Land of the Kiwi

As a list-lover, and a lazy girl still on a holiday, I'm gonna take you on our journey in a form of various lists and some pictures (taken by Kimmo!). Here we go..

List 1. NZ IN NUM63R5:
-2 people
-2 islands: North and South
-2 rental cars: Brand new Toyota and dead old Nissan Sunny
-2 CD's for 3 weeks: 80's classics & 80's classics
-12 nights in a tent, some of them on a camping site, some just under a cosy tree, or on a nice old couples' yard with their million sheep
-5500km :I drove about 500 of them, ONLY because I am such an awesome planner and map-reader/ Lonely Planet-reader, nothing to do with the fact that I truly succeeded driving on the left, no.. the right..wait..was it the left..side of the road in the winding narrow mountain roads)
-50 GB of photos taken. Check Kimmo's facebook (Kimmo Savolainen Photography) and website for more pics later.

List 2. ADRENALIN:
-Skydive above Abel Tasman National Park. This was maybe the coolest thing I have ever done. The weirdest thing was not panicking,not being terrified for life, not peeing in my jumpsuit, not even closing my eyes as we jumped, but actually loving every second of it, I actually laughed out loud most of the time.
-Caving in the Waitomo glowworm caves. Pushing through narrow crevices, crawling through dark tunnels, swimming in a cave river in total darkness.
-Snorkeling with a Stingray at Goat Island Marine Reserve.-Walking through Christchurch demolition zone, through silent streets, collapsed blocks, disappeared buildings. Looking in from the windows of some buildings it was like time had stopped..you could almost see the waitress dropping the plates that lay still on the floor of the restaurant, hear the granny saying "oh mi lord!" as she storms (can a granny storm?) out forgetting her hat on the table. ..piles of shirts dropped from the shelves of the retail store, half finished burgers on Hungry Jack's tables, spilled coke on the floor.. little creepy, very sad and extremely humbling.
-Hiking to Mt Doom (Mount Ngauruhoe) in Mordor (Tongariro National Park) in a windy rainy day. -The power of Thundering Huka Fallsand the strenght of the winds that had sculped the forests of the southern cost of the southern island
List 3. CHILL & BLISS
-Kayaking at Kaiteriteri beaches at Abel Tasman with dolphins, seals and beautiful views
-Floating in the cave rivers in the Glowworm lit caves was like floating under the starry sky, just the sound of water dropping from the cave roof and the occational echo hitting the walls
-The scenic,scenic,scenic, and scenic views of Snowpeaked mountains, fjords of Milford Sound,white sandy beaches, tropical bays, soothing waterfalls, rainforests, volcanic and thermal springs, the sun setting behind the mountains, what has claimed to be worlds clearest freshwater spring -the Pupu springs-The beaches from Narnia movies
-The grandness of Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers-Sipping some of the worlds best wines at some of the world's best wineries at some of the worlds most awesome locations
List 4. MISS ATTENBOROUGH-MOMENTS:
-Observing the worlds rearest penguins, the Yellow-eyed penguins coming back from a day of feeding at the sea returning to their calling partner and hungry hatchlings-Trying to defend the car from worlds only mountain parrots, Keas. (Our hitchikers from Israel also in pic.) These teenagers of the parrot family are also thought to be one of the wisest birds alive, beats me..
-Weka, a flightless native bird, this very dinosaur-like aviator, circling our tent trying to find something to eat.
-Observing huge (smelly) colonies of NZ Fur Seals for hours, seeing the mothers defend their young, the bulls defending their females, the tiny pups learning how to play in little pools of water.-Huge Sealions lazying on the beach not moving an inch, sleeping like grandpas.-Fossilized trees from a Jurassic forest -The funny song of Tuis above our tentsites.-The giant Kauri trees (over 14 m in circumference)

All in all it was an awesome adventure.. :)

End of semester-fun

Finally the semester is over! Even though I find it amazing how quick the time rolled by, a whole semester gone, wow. Glad and sad.

It was a good semester, but amazingly hard work, a lot more work than a semester back at Helsinki Uni, even though I was doing mostly undergrad units. Well, I learned a lot, quess that's the point of studying..besides having the time of your life, right? The thing that surprised me the most was the fact that I actually learned to use stats (every biologists nightmare) and ended up tutoring other students using SPSS (the System Perfectly Suitable for Suicide). The courses also included A LOT of writing and I ended up writing about twenty papers all in all, so improved heaps in my scientific writing skills. These two things i didn't expect to be learning, but hey, not complaining.

So yesterday was the first day of the summer holiday that we spent in a traditional Aussie way..on the beach! Went to Manly to do some snorkeling at Shelly Beach and then Surfing at Manly Beach, my god that was fun. My first surfing ever, as you might quess from the evidence below :)

Surfing Unni-style


The surf-guru Vessa(as they call Vesa here)was so proud of his new student..
WOOOHOOOO



Well, next week I'm working at the library earning some dollars for the holidays. Then we'll be heading to Growdy Head beaches via Hunter Valley vineyards for a long weekend. Then it's three weeks in New Zealand, can't wait!

Warm summer breezy hugs to one and all!

p.s. for those that I haven't told yet..I have changed the date of my return flight, now arriving in Finland 2.3.2012. Mark this to your calenders, as we are going to have one big hugging party!

Work hard, enjoy harder

Time goes so fast..

The last couple of weeks have been so busy I can't remember if I remembered to eat or sleep, spent an average of 10 hours at the library/day. I've been studying pretty hard, handing out multiple papers every week and also working at the library labeling/shelving/soting out books. It's very hard to believe it's mid October already.

But it has not all been just hard work and no play..

Went to Port Stephens for a weekend to chill

The sand dunes in port stephens were quite something else, did we come to Kalahari? There were even some camels strolling on the beach..



I spent one of the best weeks ever at Jervis Bay helping out MMR (Marine Mammal Researc)studying Humpback whales..how maginificient creatures they are! I consider myself extremely lucky being able to take part in this sort of research and call it work.. How many times do you break up into a frenzy of clapping or hoist your hands up in the air screaming of joy during an average day in the office? :D I had a blast! Most probably going back for a long weekend in November hoping to get out in the water to join the whales with Kayaks since we didn't have time this trip. Might also be going back in January to do some work with dolphins.

Going to field in the morning
A whale at 11 o'clock! :)

We were photographing fluking Humpbacks for identification: the fluke of a Humpback is like a fingerprint, no two are the same
Identification was also done by comparing individual markings on the back and the shape of the dorsal fin; here a baby spy-hopping next to mommy


There is hardly anything cuter than a breaching baby Humpback!
Baby humpbacks "little" rostrum popping out from the water just a meter from our boat

Saw lots of common dolphins and Bottlenose dolphins daily as well.

Some pods had up to 400 dolphins on them, quite a site Bow riding in front of our boat

Fur seal colony

Hilarious fighting roos on the front garden of our cottage

Photos: Kimmo Savolainen