NEWS BRIEFS
Akaroa, or The Halls of Hell
On Saturday this week we finally decided to venture forth to the south of Christchurch—an hour and a half to the south—to the picturesque tourist mecca of Akaroa. First, though, a bit of geography: south of Christchurch, there are a pair of extinct volcanoes that create a very odd protrusion into the otherwise flat Canterbury Plain. The northern caldera is the port town of Lyttleton, where Christchurch gets all of its goods from overseas. The town, though, got hit badly by the earthquake (it's the oldest part of Christchurch so had some 150-year-old buildings) and looks very industrial. Cruise ships decided after 2010 to redirect to the southern caldera with its more remote town of Akaroa. The town had been founded in 1840 by French settlers and a number of aspects of the town are decidedly French, including street names, but the British reasserted themselves pretty early on, so the town is still as British as ever. It also has become a magnet for tourism which, unfortunately, means there isn't a lot interesting there anymore. There are some hiking trails but they aren't that unique to ones located closer to the city. There are some cutesy shops, but I don't have any money and things are expensive here. There aren't, surprisingly, many things to do there except a few water sports and mini golfing. The town is split in two, with the cruise ship dock located on the opposite side of town from the commercial end. When we visited, a ship was in town and people were everywhere! Most probably thought we were with the ship. Ugh. All the fun stuff was near the terminal, but it was too far to walk to and all the parking spots were taken, so we simply left.
We may go back again, but it's a long drive to nowhere especially amazing. Perhaps that's one of the problems with New Zealand: there are so many awesome locales that they all get kind of watered down. It's unfortunate, but definitely true in this case. We did at least stop at a cheese factory and get some nice artisan cheese. Hmm...
A Fiery New Year
New Years' Eve this year was celebrated at North Hagley Park, the city's equivalent (or attempt at) the huge parks in London and Westminster. They had a free concert series at the park that ran until 12:30 a.m. and most of the songs played were American-ish rather than Kiwi. The few Kiwi songs they played were not especially memorable. They did have a Celtic Rock band play us into the new year, which was interesting; they were almost Ska in their style, but not quite. They needed a bagpipe, though, to really bring it home. We were happy to see fireworks at the stroke of midnight, however. That was something we're not used to in California because of all the fire restrictions. And it wasn't a short show, either; they just kept on going. And they were very near to the ground, which was slightly scary but also awesome—it rained firework ash on us for the next ten minutes. Overall, it was a fun start to the year and we discovered in the process that there is a free concert series that runs every Sunday afternoon at the park, so we'll be coming back weekly, it looks like (we already went this Sunday!).
More Heat in the Underworld
Speaking of fire, fireworks, calderas—it's been hot here. Easily in the 80˚s, which may not seem like much to some people, but without air conditioning in the houses, it's been a short-sleeves and shorts kind of summer. We still get the occasional cold spell or rainy day, but most days have not been very windy and have been much dryer than usual. I even got a little sunburn (don't tell Kara!). But it definitely helps in making it feel like summer here, and it also provides us with that strange feeling that something's not quite right. I mean, it's winter in the northern half of the globe, yet we're sweating down here. It's very strange. When I went to Australia and New Zealand when I was little, it was winter, which is mild here and in California, so it felt more normal. When we got here, Niko regrew his winter coat in double time only to have lost it over the past month (I think half of it is all over my shirt right now). Rain's on the forecast for a few days this week but hopefully it will be gone when we go on our trip next week. More on that to come in the next issue.
Phase II: Burning My Notes
I (literally) just finished writing the notes for the eighth book I've read in the past week for my thesis. It's a tough process browsing through a ton of books but never really getting to read them. It's a wonder what I could learn if I could read everything I have to cite for my thesis. In any case, the writing of my first chapter begins this week which means I also need to get all my notes aggregated together, sorted into appropriate sections, and then organized. I still am missing a lot of necessary material for this 100,000-word monster of a paper but I've got to start somewhere and the first draft of my first chapter is due on February 1st. Since I'll be gone a week during that period, it doesn't leave me with much time to organize and write. On top of that, I have my book to keep working on and French readings, as well as other random tasks. It's definitely becoming a busy summer for me.
On Capsicum
I have chili peppers! Okay, you knew that already, but they've actually reached maturity. Hot, fiery jalapeño peppers, red as a freshly-cooked lobster. So far I have two fully-red peppers and a little baby one that really matured a bit too early to be useful. But three others are showing signs of maturing (red stems at the bottom signaling they are down growing out) and I have about six large dark green peppers that could be safely picked. I'm planning on picking them tonight and pickling the lot of them so they can be preserved better. I hope to use them in my next batch of refried beans, which may be a while since we have a huge batch still in the freezer right now. In addition to my large and successful pepper tree, I have about a dozen smaller plants growing quickly in this heat. They'll need to be transplanted soon so they can truly thrive, but a few of them may already be reaching a point where flowers may bloom and become peppers, which is really awesome. I'll save some for all of you when you visit. (You are all visiting, right?).
DISCLAIMER
The Khagan Weekly is the unofficial news outlet for an American living in Christchurch, New Zealand. Anything he says can and may be used against him. His statements should be taken as factual, except when they are not. All rights reserved, except where prohibited...like in Russia. They prohibit everything there. Psh. Punks. Let's start a punt Putin day. That'd be fun.
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