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.

Mt. Somers

So, I figured enough playing around on day trips to the mountains, time to pack my big bag and go tramping for a few days. The perfect opportunity arrived as a there was a long weekend a week ago and the tramping club was organising a beginner friendly 3-day trip, so I jumped at the chance to join :)

This was to Mt. Somers and what a wonderful experience it was! Gonna break it down a bit.

Day 1:

We set off Saturday morning with a group of 9 people, all super awesome as I was about to find out. The weather wasn't great, so even though the walk itself wasn't the most enjoyable, what came later was all worth it. It was great to reach the hut where we were going to stay the night, even if it was completely full, with people having to sleep on the floor, or in tents (luckily we had a couple guys run up the track faster and save us a couple of beds). We spent the evening socialising and sharing songs from our countries (benefits of multinational groups!) and then just singing, managing to get the whole hut to join in when we started Wonderwall :P We cooked dinner together which is always nice, with the added challenge of it being vegan so that everyone could be included. Came out delicious on both days!

Rain can't stop me!

Day 2:

The weather was a bit kinder to us on the second day and even though the wind was quite strong, it was blowing from behind and so actually helped us to climb up :D (Thanks wind!). We also decided to side track a bit and visit the water caves, right next to our path. These were awesome, had to squeeze through narrow tunnels and climb boulders. Had to go knee deep in the water, but hey no pain no gain and gotta get the full experience right? After we reached the hut it started to snow from a blue clear sky, not something I had imagined I'd ever see, but hey, that's mountains for you. So, we all got cosy inside playing cards, I thought my group how to play 'Durnius' so the evening was well spent :P Also, had a bit of fun teaching a five-year-old girl to build card houses (ended up building a pirate ship :D) and she taught me a game, which seemed to have one rule from each snap, rock paper scissors, and some others :P

Day 3:

This day we walked my favourite part of the track as it was mostly forest and wasn't a continuous uphill or downhill walk but a combination of the two. We took a long rest by the river after a refreshing dip under the waterfall because the weather was perfect, sunny and warm. There we bolder hopped along the river and one group member even attempted to catch some fish while the animal rights activist among us hoped he would fail in this endeavour :P This track included quite a challenging bit of steep and very muddy uphill climb which I was happy to have done on the last day, when my pack was much lighter. The satisfaction after the hike was great, so much seen, done and hey I survived a long trip with a heavy bag with no casualties :D

We ended our trip with a food stop at this cool pizzeria where I ordered this amazing chicken cranberry pizza, something I will definitely have to cook one of these days :)

Thoughts

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

Sometimes, although maybe not as often as I could, I write out my thoughts into a notebook.   Now, what's written in this notebook I very rarely share with people. My writings include songs, poems and general thoughts that I just had to write down after they were just pouring out of my mind and could not be contained anymore. However, some things that I have shared with my closest friends seem to have had a positive impact so I've decided to share a few on here. So here's a little something that I had thought about many times before actually writing it out as a letter to myself, hope you like it :)

Time is continuously flowing, don't segment it into periods, enjoy it in it's wholeness. Live in the moment, don't treat time as an obstacle to be happy now, you never know what time will bring.

A short time spent with a loved one is better used than time spent wondering what might have been. If you have a chance, take it. Temporary happiness will bring you joy for a while, while waiting for long-term contentment can lead to depression or sorrow. 

It is not worth slaving in the present and putting off being happy for happiness in the future, a euphoria that may never come. Make the most out of every stage of life, you never know how the winds will change. Don't use your situation as an excuse not to be happy, as an excuse not to find love, as an excuse not to live. 

Don't give up, make your own destiny, build your life the way you want it. You are the main character of your story and you call all the shots.

Micro lab

This week I did some lab work (Yay!). I did a full DNA extraction of a heather beetle and then amplified it by performing PCR and sequenced it to find whether a microsporidian (a micro-parasite) has infected it. Now this was a pretty long multi-step process and involved me playing around with a number of cool machines and materials (liquid nitrogen ftw :P ). Even though I made one mistake and had to repeat the last step of the process (could have been my ingenious plan to spend more time in the lab...) I completed the whole process and got great results so am pretty proud of that. Active learning through participation is the best!

For those interested in learning how DNA sequencing works, I found this cool site that has videos which give a brief introduction to DNAprocesses: http://www.dnalc.org/view/15924-Making-many-copies-of-DNA.html

My first month in New Zealand has come to an end... time flies by so fast! So, here are some things I've been up to this past week:

Firstly, went on another hiking trip, this time, to south Canterbury to Peel forest and climbed Little Mt Peel. Even though we waited for an hour to be picked up as it was forgotten that the time changed (now 12-hour difference to the UK and 10 to LT!) and it was rainy and cloudy, it turned out to be a good experience none the less. Got to walk through the clouds on the mountain (...mystical...) and because by the end my shoes were already soaked it didn't bother me that we had to walk through the river (which was actually pretty fun) :P Also, I'm gonna go ahead and say that we hiked through a rainforest, felt like it anyway since it was raining and we were walking through... a forest... Oh and can't forget the landmark of the day - The Big Tree (whoever came up with that name is a pure genius...)

Secondly, that same weekend I was invited to this Indonesian fair by some of my new International student friends who have been super welcoming and with whom I meet up every Friday to play games and such :) So, I went and got a chance to try out playing an Angklung - this Indonesian instrument which I got to keep after the fair and is now sitting on my shelf, giving my empty room a bit of life :) It only plays one note (mine is Fa) so to play a song I'd need a few more people who have different notes to join me :p any volunteers?

Finally, I marked my first month in NZ by driving on the left side of the road for the first time ever, and it felt great! I'm not usually a fan of driving so I was really surprised how much I enjoyed it :) And how quickly I picked it up (ok turned on the windscreen wipers instead of showing a turn signal for the first couple of times, but meh) I think as long as I don't have to drive a stick I can manage to do this while I'm in New Zealand, should be handy for travelling around :)