It's a Melon!

It's a kiwano melon!

Gross looking inside, and tastes not worthwhile.  Lesson learned!

What's That?!!

I found it at a grocery store!

Man Yogurt

Like the smart travelers on a budget that we were, and because they summarize the Character of a Nation, we (Rachel and I) made sure to hit up the New Zealand grocery stores for supplies!  Our goal was to acquire suitable breakfast materials.  Neither of us favor large breakfasts on a daily basis, and the price wasn't it worth it for us to eat toast and tea (the breakfast of champions!) of the hotel buffet in the mornings.

Both of us bee-lined for this yogurt because of it's yummy flavor combinations and the promise of fruit, seeds, grains, and barley together.  Look closer.  

"This is men's yoghurt and you are a man.  Now find a spoon, fork, or spade and dig in."

The man theme continues.

Tips.

"A man must not own more than one aftershave at any one time."

"It is acceptable to eat yoghurt - when it's Mammoth yoghurt and it's thick and chunky and it's made for men."

Turns out that all of the other American conservators, most of whom are ladies, hit up the New Zealand grocery stores as well.  All were attracted to the Man Yogurt as well, based upon the promise of fruit, seeds, grains, and barley, only realizing that it was for men much later.

We figured, hey, the American Woman is a tough broad.  If she wants to eat the Man Yogurt, she's gonna eat the Man Yogurt.  Nobody can stop her.

Miao

In Wellington.  Painted on the side of some kind of food truck?  Or other mobile shopping facilitator?

Wellington

Our suitcases arrived, the sun came out, and our talk went great.  Time to enjoy Wellington worry-free!

The conference venue, Te Papa.

The lecture hall was lovely, and the conference so well-put together, they really outdid themselves.  I would go into specifics, but it would be too dorky.  Excellent workshops, excellent tours.  Picture below is the balcony off of the tea-time reception space.

The opening reception was held at the National Library of New Zealand, where we were formally welcomed in a Maori welcoming ceremony.  We were all led in quietly together (all 150 conference attendees) by a Te Papa conservator.  The Library staff was collected together inside, and one of the Maori women on staff was singing a song, asking if we were friends or foes.  Our leading conservator, also a Maori woman, sang back that we were friendly.  The welcoming singer then had us all come in and sit down together.

After that, we had a long speech/prayer/intention, first in Maori and then in English, about the conference, the goals, the participants.  Then more brief speeches by the director of the library (the equivalent of our Librarian of Congress) and the minister of culture.  After a second song by the entire Library staff, we were expected to sing a song in return!  In Maori!  Such pressure...  We'd been handed little slips of paper with the words printed on them, and told the tune would be "How Great Thou Art," no doubt to make things easy for us.  After the song, wine, aperitifs, and freedom to wander (food and drink free, of course) through the exhibits on the ground floor.

Te Papa is right on the water. 

Never fear: there are gaps in the dock where you can leap right into the harbor.

Suspended fern sculpture above a courtyard outside the Wellington town hall.

Suitcase Woes, and Cable Car Fun

Going to New Zealand, you cross the international date line, so in addition to being on an airplane forever, you also loose an entire day.  Once you reach your destination, you're very excited to get your things and clean up.  A fine plan, as long as your suitcase arrives when you do...

My co-worker Rachel and I purchased our flying tickets together, and our other co-worker Barb purchased hers separately.  However, surprise surprise, we all ended up sitting in a row together from Philadelphia to LA.  Once in LA, we'd go our separate ways, both ultimately ending in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.

This was easy enough, and should have involved a nice, dull four-hour layover in LAX.  Instead our plane was over an hour late arriving in Philadelphia, and was a corresponding hour-plus late departing.  And after we boarded the plane, taxing down the runway, the pilot explained how airplanes have fuel tanks in the wings.  This particular airplane, why one of the fuel tanks was broken!  Funny thing, we'd have to stop in Kansas City to refuel, or else the flight would not make it to LA.  So we rode on a busted plane.  Was there no other unbroken plane in the whole of the Philadelphia airport to borrow?  No.

The Kansas City stop took and hour, and once we finally arrived in LA we sat on the runway for 45 minutes while we waited for a parking spot.  This was eating far into our layover time...

Once we finally got off the airplane, we ran out of security, outside from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3, got our new boarding passes and explained to the Virgin Australia people how our flight was late and that our luggage would be hard pressed to make it.  They sighed, said they'd do what they could, and went home (it was 10:00 pm, and they had been keeping the desk open, waiting for only us).  We booked it through security again and ran to the next plane.

After an uneventful flight to Brisbane, Australia, and from there to Wellington, we looked hopefully for our luggage.  No go.  Sadness.  We bought a few small items in Wellington - the Virgin Australia representative said that our bags would probably arrive the next morning, and we figured that as soon as we bought things, they'd arrive.

The next day, no luggage.  No messages from anyone, only answering machines.  Co-worker Barb, whose luggage was also lost, had her bag returned the very next day.  I figure the problem was with US Air, who had shuttled us on that horrid flight to LA.  That they were not communicating properly with Virgin Australia.  But how to contact them from New Zealand?  The solution: email Mum all the details and let her loose on the culprits.

Only Mum knows who she had to scold, but our bags were located and sent on their way to Wellington, arriving luckily the morning of the first day of talks.  Honestly, I think if she hadn't called, those doofuses would still have our luggage, we never would have gotten it.  I never want to travel with US Air again!

For a short and sad time, it seemed that the outfit pictured below would be my New Zealand Conference Outfit.  It's a perfectly fine dress, but in happy times, I would not wear it with blue sneakers.

While our luggage had not yet arrived, Rachel and I attempted to cheer ourselves by taking the Wellington Cable Car to admire the city from the high ground!

At the top were a number of nice overlooks and a huge botanical garden.

Sneakers.  I like you, but not as conference-wear.

An Update and a Promise

Where have I been?  Mostly in my apartment, baking madeleines, hosting my own single-viewer Jane Austen film adaptation movie marathon, the usual.

But more importantly, I was getting ready for a paper that my co-workers and I were going to present at a major conference in Wellington, New Zealand!  

I have well over 600 photographs from this trip, so stay tuned, and sooner or later I'll post an extensive blow-by-blow on my excursion to Middle Earth.  Promise.