a melange of trips

first, one last bit from new zealand... i spent my last weekend of the trip with jen, grant, and sofia. the chinese new year lantern festival was on in auckland that weekend so jen and i snuck away for a night out. the lanterns came in all shapes and sizes. there were a few thousand too many people for my liking, but it was very cool nonetheless.

 traditional lanterns

 lighted display with maori lanterns in the background

the sky tower in red to celebrate chinese new year

i arrived home from new zealand on 24 february (nine hours before i left NZ - thanks international date line!) and immediately jumped back in to crazy! one conference started on wednesday...fortunately it was in monterey. i didn't feel like i had met my talk quota for the month so i added one more to the list for that conference. on friday i left at 3:30 in the morning for eugene, oregon, for an environmental law conference. fortunately we had lovely weather in oregon because just about everything else that could have gone wrong with our panel did go wrong. but we survived, did a lot of quick planning on the fly, and somehow managed to pull the whole thing off.

 my lovely coworkers ashley and erin - aka "the triplets"

after eugene i headed up to seattle for a night with tish, morgan and melina. melina has grown a lot since november when we saw her last and had all sorts of new tricks to show me. i think the next time we see them melina will have two doctors for parents - go morgan!

melina saying - 'melissa let me down! i have so many fun things to do!

after seattle i headed to port angeles, washington, for a week of field work with my new coworkers at the u.s. geological survey. the bonus of this trip - i got to see pete (you know, that guy i'm married to)! i was helping with the beach topography work - essentially creating a map of the beach so we can tell how much it has changed in the last year. it didn't take hours of walking and a fancy gps to tell us that things had changed...a lot! this will be my field site for the next two years...

 sad little barnacles and mussels being buried aive

 an epic amount of woody debris on the beach from the river

 new life pushing through the thick layer of new sediment

some very cool mushrooms

and finally - home! last weekend we were supposed to go to the symphony with pete's family but the performance was cancelled due to a musician strike. we had fun anyway and enjoyed a beautiful day at tilden botanical garden in the berkeley hills.

 dutchman's pipe

 skunk cabbage
(this was very exciting to me - i hadn't seen it since i lived in oregon!)

sibling fun

it is nice to be home...but it won't be for long. a month here and then i'm off again on other adventures!

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

first weeks in new zealand

i don't have my old passport with me so i cannot be sure, but judging from photos i think this is my fifteenth trip to new zealand. at this point i get off the plane and switch to nz mode...looking the correct way when crossing the street, walking on the left side of the sidewalk, using kiwi speak, etc. 
my first couple of weeks have been consumed by work. alas, i guess that is why i am here. but through travels for work, i've managed to see some friends and some sites, new and old. 
i'm living in hamilton in a sweet little house on the edge of town. i bike to and from work every day and am loving the long, warm days of the southern hemisphere summer.

 my house for the next month

last week i traveled to christchurch to give a talk at the university. while there i got to catch up with good friends and watch some acts at the international buskers festival. i extended the tour and flew to dunedin to give a talk at the university of otago, catch up with a friend, and meet new people. 

 one of the high-flying acts at the international buskers festival in christchurch

i've also been able to spend time with my good friends jen and grant in auckland and my favorite kiwi babe, sofia.

 a lovely day at a local winery

miss sofia

more adventures to come...

ringing in the new year in baja sur, mexico

since we had already obliterated our carbon footprints for the year (and for our lives, most likely), pete and i decided to finish the year off with a trip to baja sur, mexico, with friends from our marine lab days in santa cruz. we were greeted at the cabo airport by christian and lindsay who took us to the beautiful family property where we would spend most of our time. the days were arduous - playing games, reading, swimming, whale watching, snorkeling, walking on the beach... :) the beach was our front yard and the desert was our backyard - what a way to spend a week! here are a few photos from our adventure. 

 our "neighborhood"

 nate and pete ensconced in a game of backgammon

 a lovely woodpecker popping out to say hello!

 our backyard...

 beach crab art

 our best sunset

interesting geology 

 a chilly sunset - pete, melissa, nate, jess,
hilary, elika, christian, and lindsay

thirty six hours after we returned from paradise, i got in a car bound for santa barbara for a four day workshop. i returned late thursday and am getting on a plane tomorrow bound for new zealand for six weeks. i'm happy pete and i had seven days of quality time in mexico...