Roll away your stone..

Nothing that I write will ever do the last 3 and a half months justice, but I have to give it a shot because I want to remember it.

The last days have flown by incredibly fast, so fast that I didn't even remember to blog. Probably as some sort of emotional defense mechanism, I have tried to not think about or call home for some time because the thought of leaving EcoQuest is heart breaking.

We've had a few days to clean up the campus to get it ready for the next group and to pack, but today is solely set aside as a fun activity filled day full of bonding games and sunshine and beautiful sights. We went back to Tapapakanga Beach (I could have called that), the beach we went to on our 3rd day at Ecoquest. The field leaders packed us a picnic lunch and this time we weren't freezing in our thermals and fleeces, but lying in the grass and sand in our bathing suits. What a contrast!

Also a couple days ago each of us was given 2 sheets of paper to write our names on. Those papers were left on a table and over the course of two days everyone made their rounds and signed something on everyone's papers. I usually wrote about my favorite memories I had with that person, what I love about their personality, and something they have taught me. Most people vowed to wait to read theirs until the plane ride home, but I had no such self control. Me, Sam, Anna, Sara, and Janet all huddled into Sara's tent and had a sob-session over our notes.

In all honestly, most of them weren't sad. They were sweet or funny, but there were a couple that really got to me. It's always nice to know when you've positively affected someone's life. I put a lot of time into writing notes for other people so it was nice to get some really nice responses back.

Saying goodbye is so hard. The field leaders also painted 25 small rocks from the beach in our back yard and we each chose our favorite. I got one with little footprints on them and of course the last person to get one was Valerie and the last rock left in the box had stars painted on it. It was so perfect. When we picked our rock we each said a word that we wanted to associate with our stone so we could always carry it around and remember what we had. Mine was family, and here are some others:

Family, hope, friendship, love, being, peace, confidence, self, life, laughter, knowledge

We had a fire ceremony last night and sat around in a circle. Each of us threw a piece of wood into the fire to symbolize something bad that we were leaving behind. I threw away my self-doubt, because if being in New Zealand has taught me anything it's that I can do absolutely anything, and the only thing stopping me is fear. Then in no particular order almost everyone shared something with the group. Most were on the line of thank you, and it was a collective group reflection on the semester. There was some laughter and a whole lot of tears. We huddled for warmth and weeped about it all coming to an end. Field leaders Wendy, Maree, Dale and Chris joined us for the first hour or so and shared some words of wisdom and hope for us. We all needed it, and it helped me feel a little bit better about the goodbyes left for the next day. I stayed up almost all night talking to some people until the fire finally died.

This morning we woke up at 5:30 and all watched the sunrise over the Coromandel for the last time. Even Ria and Jono were there with us. We had our last breakfast and dragged the last of our belongings out of our rooms and packed the trailers around 7:30. We said goodbye for, no joke, an hour. Lots of people shared their last words, and I even had my bit to add, which I wasn't able to say without crying. I said that the day before I was listening to the James Taylor song "Carolina in my Mind" and how it's about Carolina being a place he brings himself back to when things are really bad. I said that Whakatiwai would always be that place that I could go in my mind.

Long hugs and crying all around. I told Maree how inspirational she is. I told Wendy how much respect I have for her and how badass and strong she is. I told Drew he better extend his departure date for the Boston marathon so he can hang out with the UNHers longer. I told Sarah is only 'see you later,' not 'goodbye.' I told Holliday she gives the best hugs and that me, her and Beck have to go backcountry skiing in Vermont this winter. Anna, Paul and I snuggled and cried together the whole drive to Auckland in the vans.

Never in my life have I been with a group of people that is so loving and accepting all of the time. I have been so fortunate to meet such amazing friends. With the help of 24 of my classmates, I have evolved into a much better person and I have grown into a person that I am proud of. Ecoquest changed my life forever, and it's an experience I'll never forget.

Hold on to whatever you find..

(The boys practicing their haka)

These last few weeks have been winding down far too quickly. Even though we've been hard at work with DRPs, I've made the personal decision to wake up early every day and not work past 4 in the afternoon so that I have some time to unwind and have fun and do the things I love to do still. With so little time left, I didn't want to waste too much time staring at a computer screen. AND guess what? I'm ALL DONE Baby!!! I've handed it all in and will be receiving the final published version to show off right before I leave.

To celebrate the first day of summer a few nights ago, almost everyone set up their tents on the lawn by the gazebo. Some people just brought out their sleeping pads and bags and lied out in the middle of our tent city circle. The sky was perfectly clear and we all lied in the middle, huddling for warmth and watching the stars. Sam made mochas and Chris popped some corn with the perfect amount of salt and butter for everyone to share. We could see Jupiter that night and Orion's belt was in plain view. I saw more shooting stars than I could count. We reminisced about the early days of Ecoquest, when we barely new each other, and how far we've all come since then.

(Tent city by day)

One of the girls, Valerie, is a physics major and specializes in astronomy. She spent at least an hour pointing constellations and galaxies and nebulae out to us. She even knows quite a bit about Greek mythology and the stories associated with the constellations, which was really cool to hear. It was probably one of my favorite nights so far.

The next night a few dedicated people including myself went back out to tent city. The stars weren't out, but it was nice to be out in the fresh, crisp air rather than our stuffy cabins. We were eventually reduced to just the four of us- me, Tasha, Paul, and Chris. After taking a walk on the beach around 10:00, we went back and lied down and ended up talking about life until almost 2:30 in the morning. Incredible. Finally at that point we were all sleepy and I retired to my tent. I've made the decision to spend the rest of my nights at Ecoquest in a tent.

(Mochas and popcorn outside Drew and Chris' cabin)

(Drew brought his whole bed set into his tent haha)

I've spent a lot of my afternoons swimming in the ocean, which has been really great. A lot of the time, when the wind blowing the water feels warmer than the air. I can't believe that I've been in New Zealand this long and it was my first time last week going swimming in the Firth, and now I go practically every day. I've also spent a lot of time reading and lying in the grass and having long conversations with people.

(The lovely frog crew.)

I can't believe it is only 5 full days before we leave. That's scares me to death. I love it here so much, and have become so accustomed to this lifestyle that it is hard for me to remember life-before-EcoQuest.

Thanksgiving in New Zealand!

Our Kiwi Thanksgiving was a great success! We spent most of Friday night, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday working on dinner preparations. Although I wasn't in the kitchen the whole time, I spent the majority of my days in there overseeing things and helping out. It was a lot of fun and everyone did their job and the kitchen was never chaotic. Ria said this is the most relaxed she's seen everyone around Thanksgiving in years.

Lots of peeling and mashing and mixing later, things were really starting to come together. We had the whole walk-in chiller filled with food prep and things that just needed to be popped into the oven. I made 4 batches of my infamous apple crisp and helped Sam with catering her pavlova (it came out beautifully!).

While some of us were slaving away in the kitchen, we had a committee hard at work on decorations. They came up with this really cool menu which included a description of every item on the menu, including who made it. In addition to that, Sarah's mom mailed her a huge package of Turkey Day decorations (table clothes and all) and they used those to decorate the Wharekai and porch. Kate even had the idea to walk down the road and pick wild flowers so that every table would have its own decorative vase (or champagne bottle)!

The weather in the morning looked a bit ominous, and it even rained a little bit. We saw this huge rainbow that went over campus. We could even see both ends of it, touching down on the waters of the Firth of Thames. Luckily the weather cleared out and it was beautiful and sunny for the rest of the afternoon. All the girls dressed up in skirts and dresses and everyone got a little bit more tan.

We put the appetizers out around 3:30 and ate and mingled while the main dishes were heating up. It was great to see people that we haven't seen in a while, like Wi from Te Aroroa and Catherine, Elizabeth's 14 month old daughter. In between courses we played games and chatted and listened to music over the ghetto blaster. It was so surreal to be celebrating Thanksgiving in the hot sun when all of our family was bundled up inside.

Around 4:30 the main dishes were ready to go. Sam and I asked Denny and Janet if they could read a poem in front of the group before we started eating. Us and all of our guests gathered in the Wharekai in the circle and listened and went around sharing our Thanks with everyone. I started to get a little teary-eyed but held it together because I knew that I should save my tears for the last day when we actually have to leave. The cooks went down the line and introduced all of the foods as well as who took part in making them. Finally Sam exclaimed, "Let's eat!" and we piled the food onto our plates.

There was so much food and all of it was so great! My personal favorites were the roasted chicken w/ real gravy, cornbread stuffing, and sweet potato pie. We even had lamb which Anna prepared and it wasn't even dry or tough like I've been told. Everyone ate sooo much, and we still had a ton of leftovers, which we were really happy about. That's the best part of Thanksgiving anyway-- the heaps of leftovers the days after.

We had some volunteers help to clean up and after an hour and a half of sitting around and basking in our thankfulness (I mean gluttony) we got the dessert out. Everyone was so full at that point but it didn't stop us from piling the sweets on our plate even higher. The apple crisp was a hit and Sam's untaking of the Kiwi classic pavlova was a great success!

(All the cooks and bakers having a toast of champagne)

Overall it was a great day and after nearly 2 weeks of everyone being separated into groups for our DRPs, it was nice to have everyone sitting down in one place, the way it should be.

So much past inside my present..

Happy Thanksgiving, America.

This was the first Thanksgiving that I've spent away from home. I can't imagine what it must have been like today at home. Calling home was very emotional and when I got off the phone and Anna asked me, "How's the fam?" and I said, "Good" out of automatic response, she knew I didn't mean it and asked if I needed a hug and I cried like a baby in her arms. Needless to say the morning and early afternoon were kind of rough. I ate lunch alone and kind of moped and worked on my paper.

Eventually though, I came to a sort of conclusion. Even if I cannot be with my family, the day gave me a lot of time to think about what I'm thankful for this year. The past 3 months have been some of the happiest of my entire life. I've seen more of this country than some Kiwi do in their lifetime. I'm constantly in awe with my surroundings. I've felt tiny and insignificant in the face of towering mountains, endless oceans, and under crystal clear starry night skies. I never thought I would climb an active volcano or swim with dolphins or snorkel in subtropical islands. I've learned more about the world than I could ever learn from a classroom or a book. The friendships I've made are golden. I've met so many amazing people and done so many things. Most importantly, I've learned so much about myself.

This thanksgiving I am thankful that I have a family that supported my decision to move to the other side of the planet for a semester in a quest to find myself. Thank you.

Do we say goodbye, or just see you later?

I was looking through some old pictures on my hard drive and found this picture of my sister, mom, and myself running down the huge sand dunes in North Carolina. I must have been only 8 or 9 at the time. The whole time we were at the giant sand dunes in Northland, it reminded me of that day!

Now that we're back from our field excursion, it's really crunch time. We have a pretty tight writing schedule as we piece together the final report for our projects. Although we worked together as a team in the field, we each write our own papers. It's actually really cool because this is the first semi-professional scientific paper that I've ever written, and hopefully it'll be the first of many. It's something that I'm already proud of and I can't wait to talk about my project with anyone that is interested when I get back to UNH.

The past few days have consisted of lots of editing of our Introduction and Methods sections. Yesterday looked at our data and started crunching numbers. Excel time! As much as I hated ESCI 654 (Fate and Transport in the Environment) last semester, I'm glad that it helped me become proficient with that program, and now I know all the tricks of the trade and am able to help my teammates. The results section of my paper already has 7 graphs! We probably came up with over 25 total, but be obviously can't use them all for the paper. Sometimes it's fun just to generate graphs, just in case they actually generate something useful you can use for your report. /end geek

After dinner last night we played a pick up game of soccer on the lawn which was so fun!! We ran around barefoot like goons and played til the sun started to set. I love the fact that it was after 8:00 and it still wasn't dark. Summer is a'coming. Afterwards me, Tash, Chris, Paul, Emily, and Beck played some disc til we couldn't even see the damn thing anymore. It was such a nice change from all the sitting I've been doing on the computer the last couple of days. I've been running a bit in the afternoons, but it's more of a stress release than fun.

On Sunday we're celebrating Thanksgiving! There will be a lot of guests, since lots of the field leaders and staff are inviting their partners and children. Past field leaders and EQ researchers are also invited, so we might be outnumbered by people that we don't necessarily know. It should be really cool, I've definitely never had a Thanksgiving celebration with more than 10 people, never mind more than 40. Me, Tash, Emily, and Sam are all on the T-Day Committee so we're organizing a cooking schedule for our relatively small kitchen. We're going to do all the baking on Friday and keep it in the chiller, then do food prep on Saturday, and finish up the rest of the cooking on Sunday morning/early afternoon, with a goal of serving by 4:00. As you could probably guess, I'm in charge of most of the baking stuff :) Sadly there will not be any turkey this year, but we are going to roast chickens and eat LAMB mmmm.

On a totally unrelated note, the Education Team lost their 8 inch long centipede yesterday in Granny's, and it's still on the loose. Apparently it chewed a hole through the cloth cover they put on top of the bucket in which it was caged. No big deal, just the only poisonous invertebrate in New Zealand roaming around our hang-out spot...

We hung out at the rainbow where we drank til' half past two..

(Beck and I in the rock tunnel at Piha)

We thought we were going to get rained out yesterday, but after a quick shower it ended up being a decent day. It was actually rather warm and really humid. It reminded me of being back home, when it’s humid all the time. The streams were kind of hard to navigate again (supple jack ahhh!) but Paul and I found some sweet bedrock to slide down on. The habitat was pretty bad so my 2 transects went by really fast, but Paul was actually able to find 2 frogs in his! There was a large yellow one which we got a lot of pictures of (we named her Ferrari) because she jumped out from her spot, landed in the water, played dead, floated downstream, and got caught on some leaf litter. Clever little creatures. It’s crazy to think that they have barely changed from an evolutionary standpoint for almost 100 million years.

We did our best to get “tidy” after being in the field (I even put on deodorant) and headed to Henderson (aka Horendeson), a suburb of Auckland, and went to the movie theater to see Harry Potter 7, part 1! It’s funny because I’ve probably seen it earlier than a lot of my friends at home, because it doesn’t seem to be quite as popular here and even on its 2^nd day in the theater, the room was only half full. Well either way, the movie was great, we were all giddy and little school girls going in and laughing/gasping/crying throughout the whole movie. It was quite a treat for Wendy to bring us. Getting out of the parking garage was kind of a shit-show because the van was barely short enough to get in, but the exit ramps were even shorter so we were just scraping by (literally) and ended up denting the roof a bit haha.

On the drive home we stopped at Huia Point again, which is an overlook of the harbor. The clouds were moving in from the sea and the colors were beautiful behind it from the setting sun. There was a guy (probably a few years older than us) sitting by himself and looking at pictures of himself and a girl. We talked to him a bit (he joined in on the conversation we were having) and told us about the time he ran away from home and came to this very spot. He was really cool, but I had a feeling he was there to mourn the loss of the girl in the photo, because he seemed a little somber and he had flowers with him.

(The view from Huia Point)

Today we actually did get rained out so we didn’t go out in the field and had the opportunity to sleep in (until 8:00 wow!). We cleaned up the Project K lodge and let me tell you, we left it in MUCH better shape than when we arrived. I just zoned out on the way back to Whakatiwai and listened to music and read some National Geographic. Being back at base is great, and seeing everyone again was overwhelming. It was another sad reminder of how much I’m going to miss them when the program ends. I loved the excitement of everyone telling each other stories of their adventures in different places. Some groups went to Mangatautari, some went to Motuihe Island, and others stayed at Ecoquest the whole time. No matter what the location was, there were many stories to be shared. The only unfortunate part was that we got back on their day off, and our day off is tomorrow so the partying happened last night and everyone was stressing out tonight over papers due in the morning, so the 6 of us froggers took a walk to the pub around 9:00 to check out the scene (hah) and the doors were locked by the time we got there.

(The best DRP team ever. Left to right: Kirstin Thompson, Paul Wanzek, Anna Greenlee, me, Sara Gassman, and Beck Sinclair)

Either way, it was a really nice walk. It was great to reflect on the amazing week that we had. It’s funny how close you grow with people that you work and live with 24 hours a day. I’m pretty sure there were points where we were no longer speaking coherent thoughts and just communicating in song, laughter, and strange noises. We were an unlikely bunch from the start, but now we’re all even better friends than we could have imagined. This week’s experiences are invaluable. I learned so much and it was great to have the independence to lead our searches and carry out the work that we needed to do without feeling like we had a babysitter, as has been the case in some of our smaller field projects so far. I loved that every day was a new adventure. We were able to fully immerse ourselves in the forest for 8 hours a day. I could definitely do something like this for the rest of my life.

Head like a stone, stoned like a rock..

(Paul and I on the way to one of our sites)

Yesterday we finally found frogs! It was quite a morale booster for the group. It was funny actually, because even in the morning Boyd sensed that the mood was somber but he tried to pump us up and motivate us. When Kirstin and I got to our site, she found a frog within the first 5 minutes and was so shocked she didn’t even know what to call out! We found 9 between the 2 of us on the first day and we named all of them. The walk in and out of the bush took quite a while and after we finished our transects I went on a walk and then fell asleep by the creek for a little while. The boys and Boyd still weren’t back so the four of us (all the girls) left a note and headed back to the van. We decided that if they weren’t back by 5 o’clock that we would start to worry (we had finished 4.5 hours earlier!). Finally they came out of the bush at 4:45! I guess they had really good sites with tons of habitat to search and lots of frogs found. Better than the alternative- we created this elaborate scenario in which they tried to bush wack out of the stream, then ended up taking the wrong trail back, ended up in town and drank their worries away in the pub while we sat in the van in worry.

Today was quite an intensive day. Although we were all done by 2 o’clock and back to the van before 3, the going was quite rough. We had to bush wack our way down to the first stream. Someone had flagged the way for us, but they must have been mad when they did it because it was so illogical. There was a clear spur that we could have followed but instead the flagging took us down a muddy cliff, then sideways along the hill, and then back down. Lots of supple jack everywhere to get tangled in and those cutty ferns that grown conveniently at eyelevel for me. Even the streams themselves were very rough going with lots of overhanging vegetation and slick bedrock and waterfalls; what would have normally only taken 20 minutes to travel took twice as long. Needless to say, when Anna and I finished our 2nd plot and radioed Paul and Kirstin to let them know we were coming to our meeting place for lunch, it was quite a relief. I enjoy the bush as much as anyone, but even the guys were kind of sketched out by the intensity of the ground we had to cover today.

(Sara and I on the beach)

We had to say bye to Boyd unfortunately, because he is doing the mountain bike leg of a triathlon tomorrow so he can’t work with us anymore. Wendy is mostly better so she will probably just stick to the closer reaches tomorrow. We invited Boyd to come see our DRP presentation in December, which is not so far away now, only a few weeks. It’s really sucky that Wendy got hurt, but I think about the circumstances and how if it wasn’t for that, we never would have met Boyd. I admire him a lot and will never forget him.

(One of our frogs! This is Priscilla)

To end the day, we took a drive to Piha, a beach town that is a famous surf spot in New Zealand. The tide was low and we were able to walk through the mussle covered rocks and go exploring. The clay cliffs were subjected to thousands of years of erosion, and there were layers of stratified rocks throughout. Some of them looked so unsettled, as if they could fall at any minute but many of the larger rocks had birds nests on them. I met up with Beck and Paul and saw this man-made hide out in one of the hills, and walked to the far end where there were no longer people and walked out on the rocky cliffs and outcrops. There was one area where the water would rush in and get more and more narrow and eventually expel a great burst of water. It was so cool! Then on our way back we walked through this cathedral-like tunnel in “Pride Rock,” one of the larger islands located right off the beach. The walls were covered in gigantic starfish, some with more than 10 legs! I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I felt so tiny inside that tunnel. I looked up and probably more than 100 feet over my head was the ceiling. There was a great slab of rock that looked like black slate turned completely perpendicular to the ground, which is amazing because you know that all the uplift that this rock experienced over millions of years to get it to where it is now.

Tomorrow, I sail the world..

Today we went to the Ark in the Park again and met Boyd (58 yrs), a past Ecoquest field leader that lives in the Auckland area. Our walk on the track to the streams was about 20 minutes out. Paul and I walked out on Waitakere stream with Boyd. He’s such a cool dude! I was picking his brain a little bit and asking him about different field leaders and what Ecoquest used to be like. He asked us what our hobbies are and it turns out he is an avid mountain biker like me and we had quite a lot of talk about riding and racing. He told me about some great spots to go riding in New Zealand, so I guess I’ll just have to come back some day with my bike and do it! He also told us stories about his encounters with marine life like sharks and orcas (the most recent orca sighting was just a few days ago). “Make sure you ask Sally about scuba diving naked with sharks.” From what it sounds like, he works with the Department of Conservation or the Auckland Regional Council and is contracted through them, just like John. In the past he has trained park ranges for the Ark in the Park project, so he actually knows the area quite well. It sounds like he’s basically worked all over New Zealand, which was cool.

We had 3 transects to cover today. The habitat was not that great in most of them, and we did not find one single frog. Three days in, and our frog counter is at 1. We did, however, see quite a few eels (one almost nipped Boyd), lots of invertebrates, freshwater crayfish, and lots of birds! It’s great seeing the tags of the released birds around the park, so you definitely know that their efforts to bring back native birds are working. As we were walking along Boyd was asking us about what the forests are like at home and what kind of wildlife we see. Then when we rounded the corner, the stream looked absolutely gorgeous, but we had barely noticed because we were so busy looking at our feet. “Sometimes when you’re doing work like this, you get so caught up in what you’re doing and where you’re going, that you don’t take the time to appreciate the beauty of it all.” We stopped and took a picture on Paul’s waterproof camera and took it all in.

After the work was done, we left the park and headed for the beach in Bethels, another beautiful black sands surf beach. We only stayed for 40 minutes and Anna, Beck, and Kirstin went swimming. The waves looked beautiful, the sun was shining, it was warm out but I had just changed out of my wet clothes and… wait! I realized that I had left my long johns, shorts, and bathing suit bottom in the parking lot of the Ark. So sad. I realized that we weren’t going back until Saturday so I’ll have to bank on the fact that no one would want my stinky clothes, but who knows, New Zealander’s are an odd bunch.

We've got all the right reasons..

Today our sites were located in Ark in the Park, a section of the Waitakere Ranges that are located about an hour away from Little Huia. It was clear that this forest suffered more recent disturbances judging by the vegetation growing in the area. I worked with Sara and our sites were the closest to the meeting place and pretty easy to walk through, so surveying our transects was quite easy. Unfortunately there were no frogs, but that’s kind of what we expected in this park, but it didn’t stop us from searching thoroughly. We ended up waiting almost 3 hours for the last group to finish, but we found a nice sunny spot and I read a book and napped with the group. Using the walkie talkies to communicate was really fun!

We stopped in Titirangi on the way back to check out the 2^nd hand book store and get some groceries. But when it was time to meet at the supermarket Wendy was no where to be found… we waited a while and finally we saw her limping toward us, talking on her cellphone. It turns out when she took a little fall today in the stream, she damaged a tendon in her foot and she had been visiting a doctor and talking to Jono on the phone to try and make arrangements.

(Post TimTam slam, clearly full of joy and contentment)

So plans are changed for tomorrow and we’re going to go to Ark again instead of the Huia catchment and do 3 sites which are located close to the path. If Wendy’s foot doesn’t get better (which I’m expecting it won’t any time soon) we’ll have to have a sub come in. So quite an unfortunate situation, and though we are perfectly capable of working by ourselves, we’re required to have a field leader with us in the event that everything goes to hell and someone breaks their neck or something. Not likely, but I guess if it did happen we’d be pretty screwed.

We get it almost every night..

What a day. The morning started out with a consistent sprinkling but by midafternoon the sun was out and the day turned around. We drove up that dam road! and after a few official gate crossings we pulled onto the side of the road and Wendy said, “ok, we’re here,” although here did not appear to be anywhere in particular. She let us lead and told us that we had to keep the main river to our right and that we would eventually hit an intersection with our main stream. So we literally went bushwhacking for half an hour. It was so intense! Probably one of the coolest things I’ve done so far in New Zealand. We finally made it to the stream (with some sliding on our butts down the steep slopes at the end) and walked up for a few minutes until we hit the split between Blarney and George stream. Beck and I went one way and the other teams went the other. Most of the time we were below our knees in water but occasionally it would get quite deep. At one point I sank into a random hole and fell in to my waist haha, brrr. It never did really get quite that cold, it was just an initial shock. Then on the way to our furthest transect, a recent landslide occurred that caused quite a detour in our route and slowed us down a lot, but it was really exciting. I’ve never had to maneuver through such tight spaces with a big pack on, so it was new but fun. We finally made it and were able to do the transect without many issues, but we did not find any frogs at my site or Beck’s sadly. We think it was because of all the rain, which did raise the water level of the stream considerably, even though it wasn’t raining very hard or very long. We did see two huge eels, lots of creepy spiders, fish, and freshwater crayfish. Also, a little bit of a walk past our furthest transect, we saw a pretty large waterfall. I wish I had a camera for that.

We had a delicious dinner of fish, veggies (carrots, broccoli, zuccini), and rice with sweet thai chili sauce. Afterwards Wendy drove us to Whatapu to watch the sunset. It was probably one of the coolest beaches I’ve ever been to. The sand was all black and there were a lot of random stone structures. One of them was sort of a sand dune, which we hiked up, and Beck was brave enough to climb to the rocky point with his huge walking stick. We ran down like children and continued running along the bay to another rocky point with a little lighthouse on it. Around that bend was super squishy sand that we jumped into and sand halfway down our shins. We watched the sunset and did hand stands and crazy yoga poses and walked back. Great conversations. I was worried at first, but I’m really liking our group now.

Despite what you've been told..

All of these entries are backdated. I had my laptop with me but didn't have internet, so I was able to still blog but am just doing a mass post now. Enjoy!

Today is Day Zero of our Hochstetter’s frog field surveying. In the morning we left Ecoquest and headed out to a spot in the Hunua Ranges, not far from campus in the hills going towards Auckland. We met John Longden (my favorite part-time field leader, but don’t tell anyone!) there and after a quick briefing on general field preparation and the dividing up of tools, we headed off into the bush! After only 5 minutes of walking we encountered the first stream and rather than crossing it like the trail does, we followed it up stream. Most of the stream came up to just over the top of my boots but there were occasional pools near little waterfalls that went up to my knees. We went through the protocol of how to identify “frog habitat” which was basically what type of rocks to overturn and what objects were too small and not worthy of checking (we don’t look under small stones or under vegetative debris). Then we set off and spread out along the stream to practice looking for frogs and anyone who found one would call out to everyone, make a visual estimation within 5mm of how big they thought the frog was, and then actually measure it if they didn’t hop away.

We beat the all time record and found 19 frogs in that reach of stream in an hour. Most of them were between 20-30mm but we found one tiny that was only 7mm! It really shows that you need to develop a keen eye for this type of work. Afterwards we hiked up the stream a little farther, climbed a small waterfall and turned the corner to a huge waterfall that more of less flowed down a 60ft cliff. It was really cool and unexpected because it wasn’t as loud as your typical waterfall. We spent another hour or so going through the field exercises step-by-step and practiced how to take the measurements and all of that.

Now we’re at our “base camp” in Little Huia. It’s a cool cabin-type building looking over Manakau Harbor. We have a kitchen, bucks, and a big indoor porch like area with a full wall of windows looking over the water. Hills and a lot of sharp points that were probably Maori Pa sites surround us. For dinner we made pasta with tomato sauce, mushrooms, onions, and garlic with some asparagus on the side. On the road to Huia we bought some fresh strawberries, which made delicious dessert! It was so strange to have fresh strawberries in November!

Just a few minutes ago the 6 of us walked in from exploring the hills. There’s quite a lot of cleared land for pasture. We crested the biggest hill around here and were greeted by a random ropes course. It was a little ragged looking but we had fun with it and used some of the huge swings and climbed up the structures for some stellar views. Now I’m sitting on the porch watching the sunset over the hills and the harbor. It’s gonna be a good week.

small figures in a vast expanse..

The past few days have flown by in a blur. I've written more papers in the past week than I have this entire semester. The good thing was that after we finished our final on Tuesday, we didn't have any classes and just the occasional group meeting, so even with all the work I did, I ended up having some time to wander and clear my mind. I was super ambitious and was able to get all my work done, so I had today off! I won't have any more days off until Thanksgiving.

A few days ago, I decided to take a walk along the beach just before dinner. The tide was low, and here the slope near the shore is very shallow so the mudflats go out for half a kilometer so. I was making my way along and in the distance I could see a large white, shiny object. At first I thought it was a rock but when I got closer I realized it was a GIGANTIC silver stingray that had washed up on shore. It's hard to understand the scale of the creature, but his wingspan was longer than I am tall, at least 6 feet or more. He was even longer than that because of it's tail. While I was snorkeling at the marine reserves last week I saw lots of large sting rays, but never one this big. He had to be 60 years old. I had a moment of silence with him and then walked home for dinner. It's a bit troubling though, because in my past week on my runs along the beach I have noticed a lot of smaller stingrays, fish, and little sharks washed up on the shore. I don't know whether it's a natural phenomenon or if this large scale death is human-induced.

Today I went on a bike ride with Paul, Sara, Anna, and Kristin to Tapapakanga Beach, the first beach that we were introduced to in New Zealand. It was a little farther and hillier than we remembered, and the ride on our old clunkers took a little over an hour. Either way, it was well worth it. The weather was beautiful today, and it was nice to reminisce and think about how different things were a few months ago when we first arrived. We barely knew each other, and since then we're shared so much with each others and developed life long friendships. A few hours later I rode back by myself, enjoying the downhills, the wind at my back, and a great playlist on my iPod. I love the rolling terrain and the windy coastal roads.

Tomorrow my team (Paul, Sara, Kirstin, Beck, Anna, and myself plus our field leader Wendy) are leaving for the West Coast to start out the fieldwork portion of Directed Research Project. We are studying Hochstetter's frogs in the Waitakere Ranges. Sunday will be a training day, and John Longden will be showing us the protocol and necessary steps that we need to take in the bush. I can't wait! The stressed the fact that we will be getting very wet and cold from wading the streams all day. It sounds like out of all the research teams, our project is the most labor intensive and will require the most amount of hiking. Hard work, 8am-5pm every day, but it'll be worth it. Our accommodations are in a modest cabin with bunks, running water, a kitchen, and a bathroom. No phone, no internet. All we need!

I'm looking forward to this although I don't know exactly what to expect. We should be back the 20th if everything goes according to plan, and if not we will be back the next day. Au revoir!

"The Perfect High"

We've come up with a little tradition here at Ecoquest. Every night we have a family-style dinner, and anyone that wants to is able to share something with the group before or after we eat. It can be a song lyric, a picture, a poem, a story... anything. While we were staying at the Marine Lab in Leigh, my friend Denny shared a poem by Shell Silverstein that I'd like to share with you now. It's funny, but I also think it has a good meaning. Enjoy.

There once was a boy named Gimme-Some-Roy...
He was nothin' like me or you,
'cause laying back and getting high was all he cared to do.

As a kid, he sat in the cellar...sniffing airplane glue.
And then he smoked banana peels, when that was the thing to do.
He tried aspirin in Coca-Cola, he breathed helium on the sly,
and his life became an endless search to find the perfect high.

But grass just made him wanna lay back and eat chocolate-chip pizza all night,
and the great things he wrote when he was stoned looked like shit in the morning light.
Speed made him wanna rap all day, reds laid him too far back,
Cocaine-Rose was sweet to his nose, but the price nearly broke his back.

He tried PCP, he tried THC, but they never quite did the trick.
Poppers nearly blew his heart, mushrooms made him sick.
Acid made him see the light, but he couldn't remember it long.
Hash was a little too weak, and smack was a lot too strong.
Quaaludes made him stumble, booze just made him cry,
Then he heard of a cat named Baba Fats who knew of the perfect high.

Now, Baba Fats was a hermit cat...lived high up in Nepal,
High on a craggy mountain top, up a sheer and icy wall.
"Well, hell!" says Roy, "I'm a healthy boy, and I'll crawl or climb or fly,
Till I find that guru who'll give me the clue as to what's the perfect high."

So out and off goes Gimme-Some-Roy, to the land that knows no time,
Up a trail no man could conquer, to a cliff no man could climb.
For fourteen years he climbed that cliff...back down again he'd slide . . .
He'd sit and cry, then climb some more, pursuing the perfect high.

Grinding his teeth, coughing blood, aching and shaking and weak,
Starving and sore, bleeding and tore, he reaches the mountain peak.
And his eyes blink red like a snow-blind wolf, and he snarls the snarl of a rat,
As there in repose, and wearing no clothes, sits the god-like Baba Fats.

"What's happenin', Fats?" says Roy with joy, "I've come to state my biz . . .
I hear you're hip to the perfect trip... Please tell me what it is.
"For you can see," says Roy to he, "I'm about to die,
So for my last ride, tell me, how can I achieve the perfect high?"

"Well, dog my cats!" says Baba Fats. "Another burned out soul,
Who's lookin' for an alchemist to turn his trip to gold.
It isn't in a dealer's stash, or on a druggist's shelf...
Son, if you would find the perfect high, find it in yourself."

"Why, you jive mother-fucker!" says Roy, "I climbed through rain and sleet,
I froze three fingers off my hands, and four toes off my feet!
I braved the lair of the polar bear, I've tasted the maggot's kiss.
Now, you tell me the high is in myself? What kinda shit is this?

My ears, before they froze off," says Roy, "had heard all kindsa crap;
But I didn't climb for fourteen years to hear your sophomore rap.
And I didn't climb up here to hear that the high is on the natch,
So you tell me where the real stuff is, or I'll kill your guru ass!"

"Okay...okay," says Baba Fats, "You're forcin' it outta me...
There is a land beyond the sun that's known as Zabolee.
A wretched land of stone and sand, where snakes and buzzards scream,
And in this devil's garden blooms the mystic Tzutzu tree.

Now, once every ten years it blooms one flower, as white as the Key West sky,
And he who eats of the Tzutzu flower shall know the perfect high.
For the rush comes on like a tidal wave...hits like the blazin' sun.
And the high? It lasts forever, and the down don't never come.

But, Zabolee Land is ruled by a giant, who stands twelve cubits high,
And with eyes of red in his hundred heads, he awaits the passer-by.
And you must slay the red-eyed giant, and swim the river of slime,
Where the mucous beasts await to feast on those who journey by.
And if you slay the giant and beasts, and swim the slimy sea,
There's a blood-drinking witch who sharpens her teeth as she guards the Tzutzu tree."

"Well, to hell with your witches and giants," says Roy, "To hell with the beasts of the sea--
Why, as long as the Tzutzu flower still blooms, hope still blooms for me."
And with tears of joy in his sun-blind eyes, he slips the guru a five,
And crawls back down the mountainside, pursuing the perfect high.

"Well, that is that," says Baba Fats, sitting back down on his stone,
Facing another thousand years of talking to God, alone.
"Yes, Lord, it's always the same...old men or bright-eyed youth...
It's always easier to sell 'em some shit than it is to tell them the truth."

If you need me call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far..

It's been pretty difficult to find time to write in here with all the work we've been doing this week. We got back late on Saturday night from our road trip and had a party with our friends that were already back on campus (their van broke down on the first day of our break sadly). Sunday and Monday were spent studying for our final and writing two papers that were due today. On Thursday our entire work journal is due (about that…) and today marks the OFFICIAL start of our directed research project, the "writing intensive" portion of our course. I'll get back to that later though.

Our program time at Leigh Marine Laboratory and Poor Knight's Marine Reserve was incredible! For the first 4 days we stayed in the new dormitories at the Marine Lab, which is owned by Auckland University. There are currently about 20 graduate and doctoral students working at the lab, but we weren't able to interact with them much because we were so busy. When we weren't snorkeling at the Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve (the reserve in Leigh, also called "Goat Island Marine Reserve"), we were working on our group projects about marine protection policy and listening to lectures by our guest speakers. We were able to learn from world famous marine ecologist and scuba diver, Dr. Rodger Grace, as well as hear a talk from one of the first scuba divers in the world, Wade Doak, who is almost single-handedly responsible for the formation of New Zealand's 2nd marine reserve at Poor Knight's Island. He was an incredible man with a captivating character and I'll never forget him. A new ecoquest staff member and also a world-class scuba diver, Susie Thompson, was able to assist us in our exploration of the reserves. She was a wonderful lady and a great baker, and she has invited anyone that needs a place to stay to board at her house in Queenstown after the program! Needless to say, I think Sam and I are going to take her up on that.

(Sunrise in Leigh, over looking Little Barrier Island)

Snorkeling at the Goat Island Marine Reserve was so much fun. It took me a while to get the hang of "equalizing" (it is the opposite sensation of your ears popping in an air plane or an elevator, because the pressure as you go deeper in the water gets higher), but once I did I was diving to depths of 20-25 feet without a program. It was so cool to get up close and personal with the fish and to weave through the kelp. We did a bit of work with identifying fish species and counting their abundance in different plots, but this information ended up being irrelevant because the day that we were going to do plot measurements in a non-reserve, the water was too rough so we couldn't do our comparisons. Either way, it was worth it, and I enjoyed learning about all the different fish species in those waters and the complex relationships between the living creatures.

(The salps in the water. All the underwater pictures are taken by Natasha)

Each morning that we were there I would go for a run. A group of us are on a pretty good routine with this, and it's always nice to be able to explore the different places that we go to. In Leigh, the only way to go from the marine lab was up, and the hills were absolutely brutal, with a 10-minute stretch of steep switchbacks leading up to the main road. On the last day I went out on a run by myself, determined to conquer that hill because all of the other days I would have to walk the steepest portion of it. I did it! I'm really glad that since I've been in New Zealand I've really started to enjoy running, and now that I have an iPod back in my life (Thank you Jeff!) they go by a lot faster. Today I did my longest run yet, about 7 miles.

On the 5th day we said goodbye to Leigh and headed off to Tutukaka, where we stayed overnight in a holiday park. The next morning we woke up bright and early and suited up for our next adventure: a boat ride our to Poor Knights Islands. It was about an hour off the coast (I believe the skipper said it was 14 nautical miles) and the weather held out for us. The waters were calm and there were no rain clouds in sight.

This trip was one of my favorite parts of being in New Zealand so far. I was amazed at the number of fish that we saw at Goat Island, but being at Poor Knights was absolutely unreal. Poor Knights is a small network of offshore islands formed by volcanic activity 10 million years ago. Over the course of millions of years, the islands eroded down to a hard base of volcanic rock, which resulted in an intricate series of caves, sheer cliffs, channels, and archways throughout the islands. This makes it an ideal location for fish and marine life because of the shelter that it provides. These dark areas also attract fish and other unique organisms that normally live in very deep, dark waters. It was crazy to think when we looked down in the water and saw absolute darkness 20-30 meters down that the cliffs simply dropped hundreds and hundreds of meters to the ocean floor.

We did 4 separate dives. The first was in a U-shaped cove that we learned was the crater of the ancient volcano that formed these islands. When we first jumped into the water (which was a stunning and clear dark blue) we were greeted by a blanket of salps, which were described to us as small colonizing jellyfish (harmless). They are very abundant here because of the nutrients from the subtropical currents coming from Australia, and they provide a good source of food for all the fish. It was definitely weird to feel them brushing against my lip though. And all the fish! My god. Although there weren't as many large snappers as there were at Goat Island, this reserve had so many large schools of smaller fish! The rock cliffs were covered in anemones, sponges, bryozoans, hydroids, and ascidians of every color imaginable. I even saw the prettiest shade of purple that I've never seen anywhere else in nature. As I dove down to closer examine the cliffs I noticed all the tiny eels and sea worms living in all the cracks and crevices of the rocks. When I came close they would peak their little heads out at me in curiosity, and the eels would even try to nip me!

(Kim, Anna, Janet, Kirstin, me, and Cara)

Our 2nd diving site was in Rikoriko cave, what I was told is the largest natural ocean cave in the entire world (I have yet to ask the internetz if this is actually true, but either way it is HUGE). It was so big that we were able to drive the boat deep inside of it. The acoustics in the cave are comparable to the opera house in England where the London Symphony Orchestra plays. The skipper had us all stand on deck and sing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and when we were done singing our voices continued to echo for 8 seconds afterwards. The skipper also had a conch shell which he skillfully played (a lot of us tried afterwards and it's a lot harder than it looks). Our dive in here was done in more of a follow-the-leader format, with 2 field leaders on each end with head lamps. We swam from the darkest part of the cave and eventually made it out and around the corner to where the boat was waiting for us. It was really cool and once our eyes adjusted to the darkness we were able to see a lot of fish that normally live hundreds of meters below the surface where there isn't a lot of light.

The 3rd dive was really exciting, and my favorite one by far. Susie lead us through a system of archways and tunnels through one of the smaller islands as the skipper waited on the other side. In here the surge and the movement of the water was much more apparent and the current helped us along most of the way. There were a couple of tight squeezes that made the clausterphobic a little wary. Near the end we even saw a huge eel hiding in the kelp. Susie said he was probably over 100 years old judging by his size. That's the type of eel you definitely don't want nipping you, haha. At the end of the passageway we had to take a slight leap into the ocean because the tide was getting lower and it was no longer possible to swim the path.

(Before we entered the arches and tunnels)

I almost wasn't going to do the 4th dive because I was getting cold (15 degree water and only 17 degree air got my quite chilled, even with a neoprene wetsuit), but as everyone was getting ready to jump in again I knocked some sense into myself and went for us. I thought, when am I ever going to be back here in this exact spot? Probably never. So I better appreciate every moment while I had it. This actually ended up being a fantastic dive and I reached the lowest depths of my entire trip. We saw a seal, sea horses, and even an eagle ray in addition to thousands of fish and jellyfish. I was probably in the water for an hour and a half before I looked up and realized that almost everyone else was back on the boat already, so I headed back with my partner, Cara. To end the trip we all took off our flippers, mask, and weight belts and jumped into the water from the top of the boat. What a thrill :)

That evening after snorkelling in Poor Knights our field leaders set us free with 3 vans for our long weekend. The 25 of us split into 3 groups based on all of the things we wanted to do and sea in Northland. I had an amazing time with Chris, Sam, Abby, Sara, Anna, Kim, and Amanda. We spent a night in a holiday park with one of the other vans (their van broke down in this town and we stayed with them, although we were originally planning on tenting on the beach of the cape) in a bunkroom of 16 beds to fit us all! We had quite a bit of fun. The next day our van set off for the ancient Kauri forest with a slight and accidental detour (okay 134 km to be exact) that might have been my fault, but we eventually got there. Some of the Kauri trees were over 1000 years old. The biggest one, Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest), is close to 2000 years old. Although the Kauri are not the tallest trees (Tane Mahuta is only 51.5 meters), their girth is incredibe, with his reaching 13.8 meters.

After nearly running out of gas because literally every gas station was closed (it was Guy Fawke's day here in NZ) we made it to the tiny village of Ahipara where we tented for the night in a holiday park. We wandered down through the neighborhood at night and admired all the fireworks and drooled over the barbeques we could smell (no dinner for us). Little Maori children were running around with sparklers and greeting us with "kia ora!", it was so cute. Coincidentally, the 3rd group of ecoquesters just happened to be staying at the same holiday park as us. How weird is that? Just goes to show you how small this country really is sometimes.

The next day we drove all the way to the tippity top of mainland New Zealand, Cape Reinga. This is where the famous gigantic sand dunes are located. Although I had heard of them, their size wasn't something I could really comprehend until I got there (I'm still having a hard time). The tallest point rose hundreds of feet above sea level. We climbed up them on the inland side (it was like climbing Mt. Doom all over again!) and expected for the dunes to just gradually dip off into the ocean. Instead we were greeted by what looked like a vast expanse of desert to the north and south that eventually led to the ocean in the west, at least 5 kilometers away. We played around for a few hours and ran around like crazy people. Running down the sand dunes felt like we were flying! It was exhilarating. On the drive back we stopped in Whangarei again and ate dinner at a delicious Turkish restaurant. The drive home was kind of brutal but luckily we got the one van with an automatic transmission so I was able to help Chris with some of the driving. It was a little weird at first driving on the left side with the steering on the right, but after a while it felt natural!

AHH well 2 hours later I'm finally done with this blog entry. I'll let you know all about my Directed Research Project in a few days as I continue to learn more. It'll be another few busy days filled with lots of writing. Cheers!