Robert (New Zealand) - Merry Makihinui

After two and a half weeks of bouncing around the South Island we're back in Christchurch on a regular schedule again for a few weeks.

Last week we traveled to the the west coast to stay at the Rough and Tumble Lodge and do a case study of the hydro-electric dam that is proposed to be built on the Makihinui River. The west coast of the south island is a very rural area, in fact the total population of the west coast is less then that of Beloit. It also has very little industry. It's basically the New Zealand equivalent of the US's rural deep south.

Gathering in the parking lot at the University of Canterbury it was great to hear about everyone else's break adventures and misadventures ranging from various hikes, to falling down waterfalls, to pretensious British hikers, to crashing motor boats, and hitching around the South Island. We were rejoined for the first few days of our trip by Terry, one of our guest lecturers who also accompanied us on the trip to CASS research station and Hinewai. Great guy.

The Rough and Tumble Lodge is in the northern section of the west coast on the banks of the Makihinui River. It may well be the northernmost structure on the west coast actually. It's a beautiful building run by a married couple (one from Christchurch, one from North Carolina). They actually built it almost entirely by themselves with locally milled timber. It's an impressive building in its own right, the fact that only about 4 people worked on the construction is even more amazing. Terry took us on a couple of nature walks and we settled back into close community living which is nice after being fragmented in Christchurch for so long. The main focus though was the dam that Meridian Energy is planning to build one kilometer up stream of the lodge. I mentioned Meridian in my last post as the power company that is carbon neutral. In a lot of ways they are a very impressive company. All of there power comes from hydro-dams and a few wind farms. Still hydro-dams have many problems associated with them. The Makihinui dam would interfere with fish and eel life cycles, make a lake out of a river gorge that is home to a few breeding pairs of Blue Duck (a highly endangered species), lead to massive erosion on the coats where the river runs into the sea (a small town would have to be moved), and would permanently change the river flow. However, unlike the scenarios Kira has been describing in Thailand, Meridian has been very conscious about trying to mitigate the environmental problems caused by the dam and to be open to the concerns of the local community in their plans. All in all the whole study highlighted that any form of power production is environmentally problematic. Over-consumption and the idea of constant growth are the real problems we face.
As a side note, it was a very strange feeling to stand in the gorge just up stream of where the dam might be built and to know that you could be one of the last people to ever walk there because in 5 years it may all be underwater.

We also toured a massive open-cast coal mine which is the primary employer on the west coast. The tour was lead by the guy who's in charge on the mines environmental policies. It's amazing the amount of work and money they put into trying to lessen their environmental impact. At the same time, walking along a stream near the mine later that week it was clear that no matter how much they do, there's still a great deal of pollution being caused by the operation. All environmental issues aside, the place had tons of cool machinery, including one of the world's largest bulldozers.

Evenings at the lodge took a number of forms. As I mentioned before Susan proposed to Jon at the end of Routeburn, and Rough and Tumble was the perfect place for the wedding. We got dressed up (except for me because Jon needed my nice cloths). We did the whole thing, Elliot presided over the ceremony, Jon and Susan wrote vows, there was wedding cake, rings Julia wove out of flax, and the throwing of the bouquet (Liz, an Earlham graduate who's been the program assistant caught it so best of luck to her). And of course the evening ended in a crazy dance party. We also had an Ode to Winter night because we're missing that beautiful season this year, complete with Eggnog, stockings filled by secret Santas, Christmas music, and toasts of "Merry Makihinui".

Being on the west side of the southern alps, the west coast gets an amazing amount of rain due to warm, humid winds coming off the Tasman Sea and then hitting the ridges. Our freakish luck with sunny weather held foe most of the week but we got a fair bit of rain the last night. It was great though. We got to see the river rise up to high flow, the sort of thing that would be regulated on a daily basis if the dam gets built.

Back in Christchurch we're headed into our last block of courses. We have two more weeks of class and service learning, then a week of finals, and finally a week long hiking/kayaking trip up in Abel Tasman National Park. After that the program is over. It feels strange to be only a month from the end (although I'm staying an extra two weeks to travel on my own and with my father when he comes over). I had a conversation with Susan on the Dusky Track about how it's really great when amazing experiences end at just the right time, when you've gotten what you want from it but it doesn't drag on. I think this program will do that perfectly.

After classes today we had a very informal game of soccer in a field by the university. It was a lot of fun, even though I haven't played in seven years and majorly suck. I was also playing barefoot and may have broken my toe. Time will tell I guess.

If you guys are dying to see pictures, I wont be able to upload until I get back to the states, and as I said, my North Island pictures got deleted. However, you can see some pictures on Earlham's website along with program updates written by my professor.
http://www.earlham.edu/~outdoor/new_zealand/updates.shtml


Things I have been appreciating:

-The Office (watched most of season 3 on various laptops while at Rough and Tumble)
-Lukas' (one of the students, originally from the Czech Republic) Tobias Fuke-esque word mix-up: "I think I would be great anal-detective."
-The smell of burning peat bricks, mostly because it reminds me of Raphoe
-Hearing a Frames song being played at a pub downtown
-Water
-I'm actually coming around to the odd spoon sizes a bit
-Running around in the surf on the west coast with some random dog
-"Snack Pack" the rap about our time in New Zealand that Shane and Brian made. I am told that the music video will be on youtube soon.


Finally, a request for you all to hold the Earlham community "in the light" as the Quakers say. It's been a rough semester. A student, and two professors have died over the past couple months. People here seem to be dealing with it ok, but it's still hard.

I'm thinking of you all often, both those abroad and back in in Belwah. Take care of yourselves.