Not dead...just back in Hell-A: Temperature 27C/81F

So yeah, not dead...just ridiculously busy and short easily available internet connections. So I'm actually sitting in Starbucks right now, mooching their free internet for the sake of this update - be grateful!!! :p

Let's see - so I owe you all an update for pretty much most of August and most of September - let's see what I can cover before my laptop battery dies...

So after I finished up in Palmerston North (see newspaper article above) I helped out with the deinstallation of the Venice Biennale Exhibit - which involved the cleaning and packing of a number of sculptures by Francis Upritchard and really, REALLY massive vinyl 'paintings' by Judy Millar. I've attached the links to two YouTube videos courtesy of Te Papa from when the exhibit's were installed so you can see what they were about/what they looked like.

Save Yourself: Francis Upritchard
http://www.youtube.com/user/tepapamuseum#p/search/0/QtmPPdsYJ2I

Giraffe-Bottle-Gun: Judy Millar
http://www.youtube.com/user/tepapamuseum#p/search/0/7k58kXvbAGQ

In addition to the deinstallation, I basically spent the remainder of my time in New Zealand working on a 14.5m long Maori Waka, Te Heke Rangatira (which dates to the 1870s). This is essentially a very large war canoe made of painted wood, which is intricately carved and adorned with paua shells for eyes and albatross feather bundles. The paua shells needed to be cleaned and consolidated, while the feathers had to be cleaned and repaired, as many of the quills had been broken when the waka was originally transported to Te Papa.

This was a MASSIVE job! I spent 15 days, 7-9 hours a day down in the waka store room essentially working on nothing but this project, and I still did not finish!!

Also, we discovered that the waka had been painted at some point in the past with lead based paint. As we were cleaning using brushes and vacuums, which would put small particles of paint into the air, this required the wearing of tyvek suits and masks. And we were HAWT!!

I discovered that if you're wearing a white tyvek suit in a Conservation lab, you can practically disappear!

So they took it away and gave me a yellow one - so as better to keep an eye on me!

Sadly, though I was able to clean all the wooden components (with the help of Shane Pasene, Conservation Technician Extraordinaire!!) and all the shells, I was only able to clean and repair the feathers from the proper right side of the waka. In fairness to me, there were over 150 bundles and only one of me!!! So there! :p

In addition to the conservation stuff, before leaving NZ - I managed to convince some more fellow conservators back up the mountain to go snowboard. So, with Mel, Katherine, Lizzie and James in tow - we trecked back up Mt. Ruapehu. Sadly, however, though the sun was shining - we weren't able to actually snowboard b/c of the wind!!! So instead, defeated, we returned to our place and began mourning (read: drinking). It was a pretty good weekend after all!!

Also, had an amazing birthday party, which I will write about in a separate blog entry b/c it was so fabulous!

Also, had an amazing series of going-parties, which I will also write about separately.

Now, back in Hell-A, trying to get everything in order for the new school year - including dealing with banks, payroll, and apt hunting!

Things I've Learned in NZ...Temperature: 10C/50F

Apologies for my lack of updates - I'm not actually dead - not for lack of trying! I haven't updated in awhile - mainly b/c I've been very, VERY sick. For those of you who know me, you're probably not at all surprised - I feel like I spend more time sick than I do healthy! =(

Despite being sick I have been VERY busy - both at work and in my off time - so that's always a good thing, right?

I guess since I last posted, I've been snowboarding again - and realised just how different it is to snowboarding in California. First and foremost, I've never really worried about the weather at Big Bear - not so on Mt. Ruapehu. My plan was to travel to the base town, Ohakune, on the Saturday, arriving in the late afternoon, and therefore too late to make it worth my while to go up the mountain that day, but leaving me all day Sunday. As my bus was leaving on the Monday at 2pm, it also meant that if I was feeling up to it, I could snowboard in the morning on Monday. Well, Saturday's weather was GORGEOUS (so everyone who came off the mountain that day informed me). Sadly, this was not the case on Sunday - the mountain was closed because of gale forced winds, which left me trapped in Ohakune, by myself, in the pouring rain and raging wind at a backpackers lodge called the Hobbit Lodge (which was renamed b/c Mt. Ruapehu was used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy as Mt. Doom).

It was also when I awoke on Sunday morning that I first realised that I was getting sick....not good. So spent the day chilling and woke up to a beautiful day on Monday - but felt like CRAP. Did this actually stop me from going up the mountain? Hell no! And it was totally worth it! Especially since the last time I was at Turoa, you couldn't see anything, I was able to enjoy some amazing views!

View going up the ski lift

View from the top....or as close as I could get that day :)

Now, aside from thoroughly enjoying my morning on the mountain, I did learn something else about NZ that's kinda interesting:

Being sick sucks. Being sick when it's cold, wet and rainy, sucks even more. Being sick when it's cold, wet, rainy and nobody heats their houses - UBER suckage!! my lungs still hurt!

Additionally, as I've mentioned in previous posts, I was involved in preparing the bones of the racehorse, Phar Lap, for his trip to Melbourne on loan. Well, we took him down, with the media watching carefully (gotta watch out for those microphones, they are sensitive little suckers!!) - got him back to the lab and then spent the entire rest of the week doing the condition assessment. Do you know how many bones a horse has? Lots! (more than 200) - and we had to assess each one individually. Well, when I got back from snowboarding the following Monday - you guessed it! Too sick to actually take part in the treatment! (which, granted, involved only some minor overpainting, but still!!)

Another lesson learned? New Zealanders get REALLY upset if you come in to work when you're sick. My supervisor was NOT impressed with my determination and insistence that I was just fine, when really I was about to keel over - so I ended back home in short order, which is where I spent nearly the rest of the week.

Back on work, FINALLY on the Thursday, I went back to work finishing off the treatment of a plunket scale (used to weigh babies) from the 1940s, which was part of the 20th Century exhibit.

On the following Monday, I finally started taking my Maori Te Reo classes (Maori language). Very cool! I've learned some basic conversation starters:

Kei te pehea koe?
How are you?

Tino pai/Kao pai/pai
Very well/okay/fine

Morena!
Good Morning!

Ata marie!
Peaceful day (can be used for good morning, but only if it's nice out!)

There's a bit more, but I'd have to double check my notes to make sure I'm spelling things right!

The end of the week (Weds-Fri) was spent in the smaller town of Palmerston North (still bigger than the town I grew up in!!), which is a couple hours north of Wellington, where, working with Nirmala Balram, another conservator at Te Papa, we did condition assessment, and stabilisation of five huge wooden Maori carvings (these were used as palisade posts on Maori meeting houses). An added bonus? The people of Palmerston were so excited to have us that they called the local paper! So here's the link to the actual article - and yes, I look VERY focused - which is hysterical, b/c I was told to pose for the photo, so really, I was just really focused on not looking at the camera!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/4020688/Precious-carvings-getting-special-care/

My one point of contention with the article? They stated that I was from the States - which was truly ironic since in the actual paper article, there was a small box article RIGHT next to our article talking about how Canadians hate being mistaken for Americans!!

Sadly, we were only able to deal with the fronts of the carvings in the time that we had, but Nirmala will be returning in May to finish the backs while they are being put back on display.

Photo taken from another website of a Maori meeting house - note the carved posts on the eaves - that's the kind of object that we were working on, just to give an idea of scale...

Coming up this week at Te Papa, I'll be taking part in the take down of an exhibit - so more to come on that soon! (ish)

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...
;)