Today we were invited in to another university to learn about their construction management and sustainability programs. The University of Auckland is the largest college in the country, and also happens to contain the most prestigious program in Construction Management as well as Land Development.
We met with the dean of this college, Suzanne Wilkinson, as well as three of her doctoral students, to learn about their programs. The doctoral students led us around on a campus tour for about an hour after we split up in to groups. It was interesting to talk to someone else performing research in a similar field, albeit at a much higher level, to compare some of our methods and experiences. Our student tour leader, Riza, was just putting the finishing touches on his dissertation after three years of studying cost management of retrofit projects in the Auckland area. Riza, originally from Iran, found our southern American mannerisms and accents pretty entertaining. He also explained he was just happy to see some other faces besides the other doctoral students locked away behind cubicles with him in the doctoral computer lab.
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| Clock Tower at University of Auckland |
After a morning with AU, we took a short break to change in to hiking clothes. Anoop had us headed on what was sure to be another treacherous hike up some giant mountain that was probably featured in Lord of the Rings. After 30 minutes on a bus out of town, we wound up at the foot of One Tree Hill. There is a road that winds up the steep slope that cars and people can walk on for a fairly easy trek to the summit. Of course we wouldn’t take the easy way out under Anoop’s direction.
Instead we found a small gate to prevent sheep from leaving the pastures around the hill, walked in, and climbed on hands and feet up to the top through hefty, fresh piles of sheep excrement. The view at the top was definitely worth it though (at least after washing my hands off).
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| One Tree Hill |
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| So original |
The night had a trip to the top of Sky Tower in downtown Auckland in store. We met around 8:30 to get a view of the sun setting over the Waitkere Mountain range as well as a great glimpse of the city from above by night. The tower is definitely similar to the Space Needle in Seattle, but definitely with more viewing decks. It also features a deck that you can jump off of. I did not participate in this activity.
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| Sky Tower |
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| Leaning against the glass in Sky Tower...as close as I'll come to bungy jumping |
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| Glass floor at the top of Sky Tower |
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