Kiwis really know how to celebrate Easter!

The good news last week was I finally scored during a basketball game! Woo Hoo! Bryan is the greatest for planning that out for me :) And I'm still eating cod!

Sadly, today is the last day of our 5-day holiday weekend. I haven't been up to much...worked a wee bit and relaxed most of the time. Friday Shannon came over as soon as he got back from working in Wanaka for the week. We hung out and fixed cod again. This time I coated it in flour, then egg, then a breadcrumb seafood mix and boy, was it yummy! Again I fixed potatoes and onions...yes all these potatoes are coming from our garden. And Shannon made the lettuce salads with all types of yummy toppings. Deanna made Self-saucing chocolate pudding (pudding here means cake with a sauce)...it was delicious, and she made it in the microwave - amazing! Saturday morning I spent browsing Susanne's blog and all her wonderful recipes she's been posting for the last couple of years. I was looking for ideas since we had a few pears left that hadn't fallen off the tree and rotted away and our cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen. Saturday night Dee, Kathy and I ordered curry, and using a recipe from Susanne's blog, I roasted the pears with honey, red wine and cinnamon and served with ice cream...roasted pears are way better than I thought they would be! And we watched Pirates 3. Sunday, I made Susanne's Avocado and Grape tomato salad using the cherry tomatoes to accompany some left-over cod, and it was delicious! And yet again Shannon and I talked about going to see the glow worms but ended up watching Casino Royale instead. Oh and I also worked a wee bit on my manuscript. Easter Monday and New Zealand is still in holiday mode...Kristin actually went into the lab and dissected fish - which she should have been doing all weekend... Monday night played poker at Shannon's. And today is Otago Anniversary Day, meaning another holiday! I slept in, did laundry, made deviled eggs for the pot luck and headed to Haseeb and Stephanie's for shark bbq. Yes, that's right, shark. Last weekend there was a local shark fishing tournament and Haseeb was given some of them to dissect for parasites. Well, there were heaps of good meat going to waste so Haseeb kept some to bbq. They cut off the tail behind the dorsal fin and slice for steaks. Shark tissue is full of ammonia and urea so you have to soak it for a day in salt water and lemon (or milk or salt water and vinegar). Then Haseeb did all these different types of marinades that I can't even begin to describe how good they all were. And we tried blue shark, 7-gill shark, dog fish and taupe shark. Shark meat has the consistency of a steak...much firmer than you'd expect and the 7-gill was very firm. It's been a great holiday weekend - relaxing and eating - but I have heaps of work waiting for me...

Best day in NZ yet!

So Saturday I went cod fishing with my flatmate (Wayne), 3 labmates (Clément, Rachel, Dave) and another post-grad (Bryan). We had a fabulous time, well everybody but Bryan who got seasick. We fished off a reef about 40 meters deep. Just as your line reached the bottom they were nibbling at the bait and with 2 hooks per line we were reeling 'em in like crazy! And from 40 meters it seems like you're reeling in forever. We mainly caught blue cod, but also some Jock Stewart perch (aka sea perch), trumpeter, tarakihi, pink wrasse, parrot fish and a red cod. Sorry to say I was either too busy fishing or taking pics of birds and thus did not take very many pictures of the fish (photo album on right). The birds were incredible even though no Royal Albatross showed up. The bird list: NZ White-capped mollymawk, Buller's mollymawk, Cape pigeon, Sooty shearwater, Black-backed gull, Red-billed gull, White-fronted tern, Artic skua, Black shag, Spotted shag. To top it off, dolphins showed up and since it was my first time seeing them in the wild, our guide marked our spot, pulled anchor and drove along with the dolphins for awhile. I climbed around to the bow and took video of them swimming under and along the boat. It was incredible! There were Bottlenose and Dusky dolphins. Glad to say I did not get seasick...I didn't take any thing cause I wanted to find out if I would. And driving a jet boat was pretty cool...you have to anticipate the boat drifting in one direction and turn the wheel the opposite way...takes a minute to get the hang of it and if you over compensate then you keeping zig-zagging back and forth. I've had cod for almost every meal since. Saturday lunch Wayne and I fried some in butter. Then for dinner I fried the cod in butter and made potatoes and onions and a lettuce salad for me and Shannon...he says it's the best tea (Kiwi for dinner) he's had in ages. Amazingly there were enough left-overs for Sunday and Monday lunches. And Sunday night I coated a couple fillets in egg and cracker crumbs and fried them. Our guide said it's best to wait a few days before battering them as they're just too wet...so I'll try that tomorrow night (going out for St. Paddy's tonight). I'm over my homesickness now!

I know there are a lot of videos but most of them are quite short.

Clément catching a trumpeter and a pink wrasse. See how long it takes to reel in from 40m!


NZ White-capped Mollymawks going after the fish we throw back


Bottlenose and Dusky dolphins


You can see the dolphins swimming under the water


Our guide filleting the fish...video taping made him nervous so this was Take 2


Filleting a Jock Stewart perch


Birds flying around the boat as scraps from filleting were thrown out


Me driving the jet boat

Where to begin?

Research has been keeping me overwhelmingly busy. I've been quite stressed about it as someone is waiting for me to be ready so she can train me on developing my microsatellite library. I haven't been ready cause we thought I might be dealing with 2 species...which might still be the case but we can't say for certain...regardless I had to go collect more fish on Saturday and start dissecting them for the trematodes so I can try to collect one kind out of the two genetic lines to redo my DNA extraction for the library. Now I find out that Tania isn't waiting on me so I can stop being so damn stressed about it and maybe take a wee bit of time off. So I'm thinking I might take this afternoon off...I'm participating in my friend's son's school geography project. He sent me a paper doll, Flat Stanley, who is vacationing with me and I'm "showing" Flat Stanley around and taking pictures and what not. I might take him out to the peninsula today (if its nice out and I can get out of working) so I can get photos printed and send him back. I'll put a photo album up in a couple of days. I had my first basketball game ever last week...we won but I didn't score any points and since everybody else has played before I am by far the worse player on the team...oh, well, it was fun. Other than that, I've still been feeling a bit homesick...it takes so much effort to make new friends and since I've been working so damn hard I just haven't had the energy. It's doesn't help that Shannon and I got into an argument this weekend, which is still unresolved...arguing through texting is not good.

Poaching

Newsweek article on poaching to fund militias

The ups and downs of research, or just the downs

The semester started last week and even though I'm not taking classes, my schedule became a bit more hectic. First, I don't have enough infected snails to start my experiment...that means another trip to central otago for more snails. But before that, since Devon (one of the post-docs) clearly stated he thinks I might be working with 2 species instead of one, I spent most of my week and evenings not only going through snails but also getting some DNA ready to be sent off for sequencing so that we can hopefully figure out what it is I'm working with - one or two and do they both have 2 life cycle strategies or does one do one and the other do the second stragtey - depending on what comes back my project might stay the same, might change a little or the whole thing may be shot to hell and I'll have to figure out what else I want to do. So waiting on those results now...in the meantime I'll hopefully be getting more snails tuesday (was supposed to go today but the weather is crappy) and waiting to find out the sequencing results. And now that the semester started, there's speakers and meetings and training for this and that so it was one hell of a week. Ooo, me and couple other Americans in my department went for KFC and then doughnuts this week. I have to say that KFC was quite disappointing as there was no extra crispy recipe, everything came with fries (chips here) and if you asked for potatoes and gravy they came in these tiny serving. The doughnuts were good...not Krispy Kreme good, but good. I've let my research go for the weekend since it's pouring outside and my field day was cancelled today. Friday night Shannon and I hung out and played poker late into the night. Most of Saturday I was a bum - lounging and napping. And then went to a party Sat. night with Rebecca. Today, Dee and her weekend company fixed an American pancake breakfast (yeah, that's right, even the pancakes are different here). Breakfast was great and we sat around all morning drinking coffee and chatting. I doubt I'll work today...it is Sunday...

Mt Cargill at Night

Shannon and I tried to catch the sunset at Mt Cargill last night but the sun was behind clouds when we got there. My pics didn't really turn out as there was not enough light and too windy for me to use a slower shutter speed. In the video the harbor and peninsula are behind Shannon and then there's a quick view of Dunedin right before getting to the tower and my truck.

Yay for infected snails!

Finally I have enough infected snails to start my experiments. After heading back to Chatto Creek on thursday (new album on right), I came back with heaps of snails and thus far have found 9 more infected snails for a total of 12. And I have a few more yet to screen. This made my day as I'm homesick as ever today! My friends backed out on going out this eve so heading to Shannon's now.

Sad news

I talked to my mom this morning and her good friend, Dick, died Thursday morning. She seems to be ok...he was in pain from lung cancer and it is for the best. But it has left me feeling very homesick today and just missing everyone at home.

Busy and exhausted

So I've decided to do a half-marathon in Sept and thus have started focusing a working out this week...Monday night pump class, Tuesday a jog on the beach, Wednesday shooting hoops (as I've also signed up for our department basketball team, which I've never done before), Thursday was a field day - long and lots of driving - and spent a couple of nights hanging out with Shannon, the night owl. So that leads to an exhausted Kristin by Friday. And I have so much work to be doing that I will be working the entire weekend - checking all these snails for parasites, working in the genetics lab and cranking out another draft of my manuscript.

Students are back for O-week, two weeks of partying starting the week before classes. So they are everywhere! Damn they are so young! I've also agreed to be a demonstrator (what they call teaching assistant) this semester for Behavioral Evolutionary Ecology, a third (and final) year course...my supervisor asked me so I really couldn't say no. For the most part it will require me supervising 2-3 groups that work on freshwater parasite projects, which should be heaps of fun!

2 Americans and an Aussie sitting in a tub...

So last tuesday Rachel from my lab took me to a bunch of her study sites for me to collect snails as I've been unable to find ones infected with my study parasite. So we drove to Central Otago (inland area of my region) and collected snails from 6 streams (well, only 5 cause there were no snails to be found in one of them) on farmer's land. Sheep country. In the pic there's a boy on a 4 wheeler and a couple of dogs herding sheep down the road. The farmers are very wary over letting people in their streams...water right issues...so we have to stop and chat with each one before wading in.



I brought back heaps of snails (couple thousand-ish) and found 3 infected snails...luckily all from the same stream. So WOO HOO I finally have a source to infect fish with! So I'll be heading back to this creek to collect a few thousand more just from here so I can get my 10-20 infected snails.

Yesterday, I met Rebecca at the farmer's market as her car broke down there. AA came and push started her to drive to the mechanic. I stopped to check my snails, then on to the mechanics where Rebecca had stalled in the drive and they needed another person to push to start it again to get it inside. Went over to Rebecca's for dinner last night...she was making me a tofu dish...the stir-fry was good, the tofu not bad, the best that I've tried I guess. In the meanwhile, I had left my lights on so when trying to leave to come back to my place for a hot tub we had to call AA again to come jump my truck. Chilly evening to be waiting 45 mins for the guy to show up. Finally back to my place...Deanna has an old bath tub in the back yard which she starts a fire under and you have a hot bath...it's awesome...incredibly hot so you have to keep adding cold water and sit on a board so you don't burn your bum. Rebecca, Dee and I took turns. Ahhhhhhhh...