Day 27: Soaring to New Heights

Today began around 6:30am, at which time I woke up, still not feeling well (same thing happened with the drainage overnight). I showered and made it to breakfast around 7:15am. Breakfast was the same as the day before, minus the cappuccino. Professor Hein was the only person in the breakfast area when I arrived, so we talked some over breakfast about yesterday's adventure at the museum with the Maori folks. The news was on the television and I wasn't really paying much attention, but I did manage to catch an off-hand remark about another earthquake in Christchurch. I turned around to hear the coverage, but it was reported as a passing headline, a casual reference, and it happened to be the end of the news. Things are obviously different here, but I am certain if an earthquake were to hit the U.S. that news teams would report on it for weeks. (Even Ron Burgandy would show up?)  No way it would be an off-hand remark at the end of a broadcast. I finished breakfast and Professor Hein and I went back up to our rooms to get ready for the group visit to Auckland University. 

The group left the hotel around 8:00am for our 9:00am meeting. After 2 blocks of walking we were practically at the university which completely surprised Anoop. He thought it would take us a bit longer to get there, so everyone piled into a local coffee shop to wait about 30 minutes. It was rather funny, but we more than doubled the number of folks in the shop. Thankfully there was plenty of seating, so none of the other guests were really affected. I bought a Chai Tea Latte and sat down to enjoy the morning. 


The wait was pleasant enough, but I did have to make a run to the bathroom. I don't normally blog about going to the bathroom, though this particular instance was so odd that it's worth mentioning. I couldn't find the bathrooms at first, but I eventually found a door that said "Bathroom Code: CXZ25" and I thought it sounded really weird. I made a mental note of the code and proceeded past the doors. I found myself in some sort of short hallway, but I had to make several turns and go through another set of doors before I made it to the Men's room. Sure enough, on the door there was a heavy duty lock that needed a code to enter. I punched in the code (it took 3 times before I realized I was hitting a "Y" instead of a "Z") and made it into the bathroom. The ordeal seemed like a big hassle to go to the bathroom and honestly I don't think there were any other access points besides a back door to the hallway. Thankfully they didn't charge for flushing! Here's a shot of the door:

"You shall not pass!"

The rest of the wait passed uneventfully and we walked the remaining portion to the correct building on the Auckland University campus. We were met by a woman named Suzanne Wilkinson who is part of the Construction Management Faculty at Auckland University (A faculty is similar to a college at Auburn). Suzanne brought 3 of her graduate students along with her and gave a nice presentation and explanation not only about how the program works at the University, but she also gave us some great information about the construction industry in New Zealand as a whole. Basically, the government changed 4 years ago (recently re-elected for 3 more) and instead of funding sustainable building projects, the government is focused on increasing the productivity of the construction industry. Apparently numerous studies have shown the New Zealand construction industry to have some of the lowest productivity ratings of all industries while producing about 40% of New Zealand's GDP.


Suzanne is also heavily involved with researching natural disasters and particularly how the construction industry responds. She has made visits over the past several years to New Orleans (Hurricane Katrina), Haiti (Earthquake), Queensland, Australia (the whole state practically flooded last year), and of course Christchurch and the earthquakes that continue to occur there. She focused this part of her presentation mainly on the rebuilding of Christchurch. Apparently the Christchurch rebuild is moving along at a snail's pace and many residents are getting fed up with the process and moving away for good. At the same time, she did mention that she had taken some civil engineering students down there last semester just to visit and do some research. The met with some of the construction companies there and, quite unexpectedly, one of the engineering companies asked to interview each of the four students for jobs. An hour later (Four 15 minute interviews), each student was offered a job on the spot. You might say construction personnel are in high demand in Christchurch.

After a short description of how our degrees work at Auburn, Suzanne entertained questions from us pertaining to our thesis topics. Judging by some of her answers, it doesn't sound like New Zealand is on the leading edge of innovative technology for clean energy and energy efficient building systems. (A.K.A my thesis topic). However, several other folks who have had some trouble finding information about their topics were able to secure some contacts at the University of Auckland which will hopefully lead them to great research information.


After the useful Q&A session, we broke up into 4 groups for a tour of the Auckland University campus. Suzanne took one group, as did each of her 3 graduate students. I couldn't understand the accents of the graduate students, so I went along with the group led by Suzanne. She was full of knowledge about the campus and I really enjoyed getting to see the sights. She showed us several of the buildings including the music hall, where there is seating available for anyone to come in off the street and watch the music majors practice their instrument. An odd concept for a practice room, but it probably helps students learn how to play in front of people. The music hall was locked though, so I was only able to see the rooms from the outside. I did take some pictures as she led us around campus though:

Student Building Lounge

Old Government House

Campus Grounds

Their "Samford" Tower

Albert Park - Student come here to relax between classes

Looking back at the tower

Maori Temple - Auckland University houses education and cultural elements for the Maori people to come to college

Business Faculty Building - A sustainable building project that apparently went WAYYYY over budget

Suzanne ended the tour in the room we initially met. Nobody had any further questions, so we thanked Suzanne and her students for their time and knowledge before heading back to the hotel. Anoop told everyone we would reconvene at 2:00pm as a group for the next activity, so we had a nice break for lunch.

Back at the hotel, I gave Pattersons Archtecture (a local firm) a call. They are listed as the designers of the only 6 Star Green Star building - The Geyser - in Parnell, Auckland. I was hoping they would be able to meet with Reel, Jay, and I in the next day or so for a tour of the sustainable features of the building. They answered the call on the first ring and I told the receptionist who I was and my purpose for calling etc., and she responded rather enthusiastically that they love showing students around projects. She said the only problem they generally have is finding the time. (No kidding!) She asked me to call back in 40 minutes when the Project Administrator would be back from lunch. While I waited for the right time to call back, I headed down the street to Pita Pit (Yep, the same company that is in Auburn) for some lunch. I got a black forest ham pita and headed back to the room to eat. I ate rather quickly and managed to call Pattersons back right at 40 minutes from the end of my previous call. (There was only 10 minutes to go until we met again as a group!). The PA actually answered the phone and so I retold my details and purpose for calling and the PA was also happy to make plans in their schedule for a meeting. I told her any time after lunch tomorrow worked best for us and she said that their calendar looked free then, but she needed to check with one of the project architects to be sure. I gave her my callback number, thanked her for her time, and ran downstairs to catch up with the group.

The next activity was to climb to the top of One Tree Hill. This is in no way related to the television show (thankfully) and it took about a 20 minute bus ride to get to the park at the bottom of the hill. We got off the bus and began yet another walkabout. This time though, it was almost straight uphill at around a 60 degree angle (unless you could find the wandering path that rose gradually around 30-40 degrees). The hillside was scattered with herds of sheep (including their fecal matter), grass, tress, and plenty of igneous rocks. After about a 20 minute climb, we reached the top and had an incredible view of the city. Here are some pictures from the top of One Tree Hill:

The gate where we began our ascent

Halfway up One Tree Hill

Auckland from the Top!

King of the Hill

Monument at the top of One Tree Hill

The next three photos act as a 360 degree view from the top of the hill:

Mt. Eden, a small inactive volcano in the middle of the city, can be seen on the right half of this photo

I spy another volcano...

Residential part of Auckland

 We spent about 20-30 minutes on the top of One Tree Hill before following the paved path down. (You can drive up to the top if you feel less adventurous.) We took a bus back to the stop near the hotel and I decided to go upstairs and Skype some with Brittany. We already had devo over phone (I wasn't sure how much free time I would have), but we had to keep our conversation short to save minutes on my calling plan. Reel and I were still using free Internet, so now was a perfect time to use skype and enjoy a nice conversation. We got to talk and chit-chat for about an hour or so before time started getting away and Brittany needed to get back to studying. I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk face-to-face, even though it was through a computer.

After our talk, I still did not feel too great, so I decided to take a nap. I couldn't nap too long though, because Anoop had scheduled for us to meet and go up in the Sky Tower at 8:30pm. It was only around 5:30, so I took a nice 2 hour nap. I got up a few minutes before 8:00pm to go hunt some food while I walked in the general direction of the Sky Tower. (You can see it from practically anywhere in the city.) I stopped at McDonald's and ordered a hamburger and raspberry soda. I ate inside and was successful in getting my first free refill of the entire trip! Thank you McDonald's!

I finished my meal about 10 minutes before 8:30pm, which was plenty of time to walk the remaining 3 blocks to the base of the tower. I managed to meet the other groups of people as they were walking up, too. After a few minutes of waiting while Anoop purchased our passes, we proceeded through to the elevators. Along the way though I had to stop and take a picture with Gollum:

"My preciousss..."

We rode the elevator up to the 52nd floor of the Tower and got out to take some pictures. Here's a look from this level:

Viaduct Harbor

God's beautiful sunset painting over the mountains!

More of the city looking down from Sky Tower

I thought we had reached the top of the Sky Tower where people could go, but Anoop took us back into the elevator and we continued to rise up to the 60th floor. The sun had set by this time, so we got a slightly different view of the city at night. Here's another look:

An historic building in Auckland - maybe a cathedral or an old Town Hall

There were metal tubes to look through, so I made a shot here of the mountains through the tube

Auckland near sun-down

We took the lift down a few floors to the restaurant level and everyone ordered drinks (I had to settle for Coke in the absence of DP) and sat down to enjoy the city lights from way up high in the Sky Tower. We stayed about 30 minutes or so before the restaurant announced it was closing and we had to leave.

It was getting close to 11:00pm, so I decided it would be best to head back to the hotel. I needed to catch up on some blogging, but I also needed to rest (I still wasn't feeling well). I ended up just posting one blog before taking some benadryl and I eventually fell asleep, hoping once again that tomorrow would bring better health and energy!