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! :)

Moved in!

Well, I'm all moved in to the new flat! I have the place to myself til I leave for my trip. I'm mostly unpacked...photo album to the right. But haven't hung anything on the walls, am still waiting for the fridge to be delivered and not liking how small the kitchen is. Other than that, I love the place!

Reverse, reverse, reverse

I had a great time learning how to 4WD yesterday. My department does a course that teaches you the maximum limits that the vehicles are capable of. It was fun, stressful and exhausting. I knew the toughest part for me was going to be reversing through a curvy lane that was staked out. I had to reverse, reverse, reverse, cause I struggled with it more than anyone. I kept overcompensating and ran over numerous stakes. How I can be so terrible at reversing, yet great at parallel parking and backing up a boat trailer, is beyond me! The funnest part was going through lots of rough holes that they would continue digging out making them deeper so that you would lose traction of 1 or even 2 wheels. After mastering going forward through the rough bit, then you had to reverse through it. I decided I prefer the Toyota Hilux for the rough bit, but it sucks for reversing cause it has small mirrors, the Holden Rodeo had the nice large mirrors that made it easier to reverse with. Then we learned how to go up a steep hill and how to do an emergency back down if you started to slip. Then up the hill, turn around and back down. Then reverse up the hill, turn around and reverse back down. Then onto a side slope, forward, then reverse again. So far all these things had been staked out, so you had to follow the course exactly...did I mention how many stakes I reversed over??!!! We had to do each of these things until you could do it perfectly. After all that we had to drive around the hills and test our new skills. Why I volunteered to go first and in the truck that I hate the mirrors on is beyond me! I ended up going along a path that was over grown with gorse bushes and was scratching the truck. After sometime, my instructor finally tells me it's only going to get worse, what should I do now? Bugger! Now I have to reverse along this overgrown path with the bushes scraping the sides of the truck making that horrific high pitched noise of fingernails on a chalkboard. After much over-compensating and having to pull forward to re-align over and over again...during which the scraping noise is horrible and now making me anxious, we finally get back to the path where we came up the hill, which is much of a drop off! I managed to do it...scarily! Cynthia in the back seat says "Kristin that didn't feel too good back here!" I said "It didn't feel good up here either!" And asked the instructor if I could have done it any better and he said no, I did good. Phew! Time to get the hell out and let someone else have a go! Cynthia didn't ride along on the next test, which was a good thing, cause Doug had to reverse it over that same "cliff" I had just drove down. And when he did so, the front end dropped down into the gorse bushes off the path and I kinda let out a scream! F?#%! I thought I had it stressful! Last was Cynthia's turn, she had to maneuvere around a boggy area. Finally, a refresher on how to use the radios to call for help and how to change a tire. Then back to the department to scrub the trucks clean! I was exhausted, and happy to know that more than likely I'll never need to use most of those things I learned today because you wouldn't normally be in those situations!

I don't like vertebrates

Well, my fish have a swim bladder infection and it looks like my experiment is going belly up...literally! I haven't given up on it yet, but I lost 17 fish in a week. It'll only get worse I'm sure, so I'll probably be pulling the plug on it this week. I won't have enough time to repeat before I leave for Australia and I want to make sure I get all the tanks and equipment disinfected before using any of it again. I'm a bit depressed about it cause it's a lot of wasted work, but I keep thinking "I'm going to Australia!" and I have lots of other things to focus on and get accomplished. Maybe I can get 2 of my thesis/dissertation chapters written in the mean time.

But I've been doing a few things to balance out the stress. I went to a wonderful acoustic concert in a beautiful church on Friday night. Kiwi pop singers and the main one, Boh Runga, was fantastic! Saturday was the Spring Food Festival to get folks out for Internat'l Climate Change day. We learned some seasonal cooking with asparagus, got lots of free plants & a free eco light bulb, listened to live music, etc. Then went to Jen's for dinner...we made venison, garlic mashed potoatoes, cali, brocli & aspargus with a sauce we just learned how to make at the festival. Yesterday was yard work - I fixed a terrace that washed out from all the rain during the winter, moved some plants, ripped some out, weeded and Anson weeded, trimmed & mowed so it's not embarrassing to show someone around anymore. Then met some labmates at the pub to play darts...first time since I've moved to NZ! I've missed it! Today is Labour Day but I'm at work...lots to do before my holiday!

Update

Exciting News: I'm going to Australia for Christmas! Flying into Brisbane on the 15th, Rebbeca will pick me up and we'll do some traveling before spending the holidays with her parents! I'm sooooo excited! I had to book my flight back to Dunedin on New Year's Eve to get a good deal, so I'll be back here for the New Year. I started reading Down Under by Bill Bryson...borrowed it from the Aussie that I just got done housesitting for while she was away getting married in India.

I posted a couple photo albums. Anya left a while ago but I'm just getting around to posting photos.

I've been busy getting rust fixed on my truck. This country and it's damn requirements for vehicle "fitness" are crazy and frustrating! I've spent $300 on what needed immediate attention. I still need to have a color matched and paint it myself. Then I'll have about $400 worth of rust to remove from under the body! I really dislike living in such a humid environment...sweat doesn't evaporate, mold all over the house and now all this damn rust!

Lots of work lately! I've been teaching labs (which are over for the semester), doing some grading for extra money, I'm giving a 3-min talk on Friday competing for money, went fishing for dogfish (a type of shark) last week, trying to finish up another paper from my master's research, and most importantly, I've got my last experiment up and running and it hasn't been easy...leaking tank, running a cart into the tank and shattering one end (I cried hard over that one). I'm using eel-scented water to see if my parasite species can sense if it's next host is present or not. I'm also using perch water as a non-host predator. European perch are gorgeous!

Lambs - It must be spring!

Spring is in the air

Had lunch by the leith under the cherry blossoms...


with Rachel and Sabine :)