the sunniest place in new zealand

nelson lived up to its claim to fame last weekend, unlike last year when i was in a race against time to get out of town before the airport closed due to torrential downpours. as an added bonus, i got to spend the sunny weekend with my dear friends stacie and robyn. 

stacie and i drove up to nelson from christchurch on friday via the inland route, which i had never driven before. on saturday we had fabulous weather for our kayak tour of abel tasman national park. the scenery and the company were lovely. we saw baby seals, heard choruses of bell birds, and withstood an attack of a cheeky north island robin. 

it was low tide when we launched the kayaks so we were helped across the long expanse of intertidal estuary by the kayak tractor - crazy!

our lunch spot

post lunch swim

 geared up for our beach launch

beware the cheeky robin at this spot!

 heading back to the beach

stacie and i made it back to nelson in time to pick up robyn (and some fresh crayfish, aka lobster) from the airport. crayfish = delicious! we went for a mountain bike ride on some of the trails above nelson on sunday. stacie and robyn are much better technical riders than i am so i was so happy to make it back down the hill in one piece! 

 tui (the dog), robyn, and stacie getting ready to head down

robyn, stacie, and i at the bottom!

since i last posted, i also took a trip down to wellington for the second workshop we hosted (the main reason i am in NZ). we were busy most of the time, but i did manage to get in a sight seeing run one morning that included the botanic gardens (yes, i love botanic gardens) and the beehive (NZ's parliament building).

 overlooking wellington at sunrise from the observatory

 rose garden & conservatory

the beehive

six weeks has evaporated at an alarming rate. i have two more talks to give this week (already gave one on monday) and then start the long journey home on sunday. for all of you interested in the space-time continuum, try this on for thought. i leave auckland at 19:30 sunday, 24 february and arrive in san francisco at 10:30 sunday, 24 february. pretty cool, eh? 

weekend adventures!

i was able to manage a bit of time away from work this weekend to explore a couple of places near-ish to hamilton. the first place i visited is called maungatautari. this is a department of conservation area that has been eradicated of pests and sealed off to the outside world by a predator-proof fence. who are these fierce predators? cats, rats, stoats, ferrets, possums. these guys are expert killers of native birds and enjoy nothing more than a scrumptious bird egg. predators are a big deal in NZ because none of these birds evolved with predators. many of them do not fly, and they lay their eggs on the ground...why build a nest in a tree if there weren't any critters around to steal your eggs or hurt your babies? these predator-free areas give the native birds a fighting chance, and provide a rare opportunity for the likes of me to glimpse some of these beauties. predator-free areas are often located on islands because the predator-proof fence is the ocean. maungatautari is a rare land reserve and has been a great success! the other bonus of the place is that it is filled with native plants and trees...quite a difference from the pastures and introduced species in town. i definitely saw - north island robin, north island kaka, tui, stitchbird, tomtit, takahe, bellbird, and fantail. there were many others based on the sounds in the forest, but the foliage was really dense so it was hard to find the birds sometimes.

double entry door to get inside the predator-proof fence

length of predator-proof fence

 lovely fiddlehead of a tree fern

 my friend, the walking stick

 love, love, love the tree ferns!

 north island robin

 stairs up the lookout tower

 takahe!! this is the only bird in the enclosure so i felt quite
lucky to catch a glimpse of this funny, flightless bird.

 north island kaka - definitely a cheeky parrot! i have some video that demonstrates the range of their calls - i will try to post it soon.

adventure #2 was with my host from NIWA and a scientist from connecticut (who was quite happy to be in sunny, warm NZ instead of buried under three feet of snow!). we toured down to the volcanoes near taupo. we did a really neat hike around mount ruapehu (aka mount doom to you LOTR fans). we had a spectacular day with views all the way to mount taranaki on the west coast.   

 lovely alpine flowers

 more alpine plants with ruapehu in the background

 our hiking track with mount ngauruhoe in the background

 mount ruapehu (aka mount doom)

 taranaki falls

lots of very cool landscape patterns caused by slips due
to the unstable volcanic soil, shallow rooted plants, and
rumbling from the very much active volcano