Finally!! A Te Papa Post! Temperature: 4C/39F

At long last! My first posting on the official Te Papa Blog - which, of course means - you can all look at pictures of some of the stuff I've been working on!

So for the Conservation-Curious - just click on the wee little link below:

http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2010/07/28/a-slice-of-conservation-heaven/

In other news...

I didn't go snowboarding this past weekend because I thought it might be too expensive...right...except for the part where I got bored and went shopping...YIKES!

In fairness (?) I actually needed to buy a better coat - since I'm travelling with only a light summer trench coat (which does not cut it in this wind) and a very heavy snowboarding jacket (which is essentially overkill!).

I also went for a long walk around the entire harbour - which is really beautiful when the sun is shining and the temperature's not too bad =). Whilst 'oot' and 'aboot' - I saw the most ingeniously, fiendishly clever thing!

Children in inflatible hamster balls thrown out into the water on leads!!! You would not believe the entertainment value!!! (yes, I'll admit I wanted to try it myself, but alas, both too sober and too much pride....maybe next weekend...hehehe).

Here's a few piccies around Wellington harbour - part of my 'How artistic can I be on an iPhone camera?' project...

Wellington Railway Station

A stone sculpture outside the University of Victoria - there was no explanation, but I'm pretty sure it shows the topography of Wellington City

If I recall, these are supposed to represent the hills surrounding Wellington...at any rate, cool little pavilion near the harbour =)

And to finish off - a little panoramic video of Wellington Harbour - the first large building that I start at (the stone building) is Te Papa Museum.

Enjoy!! More to come soon! ;)

Conservation and Snowboarding! Temperature: 7C/44F

As promised - my update for last week.
Coming Soon - my first entry as a guest blogger on the Te Papa website; I'll be writing on the current conservation work that I've been doing on objects for the upcoming Te Papa exhibit 'Slice of Heaven: Early 20th Century New Zealand'.

First up though...SNOWBOARDING!!
So as I've said, I've managed to lure more people from the Conservation Labs into joining me for snowboarding adventures here in the great NZ. Seen in the picture here are fellow conservation intern, Hannah (Paintings Conservation), her boyfriend Laurence, and Textiles Conservator, Rangi (who is Maori - so she was teaching us the proper pronunciations of all the places and explained alot of the local/cultural traditions during the road trip).

All ready to go!! Got me Trapper Hat and all!! (actually, it was Rangi's, but it was too amazing NOT to wear!!)

So after a four hour car trip - we finally arrived at our weekend abode - a lovely cottage belonging to the friend of Rangi's sister - who VERY graciously allowed us to stay there free of charge. It was incredible and very close to two of the North Island's ski resorts, Turoa and Whakapapa, both on the slopes of Mt. Ruapehu, which happens to be an active volcano too =).

Getting all geared up the night before!

Laurence on the lookout for Abominable Snowmen? Or Rainbow Bright?

So on Saturday we hit up Turoa. The weather was...lets just say that if it was only slightly worse, they would have closed the mountain - half the lifts were down due to low visibility. Ultimately, these were the worst conditions I had ever snowboarded in - you couldn't see - we were soaking wet in minutes and it was freezing!!! We were on the slopes all day anyways!!! I couldn't get the others off the slopes - and it was their first times!

Driving towards Mt. Ruapehu for our 2nd day of snowboarding at Whakapapa

On Sunday we were just gonna chill at the house, clean up, pack our stuff and start the four hour drive back to Wellington...well, after waking up to glorious sunshine, we decided we couldn't possibly head home - so we went snowboarding again! Absolutely, an amazing day - I did intermediate and expert slopes - mostly successfully, I might add - and I've still got all my limbs attached!

Depending on finances and schedules, we're hoping to go back next weekend - provided I can move again by then! AYOYE! ;)

Our last view of Mt. Ruapehu as the sun set on Sunday night

Next up - Conservation!

Last week was an interesting week for me - I worked on all creatures great and small for an outgoing loan. These included two taxidermied rats, and one taxidermied lamb. One rat and the lamb had broken tails that needed mending or unbending. The poor little lamb needed to be vacuumed and fluffed - he was a dirty, dirty little lamb! As a last piece for this same loan, I wrote up a condition report on an entimological sample - in this case - a locust - yup, a real, dried and pinned to a piece of ethofoam locust. Big sucker too!

From the 20th Century exhibit I've been working on stabilising a piece of metal from the Rainbow Warrior - which I've mentioned briefly in a previous post. The mangled piece of tar-coated bronze deck plating comes from what was once the flagship for Greenpeace, which was blown up by the French Secret Service. So the piece has been subjected to a marine environment, on top of having been blown up - so we're talking corrosion, chlorides, bronze disease, stress fractures, brittleness - the whole shebang - plus, this piece is still court evidence from the original case - so any treatment can only be used to stabilise the object to the duration of the exhibit. So far, treatment has included mechanical removal of corrosion using a scalpel under the microscope, followed by scrubbing with a soft brush and a surfactant to degrease (the object has tar on it that is original, which happens to be soluble in both ethanol and acetone), and plunking it into a 0.5% BTA solution to continue desalination as well as act as a corrosion inhibitor. So far, after 5 days soaking, we've removed it to brush off chloride efflorescences twice and put it back in the tank. We hope to have it out by mid-week!

Well that's the update for now - next week we'll be talking Phar Lap!

ps. Wellington really is the windiest city in the world - I'm on the 6th floor of my building and the wind is howling so bad the whole building is shaking!! Crazy!

Quick Pictureless Update! Temperature: 3C/37F

Ok - so superquick update - I promise a proper entry both on this blog and on the Te Papa blog on Monday (Sunday for all of you in North America).

This week in Conservation at Te Papa? Two rats (shockingly cute - even if taxidermied) and a little lamb (also taxidermied - freakiest. eyes. ever!!).
What did I do to the poor things? Vacuumed, fluffed, straightened tails and glued bits of tail back on (insert 'tail' joke here).

What's up this weekend? SNOWBOARDING!!!!!!! Yes, my friends, on July 17th, I will, in fact, be basking in 0C weather (that's 32F for all you 'mericans!) - and throwing myself off the side of an active volcano covered in snow - SO. EXCITED!

So on Monday - provided I don't get incinerated in a freak eruption (don't worry Mom - it won't happen!) you will all get an update chalk-full of pretty pictures =)

Night night!!

Wellington - Week One! Temperature: 8C/46F

Welcome to Winter!

My first week in Wellington is complete - and what a week! I think I've experienced every type of weather one can in such a short time - when the sun comes out, like today, it's glorious!! And my apt heats up like crazy (the giant window facing the harbour helps with that...) - but when the wind blows and the sleet comes down - it is COLD!

Alas, I haven't seen snow...yet! But there is a trip to the mountains coming very soon! I just need to decide whether I want to watch the All Blacks play rugby this weekend, or go snowboarding instead...hmmmm...tricky!

Te Papa Tongerawa - the museum I'm at, as I've said in a previous post, is truly amazing! They're very social here too - the whole lab goes out for coffee every morning (and believe me, I need it!) and there's even a whole event planned starting at 6.30 AM tomorrow morning (Monday) to watch the World Cup final at a bar near the museum - so most of the Museum staff will be stumbling into work after the match - myself included :)

So on my first weekend in Wellington, I did a little exploring, primarily at the Te Papa museum itself, since the labs are in a separate building. I'll post a few of the better pictures here - but the rest will go up on my facebook.

Looking down into 'The Void' from the top floor of the Museum - there was a Rubik's Cube speed competition going on - very cool!

Huge blow-up of the Treaty of Waitangi, which was supposed to give land rights back to the Maori people - more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi

View of Wellington Harbour from the Sculpture garden at Te Papa - so beautiful, but very windy!

Along with the Colossal Squid, the museum has some truly amazing exhibits and dioramas - they have taxidermied animals to rival my stepdad's collection!

In upcoming conservation work - now that I'm done with my train models, I'm going to start the conservation of a few scraps of metal from the NZ ship, the Rainbow Warrior, that was sunk by the French secret service b/c it was the flagship of Greenpeace. So a really political piece, and in fact, my conservation work will be dictated by the fact that these pieces are court evidence from the original trials.

My workspace at the Te Papa Conservation Labs

My desk at the Te Papa Conservation Labs (the centre desk is mine - my two supervisors are to each side)

Also, on the 26th, I will start work on taking down the exhibited skeleton of Phar Lap, the NZ/Aussie racing horse from the 1920s/30s so that it can be shipped to Melbourne for the 150th Anniversary of the Melbourne Cup (he'll also be displayed next to his skin, though his heart is still displayed in Canberra) - it's a little gruesome, but very cool nonetheless =)
AND - I'll be on TV!! That's right - newscrews from NZTV3 will be filming the exhibit take down - so hopefully I'll be able to get a copy of that for the Te Papa blog.

That's really it for this week - more next week!

Addendum to the last post...

So...I have NO idea what happened to my last post - but it looks like when I popped those last two images in, it deleted EVERYTHING I had written - which was alot - and frankly can't be bothered to write it again right now...
so here's the deal in brief

1. I wrote about a bunch of other cool projects I'll be working on - guess we'll just have to see those as they come...

2. I wrote about how awesome the museum was and the staff - more on that in the next post!

3. I wrote about Wellington and my apartment - the pictures are there, but very little of the text remains - I think, however, that you get the jist - just let the pictures say those thousand words I had originally typed!

and with that - a proper post to come this weekend...maybe...
;)

Te Papa - the beginning of AWESOME!

Ok...so there's some good news, some bad news, and some ok news...

We'll start with the good news - I have some absolutely amazing stuff to work on this summer - and I've only seen the first few weeks worth so far - seriously, I never want to leave!

The bad news - I can't post pictures of anything I work with on the blog because of copyright issues and ownership blah blah blah - the point is - no pictures = :(

The ok news - I will be a guest author on the Te Papa official blog starting sometime next week (once I convince the museum printer that it truly does want to print my release form...) so I'll be able to post images from some of the things that I work on there and I'll link to it from this blog.

So, what is some of this great stuff?

1. Currently treating iron/steel corrosion on a train set from the 1930s for an upcoming exhibit on the 20th century in New Zealand
2. About to start assessment and treatment on a steam engine model - the coolest part of that is that it's a model of the steam engine that they put on my train on Sunday (and I can put picture of that one!

Steam engine with one of my little traveling companions, Caitlin (in the pink shirt) =)
Looking toward the bed and window (view of the harbour!)

Looking toward the kitchenette

It might be only about 100 square feet - but it's got everything I need - microwave, toilet, shower, tv and internet - the bed's great too :)

That's it for now -

Travelling with a Snowboard...and other important lessons learned too late...

So I've arrived at long last in Wellington - and let me tell you, it was definitely a trip of planes, trains and automobiles; 13 hours, 14 hours and 30 minutes, respectively.

Fortunately, being somewhat claustrophobic (ie. small spaces don't bother me, but being trapped does....alot), and realising that no amount of Xanax in the world can compensate for me being stuck on a window seat in a row of four people for 13 hours, I was able (through sheer refusal to get into my seat) to snag the emergency exit - the lesson here? When you panic, it upsets the other passengers - the crew would rather give you a nicer seat, then have you cry and hyperventilate the whole way - who knew?
Also, Qantas airlines has some of the nicest pillows, blankets and goody bags I've ever seen in Economy (I refuse to comment on what they got up in first class...)

The train was also quite nice and had some beautiful scenery - especially when going over the CRAZY high viaducts, and passing Mt. Ruapehu (where I plan on being every single weekend I can manage it).

View of Mt. Ruapehu, which is actually an active volcano - yes, I do plan on snowboarding on it :p

Going over a viaduct

I also met a ton of interesting people on the train - including a random Canadian who will be working at the ski hill, and a whole herd of children who thought that the fact that I lived near Hollywood was the greatest. thing. EVER. In truth, they really were adorable =)

Finally arrived in Wellington at almost 9pm, after departing Auckland at 7.30 that morning - yup, loooooong train ride, the last couple hours of which were pretty boring since it got dark and you couldn't really see anything...but got to my hotel/apartment - which is pretty awesome - I have a view of the harbour, and within the space of 100 square feet, I have every amenity I could possibly ask for, including a microwave(!), full bathroom, kitchenette, and great big, extra comfy bed, and internet =)

Finally....on to the actual title of this post - lessons learned too late:

1. The people at the airport already assume you have a body in your snowboard bag - making jokes about it will not help your case and often results in pointed questions, dirty looks, and very occasionally, the opportunity to watch them dump the entire contents of your snowboard bag on the floor of the airport. Luckily, only the first two happened, with the third being threatened.

2. No matter how cleverly you think you packed your backpack - the item that you need the most will require that you empty the entire contents in order to get it.

3. As bad as that hill seemed when you were going down it, it will be 100 times worse when you go back up (anyone familiar with Queen St. in Auckland will understand this).

4. When you don't really know where you're going, it's never a shortcut. Ever.

5. You'd be surprised how far you'll walk for a familiar place to eat once you realise that you've booked your hostel in the Red Light District of any city, really.

6. It is not only possible to fall asleep, sitting up, with your 46 pound backpack still strapped to your back in waist - it can be one of the best sleeps of your life.

7. Corollary to 6: if you really believe that you will go out and be the life of the tourist party after an all night flight that you didn't sleep on at all, you are not only deluded and sadly mistaken, but you also quickly find out that your body ultimately has the final say.

I think that's enough for one night...
More to come in the next couple of days about my first days at the Te Papa Tongerawa Museum - where I get to work on everything from mummified bird's heads, to horse skeletons, to fish hooks.