Did the earth move for you?

Aha, you'll have to wait until the end of the blog to understand that title!

This week has been one of visits with a variety of contacts related to postsecondary education--most interesting and useful. Last Sunday we visited Margaret and David Woodbridge at their cottage in a little beach town just south of our location here. Frank met Margaret in Chandigarh, India, where she was adminstering the Nursing program that her polytechnic (UCOL) delivers there. We had a wonderful visit and a fabulous lunch, which we attempted to walk off afterwards with a 'stroll' on the beach. However, the weather changed here this week, and the previously placid ocean was quite different! That's David Woodbridge and their dog Daisy, below.

We visited our 'own' beach in Waikenae on the way back, and enjoyed the silvery effect of the obscured sun, and the antics of some 'wheeled wind sailors' on the beach (not sure where the pink angel effect came from--peculiar!).


On Monday, we traveled up to Palmerston North, a small city about 100k north, where Margaret's college, UCOL (the Universal College of Learning) has their main campus. We had some very fruitful meetings there, and spent the night with their Academic VP, Sheila Grainger. Sheila and I found we had lots in common and are now working on a co-written paper about applied research. Sheila's husband Barrie is a marine engineer--he had lots of fascinating sea stories to tell!

While at the UCOL campus, we were invited to visit their other campus in Whanganui, again a bit further north, on Wednesday, to observe as a film crew from Vietnam conducted interviews and obtained footage to use in a promotional film/TV ad for the Vietnam market. Fascinating to be a part of, and we also enjoyed walking the pretty streets of Whanganui, where the hanging baskets are truly magnificent. Not sure if Frank qualifies as an 'antique' or as 'elegant junk' (below sign).


Oh--a side note--the original spelling of this town's name is Whanganui. The Maori pronunciation of the 'wh' construction is a soft 'f' sound, so the city is, traditionally, "Fanganui." (This tradition is also at play in the name of the famous Whakapapa ski fields where some of LOTR was filmed--say that one a few times and try not to giggle!) However, over time, the name came to be spelled Wanganui, and people began pronouncing it with the 'w' sound. Now, with the resurgence of interest in and respect for Maori culture, there's a call for changing the spelling back, and many (including UCOL) have made the change. Yesterday, we heard a debate on radio, in which the Prime Minister was involved, about the correct pronunciation--ya gotta love a country where how to say a city name is the most important task of the day for the leader!

On Tuesday, however, we had a day free of meetings, so we drove to Mount Taranaki. This volcano (still active) was named Mount Egmont by good 'ol Captain Cook, but more recently it has reverted to its Maori name. It is very unusual in that it sits alone in the midst of a flat plain, as opposed to in a mountain range, and that it is an almost perfect cone shape, like a child's drawing of a mountain. It is so striking that it has stood in for Mt. Fuji in several movies, including the recent Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai. It is indeed impressive both from a distance and up close. While there, we took a walk through the cloud forest about halfway up the slope. The constant mist and moisture have caused an intensity of plant growth, and every inch from ground to treetop is covered in a tapestry of mosses, ferns, lichens, and a myriad other plants. Quite fantastic--if I had been location scouting, I think I would have placed Lothlorien or Rivendell here. The hike also brought us the delight of this beautiful waterfall and the surrounding cliff-face, also upholstered in emerald mosses. Magical.

Afterwards we had an amazing dinner at a little cafe overlooking a pretty lakeside park in Whanganui. The meal was so beautifully presented that I had to snap a photo of it--but Frank is unwrapping his knife here, and looks pretty serious--so I only took one picture! As it got dark, a fountain came on in the lake, lit with various coloured floodlights--we loved the orange effect.


Tuesday evening we again stayed with Margaret and David Woodbridge, but this time in their house in Marton, between Palmerston North and Whanganui. We had a wonderful sleep, but I awakened at about 5 a.m., clutching at Frank and asking why the house was shaking! He grunted that it was just the wind rattling the bedroom door--but we learned at breakfast that in fact there had been a small earthquake (our second since coming to the Wellington area)! It being Valentine's Day, we thought it only appropriate that the earth moved for us (so now you know why the title) ;)