On Wednesday afternoon this week I got a call from the biochemistry secretary saying there were two young men waiting for me upstairs. Two friends from Williams, Mack Brickley '08 and Jon Stone '08 had arrived! They have been traveling for the past 5 months, seeing Equador, Chile, and now New Zealand. They spent several weeks volunteering at the Mt. Bruce bird sanctuary on the North Island and then took the ferry across to the South Island, where they drove down the west coast and hiked the Abel Tasman track, the Milford track, and parts of the Kepler track. We went out to dinner on Wednesday evening and I heard all their stories and shared a few of my own. Thursday they toured the Otago Peninsula in their rental car while I worked, but we cooked up a delicious pasta dinner together that evening. Friday I just went in to work for a couple hours in the morning and then we headed out to the Catlins, a region of rugged hills, forests, and beaches on the southeastern coast of the South Island, a couple hours drive from Dunedin.
The common way to see the Catlins it seems is to drive the main scenic road and stop at various attractions that include ocean views, short and medium length tracks to waterfalls and through native forest, and quirky little museums and cafes. Our first stop was Nugget Point, where we found a geocache and tried to keep warm in spite of the chilling wind. Later in the afternoon we checked out a couple waterfalls and an abandoned railroad tunnel. Of course it got dark around 5 so we found a campsite in the middle of the forest for the night. By this time it had started raining pretty steadily, so we just huddled in the car and broke out a bottle of Scotch. For entertainment (and to keep warm) Mack and I pushed the car with Jon steering around the little dirt road. At some point we decided we should set up the tent, which we accomplished in a few minutes and then immediately retreated back inside the car. A while later we boiled some water for 2-minute noodles and instant mashed potatoes, and again retreated back to the car. Finally we all crowded into Jon's two-man tent and were pretty warm although a bit soggy since it rained throughout the night.
The next morning we went for a trail run on a nearby track through dense forest full of native species and plenty of invasive pine as well. Then we continued south along the main road through Papatowai, where we stopped at the eccentric Lost Gypsy Gallery (closed for the winter), found another geocache at the Cathedral Caves (also closed for the winter), and a couple more waterfalls. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Mack and Jon, but I think Mack made a good analogy when he said that the Catlins are like the Berkshires are to the U.S.--they're nice hills but not too impressive when compared to the Rockies or NZ's Southern Alps 100 kilometers west.
Saturday night we cooked up some pork teriyaki and played pitch, the card game that was popular our first couple years at Williams. Sunday morning Mack and Jon departed Dunedin for Mt. Cook, Blenheim, and Christchurch, where they are flying home to the States on June 10.
Sunday evening I attended day 1 of the Oxidative Stress meeting, which included researchers from Dunedin and Christchurch. My work on cysteine reactivity was applicable, so I gave a 15-minute presentation today that I've uploaded here. Also today I had another session for the snack study that I am volunteering in. It was a rather extensive tasting session in which we had to taste and rate a variety of different snacks, before and after snacking ad libitum. At the end of the session I was assigned to the control group, meaning I will receive no snacks at all for the 3-month study. Just my luck.
Below are pictures from the Catlins.
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