Winter Wonderland

Hello folks. Its been a while since my last blogging attempt and a lot has changed since then. First of all we are in the middle of a bitter winter, the coldest since records began. There are stalagtites growing in my kitchen, no seriously I mean it. The kitchen is the coldest room in our house, it faces away from the sun and feels like a cave. The windows are full of condensation, being single glazed and so its always wet in there. Great if your into fungi and mutated human eating plants. If there was a big earthquake and we had no water supplies, I'm pretty sure you could survive by licking the windows in the kitchen. There you go, theres always an upside to things!

Apart from surviving the bitter winter - did I say it was cold?? Well a couple of trampers (hikers) died not so far way from here, trekking in the hills. No one is sure yet why they died, there were experienced hikers but the snow drew close and they found their bodies about 5km from the hut they were trying to reach. A bit sad, made me think that hiking in the spring/summer is probably safer.

Also the weather means that my scooter wooter refuses to start within an acceptable time frame. It sort of make half hearted noises but never quite gets there....a bit like me trying to get out of bed in the morning. And now the main lights are not working making driving all that little bit more James Bondesque...mmm although I will probably get pulled over by the cops at some point and told to fix them.

My bunnies are under the table I am sat at, they have been pretty naughty recently, with various escapades into the neightbours garden, lolloping and leaping, eating the various vegetation and then disappearing at night only to be discovered the next morning looking rather bored, disillusioned and wanting to be picked up and taken home. Stupid bunnies.

Well we are soon to head up North for a long weekend. Looking forward to it. Hope to visit some active volcanoes. I need to see how the Scientology people are born as that where they come from. Volcano people. From the lava. Smelly. Oh yeah.

Sunny Days, Sandy Bays, Funny Ways

Well its been a lovely summer again, and although not as spectacular or never ending as last year, its been nice enough to enjoy snorkelling in the ocean, dining al fresco and BBQs at friends.

Its also been quite eventful, with the loss of my bunny Wiggles, that was taken from us by an evil cat. I hate cats. I've never seen the point of them as pets. But then I guess my experience with them has never been good. They always seem to catch animals and tease them, like my poor Wiggles, who was just being a bunny.

Now Lolly, her sister is socially hopping with the two new bunnies that we introduced to her a few days ago. They all seem to be getting on really well and I am pleased that Lolly is no longer alone. But I will not forget the loss on her face when she was lying next to her dead sister. If the cat owner could have seen the loss and grief on my face and the pain that it caused I am sure they would have thought again about 'letting the cat out for the night'. And I don't see why I should double the security of the bunny enclosure to prevent such loss. Cats should wear bell collars by law. A number of times I have found cat shit in our garden, it stinks and is unsightly. If it were a dog you would get mad at the owner and demand they clean it up but for some unknown reason its OK for a cat to shit wherever it likes.



So the cat downstairs where our lodger lives shits in a litter tray, which you might think is more logical. Except the stink in the house is unbearable. In fact there are now more reasons for us to part with our beloved lodger than for her to stay. I feel a little guilty to be kicking her out on the street, but she has a good deal here and I feel like she is taking the piss now. 45 minute showers, using the washing machine 10 times a week, putting all her stuff in the kitchen that she nevers uses, and complete lack of any social interaction. I don't even know what her daughter is called, so it tells you how much I really know about her. Not much.

Last night we asked her if she was able to move out earlier, and her reaction was interesting. She told us she'd already been looking but 'didn't want to share with 5 other people'. Shows you how good she has it. And then suddenly her bed mysteriously broke. Simon told me that one of the screws had been literally yanked out. Mmmm.

So now we are looking forward to not having a lodger until we can decide on someone a little more interesting, clean and pet free. My big hope is to find a vegetarian lodger that has a great social life, is a clean freak and goes out a lot. Mmm probably asking too much then.

Its a sunny morning today, I decided to stay in late and do some work from home. Its a lovely day almost a shame that we have to go to work :-(

Snorkelling South Coast

Just been snorkelling along the South Coast. We thought we would test the water (and my new wet suit). It was pretty marvellous.

007

Nettles alone thinking in the Lab

Here is an interesting thing. I am a scientist. Most of my uni life I spend in the lab or preparing for things in the lab. I never really wanted to work in a lab, I wanted to be out and about doing sciency stuff but unfortunately the cutting edge of science inevitably involves some fair amount of lab work. It even sounds boring writing about it, but that I am in the chemistry lab taking pictures of my little bugs I thought that I would stick one on my blog. Its pretty impressive. Its about 250µm, that 0.025cm! These things are tiny creatures and yet within their fossil bodies lies an amazing array of infomation about the climatic pasts. These bugs which can be millions of years hold are like time keepers to another world that hosted a completely different planet earth as we know it. Unlocking the secrets of these past environments allow us to have a glimpse, albeit given our limited scientific knowledge and interpretation, at what the earth was like and how is has changed. More importantly we can try and understand what was driving these changes and for how long. Apart from being able to go back into a phone box and travel in time a la Dr. Who, there is no real way of knowing how reliable this information is, but we do have a vast suite of other proxy data and it seems to correlate pretty damn good. Whats gonna happen to Planet Earth in the future? Who knows, but we are undergoing the changes right now and it may or may not be too late to do anything about it. What I always wonder is that the projections that have been determined all somehow assume that the human race will somehow realise and adapt its behaviour in order to avoid a major catastrophe - CLIMATE CHANGE. The problem I have, whether we like it or not, the human race, if it continues to survive, will at somepoint have to face the fact that the planet will dramatically change. This is going to be in a long time I'll admit but its gonna happen, like the seasons will change and the moon will wax and wane, the future of the human race will depend on its ability to survicve the planet after it has managed to survive disentaglement between its own kind. Humans need to be at peace with one another before we can moe forward and truly relish this planet for what it is. A bugs life is far more simple. For mankind I fear the problems will remain as complex and deep rooted as it always has.
When you look for peace
then the peace lies within you
When you search for peace
then it is not hard to find
When you want to keep peace alive
then you allow white doves to fly over you
When you make peace with others
then the whole world live in your heart
When you let peace be in the world
then you live in wonderful world
When you allow peace flow around the world
then your hateness will go and love will flow
When you open the door for peace
then peace welcome to your lives.
Let the peace prevail in our wonderful world

Ravi Sathasivam / Sri Lanka

Winter Seasons, Cold and Rain.

Its WINTER!! Brrrrrrr. Actually I am sat in the living room and the sun is shining on me and I am feeling pretty toasty. I know come the evening I will be freezing my icicles off and moaning that I am too cold and that NZ houses are crappy and we need more insulation and wood on the fire. Wood on the fire - WOO HOO we have a woodburner finally.
I must admit that the long exposure to lovely centrally heated houses of Europe has meant that the adjustment to NO heating whatsoever has been, how come one put this - IMPOSSIBLE! Although the woodburner does heat up the living room pretty good, the rest of the house is still -400C and whenever I need to go to pee/make a cup of tea/ find something...I have to prepare for the enslaught of the COLD.

I must say NZlanders are pretty tough cookies. For a start they don't moan about the cold much, you might get a comment from a passerby 'bit nippy tonight isn't it'. Translated to Netty language "its fuck*** freezing and if I stay out here another second I will freeze for the next 3 months and will have to be defrosted slowly in a giant fish tank like they did with that collosal squid at Te Papa museum some time ago. Never got to see that by the way....

Anyway.........I plan to get some new pictures up soon, of the bunnies Lolly and Wiggles looking all cosy on the rug next to the fire. And of some of the places we have visted in the last few months. We have been around but just too busy...

I had good intentions when starting this blog, so that the folks back home could login and have a nosey at what I have been doing. The problem is I have been too busy to update and the so called 'broadband' here is bloody slow and so uploading photos becomes a painful task. AND my laptop is still buggered. I'd better go now and do some work. Ah a scholars life is never easy..............

This is a picture of our friends from Paekakariki, Damien, Sylvia and Sorcha.

This is a fur seal that we spotted just chilling out at the car park!

Netster

Nettles Goes to Sea and Doesn't See Another Person for Almost a Month Whilst Surviving on Mouldy Bread and Cockles (OK I made the last part up)....

Hello again, I've been a little crap lately at updating my blog, mainly because I've been super busy with Uni work and recently away on field work. Hence this blog is dedicated to all those crew and scientists that have to go on research cruises and collect mud and stuff in the name of science. I was actually very excited at the opportunity to go to sea. The fact that I knew 2 other people that were going made it even better, and to be involved in collecting samples, so that I would understand how and where mine came from and what sort of work was involved. Also the experience to be at sea, meet new people and basically have a bit of a break from my Uni orientated life. When I first arrived on the boat the Tangaroa, which is the Maori name for the God of the sea (see picture below), I decided to try and keep a journal. It lasted 1 day, but I decided to include it anyway, so here goes: Tangoroa Research Cruise – Nettles At Sea Monday 10th September 2007 It’s the day of the voyage, my bags are packed, one backpack, and a small rucksack. I have to be at the ship for 9am, some sort of roll call. Simon drops me off at Burnham Wharf; he comments that the ship looks quite small. There are people buzzing around everywhere, none of them look like scientists though. I walk up the steep metal platform onto the boat, Simon comes up for support and I ask inside for the only name I know. “Is John there?”. “Do you mean John Mitchell??” I have no idea, the name rings a bell. “Yes” I reply. “Ah, he’s just coming up now”. Simon then leaves and I wait for John, a few others arrive. I meet the girl from Otago, she’s Canadian. I introduce myself. It’s all very confusing. John arrives on deck, we all introduce ourselves. Some more people arrive, we re-introduce ourselves and John takes us around the ship and we get to see our cabins and drop off our stuff. My cabin is near the bottom, known as the dungeon. It’s not all that bad. For a start I have my own room, with bathroom, and the floor I’m on has laundry facilities and a gym/sauna/Japanese bath. What makes it really special is that it says ‘Scientist’ above my cabin door. Awesome. I didn’t know research vessels were so well equipped. My neighbour is Faye. She’s in the room next door to me, there are a few other people in the other rooms but I haven’t met them yet. After the tour I leave to get back into Uni. I have 2 abstracts that I need to try and sort out….that doesn’t go too well. Its looks as though I will have to rely on e-mail communication, I hope it works. I say goodbye to Jules and Julene. Its Suzie’s birthday today and I will also miss that. I get the rest of my stuff and have to catch a cab back to the ship. He recognizes my Manchester accent. Apparently he was brought up on Coronation Street (not literally). It amuses me. I get the cabbie to drop me off at Liquor King. I buy a 12 pack of Sol, get ID’d, then take it on board. We then have a tour of the boat by Yoshie, the Japanese 2nd mate. He takes us on this terrifying tour of the ship, its safety, his 100% record of not being able to save people who have accidentally amputated their legs and the list goes on. After the safety drill, we are told not to leave the boat, so I can’t have my last coffee (supper) with Simon. I give him and quick call and say my goodbyes. I get to know the other students whilst having my laptop checked out and e-mail access set up. We eat dinner, it’s pretty yummy. John tries to explain to me that the chilli is actually a special orange type of fish. I eat lots of salad. The ship leaves at 6pm and we have this amazing view of Wellington just as the sun is setting. I look back at ‘home’ and start to miss it already! Ah the bright lights of Wellie start to fade into the distance. We are overtaken by the ferry and then head into the choppy waters of Cook Straight. It is at this point that the decision not to take sea sickness tablets comes into effect. Everyone starts to look ill. I don’t know if I’m feeling queasy too or if it’s just looking at everyone else. Some people go to their rooms. I start to ignore this and have various conversations….then I decide to go to bed. It’s about 10:30pm and I have to get up at 6am. 6am!! Breakfast is at 7am so I have to get up, take a quick shower and get myself upstairs. This is a whole new experience. Back in my room, it appears that my e-mail is not working. This is not good. I will check it in the morning. Its time to go to sleep. The boat is gently rocking, occasionally a little too much. There are lots of noises too, the fan in the bathroom that doesn’t go off, the vibration of the engine, the motion of the boat…… End of Diary. So anyway in the end, after learning the ropes, drinking lots of beer and playing scrabble, in between working really hard, eating really good, and quite often feeling very ill (I might try and add a video of the bad weather), I had a great time. We also had a surprise visit from Spongebob Square pants, that was really special (see picture). Did I vomit? Yes once, on the second day. I was rather impressed I didn't get sea-sick. It doesn't look too fun.

Also spotted a pod of dolphins, basking sharks, seals, albatross, and some marine life that came up with the cores, the name of which I don't remember. During the calmer days when we could walk around the outside of the boat, we waited for the sun to set quite often and got these beautiful sunsets, either pinky or orange skies, so I thought I would leave with a picture of one.

P.S. I'm gonna update with some more pictures shortly so keep your eyes peeled!

Lots of Love to Everyone out there!

Netty xx

Notes on a Scandal

This weekend I was meant to dedicate to updating my blog on the last couple of months events in Wellie. Now my laptop has succumbed to a mysterious illness, at which the computer shop on campus charged me $75 for the privilege of fixing, only to find this weekend, it cocked up again big time. I can't access the super slow internet connection either, so I can't upload any pictures, and my laptop times out after a few minutes. Hence, now I am at Uni, writing a few words, and having a moan at the same time because I still need to figure out whats wrong with my pissing laptop. OK OK calm down.

Hopefully I will be getting it fixed (properly) by the computer nerds and it WILL work. Then I can write about all the exiting things that we have been up to, including drinking far too much mulled wine this weekend - hey its winter here!!! And little trips to far away places..............so until then.....

ADIOS!

Nettles goes to someones leaving do that she doesnt really know that well

Hello, well it was a busy weekend, last one that is, ended up going to a leaving do of 2 Robs, Rob from Leeds Uni (UK) and Rob from somewhere in the state (US). I briefly knew Rob (UK) but didn't know the other guy, but there were lots of random people there that I knew so it turned out to be a great night.

Put a video on of a guy who did beat box stuff, I don't know what the proper word is for this but if you see the video you'll see what I mean.



Simon gets over here next week so things will get more interesting as we get up to stuff together and also start looking for a flat. More moving, possibly buying a scooter and then setting up shop somewhere warm!

NZ Update

I think its time for an update, and I'm in the mood for typing and daubling on about crap. I've been here almost 4 months. Its gone quite slowly to be honest. Its autumn here and its starting to feel cold. At home I suffer with in the cold confides of my cave, NZ houses are not warm, insultated or have any heating. It gets pretty chilly in my room at night (think Antarctic temperatures, well we're sorta close to it anyway) and hence I spend a lot of time in bed with the laptop on my lap and the electric blanket on (like right now)! As I type my hands are getting cold and I have to keep putting them under the covers to defrost. OK maybe I am just a wuss, a European used to her creature comforts, like central heating which I always used to get told off from my parents for having the radiator on the highest setting....but then I didn't have an electric blanket.....you see theres just no way to win.

Since I got here I have had some really testing times. Do I want to be doing this PhD? Do I think I can last 3 years? I felt a little odd being the non-geologist, studying for a geology PhD in a geology department full of geologists. I know nothing about rocks. I still don't. My problem is I have no inate interest in them. Sure they look pretty, can be rare, even millions of years old. But the truth is I like bugs much more. Its a good job that my fossils/rocks were once bugs. It stops the mind block with rocks right there. Starting here hasn't been easy. I've missed my family immensely, going out for lunch and the cinema and shopping with my mum, going to the pub with my dad, visiting my brother and going for walks in the countryside. I miss my friends from work and elsewhere. You lose all that when you decide to move to the other side of the world. I've felt completely isolated, to the point of insanity, and then I've had to tell myself why I am here and that if it gets bad I can always go home. I don't know if anyone reading this has ever upped ship and left everything they had behind, for a purpose, but it aint been easy. However, in the space of these few months, I have learnt a lot about myself. That I like my own company, but given the choice I am more social than I thought. I can make friends, and a lot of them are a mixture of Kiwis and ex-pats. I've also made a few enemies. There have been a few guys that have been a little obvious in what they want from 'friendship'. That annoyed me, I'm not a blow up doll.

Its been challenging here, but I've been able to explore a lot about myself than I thought, and although I have been weak and vulnerable, I am sure that this is all a good life building experience and at least I can say I gave it a go, even if it all goes to pot! I hope it doesn't. I'm growing to like Wellington, but its so not Manchester. I must stop making comparisons. When I get up in the morning I have a lovely view of the sea, and when I walk home the southern sky is lit with a million stars. I've passed my motorcycle proficiency test, something I wouldnt have the guts to do back home. But no-one knows me here so I don't care. I'm anonymous, a daft Mancunian with a strange sense of style, a bad haircut and some bright red trainers. What more do I need to survive but my wits, tea and a good man.

Yeah where is that man of mine? I seem to have left him behind somewhere in the UK. Can someone please find him and ship him over on the next plane. Best to sedate him though, he behaves better that way!!!!!!!

Netty

Keg Night (Nettles gets pissed again)

First I need to explain what a keg night is. Its when some clever students manage to blag several kegs of free beer (in some weird sort of exchange that I don't really understand what they get from it, but who cares FREE BEER!).
So, we have this party in someones HUGE flat with a cool sound system (well it was pretty loud) and lots of random people (see pictures with descriptions). I can't be bothered to write much more in detail as its the night after the keg party, it was a good mix of people although I did feel a bit old and the English accent seems to attract a lot of attention, so you get to answer 'where abouts in England are you from?' a million times, and in the end I started to tell people was from Hawaii and Dave who is also English (pictured, decided he would randonly be from Venezuela). Much more fun. I wish Jenny was there to add to the confusion with the Canadian accent and Asian looks, that would have been fun to play around with.

This is Chris at the start of the night (MSc Geology student) doing a fine Thunderbirds impression. THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO !!!!!!!!!!!
The next piccie is Lou (NZ), Mark (UK/NZ), Marianne (Denmark) and Dave (UK) and it looks like after several beers. Its nice to have a good mixture of people from all over the place.

This is a random girl I met in the bathroom. Dont know her name. There was this weird face painting thing going on. Din't really get it. But lots of people with painted faces and other bits. Amusing.

Mari and me! Mari's leaving soon, to finish her BSc in Denmark. She will be greatly missed, a top gal, with a great sense of humour, and always up for a good time. I will miss her a lot!

Nettles and Jules Go to Rugby and then Get Wasted

Seeing as NZ is a big rugby playing country, it was difficult for me to say no when asked if I wanted to go and see The Hurricanes (Wellingtons rugby team), some of the team players are All Blacks ones so how could I resist. In the cold but bustling stadium the atmosphere was great, we got ourselves comfy with wine (cos were classy) and chips (cos we're not really classy and they smelt too good) and watched the game. Its wasn't that exciting but we did have lots of fun and there was a cool mexican wave going around that I had to video (might take a while to download but good fun).



MEXICAN WAVE VIDEO

After serveral servings of champange (cos we're classy chicks), we got wasted in a bar by the waterfront, I say 'a bar' because I dont remember the name, all I remember is Jules being chatted up by a guy with a classic line: "Are you alright there, can I get you drink, perhaps water or a coke?". Hahaha I pissed myself (not literally you know what I mean, that would have been serious binge drinking). The photo you see above is Jules playing on the swings in a park on the way to the taxi rank, because well we couldn't resist. It was nice to let my hair down and have just plain silly fun with someone and it was just what I needed (just without the expenditure, an expensive night out!).

Just a Few Piccies

Just thought I'd add a few piccies as not updated blog for a while. The first is a view of the City from the top of Mount Victoria which is the mountain behind my house, just a short (but steep) walk up. Lovely views up there, you can see the whole harbour and just how big the city is. The other picture was walking home from Lambton Quay, the sun was setting and it was a full moon and the sky was this gorgeous strawberry colour, I was so glad I had my camera with me!

Another Day Another New Zealand Dollar

Hiya folks and welcome to another blog from your wonderful host, Nettles. I've had a wonderful couple of weeks, as its been Easter and so 2 weeks off Uni, sorry thats 2 weeks 'working from home'. Although its supposed to be autumn here now, we've been blessed with good weather and we're able to enjoy some of the holiday delights on offer.

Simon joined me at the end of March and we planned a nice break on the Kapiti coast. First we hired a car and drove to Scorching Bay where the Choclate Fish cafe is. Its the place that all the crew from Lord of the Rings used to hang out. We sat outside with our bowl full of tea and lattes and enjoyed the good food on offer.

After a stroll on the beach there and playing around on the rocks like little children, we set off north to the Kapiti coast. We were warned that the traffic might be bad, so we took it easy, it wasnt that bad. We made it to Levin were we had booked to stay in a lovely B&B for a few days. The place was called fantails and was run by a crazy English lady. Actually she was really nice and cooked us lovely organic food from her garden (see picture).
That weekend we were lucky enough to see the Levin balloon festival, there were balloons in the sky everywhere, it was realy wonderful to watch them, they were so peaceful and graceful in the sky. I have a very romantic notion of going for a ride in one someday, but alas, this was not the weekend for romantic escapism.....oh no...much more fun things were in store for us.

After trekking through the Tararua forest park, hiking ridicoulously steep hills (but seeping fantastic views). We trekked through a little woodland on the way back and found these wonderful but poisonous fungi (must find out species name) and decided to take lots of pictures of them because I thought they were pretty. Its a shame I couldn't find any in Manchester to poison my ex with. Anyway.....after an exhausting time we took a lavender spa bath that evening, after watching the dusk take off of hot air balloons, returned home and blew up an organic bottle of champange (opppss).





The next day, we set off again to explore Levin, it was our last day, so we decided to have some fun and head for the gorge. No sooner had we arrived we had booked a quad bike session and a horse ride for the next day. Quad biking was way cool, but unfortunately I didnt take any pitures as I was afraid I would break my camera. I managed to leave my sunglasses with the mad farmer that took us biking around his land, and it turned out it was his brother than ran the horse trekking and he found our car the next morning and left my sunglasses there for me. What a lovely person!!!

The next day we planned to walk the gorge and found a track nearby. First we had to go horse riding which was lots of fun. After that we took a lovely walk along th gorge, through some lovely sub-tropical forest and with lovely dense vegetation. We also spotted lots of birds, including the fantail. The fantails are meant to fly near you (which they do, coming up really close). The Maori believe that they come to tell you a message and help you find your way out of the forest by flying towards the nearest way out.

After a lovely couple of days we headed back to Kapiti coast. We had permits from the Department of Conservation to visit Kapiti marine reserve. Its one of the only (if only) reserves that allows only 50 visitors a day. It has many protected birds, a protected area of sea, and flightless birds that are very unafraid of humans. We were put on a boat, had our bags examined in case we had any stowaway rats or mice - these have been eradicated from the island, making it a safe place for certain plants and animals there that have been re-introduced.
A guide met us on the other side where he took us through the history of the island, how it came to be a reserve and what we might expect to find, mostly a lot of birds, and what kind of sounds they make.

In the 1700s and 1800s Māori settled on the island. Te Rauparaha formed a base here, and his Ngāti Toa tribe regularly sailed in canoes on raiding journeys up to the Whanganui River and down to Marlborough.

The sea nearby was a nursery for whales, and during whaling times 2,000 people were based on the island. Oil was melted from the blubber and shipped to America for use in machinery, pre petroleum. Few whales are seen there now.

The conservation potential of the island was seen as early as 1870. It was reserved as a bird sanctuary in 1897 but it was not until 1987 that the New Zealand Department of Conservation took over the island. In the 1980s and 1990s efforts were made to return the island to a natural state; first sheep and possums were removed. In an action few thought possible for an island of its size, rats were eradicated in 1998.

In 2003 the anonymous Biodiversity Action Group claimed to have released 11 possums on the island. No evidence of the introduced possums has been found. Possums are a real problem in NZ because they do really well in the bush, eat all the endemic birds, eggs, etc and you see poison baits all over the place on the mainland (and wool and possum mixed scarves and gloves in the shops!!!).

We took a path up to the summit, and we did see a lot of birds, robins, fantails, kiwis (but they are nocturnal), takahe, kokako, brown teal, stitchbirds, and tieke (saddleback), miromiro, piwakawaka, ruru, weka (hybrid of North and South Island subspecies, pictured below, they look like chickens but are clever and try and steal your lunch), hihi, and toutouwai. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of a number of these which was pretty amazing, and they are not shy birds, and if you stay still they will come really close to you, looking for insects that you may have disturbed walking along the paths.

At the summit we took a picture after getting blown around and tried to eat our lunch without it being stolen off the wekas! That was quite fun as they are pretty clever and try and sneak from behind you. The trip down was nice and much easier, the rest of the group were nice and friendly, and I couldn't wait to get back on the mainland for a cup of coffee to warm me up! It was pretty windy that day, and although I was wrapped up warm, needed some rest and respite after so much intense walking over the last couple of days. So we headed back to Wellington, the big dirty city (well not really) and checked back in to Hataitai, ate well in Parade cafe (my new local) and enjoyed the ambience of the City at night.

Nettles Goes to Mount Doom!!!

Hi everyone, here are pictures of my first field trip around the Ruapehu Valley. We hiked up mount Raupehu, a good 2600 metres high. The first leg we took ski lifts but we had to climb the summit (near crater lake) for a good few hours. The terrain was pretty rocky, and part of the climb involved walking through snow and ice, pretty tiring, especially at altitude, I was soooooo tired. Getting to the top was great, a lunch break and photo session later we went down to the crater lake to investigate. It has recently been breached, causing a massive lahar (mudslide) to slip down the other side of the valley, the lahar reached miles down, and totally flooded some areas with mud. Luckily there are procedures in place to ensure that people are evacuated in time. The lake (in the picture behind me) was about 28 degrees on that day (it was about that hot on the day, I got sunburnt!) and there was sulfur streaming through it making it a nice blue/green colour.

It was a pretty amazing hike and the next day we did part of the Tongariro crossing which is a famous day hike here, following beautiful mountains and volcanoes. During the walk you can see the old lava flows where there have been recent (1975) eruptions. Mount Ngauruhoe (said as Narahoeie) erupted 45 times in the 20th Century. Its the very last picture. It was also the volcano known as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings, so pretty cool to have seen it from the top. Its possible to climb it, but its really steep, and the mountain I climbed was bad enough!

As you can see some pretty amazing scenery. I'm hoping to be in the area again soon, to maybe pick up some more tracks or just enjoy the countryside and the views. I'm not planning to hike up any more mountains soon though, one is enough for me at the moment!

Last a short video of us mucking around on the glacier!


Netty x

Blog Update

First of all, I had to incude a picture of Tim (oldest with the cat) and Oskar (with the umbrella). They are my 'roomies' but are very sweet, as you can see, like posing sweet for the camera!

The next piccie is another roomie, a native praying mantis that I spotted climbing up the lamp shade. Isnt it lovely?! There is also a South African species that was introduced in 1978, although I am not sure if it was legally introduced or not. NZ has very strict biosecurity. You can't enter the country if you have anything that looks like mud on your shoe, and don't ever say you live on a farm (actually if you do you should......). I also decided to include a picture of a cicada. They are little noise creatures that make 'jungle' sounds all day, harmless really, it makes me feel like I'm on a tropical island! They are quite pretty as far as bugs go. But then I do like insects. I'm going to find myself a NZ fauna book sometime and get looking into whats over here, its fascinating knowing there are so many different things out here.

I was also told a story about why there are so many British birds here but I dont know if its true or not (perhaps Louise Hussey might know????). Apparently some Shakespeare lover decided that all the birds ever mentioned in his writings should be introduced into New Zealand and thats how they all got here. It would sort of explain why I've spotted so many British birds, I dont think somehow that they could migrate all the way here, and seeing as NZ used to be part of the Antartic, there doesnt seem to be any other explaination, but if someone knows I'd like to know please!!!
Well that just about ends my little update, will keep you informed after my field trip this weekend coming, hopefully it will be nice weather!!!

Weekend in Wellie!

Hello folks, Heres an update on my 3rd weekend in Wellie. This weekend has been beautiful, with the sun out shining and a great atmosphere in town. It was the dragon boat and jet boat racing, so I thought I would walk into the city and check it out. First I took a few piccies on the way in, as the sea looked so calm and serene. Spotted this guy fishing, I'm walking along Oriental Parade, which is a nice walk along the edge of the city, you can see the city skycrapers in the background (click on the image to make it bigger). Then I took a little stroll along the beach, its an artificial beach, the sand was imported from the south island, but who cares! A beach is a beach and I dipped my toe into the pretty cold sea water.

That was kinda nice for a while, but I continued on until I got into town. It was pretty crowded along where the racing was taking place, and then I spotted some sting rays in the shallows! I took out my camera and filmed them!

After that I watched one of the dragon boat races but I didn't stay out too long as there were lots of stalls and things to see, so I wondered off and had a nice time in the city!



The last picture is just to show you how steep it gets in some places. This house has its own cable car to take you up the steep slope to your house!

Wellington Cuba Street Carnival

I was just in time for the Cuba Street carnival which is every 2 years, its a parade of floats with food and markets stalls in the day, bands and stuff. It was really nice to watch. Also included a picture of the view from my new place! This is on a nice sunny day, although at the moment its pretty chilly (for Netty standards)....still exploring the area, getting lost quite a bit but in a nice way.

Also included a short video clip of the carnival, although it was pretty dark when I took this.

Hello from Wellington!!

Kia Ora everyone!

Finally made it to Wellington after missing my connecting flight from Auckland. I think that they expect you to be super-athletes and run to the domestic terminal with all your bags (you have to re-check them all in) and make it in the record time of one hour (after spending most of it in the queue for customs). Customs, ah after arguing with the customs guy about global warming, he gave me the wrong stamp in my passport i.e. 6 months tourist instead of 3 years student. GREAT! good job I noticed though.....

Now at the university, not collapsed in a big heap yet, but after almost a day of travelling, well actually being stuck in a tiny seat wondering whether I am about to be the next DVT victim, I'm feeling OK. maybe it was the coffee or something.

Weather good. Cloudy but warm. Sez and Hels - wearing my new top! yeah!

Will keep you posted when something more exciting happens!

Cheerio

Netty

NAIL CITY

Thanks to Leanne and Nazia, I now have shiny metallic blue/green nails (no not like the algae) after a ladies that lunch session in Nail City, followed by some extremely nice sushi in Mai Bai. After an exhausting lunch time, we settled down to some lovely cakes afterwards from the Chinese bakery, which I couldn't eat all of, but enjoyed nonetheless. And here is a picture of our nails (without Nazia because she skives off at 3pm).