An Exciting Trip to Mount Taranaki, March 17-18, 2020
14 Apr 2020
Almost as if anticipating a lockdown, we had planned back-to-back-to-back trips for the middle of March. We’d just barely gotten back from Queenstown on Thursday, March 12 (but that’s another story), and had scheduled 4 days to climb Mount Taranaki, which I’d seen from the plane on the way in to Wellington back on January 1, 3 months and so long ago. Events would catch up to us and prevent our subsequent trip to Melbourne. At least we didn’t have to do a visa run anymore.
Be aware of boundary conditions
14 Apr 2020
This week’s observation is about boundary conditions. As programmers you have surely run into off-by-one errors. They’re hard to avoid! Somehow New Zealand systemically seems to fudge the issue, as you can see on this sign on Kapiti Island restricting access to the tower. Perhaps one can parse this as being “if you put eight plus one people on the tower it will fall down”, but that’s not consistent with the top display. (As an engineering exercise, you can also think about the safety factors built into the tower’s design).
Munging NZ COVID stats
8 Apr 2020
I wanted to know two things about the NZ COVID counts, which are released by the government at
Here’s the result of my data analysis as of April 9.
- How many cases had a big delay between return-to-NZ date and report date? (about 5%; up to three weeks)
To calculate this, I just added a calculation to the Google sheet:
A2-MAX(I2, H2)
and did standard analyses on the numbers. I manually fixed cases where the date reported was before the date arrived; in those cases it looks like the month was incorrectly entered.
Be an expert tool user
7 Apr 2020
This week’s tip is about tools. I’ve attached a picture of a replica of the ice axe that Sir Edmund Hillary used on his first ascent of Mount Everest. This was at the North Egmont Visitor Centre at the base of Mount Taranaki, a prominent cone-shaped ex-volcano in New Zealand. Sir Edmund’s original ice axe is in a museum in Auckland, and one can buy replicas of it on the Internet. [1]
The Longest Month
1 Apr 2020
My notes say that I bought tickets to Athens on March 1. As if things would be normal in two months. The first nine days of March, which I wrote about last time, did seem completely normal. Then we went to Queenstown/Wanaka and Taranaki. As we were at Taranaki, things quickly became not normal. The last 11 days have been a whirlwind, and only in the past few days have I been able to get some research done.
Explore local
30 Mar 2020
Since I last wrote, New Zealand moved to alert level 4 on a 4-point scale. Only essential workers may go to work, and “essential workers” is narrowly defined here: mostly supermarkets, pharmacies, and gas stations. Since I’m not going anywhere, I thought I’d send a picture from the archives. I took this picture close to home, in Waterloo Park, September 2019. I have to admit that I prefer being farther afield, but that’s not always an option, for various reasons. But, one can always explore one’s backyard. (Please do so safely!)
Be intentional about your time
23 Mar 2020
Derek’s been doing a great job of keeping in touch with you all. My specific schtick in these emails has been travel-related tips, and that doesn’t work great right now. But let’s start with a picture from the archives. From simpler times (February 15!), here’s a tuatara photobombing a kakariki (NZ parakeet) at the Otoruhangu Kiwi House.
Something useful I’ve been doing in NZ is coarse-grained daily activity logging. Being on sabbatical is highly unstructured and, before all the recent news happened, I was concerned that my year might just slip away; keeping track of what I’m doing is a way to introspect about my activities. I’ve also been writing and posting monthly summaries based on the logs. You might try it to see if there’s a gap between how you would like to spend your days and how you actually spend your days. You do not have to work hard every waking minute. Instead, be intentional about your time and do what you choose, while also being self-compassionate.
Get Natural Sunlight!
16 Mar 2020
I was thinking of this tip even before things got exciting, but it applies even better now in these times of social distancing.
This week’s tip: get natural sunlight!
It’s easy to be a nocturnal Software Engineering student. I don’t recommend it. As human beings, we do benefit from exposure to natural sunlight and the resulting Vitamin D. In Spring in the northern hemisphere, the associated extended daylight hours would normally be making it easier to do this. Even now, though, regularly taking outdoor walks with your family should be a safe and healthy activity. It’ll help with cabin fever and is a welcome change of pace.
Second month (plus 10 days) in Wellington
8 Mar 2020
We’ve now passed the halfway mark for my time in New Zealand, even with an extra 3 days courtesy of Air Canada/Air New Zealand—they rescheduled my return flight from 29 Apr to 2 May and I didn’t notice until I got the seat change email. I’m totally fine with an extra 3 days in New Zealand.
Classes have started again. I guess it’s like September in the northern hemisphere. Days are only 13 hours now, on their way to 10.5 hours when we go back north.
Beyond Diet: on red pandas and doing better
7 Mar 2020
This week I was busy writing code for a research project I’m working on here in New Zealand, so no travel pictures from me.
Here is a red panda in the Wellington Zoo (photo credit: Marie-Pascale Desjardins, as well as for suggesting this tip).
It turns out that red pandas and giant pandas are not related aside from both being cute animals. Giant pandas have a 99% bamboo diet, while red pandas are at 85% bamboo.
