Melbourne

Wow, where does the time go? It looks like it's been over 2 month since I've last posted....I've gotten bad at this. Or maybe just too busy. Well, I just got back from a parasite conference in Melbourne. So up until then I had been trying to collect as much data as possible and put together a good talk. My talk went really well and was on the first day of the conference so I could just relax and enjoy the conference the rest of the week. It was the largest one I've been too with over 1800 attendees, 10 of us from my lab went. We had a great time together and I loved Melbourne. It's an easy city to get around in with great public transport. I went to the aquarium, zoo, Queen Victoria Market where I bought some wonderful cheddar cheese (YUM!), ate a lot of gelato and good Italian and Greek and lots of drinks with the lab. There's a new photo album link for a few pics.

Now I've got less than 7 weeks til my exit seminar....which means finishing all data collection, all analysis and all figures and put together the talk. I will pretty much live at the dept over this time...lots to do before the end of the year. Ok, I'm off to teach a lab, where we are dissecting sharks and possums...fun!

Wine and myBirthday

After the glacier, we headed to Wanaka, one of my favorite towns, checked into our backpackers (which as excellent) and went straight to Amigos for dinner. Had a fantastic Mexican dinner. Yum! For my birthday, Emily made me an wonderful omelette with bacon. We wandered around Central Otago, stopping at lots of wineries. Then the long drive back towards Dunedin.

We stopped at Fluers for my birthday dinner. I had a whole cod with caper butter almond sauce.

West Coast!

Leaving Dee's we headed towards the west coast. We stopped at the longest swing bridge in NZ - 110meters, also the sight of a major earthquake and you can see the fault line with a waterfall pouring out of it.

Along the coast, we stopped at the pancake rocks, these cool layered rock formations. We got there right after high tide, but still got to the the blow hole "blow"! Em and I bought each other green stone necklaces for our birthdays. I absolutely LOVE mine! It's a koru, which is the shape of a young, curled up fern frond (or fiddle head) symbolizing new beginnings, growth, life.

Then to Hokitika gorge where we crossed another swing bridge for views of THE most beautiful turquoise-colored river I've ever seen! The color was amazing!

We continued down the coast to another river and, following some vague directions, found ourselves some hot springs! I thoughtfully brought a shovel along for this very occasion and we found some spots were the steam was rising, dug a hole and lounged around in the hot springs!

After heating up, we decided to test the waters of the river...the river coming from mountains...mountains with glaciers...I was a wimp, but Mike actually fully laid out and immersed himself in the water! Crazy!

Next was Okarito lagoon, which was disappointing, but we hung out at the beach waiting for that ocean sunset.

Then back to the car to head to Franz Josef for our glacier walk the next day. First it was a couple of km hike to the glacier, then we had to climb this huge gravel hill that came out of the glacier a couple years back, before stepping onto the glacier. Glacier ice feels very crystalized and is blue. We had to squeeze through crevaces sideways and then pull yourself up these carved steps with a hand rope. The views were fantastic and for some reason it felt oddly comforting, hmmm, kinda like home, hmmm...

More beaches

After kayaking we headed to Deanna's through Marlborough wine region and got several bottles for the weekend to go with all of Matt's wonderful cooking! We spent Friday night at Dee's and then the 5 of us plus Savie (their new lab) went up to Golden Bay for the weekend and stayed in a Strawbale cottage. Spent time at the beach, fishing, going for walks, making pizza and drinking wine. I truly enjoyed catching up with Dee...I love her positive energy and realistic outlook on everything! We went to this fabulous beach - Wharariki - beautiful landscape and baby seals.

Hiking and Kayaking

After the dolphin swimming, we headed further north to Marlborough Sounds where we spent one day hiking and one day kayaking on Queen Charlotte Sound. We got a wonderful sunny day for our hike. We got a boat ride out to the beginning of the track, walked about 4.5 hours, had 5 minutes to down a beer at the lodge before catching the boat back. On the way back, we found some bottlenose dolphins. These guys are soo much bigger than the duskys we swam with! It was a gray, cloudy day for kayaking but still warm. We got fairly close to a couple little blue penguins. I got a free t-shirt from the company cause I helped them brain storm a motto - Marlborough Sounds Adventure Company knows just how you like it - what do ya think? Inspired by our guide Paul's great cup of coffee! I posted an album of my pics, but here's a couple more from Emily...

Dolphin swimming

Just got back from a week and a half of traveling the South Island with Mike and Emily...not enough time, but we did some very cool things! The best part was swimming with Dusky dolphins in Kaikora on the second day. There was about a pod of 100 or so and they drop us into the middle of them with wetsuit and snorkeling gear. They were EVERYWHERE! And so very close! We weren't allowed to touch them but they were so close that it certainly was possible! They like to swim in circles under you and if you do so, they will keep circling until you can't keep up! lol It was so much fun! Unfortunately Em got seasick and Mike also got out early due to his shoulder hurting, but all in all it was the best thing I think I've ever done! After the swimming, we got to photograph them and I shot a couple videos...

Dusky dolphin doing somersaults

Swimming alongside our boat

Uphill battle

My last experiment is O-V-E-R! Fantastic! Still need to dissect all those fish, but hey, another mile stone has past! Emily and I took a long weekend and headed up to Wanaka for a night. Stopped and got my fav, Black Ridge 2001 ReislingWe went to an excellent Mexican restaurant (hard to come by here) and stayed at a backpackers (with a couple of drunk German girls waking us up at 3am....probably my 2nd worse stay at a backpackers). Sunday we walked around town picking up some last minute things for tramping (because I packed at last minute and forgot some important items...I am NOT a last-minute packer!) and hitting the gift shops. Then into the hills for our first overnight tramp to Meg Hut. The first hour uphill was good, the 2nd hour uphill was hard and the 3rd hour up those damn hills was grueling! Every time I came over the top of a hill and saw another one I wanted to curse (and did)! Both Emily and I had the thought "This is miserable" going through our minds at different times...good thing we could commiserate and make each other laugh. I also find hiking here to be a bit boring, cause there isn't much for wildlife to see. Took quite a few photos of cows and sheep though! lol After reaching a top of the saddle, we had a short walk across and then a steep decent down to the hut...which we had to take slow cause our legs and knees were sore. The hut was great...5 others were there. We had a good dinner, read and were asleep early. Then, of course, up early since it took us so long to hike in, we needed to get going to be back in Dunedin for a lecture by a lab visitor. Breakfast, back up that very steep hill, and the walk back down wasn't as bad but after a couple hours the leg muscles for going down hill were knackered! Stopped at a cheesery to top up our lunch and again, back for that real fruit ice cream...just can't pass it up! Took a couple days to recuperate! I'll be ready to chose a less hilly tramp next time and won't trust Rachel in her advice on which ones are easy! Check out the photos!

Emily is here!

So Emily arrived 2 weeks ago. She's here as a research assistant in our lab for 4 months and staying with Rachel and I, sleeping on the pull-out couch. The day after she arrived, I took her on an overnight field trip cause I had to go back to Ohau to get more fish - the first time there wasn't successful cause of the wind and I kept rescheduling the return trip due to wind. It was still fairly windy but the direction of wind was good so we got all the fish I needed. We camped and went on a short hike - check out the new photo album. Else I've been working alot...how the rest of 2010 will go for me. All done with fieldwork, only a couple more days left of my experiment and heaps of dissecting and molecular work to get to! But heading to friends tonight for Mexican and a soak in the hot tub!

Like a bee

I been busy, busy, busy...the theme of 2010 for Kristin. I'm running my last experiment....3 weeks in now and only 1 death cause the fish jumped the tank. Fingers crossed that they last at least another 3 weeks! I'm completing my last bit of fieldwork (check out the new photo album), but need to go back to one of the lakes cause I didn't get enough fish. I may also need to redo the 5th lake...it was too windy at Lake Ohau and my nets and traps got blown around so that several traps were blown to shore or blown around on the rocks so much they ended up with huge holes. 3 of the lakes were local and 2 were about 4 hours away, so Kim, the field tech, and I got to go camping and fishing while we set traps out overnight at those 2 lakes. It was beautiful. Although I've been sick for a week and a half now and was sick during the trip and I spent a good chunk of time reading some background information for a post-doc job application that I submitted today! It would be an intriguing system...on the parasite that causes limb malformations in frogs. And in Boulder, Colorado. We shall see, next I'm looking for grant money to apply for to work with a fish guy in MN and parasite guy in Alberta on a co-mentored project.

Australian animals

Birds:
Laughing Kookaburra
Australian White Ibis
White-bellied sea eagle
Cattle egret
Pied Oystercatchers
White-face heron
Australian Magpie
Lewin's honeyeater
Rainbow lorikeet
Brahminy kite
Sulfur-crested cockatoo
Tree Martin
Peewee (Magpie-lark)
Crested pigeon
Micky (Noisy miner)
Nankeen Kestrel
Galah
Masked lapwing
Apostlebird
White-necked heron
Gray falcon
Dusky moorhen
Pukeko
King parrot
Pacific black duck
Darter
Red-backed fairy wren
Pied currawong
Squatter pigeon
Azure kingfisher
Australian woodduck
Red-rumped parrot (grass parrot)
Eastern rosella
Quail - not sure which
Bellbird (heard)
Eastern whipbird
Red-browed finch
Australian brush turkey
Yellow-tailed Black cockatoo
Wedge-tailed eagle
Little corella
Tawny frogmouth
Superb fairy-wren****my favorite!
White-browed scrubwren
Wompoo pigeon (heard)
Rufous fantail
Logrunner
Australian Pelican
Double-barred finch
Variegated fairy-wren
Common myna

Mammals: - Note no koala on the list :(
Dingos
Flying foxes (fruit bats)
Eastern grey kangaroo
Echidna
Hare
Whiptail wallaby
Other wallaby species (not in guide book)
Platypus
Water rat
Brush-tailed rockwallaby
Redneck wallaby
Pademelon

Reptiles:
Loggerhead turtles laying eggs
Geckos
Skinks
Waterdragon
Other lizards (no guide to id them)

Amphibians:
Lesuire's frog
Green tree frog

Fish:
Catfish
Saw lots of fish diving but I don't have a guide to id them
Stingrays

Lots of inverts including butterflies, moths, dragonflies, damselflies, very annoying houseflies, nudibranchs and coral while diving, a Huntsman spider hanging around the house, and that damn terrestrial leech!

Couple favorite pics that didn't make the album

Rebecca and I at the top of the bluff. The view was so worth the climb!


One of my favorite birds that I got to see...the Superb fairy-wren - oh so cute!

Christmas Downunder

My trip to Australia was sooo much fun! We went to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. Because it's all sand we had to rent a 4WD, unfortunately we decided to rent a tiny Suzuki that didn't have enough clearance and ended up getting stuck a few times. My recent 4WD course did not prepare me for sand! We quickly figured out that we couldn't slow down for anything else we'd lose momentum and wouldn't get through the soft sand....not that that's much help for going up hills - we lost momentum even when flooring it. We made it across the island and got stuck trying to access the beach...a tow truck dude happened to be right there and pulled us out. He asked if we owned the truck and then told us to drive it like we stole it! We hiked to Lake Wallby for a swim that night and then set up camp on the beach. We woke up the next morning to a pack of dingos walking right by our tent...about 7 or 8 of them - totally the highlight of my entire trip! They paid no attention to us, but have been known to be aggressive to humans...but we had no food in the tent. That day we hiked back to the same lake cause we had to wait for the tide to go down before driving on the beach again. The drove like hell to Lake Mackenzie in the middle of the island, for a super-quick dip and to fill our water bottles (supposed to be some of the cleanest water in the world). Then back in the 4WD to head to the ferry. That night we drove to Bundaberg to watch loggerhead turtles come in to lay eggs. My group got to watch 2 lay eggs and a few more come to shore. Then up to Rockhampton for diving. It's been 10yrs since Rebecca has been diving and 2 for me, so we did a refresher course and the next day we went out on the boat to Outer Rock (the very southern part of the reef) and did 2 dives. We saw heaps of fish, nudibranchs, corals, and even a couple sting rays. After that we headed inland to Carnarvon NP. We had to ring them to make sure the trails were open cause they had just had a bush fire there. Lots of the park was burnt and black and a few trees were still smoldering. There isn't any place to get fuel in the gorge so we ended up staying in a town in a motel the first night so we could get fuel the next morning. SOOO many kangaroos! We ran over an echidna, but there was just enough clearance that we only broke a couple of quills. Then pulled over and grabbed the head torches and went running after it! Lots of kangaroos and wallabies in the park too and we saw yet another echidna. We hiked into the gorge and went to Moss Gardens and the Amphitheathre. I ended up with heat rash on my legs that day, even though we did lots of creek crossings and I would wet my shirt and hat and wring them out on my legs. At dusk, I got a few glimpses of some platypus, but they are quite shy so I didn't get a good look. I tried again in the morning but I think it was too light out (shoulda got up earlier than 5:30). Then we hiked to a bluff lookout in the shade of the morning. Leaving Canarvon, we headed back towards Beck's parents. It started pouring down that day and there was lots of surface water! So we decided to get a cabin for the night! Then onto Warwick, where we did Beck's Christmas shopping and stopped by her grandparents, where most of her family was there. Then on to Beck's parents house out in the country. It was lovely, surrounded by pasture land with a creek and 3 dogs. Christmas Eve dinner we spent at Beck's grandparents with her mom's side of the family. Christmas Day dinner was at her Aunt and Uncles with her dad's side. The next few days were mostly spent hanging around there. Her brother's took us 4WD in the hills by the creek, we went spot-lighting one night (but didn't see a single mammal...although we did see 3-4 Tawny frogmouths!), to the falls where we fed the parrots, to the creek with her cousin and niece (and dogs, of course!). On Sunday, Beck went to play games with her cousins and I decided to stay back and read and nap and had the house to myself...or so I thought...until this huge Huntsmans spider went cruzing across the floor. Later we found him on the wall, then he came out from under a chair with string and dog hair trailing off a leg, then he spent a couple days in the dining room....he was everywhere! The eat other spiders so they like having him in the house! By the end I was starting to get used to seeing him. The last few days we went to a couple more NP. On our way to Lamington NP, we stopped at O'Reilly's winery and we both got a bottle of the Picnic White. Then up the mountain to the rainforest and the NP. We did a tree top walk on suspension bridges. I was dissapointed that we didn't see many birds but it was raining and there were lots of people. Then we did another hike to a waterfall. The whole time I kept stopping and looking at my legs, watching for terrestrial leeches. I was soo vigilant! Then we drove to the coast for a walk on the beach and dinner by the ocean before making the long drive back to her parents. Jumping in the shower that night there was a spot on my hip bone that was bleeding away and sure enough I found a leech in my knickers! It must of detached awhile before as there was blood in my undies and shorts! Damn thing! I guess I wasn't vigilant enough and since I had sprayed my legs with repellent it just crawled further up! Yuck! The next morning we headed to Girraween NP, known for huge granite hills and wildflowers. This is where Beck grew up as her dad was a Ranger there. We stopped at Heritage winery on the way and I bought a bottle of Verdleho/Chardonnay blend. Most of the family meet us at the park and we bbq'd and walked a bit. We were going to do more walks after they left but it started raining and then started pouring. Luckily we had the large tent and were able to cook under the fly. That night on the way back from the loo, I almost ran into a young kangaroo! I was less than a foot away from the poor, soaking wet, little guy! He was soo sad! The following morning it was still misting and showering so we didn't hike up the granite hill but went to the underground creek instead, where the rocks and come down over the creek. Afterwards, we headed back to Warwick (after another couple of winery stops) to her brothers and had a big afternoon tea with all the family before heading to Brisbane to spend the night at Beck's Aunt and Uncle's so I could make it to the airport in the morning. I was very sad to leave! But it was a trip of a lifetime! :)