Blogs from Orewa, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

13th September 2008 At sunrise I was awoken with the screeching of a Pukeko (see photos) outside the van. These birds are like Moorhens on steroids, we love them, full of character and a brilliant royal blue colour. I dressed, put the kettle on and held my breath at the loos. When I returned Pili was up and we decided to have a little walk around. The grounds of the park were amazing, covered in a light mist with all the plants glistening with morning dew. We heard and saw our first Tui (see photos) from the family of Honeyeaters; unfortunately most of the family are now extinct. This amazing bird has an other worldly song, very hard to describe except it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard in the Northern Hemisphere. I’ll try to upload a ... read more

Why hello yet again peeps. Yes its yet another lovely day gone here in Waiwera. The sun was shining, however the wind was chilly. We are currently organising an extention to our visa's, finding out the costs for the medical checks, the visa application and the likes. This comes out of our own pockets and isnt too cheap. But its very much possible. We have set our minds on staying longer, much longer. We no doubt miss you all, but in all honesty this is our own personal time to live life. You know do those things few only dream of, do it instead of talk about it. Hopefully you know what I mean by that. I know a lot of people sit there and think, dont they want a career? Dont they want to make ... read more

the last day of our tour dawned sunny and bright, so we sat beside the sea and remembered how lovely the coast is up here. then off to the honey shop for coffee, and on to see the Kauri trees at Warkworth. Finally, a sit by the river in Warkworth, before dealing with State Highway 1 for a couple of hours and getting HOME! What a relief, safe and sound and welcomed! ... read more

Hello peeps, how is everyone? Well I am currently sitting in the Water Quality room here at Waiwera. I have hijacked the computer from Ross who is trying to work. heh heh heh Anyway might as well make the most of it. Life here is rather interesting. We seem to have settled into the Kiwi way of life. Not stressing if we can help it. Things at work are going through a bit of a change. Similar to the Gems thing, however being in my position I fall in that catagory of the positive rhelm as opposed to the not so positive experienced at Gems. I am safe. So safe everyone upstairs wants both Ross and myself to get the paperwork ready so they can sponsor us. Yes, they want to pay for us to stay ... read more

no time for breakfast this morning! I left the dorm this morning at 8am to get downtown to the bus stop for our field trip by 8:45 while stopping along the way to pick up the makings for lunch (energy drink, water, rations, mango chicken sandwich). rode the bus with several other sleepy students (about 50 or so) to Wenderholm Forest north of Orewa. We started the day off with a 40 minute hike up some serious cliff tops to count species of tree and the density of Nikau trees in an 8m by 8m square. We then took a break for lunch. I fed the ducks that came wandering around, made a few friends, then started the rest of the day. We climbed over rocks to count thousands of Periwinkle snails on the shores. Once ... read more