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 :)