I know I haven’t posted in awhile, as my mother keeps reminding me. However, NZ doesn’t want backpackers to keep in touch. Free internet is pretty much impossible to come by. McD’s is my best bet, so I’ve been drinking a bit of tea lately. $2.60 tea for 50MB of internet. When that runs out, I can refresh for a new 50MB. It does get old.
Since I last posted, I had 1 period of time off, 1 period of time on the kiwi island, and another period off.
The first time off wasn’t that eventful. I essentially sat in Auckland as I tried to find a car. There was theft from my first hostel room, which is why I moved to a different hostel with free unlimited internet. (best hostel ever!) I met some Germans who helped me deal with my auto purchasing and money transfer difficulties… not as easy as expected. I also went to see Harry Potter 7 in downtown Auckland at midnight. That’s right, I saw the last installment ages before all you suckers in the US! 🙂
Once I finally purchased a car, I headed out of the city. Unfortunately all of the car and banking issues contributed to sickness, so I didn’t feel like doing anything! After a night in a hotel, I crashed at the bach (aka mainland farm/vacation house, pronounced ‘batch’) of Dave and Ros for a few nights. Once I felt better, I headed to Thames (Coromandel) to shower and go on a hike in the Kauaeranga Valley of the Coromandel Forest Park. There I found another amusing sign…
I headed back to the kiwi island early to save some money on lodging and because my time off was pretty much over. I intended to help with farmwork, but instead I accompanied some marine mammal graduate students from Auckland on an adventure to a bottlenose dolphin that had washed up! I recorded data as they did a necropsy and such. A day later I went back to the mainland and did see how ewes get ultrasounded. I “helped” by marking them! Red crayon meant the ewe carried twins and blue spray meant the ewe was dry (empty). Maybe I should go to MSU to be a farmer? I’d eat too much ice cream, so probably not. 🙂
Then when Sarah joined me on the kiwi island, we went back to the standard schedule. I realize I still haven’t talked about what I do there, but my travels are more exciting to write and read about. Look at the official San Diego Zoo blog that I’m writing for information about the actual research… http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org/2011/07/26/listening-for-a-kiwi/