Matt and Heidi

Thailand Continued (Part 2)... After all the pool, beach, and diving time, we headed north to Chiang Mai to enjoy some 'real' Thai culture and see the jungles. On our way north we picked up our good friend Shaun who we know from Sydney (he's now living and working in Hong Kong) and the three of us landed at the Chiang Mai Airport, where we were met by our Cornell friend, Josh Plotnik. Josh has been living in Northern Thailand for about a year and a half studying cooperative behaviour in Asian elephants for his PhD thesis. He was excited to show us around his new city and with fluent Thai he organized the trip of a lifetime that no normal tourist would ever get to experience. While in Chiang Mai, we made the drive up ... read more

Happy Easter! As always, we're a little behind on our blogging, but better late than never... Since Easter is a 4 day weekend here in Australia, we decided to take advantage of the free vacation time and head up to the Far North Queensland and finally see the tropics. We flew into Townsville on a Friday morning and over 4 days made our way up the coast, stopping along the way at Magnetic Island, Mission Beach, Cairns, Newell Beach, and the Daintree Rainforest. It was a spectacular trip, and we only wish we had more than 4 days to see it all! We landed first thing in the morning in Townsville, and headed straight to the coast to catch a ferry out to Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island is quaint little island just off the coast, which ... read more

It is considered one of the top scenic drives in the world and we had heard it compared to the Pacific Highway along the coast of California before we embarked. With all the hype we had high expectations to say the least, but it lived up to them and more as we drove along the southern coast of Australia from Melbourne heading towards Adelaide. We headed out in our mini-van and had a leisurely breakfast on the coast in Torquay and an afternoon swim in Lorne. Keep in mind that as we started this journey the media was calling the weather the "heat wave of the decade" in Victoria/South Australia and we were travelling in 40+ degrees Celcius (that's 105+ F)! This made for frequent stops to go swimming in the ocean and lots of air ... read more

After 90-95 degree in the Whitsundays, we were in for a surprise when we landed in Tasmania. Wearing shorts, tanks, and flip-flops, we were met in Launceston by 60 degree temperatures! Launceston is in Northern Tasmania, about 3 hours north of Hobart (the biggest city). We arrived late to Tasmania, and after 5 nights on a boat, we were all excited to have a good night sleep in a stationary bed. Getting up bright and early the next morning, we set out on our drive west out to Cradle Mountain National Park. From what we saw, Tasmania is mostly countryside. We didn't make it down the eastern coast or to Hobart, but the north and west of Tasmania is full of beautiful expansive landscapes. From Launceston we drove west and stopped first in Sheffield. Sheffield is ... read more

Matt here, just to give you a quick peak into the life of an entomologist in Australia. Normally, these blogs are reserved for vacation and activities Heidi and I do in our free time, but I wanted you guys to see what I am getting paid to do as well. Just before christmas, I headed southwest to Australia's most popular ski area, the Snowy Mountains. This isn't Colorado, but the tallest mountains reach 2,228 meters. We were hired by a company that runs a hydro-electric scheme in the series of catchments contained within the mountain range. To help bolster winter snow pack (which translates to more electricity come summer time), a technique is being trialed whereby they release atomized particles of Silver iodide into the atmosphere which stimulate clouds to snow during Winter. This cloud seeding ... read more