had been nice enough to answer the myriad of questions that I had about Canterbury University. He told me that Ilam Village was the best place to meet other New Zealand and international students. I saw the wisdom of his advice because if I lived in my own flat off campus, I would know no one but the people in my department. Therefore, I took the plunge and got a room in the suite which has worked out well so far. My flatmates are from China, Korea, the US, Singapore and Germany. They are a mix of final year undergrads, masters students and PhD students. There are two women and four men. I am glad that I am living in the village and I will get over whatever concerns that I may have had. On my first day, after dropping my bags
off at my flat, Dr Pearse took me around the department to introduce me to the people who I will be working with for the next two and a half years. The mechanical engineering department in which I am studying has offices on the fifth floor of a massive, concrete building near where I live. All of the buildings on campus are massive, concrete structures, but they are not as boring as the construction sounds. The campus was built in the 60’s and the architects tried to make unique looking buildings with lots of glass, skywalks and interesting touches.
I share an office on the third floor of my 
building with one other student. He just recently earned his PhD and is currently doing some consulting work and publishing papers that grew from his research. There are two of us in our corner office as opposed to the eight or more students in the other graduate offices. I suspect that I have a strong advisor to get us so much space. From my desk, I can see the snow covered Alps beckoning from the distance. I suspect that they will be a distraction unless the call to travel there is heeded at some point.
The only problem that I have run into at the university is enrolling. At every other university that I have attended, I arrive, smile, and have a student ID. Here, I need a dozen forms signed. No one seems sure which form I need next and so Thursday was spent running from one office to the next to collect signatures. Key people are on holiday which is delaying my quest for signatures which is problematic. I can not get email access in my office or my flat without a student ID. I can not open a bank account without the ID or get access to my scholarship funds. Pretty much, I am stuck. I have been warned by other students that it took them up to two weeks to finally get enrolled.
My enrollment was completed on Monday, the email was activated on Tuesday and I got email in my flat on Wednesday. I had to wait for enrollment to access the internet because students here must pay for their internet usage by the megabyte transferred and for printing by the sheet. Fast, free internet and the ability to print are supposed to be the perks of being a poor university student and I was shocked to learn that this was not the case at Canterbury. Granted it definitely cuts down on downloading and wasted printing, but it seems drastic.
Other than fighting the desire to go to bed at 6PM, things have been going well. I have found grocery stores close to where I live and pretty much everything else that I need within walking distance. There is even a Kmart nearby, but it is as bad as the ones in the US. I found a Borders for books which is a luxury after having lived in countries where finding books in English was more difficult. However, they paperbacks are expensive! They are easily NZ $20 - $30 each. Even with the exchange rate, that is pricey and far too much for a university student on a budget.
Every time, I approach a street to cross, I repeat to myself, “right then left”. If I do as we do in the US and look left first, I will miss the cars coming at me as they drive on the left side of the road. I waited to painfully reconstruct my bicycle until Friday night and Saturday morning because I did not want to go into traffic until I was used to everyone driving on the wrong side of the road. There is some weird rule in New Zealand about left turns that I will have to look up once I have web access. This whole thing about making right turns from the left lane freaks me out a bit. At least on a bike, if I freak out, I can just hop off and walk my bike across the street. I am learning from other cyclists of which there are many. Apparently, cycling has just taken off here recently and is being well embraced, especially by students. Helmets are mandatory and there are now even bike lanes showing up on some of the streets. Regardless of the laws, I would wear a helmet as I am learning the new traffic patterns.
I have been spending the weekend cycling about and learning the city. A lot of the downtown is familiar to me from the last time that I was here about two and a half years ago. The actual downtown area is not very large and in fact, I suspect the massive park downtown is larger than the main commercial area. Most of the city extends outwards from Cathedral Square which is the focal point and the area with the tallest buildings. The Avon river ambles its way through the city and punting (boating) is commonly seen on the river. The sprawl around the city center is made up mostly of one to two story houses that are rather small in size compared to the US. The older houses around the city center are made of brick and wood and are better built that the newer houses in the outlying suburbs which are said to be very cheaply made. Each house has a small lot with fenced gardens. Trees are everywhere and the mix of palm trees, evergreens and deciduous trees is interesting to see.
Finding my way about the city has been a breeze thanks to the GPS unit mounted to my handlebars onto which I downloaded every street in New Zealand. I can just check out my position on the map and even create routes to follow with turn by turn directions. Thanks to Jeff and Jen for getting me into geocaching and GPS units.
The winter in Christchurch is said to have been particularly hash this year and it even snowed three times in the city. The Alps in the distance (the peaks are about 40 miles away) are covered with snow. The weather is only now beginning to get nice with warm days, but cool nights. People remind me that New Zealand is a small island in a big ocean and the temperature depends heavily on the direction of the wind. Winds from the west have come across the Alps and are usually warm. Winds from the south are coming from Antarctica and needless to say, bring cool temperatures.
One last thing to mention is the drinking water in 
Christchurch. It is fantastic. I was surprised to hear that it comes directly out of the ground without any sort of treatment. There is no chlorine taste or smell. People tell me that it is a joy to come back to Christchurch to drink the water after traveling to other parts of the island where the water has the chlorine taste. There is a beautiful botanical garden outside of my flat and the Avon River runs about 100 feet from my front door. It is amazing to walk along the river because although it is quickly flowing, it is absolutely crystal clear. You can see straight to the bottom where the plants are waving in the strong current.
Cheers,
Jeff
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