Table Of Contents
I started writing this when I was on the plane over the Pacific Ocean back to Vancouver and then Toronto/Waterloo in time for teaching in Winter 2025. Visited an old place (Mount Aspiring National Park, Wānaka, Queenstown) and a new place (Tahiti and Moorea in French Polynesia) in December. We’ll see how Winter 2025 goes with the excessive teaching load (3 courses).
…
Welp, it’s going, and I sure didn’t have time to write my December report. A race to the end of January.
COVID
Whoops, MP brought home a case of COVID (presumably from work) just as we were going to walk the Southern Crossing of the Tararuas. Yes, there was indeed a wave in New Zealand at the beginning of December. She reported that it only felt like proper COVID for one day. I tried to dodge it by staying away from home for two nights (one night at a Quest serviced apartment and one night at a cabin in a holiday park) but tested weak positive on the third day. Then it went away the next day and came back as a weak positive again the day after. Then nothing. I was spraying with the iota-carrageenan nasal spray consistently. Maybe that, in combination with my two-month-old vaccine dose, helped. Anyway, I wouldn’t really have even suspected COVID except that MP reported it.
Looks like cases of respiratory illnesses in the US were increasing again at the start of January, including COVID. No clue what’s going on in Canada. There is a guy sniffling somewhere near me on this plane.
Here’s the usual link to the Absolutely Maybe post for December:
Professional
TOPLAS and teaching, for the most part, in addition to usual weekly meetings with grad students. Also talked to prospective grad students. I was unable to work, for the most part, when I was on the Cascade Saddle attempt, because I wasn’t going to bring a computer on a 4 day walk. I worked on 17 days, with 15 workdays in December for Waterloo (not counting the period between Christmas and New Year’s).
Grad students/mentees/collaborators
Just like in November, had video calls with grad students/potential students/mentees/collaborators on 9 days.
Collegiality/Service
The main thing was serving on a PhD comprehensive exam committee. I also wrote one reference letter.
Trips
Gisborne
Was last month (trip report, but here’s two more pictures from December.
Southern Crossing
Bailed due to COVID. Better luck next year?
Wellington
Not a trip, but we went on a Zealandia night tour and I sort of got a kiwi picture. The tour was the day before the Zealandia AGM, which I attended—this year’s guest was the Rt. Hon Helen Clark, who drew less of a crowd than James Cameron. Also there was the yearly taiko drumming at Harbourside Market.
While trying to dodge Covid, I stayed at a Quest in the CBD (Johnston St) which was nice. The next night I went to a holiday park in Hutt Valley, which wasn’t quite as nice, but was cheaper.
Cascade Saddle attempt, December 19–24
Our third try at the Cascade Saddle. First try was canned due to COVID. Second try was in May which is a bit late in the season and the bridges are not there anymore.
The weather window was iffy. We tried to start a day earlier to beat some low clouds (i.e. white-out). Our flight to Queenstown (via Christchurch) arrived at 9pm, which meant that we got to Aspiring Hut at 2am. It consistently takes us 2.5 hours to walk to the hut. I decided to sleep on the bench outside, which was perhaps more comfortable than MP’s experience sleeping inside. I think there was a loud snorer. But at 5:30am people were up. As were the sandflies.
I was using a SilTarp to keep dew off my sleeping bag, but during the night it disappeared. I found it again underneath the hut. Should probably tie it to something.
We left the hut at 8am and started walking up the saddle. Probably the cloud level was 1500m and the saddle tops out at 1750m. We turned back a bit short of the clouds. I think we could have done it anyway, though we would have missed out on the views from higher than 1500m. I saw a couple of kea flying, a titipounamu, and two South Island robins. We got back to Aspiring Hut 6 hours later and then walked to Raspberry Creek, so a 8.5 hour walking day with 15km that day and 9km not very many hours before that (“yesterday”). We got a ride back to Wānaka with two brothers from North Carolina who had family in NZ. I booked a room at the Brownston Hostel while in the car back to Wānaka. It was OK, though not fancy, but also not cheap (C$150).
We then had 4 more days in Wānaka/Queenstown; maybe on the last day we could have gotten up the saddle, but then we had flights to catch, and that wouldn’t have left any time to get back.
We rented mountain bikes on one day and I made it to Lake Hawea. On the day before that we had walked part of the way towards there, to Beacon Point. I think the riding around Queenstown is nicer than around Wānaka.
We bought a bunch of things in Queenstown, including flights to Japan, but also pants (I need more pants), T-shirts, and other gear.
Also, about Frankton. The drive from Frankton to Queenstown is short, but can take half an hour in traffic. If only there were more buses or trains or something. Frankton is like they reproduced all the stores in central Queenstown, but in an easier-to-drive-to place, more accessible to the airport. Kind of like dix30 in Brossard. But Frankton’s not on the lake. Was good for us to not have to get into Queenstown itself though.
We also went to the climbing gym in Queenstown. The routesetting is suboptimal: routes are far too reachy.
I think that it really takes a 2 week trip to Wānaka to have decent odds of pulling off this trip. Then there should be a weather window sometime. Perhaps just camping out until leaving for the tramp. Fourth try lucky?
French Polynesia, December 25–January 3
Maybe I’ll try to summarize that trip in the January report. Let’s just put a few pictures.
tl;dw: Went to Moorea for a bunch of days in December, and then a few days in Tahiti just at the end of December and early January. Snorkelling and hiking.
Travel Planning
We did do some planning for the scrubbed Southern Crossing trip and had even gotten as far as packing for it. We also did just-in-time planning for the Cascade Saddle trip and for French Polynesia. We did just a bit of planning for the Japan trip, notably buying plane tickets.
Movement statistics
Decent number of flight segments, including one international segment.
And the usual movement statistics:
- 🚶 Walking: 136.4km on 27 days (summer in Aotearoa, some hikes)
- 🚲 Biking: 121.56km on 10 days, including from Wānaka to Lake Hāwea, and a ride to Island Bay to buy fins for snorkeling.
- 🚗 Driving: 50km on 2 days (Gisborne, and from the trailhead to Wānaka)
- 🚗 Taxi: 12.8km (to and from WLG)
- 🚌 Bus: 138.5km on 7 days (including the shuttle from ZQN to the trailhead, 80km; also Hutt Valley and Queenstown)
- ✈ Plane: 6848km (GIS-WLG, WLG-CHC-ZQN, ZQN-AKL-WLG, WLG-AKL-PPT)
- ⛴ Boat: 90.5km (Queenstown ferry, Tahiti to Moorea and back, boat tours)
- 🏍 Scooter: 280km (around and around Moorea)
Walks
- Cooks Cove Walkway, 5.8km near Gisborne, great views.
- Karori Cemetary to Otari-Wilton Bush (red/blue tracks), 9.2km again with MP’s meetup group
- Trois Pinus, Moorea: three kinds of skinks, good views at the 3 pines lookout with a swing, some birds.
- Trois Cocotiers, Moorea: saw a grey-green fruit dove and some society kingfishers, along with silvereyes and red-vented bulbuls; there are signs saying there are potential Moorea reed warblers, but there are actually no reliable recent sightings of this bird. There were definitely bamboo forests and azure-tailed skinks though.
Pictures
I’m still processing December 2022 photos, with three days on the Gillespie Circuit left. The processing rate was also down from November, since I was travelling in December 2024 as well, or sometimes I was kind of staying put in Wānaka/Queenstown but didn’t have my computer. Still, it wasn’t down as much as I might have thought.
Removed 18 sets from the queue and added 13. After I finish the three last December 2022 sets and the 5 January 2023 sets then I’ll get to August 2023.
Picture logs still available. As always, pictures are clickable to go to the full gallery.
- Sets of pictures posted: 18 (November: 22)
- Total pictures posted: 652 (900)
- Total pictures in selection pool: 2542 (3011)
- Accept rate: 26% (min 14%, max 63%) (30%)
December posts
Back to the normal number of posts.
- Trip report: Gisborne, November 28–Dec 1 2024
- Submission on the (terrible) Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill
Miscellaneous
For my last month of my sabbatical I was in Wellington on 20 days.
Acquisitions
- the cheapest possible fins for snorkelling at Ocean Hunter (do not regret)
- Icebreaker Men’s Merino 150 Tech Lite T-shirt
- Mons Royale Virage bike pants (look like hiking pants, wouldn’t wear in Waterloo, but probably good in the heat)
- BD Cosmo 350-R headlamp
- $20 suitcase from an op shop in Karori to transport stuff back to Canada
Sports
Even if I hadn’t been out of town, judo does take a pause around Christmas. Just went to judo 4× in December (plus there was that whole COVID thing). Did get to Faultline 7× before ending my membership for now, plus once at the Queenstown climbing gym. Haven’t had that pace of visits to GRR in January.
Food
Wellington
- La Kebab: on my way to the Wellington Top 10 Holiday Park. Cook had just made some fresh falafel and gave me a free one. Good choice in general.
- Shelly Bay Baker on Karori Road: a quite reasonable sandwich
Queenstown
- Podium Restaurant and Bar @ Sudima Queenstown: our room came with a free drinks voucher and we ended up staying for dinner, which definitely exceeded my hotel restaurant expectation and is good in the open category
- Hikari Teppanyaki: good for a sushi place on the NZ scale, has tuna and it is possible to avoid the chicken sushi; I had a reasonable bento box
- Atlas Beer Cafe: I guess you go for the beer, not the food, but the tacos were OK and the view was good. Also the atmosphere. We were having trouble finding a place on the lake that we wanted to go to.
- Ma Boulangerie: actually I like it better than little grump in Wellington; comparable to le panier in Christchurch, not sure which would win head-to-head
Tahiti/Moorea
- the surfhouse: was actually the restaurant colocated with the Kon Tiki Cabins where we stayed; reasonable food
- Motu Grill: our first real meal at a restaurant in Moorea, and one of the best, with excellent fish of all sorts, though the fries were better elsewhere. Roquefort sauce is quite popular in Tahiti for some reason, and it was good here.
- Fare La Canadienne: was indeed owned by Quebecers (we were served by Nancy) and was playing a Quebec radio station; I did not have the poutine as I’d be in Montreal soon enough anyway, but the burger was delicious and the fries crispier than at Motu
- Caramel’in: decent bakery, not as flaky as I’d hope, but a good choice for breakfast when open (not Sunday)
- O Moana Snack: had just opened 3 days earlier when we were there; service was extremely slow even for island time, though food was tasty
- Restaurant L’Happy’z Moorea: time for something that is not fish; the pizza here was definitely not fish and got our stamp of approval
- Moorea Maitai: I guess there’s no real reason to think that grilled chicken would be BBQ’d, so that’s a me problem
- La Grande Voile: this is not Mexican food! not bad, and really popular, but definitely not Mexican.
- Le Cheval d’Or: old-school Chinese restaurant where there were very few white people; eggplant was a winner.
- banh mi at the Papeete market: not bad, not superlative
- coconut milk at the Papeete market: oops, you don’t really want to drink 250mL of it at once
All the meals in Moorea were super huge.
Volunteering
Barely any. Some calls for the OAC and the Judo Ontario Referee Committee.
Conclusion
Last month of sabbatical was more teaching-focussed than earlier. And there were some good trips to Gisborne and French Polynesia. Didn’t manage to achieve our objective on the Cascade Saddle.