Since it's been two months or so, I figured it was time to update this blog again. Since we finished watching whales in North Stradbroke, I realized that plan A (which was me staying in Tassie and guiding for another season) would not be possible because of assorted visa issues. Naturally, the next best option was to fly to New Zealand and look into doing a Masters degree there. So, Mike and I flew to Christchurch and started a mini road trip that involved seeing the sights and climbing in between rushing back to Dunedin to meet with professors. Mike met up with a guy doing behavioral work on mosquito fish, and I with someone doing phylogeography (read genetics) of southern ocean kelps and seaweeds. We also got to spend 2 days at Castlehill, which was just a pathetic amount of time really. AMAZING place though and I'm super excited to be living just a few hours away!! Enough boulders there to keep several people busy for a lifetime, and you probably would never run into anyone else. Truly a magical place to be.
After that, we flew to Nadi, Fiji to do yet more whale stuff. This was very different to the work on Stradbroke, principally because there were very few whales. Mostly we sat on top of a mountain and stared at the ocean. (but we got free t-shirts!) Everyone there was just awesome though, so I made a whole bunch of Fijian friends and got my butt kicked almost daily in volley ball by the local village kids.
Now, we're back in Queensland, waiting patiently for Fed-ex to come and deliver my academic transcripts. Then I will officially apply to the Masters program at Otago University. :) very exciting stuff. Then tonight it's off to Frog to get our butts kicked by some crack lines. Then to Sydney and catching the boat on the 2nd. Back in Tassie on the 3rd!!
Hopefully I'll be able to update this a bit more frequently in the near future (maybe even with photos)! Stay tuned.
PS anyone have any cash-in-hand jobs for me??
