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
No comments:
Post a Comment