“Conservation in New Zealand is all about killing animals” stated our wildlife guide on the trip to the Otago peninsula, a short drive from Dunedin city. Bizarrely, it seems, the conservation focus of New Zealand is mainly that of killing and eradication of numerous animals and plants, our guide explained. To all instincts this seems wrong, and you start wondering if the Kiwis have actually got a different dictionary definition of the word 'conservation' to the rest of the world. When walking in the National parks you are unlikely to see cute rabbits, instead the paths are lined wi [View Full Entry]

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Birds eye view Anna Caswell[url='/Videos/3090.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3090.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Falling I spent Friday walking around like I had just fallen in love. There was a slightly idiotic grin on my face, and I smiled wildly at anyone that vaguely looked in my direction. I was walking on air, on a "high", and endorphins were rushing thorugh the system. Why? Because I'd thrown myself out of a plane that morning, and flown like a bird. Something I've always considered doing, and n [View Full Entry]

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Walking in Abel Tasman Anna Caswell[url='/Videos/2968.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2968.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] View of Awaroa beach[url='/Videos/2969.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2969.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Seal Delayed entry... After a really enjoyable tramp along part of the Queen Charlotte I decided to spend 3 days walking along the Abel Tasman track. The smallest, and oldest National Park in New Zealand, and named after the first European to see NZ. He sai [View Full Entry]

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South Island start Anna Caswell[url='/Videos/2949.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2949.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Malborough Sound Photos have arrived! I finally arrived in the South Island on Tuesday afternoon, on the huge ferry that chugs its way across from Wellington to Picton. I attempted to sit out on the deck, and reminisce of another ferry crossing in Costa Rica. However the thick grey cloud and grey sea, cold wind and smell of diesel fumes made things too different to compare. In recompense [View Full Entry]

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Hamilton highlights Anna Caswell I have been very slack at writing the blogs recently, and I do appologise to the few of you that are still keen to read what I am doing. My excuse? Well it is that I am working so hard that I don't have spare time to write witty and amusing things for you. In actual fact the truth is I do have time, I just don't have the energy or the imagination! I arrived in Hamilton in the beginning of February, to work in a mixed vet practice. There are 3 other vets (all male), [View Full Entry]

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Bach on the beach Anna Caswell[url='/Videos/2593.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2593.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Crazy Although summer is officially over here, the weather is still pretty mild, so the idea of a weekend retreat to the beach (never achieved during summer) was met with a great deal of enthusiasm. The excuse? Pip's leaving get together, before she flies off to Bejing for the year. The group? Well of the 10 of us there were many familiar faces from the Whanganui trip. We were also graced wi [View Full Entry]

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I don’t know if it was because we were in Lord of the Rings country and a fellowship seemed appropriate, or whether it is just a remnant of vet university that requires a large group for an outing, but there were 10 of us that eventually set off. A complicated ‘friend of a friend of a friend…’ type of arrangement connected us all together. Our destination - the Whanganui River. One of New Zealand’s so called nine ‘Great Walks’ - ironically the only one you can do sitting down, as a 3 day canoeing trip. The aim of the trip was [View Full Entry]

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I have to admit I was slightly dreading it for quite a while. Leaving Latin America that has been my home for the past 9 months and flying to New Zealand, an English-speaking civilisation. How will I survive? Well I have been in New Zealand a week now and I still feel very out of place and more than a little lost. The differences here compared to Latin America are apparent immediately. For a start I am now no longer the tallest female in a room, and I’m certainly not the palest either. And then when the noise becomes voices I [View Full Entry]

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Apparently it’s not possible, but somehow last week I managed it. It started off as a Thursday, not the most exciting day of the week, but far from the worst. I awoke at 7.30 after a maximum of 4 hours sleep (I find long journeys and sad farewells slightly less unbearable if I am too exhausted to think), had breakfast, checked my bags one last time and started the journey. Everything was easy to start with, the taxi to the door, check in, through passport control, onto the plane. Sitting by the window I was barely aware of the magnitude of [View Full Entry]

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Reminising about the past, a little late but my Mexico city update for Mama! Mexico is a city of many layers. Something I had never realised is that the city is built on a lake by the Aztecs. Why build a city on a lake? Well you could consider the advantage of drainage, the ease of transport by boat, great irrigation of fields, no requirement to build a moat… or you could listen to the prophets and build a city in the first place you see an eagle, eating a snake, whilst sitting on a cactus. Seems to have worked pretty [View Full Entry]

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