Just another day at the office!

Another afternoon where I was diligently working on my proposal ended when I heard there was a pod of Dolphins down at the beach. They were very close and this time I had a bit better vantage point from which to shoot some pictures. They appeared to be playing, possibly with one particularly scarred looking looking eagle ray that was taking cover against the rocks where I was standing.

These southern bottlenosed dolphins were playing in a small cave between two rock outcrops during the high tide. This made for some stupendous sights of tail hopping and splashing as they appeared to be chasing fish, rays, and even playing with seaweed.

 As the sun became shrouded behind the clouds they eventually moved out of the little embayment and into the open channel between the mainland and Goat Island. A few individual began to show off a bit with some aerial acrobatics and tail slapping.

 A nice relaxing end to the day, especially after hitting some road blocks in my writing. The sun did return toward the end of the show these dolphins were putting on for their own amusement. Although bright, the distance was hazed with the moisture of the low rain clouds that hung over the coastline.

 So, just another day at the office. I will leave you with one last shot of this aerial showoff who (if you look closely) still hung on to his algal toy on his pectoral fin.

Diving New Zealand: Take Two

Yesterday I ventured out for a second dive. After getting an invitation to join a few others from the lab, I hurried myself to Warkworth to rent some air, and gathered all my new gear that would make this dive that much better than the last. An extra 3 kg of lead for my belt and a new pair of 5 fingered gloves. After gearing up, putting the tank and BCD on, we ventured through the parking lot and into the shrubs. With my head down, watching the moving shrubs in front of me, I trotted onward, uncertain of where these Kiwis were leading me. This eventually broke into a hill, about 30 degrees, which we marched down and over the small section of fencing that had fallen over. Now, by this point I believed I would be at the shore...I was not. The next obstacle was a rocky stairs, probably 6 meters of these reasonably nice stairs, leading down to the rocky shore. Easy enough going down, but your probably guessing what would eventually be my problem. Anyway, we had made it! Arie, Paul, Anna, and I ceremonially spit in our masks and jumped in. I also have to say that thanks to Errol, my spring straps were modified to fit my flippers, and they worked like a charm! So back into the New Zealand blue I went, among the dancing kelp, keeping with the swells and trying to take a few pictures in the process. It was a different dive from the first, as everyone had their own camera! Two of them I believe were toting Cannon G12 (or some version of that family of camera) such as I have, but with housings of course. My Intova was decent, but desperately needed a strobe. I either need to invest in a strobe or a housing for my G12. Anyway, the slower pace was nice, and although I did not cover as much ground, I saw plenty. Being an invertebrate fanatic, I spent much of my time routing around between the kelp stipes, looking for critters. At first I saw mainly these beautiful little anemones, bright blue tunicates and intriguing sponges, very colourful against the purple rock.

And as I wandered along the rock wall, I noticed that the floor of this crevice, where the water was swaying through, was blanketed by these seemingly delicate little anemones, probably only an inch wide. This of course in all its awe, starts the mind thinking. Why in this one spot would they appear in such numbers? Is it the flow of water providing food? The hard bottom for which they can attach themselves? The amount of shade the crevice supplies to shield them from the harsh rays of the sun? Once again, I am reminded of the reasons why I love this occupation so much. There are always questions.

I continued onward and notice even more intriguing organisms. More brightly coloured sponges, wandering anemones that instead of gluing themselves down, will "walk" from place to place, urchins moving to and from their hiding spots, and of course there are plenty of small "blenny" like demersal fish darting around. These small fish almost seem to like be photographed, but unfortunately my camera had a hard time focusing.

I also saw my first lobster. I apologize for the quality of the next few photos as it was either dark, or it was moving too much, or too far away so I got a lot of backscatter from my flash that ruined the picture. The lobster anyway, was underneath a large boulder with his antennae sticking out slightly. It was not interested in having its picture taken, but I took one anyway.

Being from the Bay of Fundy where visibility is some time barely 2 meters when we dive, combined with the greater tendency to find benthic fish rather than pelagic, I tend to keep my head down and wander the bottom. Fortunately I decided to put my head up, for there were tons of fish everywhere. Small fish beginning to come out as it approached dusk, and the ever present snapper (who I had for dinner that night!). There were a few very large snapper that hardly seemed to fear us.

After so many futile attempts to take pictures of fish, I decided just to watch them. Once Arie returned from what I found out later was a chasing of an eagle ray, we surfaced and swam back to the beach. It was a great dive and nothing could put a damper on the day, not even the cliff that I suddenly had to scale...or the hill...or the shrubs...After sitting behind a desk for almost 3 months (longer if you count the call center!), lets just say I was embarrassingly out of shape, and quite winded. I caught my breath after 2 minutes back at the lab, and cleared my gear, ate my snapper, and then promptly went to bed. A great second dive, and wouldn't have traded it for the world...even with the cliff!

Auckland

Over the last two months I have taken a few journeys down the coast to the big city. Unfortunately, these are often for what seems like trivial things, such as my 20 minute animal care course, to get my ID for the university, or to go to an open house for a place that turned out to be not so hospitable. That aside, I do look forward to my trips in. Auckland is the largest city for quite some distance, if you do not count the smaller cities around Auckland. It has some similarities to Saint John, specifically the mix of new and and very old buildings. It is always a pleasant sight to see the old stonework and the beautiful architecture. Also like many of the buildings in Saint John, the ground floor of these buildings are often the home of retail stores, which makes up much of Queen Street shopping.

It is definitely a gorgeous city, especially the CBD (central business district) where there is the amazing mix of old to new architecture. Unlike Saint John and Canada in general, the pedestrian rarely has the right of way, and you really must find a cross walk with lights. J-walking might actually get you killed, even in the small towns, because the drivers just are not expecting you, and they almost always have the right of way. The exception, though you have already guessed, is the walking lights. This is where it seems to change drastically from what I am used to. Pedestrian lights are as frequent and as long (if not longer) than the automobile signals. When a four way intersection goes to pedestrian lights, you will see hordes of people crossing every direction, including diagonally. Then again, it isn't so surprising when you see the volume of people walking.

There are a number of older buildings like the one pictured above, which really makes you wonder why we stopped making such beautiful pieces of art. Some buildings being built now just don't have character like that. I also enjoy the look of the beautiful theatre pictured below.

This one above is also positively spectacular. So much character in the stonework. My favorite though is still the large building down by the harbour which I have shown before (I believe). The combination of colours with the red brick and the tan stone just make this old building shine well into this new millennium!

And of course there is the spectacular stone building that houses the transportation terminal for (I believe) the Auckland CBD. Sadly, this shot does not do it justice, as I had limited time to get to a decent spot to shoot it all.

That being said, there are some newer buildings too, like the sky tower which is an easy landmark for me to orient myself too. The streets are a bit confusing, a few that don't look like streets, and those few cars that are there are moving fast, but I can always rely on that sky tower directing me to my usual parking garage!

I also have to show you this next picture of one of the local banks. I have never seen anything quite like this. There are distinct panels on the class that are picking up the light from a projector on the wall, creating a moving picture that is fragmented into the panels, but appear more like they are a stain glass piece of art that changes periodically. Very extravagant, but also very cool.

My next landmark that helps me orient in Albert Park, a beautiful slice of green in this tall section of Auckland. Aside from some spectacular old trees that have been given pretty much free reign of the hillside, there are a number of statues, artwork, and even a beautiful ban-stand in what appears to be oriental architecture. What makes this park so important is that it helps me orient to the university which is just on the other side of it, when coming from the car park, and then with the aid of both the sky tower and park, I find my way back. It is always a welcome part of my journeys to Auckland.

I still find it interesting that I run across such temperate style trees and then palm trees in the same spot. But then again, we have interesting parks like this at home, and if it were not for my familiarity with our local fauna, would I find it more interesting? Do the Kiwis feel about Albert park like we do about Rockwood or Irving Nature park?

Catching Up...Again

Hello all. I thought I would take the opportunity to catch up on a few miscellaneous things I have done over the last two weeks. First of all I have finally nailed down my project, and I will be working on restoring mussel bed habitat and looking at factors affecting recruitment into these new beds. In a nut shell, what aspects of the bed promote juvenile mussels to join the party. I will elaborate more on this as I go. I found another place to visit, but due to the late time of day I arrived, a few landscape shots were all I got. It is off of Snells beach, near Kawau Island where I will likely be doing some of my work. Here a few shots of the landscape that definitely encourage me to return and explore. I also past a deer farm, and had to stop myself from staring so I did not get into an accident!

I also went for my first New Zealand dive. After a frustrating 20 minutes fussing with a ridiculous set of straps, Richard and I were in the water and off. I wish he had told me before we set off, just how much swimming he intended. I managed however, and we did get to see a few interesting thing, including a large number of fish, sponges, kelp, and a few invertebrates. Please excuse the quality of these pictures, there current in the area was a bit strong and I didn't fuss too much with checking the pictures as I tried to keep up with my dive buddy who was hoping to find some Lobsters.

There were tons of these little fish everywhere, although I have not had a chance to ID them. Some, such as this little guy, were quite cryptic. This made it difficult to get a great shot, but at least he sat still long enough to try!

This was the only nudibranch I saw, but what amazing colour. The picture again was not great but I had to get some sort of record of him.

Most of the bottom was either bedrock escarpments or sandy bottom in Mathesons Bay. Rocky areas were dominated by encrusting and coralline algae like the pictures before as well as this large kelp species, creating a forest that we had to swim through frequently.

Before I found out I was carrying insufficient lead, Richard fed a few of the fish, including this trigger fish who asserted itself around the food, while other fish just watched for hopeful scraps.

The weather here is amazing, sunny one minute, rain the next. The only consistency seems to be weather the weather is strong or mild. The strong days so far have been filled with rain, so it has been hard to really give you a glimpse of what it is like in a strong wind. Last week however, we did have some strong winds that eventually blew the rain away, leaving the landscape soaked with wisps of moisture floating off of every surface and the ocean churned and spraying. I'll leave you with one of the shots I took of that day!