Dunedin

After my first ever orphan Christmas with friends in Christchurch the Kiwi way- bbq on Christmas eve (probably the exact opposite of how I would normally celebrate) and dinner with international students on Christmas day. I decided it was high time I visited my relatives in Dunedin who had been inviting me down since I came to New Zealand.

A six-hour bus ride and there I was. A new place with new sites and new experiences just waiting for me to explore. We started out walking the pineapple track, named after a tradition to snack on canned pineapples when on it followed by depositing the tins at the end of the track. Sadly this tradition is no more, but the name persists. It was just a short walk up the hill from which the panorama opened up which gave me a better sense of how Dunedin was planed out. We later ventured to the beach and walked up the steepest street in the world - Baldwin street, that' one to check off my list. 

The next day started off with a visit to Tunnel Beach. It can only be accessed through a tunnel carved out of stone under the instruction of John Cargill, a politician in the 1870s, so his daughters could use the beach. The second half of the day was spent driving out to the peninsula and taking a boat to see the albatross as it's the only place they nest inland. It also hosts seals, penguins, and dolphins all of which we were successful in seeing :)

Had a great couple of days getting to know my relatives, however distant they may be, still made me feel like part of the family. The youngest member, only 4 months old, has been given a Lithuanian name which led to a bit of commotion, when I told them the correct way to pronounce it and it wasn't the way they had been saying it... :P they decided to go with an intermediate version between the Lithuanian pronunciation and the one they had been using. 

Thoughts - Untamed

We are all wild animals, free to go, free to choose, but sometimes we forget this. We let ourselves be caged or tamed. Whether it be by society, human norms or even our friends and loved ones for fear of losing us or not realising the future they see for us. It is then that We lose an important part of Ourselves. We let this happen. For fear, peer pressure, not wanting to hurt someone or we think it is the natural way. However, each one of us holds the key to our cage and we can choose to set ourselves free.

When we do, the whole world opens up. You free yourself from the people and experiences that limit you and are able to find those who help you realise your full potential. People who walk with you and not in front of you, helping you along your way, not dragging you behind on theirs.

Lewis pass - Lake Christabel

After 3 weekends spent in Christchurch I was ready to get away and luckily there was a trip all organised and good to go. And so 13 of us set off to do the Lake Christabel track. The sign at the start of the track that read - for experienced trampers did not scare us away although the track did end up to be more than we expected, taking us 8-9 hours on both days to walk. But luck was on our side as the weather was perfect because we would have been miserable crawling through mud up the really steep bits and probably stuck knee deep in the marsh if it had been raining. Instead, we had a chance to swim in the lake which some took and enjoy the beautiful weather spending the whole day outdoors. With robins following us and German tramping songs to lighten the mood the time passed quickly enough. I even met some great new people, a must do on any good trip.

Work has started to effect me as I kept a lookout for native buttercups while walking on the first day. 

Also, felt myself getting upset over the patches of invasive buttercups and thistles on the track :P 

Fieldwork take 2

Look at all that broom

Wait another 2 months to do field work again? Not a chance! With a few days rest I was off on another exciting adventure, this time to Southland. The trip started off with a few little surprises. Apparently there was some sort of biker event and a conference going on at the same time we were going. Luckily we were able to find accommodation. After calling 11 motels. And getting one 40 minutes away from our meeting place for the next day. We were all also starving and that 40-minute drive with delicious takeaway food on our laps was torture. But all's well that ends well. We finally got to eat and relax, have a chat and enjoy each others company (gotta say my co-workers are pretty cool and bonding during this trip was just great :)

After doing a couple Buttercup collections which were super speedy as even the farmer helped get everything done, we were on our way to look at some release sites for the control of broom. We were happy to see that some agents were doing extremely well, completely covering the plants and doing noticeable damage. Even with them though, weeds are incredibly tough and aren't standing down without a fight.

Native Lilly

In the evening, a local department of conservation worker showed me around a bit. We drove to Lake Te Anau and walked the first 10 minutes of the Kepler track- one of the great walks of New Zealand. Would have walked quite a bit more, but it was getting dark so we decided to make our way out to the lake and then head back before it got too dark to see. And so with the sound of a Morepork (New Zealand owl) in the distance we made our way back chatting about survival camps, the start of the environmental movement in New Zealand, crazy field work experiences and marvelling at the nature that surrounded us.

On our last full day, we made some collections along Lake Manapouri, another gorgeous place to visit. We even drove around it trying to find some native Buttercup species, and without any luck in finding one in a previous known spot, we managed to find some different ones in the forest. Had the best day, beautiful places, great time with the colleagues, even solved a small workplace mystery :D 

Native Buttercup :)

Have to come back and explore more of the area, maybe do the full Kepler track next time :)

Thoughts: Just do it.

At Okains Bay with international students

If you ever feel like doing something at a particular moment, just do it. You never know if you'll ever get that feeling back, if you ever have that particular moment again. Not all actions have to be justified, you can just do something because you feel like it. Lack of time or reason are just barriers we put up ourselves, why not break them down and just live for a bit? When we're kids we don't have these restrictions, but as we get older we make ourselves aware of them and they limit us. Who knows, by acting impulsively we might create something magical, bring joy if not to others then at least to ourselves, allow a little colour into our often mundane routine, use a moment to it's full potential! Doing something then and there when you are full of passion for it can differ significantly from doing it at a different time by both the feeling and the outcome...

In the Field

I finally had my first bite of fieldwork, that I had been so looking forward to since I started work, last week and it was pretty awesome. A whole week spent with my co-workers collecting samples of Giant buttercup (sure it sounds sweet and innocent, but is in fact, a really invasive weed that has become a serious problem for Dairy farmers), bio-control insects that had been released over many years and other weeds for potential bio-control.

I really enjoyed my time and learned a lot about collecting samples and other projects that my team is working on, although had had just about enough buttercup talk after the third day of working on it :P Each day would end with us all making conversation over dinner and drinks, which along with other travel expenses were paid for by the company (This is how I get my money back :P). If that weren't enough, this collection trip also took me to some amazing places in New Zealand and my colleagues were really great about stopping at some more spectacular sites and a couple tourist attractions so I could visit them and take pictures :) Since we drove down the West Coast there was no shortage of places that took my breath away including the pancake rocks of Punakaiki and a Glow worm cave (not too many in there so visiting a bigger one is still on my to to list).

Drove back to Christchurch through Arthur's pass which led to us driving into what I can only describe as an avalanche tsunami cloud coming out between two mountains on the road we were driving on and caused us to drive through a fog for about half an hour where we could only see up to 10m in front of us, a great way to end any trip :P

Simple crafts

Before leaving Birmingham I decided to make little goodbye gifts for the girls I lived with. So I made these simple little earrings from buttons which I had left over from other crafts I've done while living there. 

Constantly moving has given me many opportunities to fill new empty walls of the rooms I rent. I thought I would keep it simple this time and so thought back to some projects I wanted to do in the past. This is one I have wanted to do for a  while. The original idea was to have a bowl filled with more empty ones (all of them have quotes or thoughts written on them with pencil) and every time I would have a new thing to write I would put another butterfly on the wall. Unfortunately, I don't actually have much furniture to put the bowl on so now I just make more and put them up as I go.

Avalanche peak

Yet another tramping trip! This one was probably my favourite so far with a group of amazing people who have so quickly became my friends here on the other side of the world. We decided to go on a trip to Arthur's Pass National park, walk the Avalanche Peak track and spend the night there at a holiday house we rented out. It was great. Amazing how many exciting things can fit into one day. Our adventure began with simply gazing upon all the natural beauty of our surroundings and I immediately felt sorry I didn't take my camera. Luckily I still had my phone and the others had gone the extra mile to take theirs.

We later encountered some very sneaky Kea's. Their lack of fear of us amused us greatly as we could walk right up to them and they wouldn't fly away. However, they quickly became rather naughty, breaking our rubbish bag and lastly flying away with our map :D Note to self, do not trust their apparent cute innocence, they are masters of deceit. 

Although the clouds were coming in fast and we still had a bit to go we decided to brave it through the rocky and partly snow covered track and successfully managed to reach the peak which was a first for some of our group. We then figured we'd try going down a different way and it was the best decision we ever made. The path went down the other side of the mountain and there was a lot of snow cover. As I was carefully climbing down as instructed, I heard a Wooohoooo behind me and when I turned around saw one of our group members sliding down on an improvised sled he made. After that it was goodbye to walking and hello to snow fun as we all started to slide down the slopes :) We even formed a three nation bob sled team and went down the mountain on one of our back packs covered by a rain cover. We then got even more adventurous and did this off track... it was awesome! Although, we did spin around, fall off our sled and roll down the mountain a bit (quite scary at the time), we had so much fun that it was all worth it :)

After coming back to our holiday house and a short rest we decided the day is still young and set out in search of some boulders to climb. We couldn't find any close by so we went with the next best thing- a stone built house :P Our climbing shoes on and around and up the house we go! One of us managed to climb the chimney and end up on the roof, a great achievement for any man. After this small practice, we came back to the house to find a delicious dinner waiting for us! We all sat around the table, remembering the events of the day and enjoying each others company. Despite there being plenty of beds in the house most of us decided to fall asleep in the living room all cosy, by the fire- the perfect end to a perfect day.

Video of us having fun in the snow

The next day we made a stop at Castle rock - a great place for bouldering, which some of us set out to do. The others enjoying a pick nick. Fun fact - this is the set where they filmed Narnia, I believe that battle at the end of the first movie.