NZ text

{Text is from tapes transcribed by Bill Norrington and José Saleta, intended for an autobiography} {continued from "wedding photos" post}
We arrived in New Zealand and checked into a base hotel and began looking around the town. We went to pick up the hire car and I showed my fresh Australian license. We hired a Morris Minor. I first drove it through the tangled streets of Wellington but decided not to try any of the deeply sloping suburban streets. But we left on time and had posted speed and made our way on a fabulous two-week trip that took us slightly north through the Manawatu gorge to Palmerston North and east to the Maori country around Gisborne, then inland to our less designated holiday place, Lake Waikaremoana. This was an absolutely beautiful place with a lodge built into a small peninsula ______ into a large lake surrounded by forest covered mountains. There were walking trails and boat trips. One day I hauled out my fishing rod and tried my luck in the lake, catching a 5-lb rainbow trout. I triumphantly took it back to the lodge where they prepared it for our meal that night. The dining area of the lodge was small and there were only a few other people there at the time so we shared the fish among everyone there as an appetizer. I learned, rather too late, that I had caught the fish illegally. First, you can only fish for trout in New Zealand using flies, and I had used a lure. Second, I did not have a fishing license. I kept very quiet and kept well out of the way of the game guardian when he visited the lodge later in the week.

From the lake we headed north inland through mountainous forest covered countryside to the dairy country of the Waikato and on to the Maori settlements at Rotorua. These were fantastic. They, like Yellowstone in the United States, were thermal areas with geysers, steaming pools, boiling mud, and was plenty of exhibitions in the Maori villages for steaming local plants and small boiling pools. We were also impressed with the fantastic carvings of the Maori both for their Tikis and for the emblems and detailed carvings around their houses and places of worship. Following that we headed north and west to take advantage of a long one-day trip called the Waimangu Route trip. This started in a small lodge and was basically a walking tour through a volcanic area. There were small volcanic craters and vents filled with fantastically turquoise or black-colored water. Further down towards the lake we came across the world famous pink and white silica cliffs, caused by constant deposition from steam and water boiling up from the earth and depositing the silicon in varying colors as the water cooled and ran towards the lake. On the opposite side of the lake was Mount Tarawera that had a fantastic volcanic gush that stretched across the entire top of the mountain. It had exploded about 60 or 70 years before, covering the central part of the North Island with volcanic ash and completely smothering several Maori villages which were only then being re-excavated. From there we headed south to watch fantastic rapids at the Huka Falls and again reveling at night in hot springs that were natural and open to the stars. Our next stop was Lake Taupo where we stared across the lake at a beautiful perfect snow-covered volcanic cone called Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu. The volcanic cone constantly emitted smoke and some light ash but the other was a popular all year round ski resort where it was fashionable to ski in bikini down a snow-covered slope and dive head first into a steaming hot pool at the end of the round. From there again we traveled westward to the Waitomo caves in which there was fantastic glowworm activity. Cabin after cabin was filled with millions of glow worms providing beautiful lighting from the stalactites and the stalagmites in each cave. From there south to see another snow-covered volcanic cone, Mt. Egmont and finally back to Wellington. We sailed by ship from Wellington to Christchurch – perhaps the most miserable sea voyage I’ve ever had in my life. We had an interior cabin which also had other people in it __________ constantly during the night as we battled a heavy storm. Buckets of foul smelling vomit and slob constantly spilled over the floors but we were not allowed in deck because of the ferocity of the storm. Sick and shaking we arrived at the port of Lyttelton. This was the port for the city of Christchurch, our final destination. It was located inside the caldera of an extinct volcano and the volcanic walls rose fantastically on all sides of us. We connected to Christchurch by train through tunnels, since the walls were too steep for roads to be constructed. Finally arriving at Christchurch we were greeted by the Chairman of the Geography Department, given a quick tour of the city, and taken to an apartment that he had found for us. What a heck of a guy. The three years I spent in Christchurch were really exciting years. Other young faculty members included Les King, Bill Clark, and John Rayner, all of them became my life-long friends. In fact Les, John, and I _____ start teaching ________ at Ohio State University while Bill taught at University of Wisconsin and later at UCLA.

I had hardly unpacked ________ my bag of books in my new office when one of the grad students entered and asked to have a chat. It turned he had been sent by the rugby team of the University of Canterbury – a fantastic team which included 4 or 5 New Zealand national players or All Blacks. He knew that I played rugby and asked me to come and have a few practice runs with the team. When he asked me what position I played I started mentioning some positions and each time he would say: “No, there is an all black at that position!” I had only played a few games for the university first team when the national representatives were away on a tour. I did play a year or so with their second team and for a while was a social club. Again I met many interesting people and I have maintained friendly contacts with several of them over the years.

I was brought to New Zealand to teach Cartography, Surveying, the Regional Geography of Australia, and Economic Geography. ______ a month or so of the beginning of the first term I went on my first New Zealand field trip. This was an annual event for the seniors; they spent two weeks touring different provinces in the South Island of New Zealand. Doing field work and getting a detailed ________ local area. It was quite an experience and introduced me to basic New Zealand life. Each day we moved to a different location and _________ sleep in schoolrooms, using the kitchens to prepare breakfasts, dinners, and _______ lunches. I was then told that I was to be in charge of the second year _________________. Traditionally they went into the high mountains and did really physical geography mapping: soils, vegetation, slopes, and geology. I decided to change the venue and move this field camp to another caldera called Akaroa. This was a small mission village again located inside the caldera but for this one the sides were more gradual and there were a number of different farms that we could use for land use and soil ________. Again we camped in a school as a home base preparing our meals in the school’s kitchen.

One night I wandered over to a local pub which at that time closed at 6pm. Hearing some noise I knocked at the door and was admitted to a cheery gathering around the bar where a group played darts. They were all married fishermen. The barman was an Australian aborigine. After a while the fishermen challenged the two of us, Aussies, to dart games. At each game we bet a case of beer against a case of lobsters. Sam and I won a number of games before the evening was over. Laughingly I reminded them of the number of crates of lobsters we had won and I went back home. At 6 o’clock the next morning I was working when a frantic student said to us: “A Maori group out the front unloading cases on the front wall of the school.” I went out and there were 8 cases of fresh caught lobsters sitting there with smiling cheering Maoris saying: “Here’s the payoff to the debt we accumulated last night.” What a heck of a surprise. Anyway, I had the students take them into the kitchen and began boiling lobsters. We packed lobster tails along with the sandwiches for everyone for lunch and we had lobsters for dinner that night. Since there were about 60 students and the faculty on the trip, the 8 crates of lobsters lasted for about 2 days. During that time we ate nothing else! What a way to go. However, I didn’t get drawn back into any more dart games on that trip.

On other trips we went to the west coast to Hokitika and toured all gold mining areas and climbed glaciers. On another trip we went south to the Otago area to examine where New Zealand’s primary gold rush had taken place. We also went to Invercargill, the most southern town on the South Island of New Zealand were we experienced {end of text}