this year.

Departing Australia was a sad day — and also overcast. I woke up at 5am to surf one last time before catching a 7:15am train to the Airport. I was on my way to New Zealand, known as Aotearoa in the Maori language, which translates to ‘Land of the Long White Cloud”, for a 15 day visit with a few friends. I landed in Auckland, met up with two friends then caught a plane to Christchurch the following day to begin the New Zealand experience. The plan was simple: Drive around the South Island, catch a ferry to the North Island then make our way up to Auckland.

On day 1 we picked up our vehicle for the first part of the journey, a Toyota ‘People Mover’ Previas. The plan was to drive from Christchurch to Te Anau making stops along the way for photos, which when in New Zealand could be every kilometre. As we left Christchurch it was overcast with a bit of rain. as we headed west-south-west and made it over the first of many passes the clouds left and blue skies unfolded ahead.

An eye catching turquoise blue lake known as Lake Pukaki was our first major stop. It was reminiscent of photographs of Lake Louise (as I’ve never been) with the snow capped peaks playfully positioned in the difference. We knew this was only the beginning and clambered back into the People Mover to push on.

We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner just outside Queenstown, then followed the road south to Te Anau where we checked into our first of many Holiday Parks. They are an amazing deal when travelling with a group, as you can usually grab one for $100-120 split 4-6 ways.

After a good nights sleep we made our way to Milford Sound.

I managed to listen to a number of new albums this past year despite being in Australia. I’ve had this album, Ashtray Rock by Joel Plaskett Emergency, earmarked for my top honours for about a month, and even created a 2007 release play list to see if anything else caught my ear. I can say heaps about this album, but I think it’s the in your face pop licks, and Joel’s ridiculously good lyrics that cement this album as a certain classic. They call it a concept album, but it’s really just a rocking album from start to finish. It tells the story over the course of the album about two friends who fall for the same girl, but each tracks stands tall alone. Don’t listen to award tour, Joel Plaskett’s Ashtray Rock is the true 2007 album of the year.

Joel Plaskett Emergency – Penny for your Thoughts

A teenage student (14 yrs) who can barely read or write is suing the Victorian education department for $300,000 for failing to teach him properly. Experts have assessed his literacy and numeracy skills at five years behind his peers; he spells ‘weekend’ ‘wekenb’ and struggles to count beyond 10. He has been identified as a child who suffers a mild intellectual disability.[via news.com.au]

I find this story frustrating because it is a typical ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ scenario. In Australia (and I’m told increasingly more often in Ontario, for primary at least) it is difficult to hold students back who do not demonstrate the required level of understanding as laid out by the appropriate curriculum. It is deemed more important to maintain their self-esteem and promote them with their friends then to ensure they have learned grades particular outcomes. In most cases parents fight to have their child advanced because they do not want to admit their child has a problem, while in this case the father is arguing he asked for his son to be held back but was denied.

That all said, the most disturbing statistic of this story is the report that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has found that half of Victorian adults were unable to read or count well enough to get through daily life. Half?!? Beau has a mild intellectual disability, so his situation is understandable. What the heck is going on with the rest of Victoria? If anyone has the answer please let me know.

(I haven’t read the primary source but have located it and link to it here: Australian Bureau of Statistics: Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, Summary Results, Australia, 2006)