Personal News

This one really has nothing to do with New Zealand, but I'm assuming some readers might be interested in a bit of personal news on my front.

My girlfriend Sally is pregnant!

No, just kidding! I have no girlfriend, nor, as far as I know, do I have any children.

The real personal news is that I've received both tenure and promotion to Senior Lecturer.

Okay, well actually that gives me another opportunity to note a difference between the US and NZ: academic ranks.

Firstly, we don't actually call it "tenure" here. Rather, we're on probation for a few years (accelerated in my case), and then we apply to go off probation. That's the equivalent of tenure.

Secondly, we basically have the same academic ranks as in the US, but with slight unalignment (is that a word?). Here's a rough translation guide:

US = NZ
Assistant Professor = Lecturer
Associate Professor = Senior Lecturer
Professor = Associate Professor (or Reader)
Chair of Excellence = Professor

In terms of formal address, in NZ only Associate Professors and Professors are addressed as "Professor So-and-So." Anyone below that rank is formally addressed "Doctor So-and-So."

But things are pretty informal for the most part.

So I prefer "Josh."

Or "Your Grand and Omni-Superior Excellency."

Fairness in Education

Awhile back, I posted a discussion comparing fairness in higher education in NZ vs. the US. The short story then was that things are much fairer here than in the States. Just to add another layer to the debate, The Economist has a nice short piece on many ways that class unfairly affects one's higher education (and therefore life prospects) in the US, at a time when social mobility is becoming more important but less feasible.

ECT, Part 5

By the time we got to the end of the East Cape, it had been a long day. We continued on for about another 2 hours--inland and south--to Taupo, where we got some overpriced Indian food and crashed at a backpackers. The Taupo region has been featured before here, during Julie's visit, including Taupo and Rotorua, and also the Tongariro Crossing (here, here, and here). When she and I drove north to Taupo, the final couple of hours were a great drive, featuring Tongariro National Park, in which lies the Crossing. But we didn't get any pictures, figuring we'd get them on the way back south. Big mistake. Never employ that reasoning in New Zealand. If you get good weather, take the picture.

Anyway, that leg of the trip takes place on the Desert Road, which is a pretty cool stretch of high desert. It was summer then, so there was no snow on the mountains. But this time, there was plenty of snow, and thankfully Jesse and I had pretty good weather. So here's what the scene looks like from the Desert Road.

As noted before, the conical mountain is (if memory serves) the one that formed the visual basis for Mordor in Lord of the Rings, and is where Julie and I did the Crossing (from this angle, we headed up its backside, on its right, and then headed further right).

ECT, Part 4

Now we're heading to the crown jewel of the East Cape. As you head north from Gisborne, you spend quite a bit of time inland. Which is frustrating, because you've seen the other side of those hills, and you know that there's some astounding coastline there. But then you come over a hill and there's this amazing azure-turquoise sea. (If there's one thing that I keep being frustrated by on these trips, it's my camera's inability to capture the astoudingly weird and beautiful colors of the lakes, rivers, and oceans. I guess that's one more reason to come see for yourself.) It's the South Pacific, and more specifically the Bay of Plenty. It's beautiful. And, as before, there are lots and lots of beaches.

When the "highway" finally dumps you out to the sea at this point, you're in Te Araroa (#6 on the map). This town is small but charming, and smack-dab in the front-center of town rests what must be the world's coolest skate park. A modest skate park, to be sure, but the picture doesn't lie: it's right on the ocean, with a nice view of the cliffs beyond. Location, location, location.

The low-angle picture of the road heads out to the lighthouse (#7 on the map) which is...you guessed it...the world's most easterly lighthouse. Pretty cool. The road takes awhile, because despite the picture it's mostly gravel. When you get to the lighthouse, you can take short climb up to it. We passed, as the sleepless night before and the difficult (if short) hike were catching up to us around noon. But, hey, it looks like it'd be kinda neat to be at the world's most easterly lighthouse.

From there we wrapped around the Bay of Plenty and then headed inland to Taupo, which we've talked about before, when Julie was visiting. I'll have a new set of pictures from that area in the next post, but it's too soon to leave the East Cape. So a few more words.

The two pictures of that Bay of Plenty drive capture two important things. First, it's a stunning coastal drive. If you're ever here and it's nice weather, it is worth doing. Second, there's that famous church sitting all alone on the headland. Striking site. But what's more striking as you travel the East Cape is that it's one area that hasn't been fully Europeanized. The Maori and Pacific Islander population is significant (both asbolutely and relatively), and--all the way from Te Araroa to Opitiki--there are several small towns, each of which is dominated not by a church, but by a marae. A marae is, roughly, a Maori meeting place. It serves many community functions, only one of which is spiritual. Anyway, it's striking how in this part of New Zealand, but in contrast to every other part I've seen, the marae is the physical centerpiece of many of these small towns.

That probably contributed to this being the first time I've felt a strong sensation of not being in the utopia of racial harmony NZ tends to be: the marginalization of the Maori was made particularly salient. Now, that said, things are waaaaaaay better here than in the US or Australia or Europe on the racial front. Way better. In every way. Jobs, respect, reparations, interracial dating, you name it. It's better here overall. But it's not perfect, and just coincidentally today's Dominion Post (how's that for a relevant title!) had an article on the extensive poverty and other social problems on the East Cape, focusing on Ruatoria in particular. I suppose that for better or for worse, I in many ways had my primary education on these and cognate issues before I ever moved here via two very good films, Whale Rider (again, set and filmed in these parts) and one of my favorite movies ever (and a very difficult one to watch at times), Once Were Warriors. The education, as always, continues.

At any rate, we're now leaving the East Cape. I highly recommend it. If you do make the road-trip, though, pay attention to the guidebooks' advice about where you can get gas, food, and shelter. I'm broken-record-ing this a bit, but it's worth repeating that there ain't much around here. Just the smallest of towns, farms, and logging. But it's a fantastic setting.

ECT, Part 3

Next stop on the East Cape Trip is Anaura Bay, which is about half-way up the north-south half of the East Cape (point #5 on the map). This much must be said: there are a gazillion little bays and coves in New Zealand. You just have to pick a couple at which to spend more time. Jesse and I picked this one because it looked like it had a nice hike through some coastal forest. Turns out there is also free car camping just below the hike, right on the water. Pretty nice spot, actually.

The hike itself was strange. The posted gov't sign billed it as two miles in two hours! That's a slow hike. We did it faster, but it was quite difficult, so not that much faster. A stretch went through mud, another, almost technical stretch had us repeatedly zig-zagging across a creek (basically jumping it each time), and then the rest was pretty much steeply uphill. Until we got lost. Then we re-found the track, and it was an easy downhill from there for the last half-mile or so. A possum, and lots of wild goats, kept us company throughout.

Except for the first picture, which is from the road just above the trailhead, all of these pictures are from the hike itself. You'll notice one shot of the famous Kiwi Silver Fern. (My first one, actually, even though an artist's rendering of the Silver Fern is everywhere as NZ's national flora.) And another I like to call "self-portrait."

I suppose at this point I should say something about this eastern stretch of the East Cape. It's basically all just farming and timber. There is nothing here. And very few people live here. If you wanted to spend the night between Anaura Bay and Te Araroa, it would have to be camping or on a farmstay, I think. Either way, it's a beautiful drive.

Coming up next: the best part of the drive, and the East Cape itself.

ECT, Part 2

Our next stop as we head north--still only on the way to the East Cape--is Mahia Beach. Looks like a great little spot, on the north end of Hawke Bay (point #3 on the map). It's actually only part of the Mahia Peninsula (a scenic reserve). This was another spot where I thought "Wow, I could spend a whole trip just here alone."

As you head north towards Gisborne from there, you also go through the highly-rated Morere Hot Springs, which, unfortunately, we didn't try. (At the same time, hot springs are a dime a dozen here, so it's kind of hard to get super worked up over any one of them.)

The first two pictures from this area are from Mahia Beach, while the third is from the road into the Mahia Peninsula. If you surf, this whole stretch of coast is apparently prime Kiwi surfing territory.

From there we drove up to Gisborne (point #4) to spend the night. We ate at The Wharf, which was nice but overpriced (though they have what looks like a very large wine collection--with several bottles priced at over NZ$500, the highest being NZ$950). We stayed at the Waikanae Beach Holiday Park, a backpackers/budget/campground kind of combo-type place. Not too much to offer, and it was absolutely freezing in the units. However, they do have this: they are right on the beach, which was nice.

Gisborne seems like a sleepy town, without much happening, but it is a prime stopping location for roadtrippers. Perhaps its most noteworthy feature is its "easterlyness." This is something that comes up again and again as you travel around the East Cape. While NZ's two main islands are not the most easterly units of land in the world, they are the most easterly units of land with significant populations. So Gisborne is billed as the most easterly "city" in the world and therefore the first "city" to see the sun each day. Therefore it's ahead of everyone else in the world. So there!

As we were freezing, we didn't get a good night's sleep, so we hit the road at about 5:30am. The bonus to doing this is that we got in a huge day of travelling, plus we got to be among the first people in the world to see the sun that day (Tuesday, August 29, 2006). And what would that be worth without a picture? So, here are two shots of that sunrise, for the record.

They were actually taken just north of Gisborne in Okitu, which has a nice-looking beach, and which is just south of Whangara. (Education moment: in Te Reo [or Maori], "wh" is pronounced "f." So "Whangara" is pronounced fangara. It makes for a chuckle when you finish the East Cape at Whakatane. Say it out-loud.) Anyway, you might not know Whangara by name, but many of you do know it. It's the town that was both the setting and location of the filmshoot for Whale Rider. Nope, we didn't take it in. To access it, you must get an escort. And, even if we had wanted to, we'd have missed it, because we were so tired that we forgot its significance as we passed through.

Anyway, at this point we're now definitely out of the Hawke's Bay region and into the East Cape. We basically spent the whole day travelling around it. And this was just a gorgeous beginning to a gorgeous day. Made lots of driving unquestionably worth it. More to come on that front.