First Week So Far...

Well it has been a long journey, 33 hours in airplanes and airports and I seem to have lost a day somewhere along the way. I arrived groggily at the airport in Auckland at the wee hours of the morn, to be greeted by my supervisor, Dr. Andrew Jeffs. I spent my first day trying to stay awake while hiking with Andrew's wonderful family to the top of dormant volcano on the island of Rangitoto in Auckland. This volcanic island had wonderful views of the isles and eroded summits of ancient volcanoes as well as the city nestled among them.

This was followed up by a trip down the mountain back to the shore, but along the way we stopped to go "tramping" through some old lava tubes. Spelunking is not one of my hobbies and as interesting as it was I don't think it will be high on my list of things to take up.

After an interesting supper of Lasagna I finally crashed at 9 pm. The next day we went for a lovely tour of campus in Auckland, took care of the remaining paperwork and then headed off for Leigh. It was a nice trip up the coast, lots of rolling hills with sheep and dairy cattle. I arrived at the Marine Institute and was given a wonderful tour. It is a bit smaller than the Huntsman center, but very reminiscent. I then settled in to a bunk room and went about the arduous task of trying to remember the names of everyone I was meeting. Everyone has been so helpful though and over the course of the weekend I was already set up to purchase a car off a Canadian student who is finishing up. I also got the opportunity to see a bit of the coastline close up. The biggest thing here is the large number of birds. I was first greeted and continued to be greeted by a group of loud seagulls that always congregate at the beach nearby. High in the trees on the cliff, overhanging the beach are a group of cormorant species which I have yet to identify (still no field guide, what I wouldn't give for a Petersons).

In my travels through the intertidal (more of that to come later) I have found two creatures that really peaked my interest. The first is a wading bird that always seems to be where I want to go. They often start squawking at me in protest but never seem to get far.

The second curious creatures were the octopuses. I have now seen two individuals in the intertidal, waiting in shallow pools with not much more than their eyes sticking out of their burrows. Hopefully I will get brave enough to get the underwater camera into the pools later.

Since arriving though, I have been hard at the grindstone, reading up as much as I can about the local species and the work that has been done on them in order to come up with a project. I miss you all back in Canada and that is the hardest part about being here. It has been a great start to a 3 year adventure and I look forward to sending you more frequent updates. I leave you with a wonderful look on the marine reserve as the sun sets.

-Mark