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Published: September 21st 2017
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So many great things happened here in Dunedin!
On Tuesday I met the professor Elisabth Slooten. She is a researcher and professor at The Otago University. I came in contact with her due to Dr. Pierre Gallego, a marine biologist in Luxembourg.
Liz arranged me a volunteer post at the univerity. I can attend her classes and help in the field work wherever someone is needed.
The first day she introduced me to some students and some other professors. We filled out the contract to be a volunteer and went to a little cosy cafe to drink some tea.
We looked for some field work for me and found one thanks to other professors. Robert Lewis, a student of the university, is currently doing his PHD about sharks. He needs some help during November. I was immediately put in contact with him.
In the afternoon I went to some hostels to aks whether they would need some wwoofers. Wwoofers are people that work for accomodation. One of the hostels said that I could work for thel from Monday on. It was perfect because I booked the room at Anneloes house until that day.
When I was home, I wrote Robert an
email and I instantly got an answer. We met the day after.
Robert and I met in front of the Otago museum. This museum is entirely free. We went to it's cafe and talked about the shark project. It is on Stewart Island, an island under the South Island. It has no cars on it, just nature. I get free accomodation and food. I see sharks every day and maybe we will see some Kiwis. I immediatly agreed on participating to his project. I will give some more information about it as soon as I am there.
In the afternoon I went to the Otago Peninsula. Liz and Robert had told me about some beaches where I could see some wildlife for free.
The first place I went to was the Sandfly Bay. It was closed to the public because they still hadn't opened it after the winter break. I had seen some pictures of its beauty and there were some poeple in front of me who had just ignored the "no entry" sign.. So I did like them and opened the door to get there... After 2 minutes of walk between lots of sheep, I discovered the
most beautiful bay I had ever seen. It was untouched by humans and seemed so free of everything. I noticed some sea lions on the beach taking their sun bath. When I wanted tl go down to the beach, there was an other fence and an other sign telling to keep out. This time I did what it was saying and went back to the car. Behind me were some guys running, they had been chased from the beach security because they had passed the second fence...
After Sandfly bay I went to the end of the peninsula, near the Albatros Centre. I didn't want to pay to see the albatroses, so I just stood near the centre and waited for some to fly by. There was a lot of wind, I had never felt such intense wind gusts. I was freezing even if I was wearing 4 layers of clothes. After 10 minutes of impatiently waiting, I could finally see an albatros. It was enormous and sailed in the wind for about 2 minutes just in front of me until it went back behind the cliff where the rest of the albatros colony was.
After seeing the
albatros I went to Allans beach. The road to get there was gravelly. I was scared for my tires. There was no one on the road except me and it was pretty scary. When I arrived I noticed that there was just one car standing there. To go to the beach I had to climb over fences. The professor said that I could probably see some sea lions on that beach. I walked between the dunes to get to the beach as I suddenly sighted two sleeping sea lions. They were lying on my way... I had learned before that you should always keep a distance from minimum 5 meters of sleeping sea lions... This wasn't possible because they laid on my way... So I walked between the dunes to get out of their way. When I came closer I could see that it was a mother with her calf. The mother looked at me when I walked by but did nothing. So I continued on the path. The beach was so beautiful. Tjere was no one on it except me and a man I could see far away with his dog. I walked along the sea and saw some
other sea lions. One looked different from all the others. It has black dots on its belly.
The man I had seen from the distance now walked towards me. He stopped when he saw me. We had a smalltalk and he said that he was the supervisor of this beach. He came every day to have a check on the sea lions. Then he told me that the sea lion I had seen with all the dots was pretty rare. You could see one of them once or twice a year. So I was really lucky to see one of them. As every one here he was very friendly and wished me all the best for my stay here in New Zealand.
I continued walking on the beach and I was all alone when he left. I looked at my phone and I had no service. It didn't bother me at all. I started dancing on the sound of the waves and singing with the howling wind. Just me, the sea lions and the birds. I can't describe what I exactly felt at that moment but I would say that it was freedom.
Carpe Diem
Adela
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