Blogs from Oceania - page 7783

I have no number of how many times some customer on the boat will tell me, with envy blazing out of their eyes, that I am so lucky to do what I am doing. And every time I will patiently reply that in the end of the day this is a job as every other job. Sometimes there are good days, but too often there are not so good days, and sometimes you are just left to ponder why you didn't go for the nice office job... But, when the going is good the going is very good... or something like that. When you have a good day, or a good dive, the whole world is a better place, and you cannot think of one single good reason why you ever would want to give this ... read more

Woke up early this morning for another day at sea, it couldn't be as successful as yesterday, could it? The weather forecast wasn't good but we were lucky, we were out at 8:15 and although it had been raining earlier it was clear and quite bright, partial cloud cover at times but good spotting conditions. We were looking for Lagenorhnchus obscurus, or the Dusky Dolphin, Dusky Dolphins are found in coastal temperate waters of New Zealand, about 20 mins from the coast of Kaikoura. This species is normally found in small pods of 6 to 15 animals, but larger groups of 20 to 500 animals, or massive aggregations of over 1,000, are also common, according to our guide. They are the most highly social and acrobatic of dolphins, they leap, spin, somersault and often associate with ... read more

South Australia Museum.... read more

Yesterday we arrived in Rockhampton (aka the Mullet Capital of Australia) at the Comfort Inn. It wasn't the nicest place but it was a bed and we were only there for a little bit. All in all probably the worst place we stayed at huring the tour. That night most of us went to the Koorana Crocodile farm where had this HUGE dinner and got to see these ginormous crocs and we even got to taste some! It kind of tastes like chicken but alot tougher. We all got the opportunity to hold a baby crocodile, it was pretty neat, they feel very weird :) If you have to go to any optional dinner, go to this one! It was definitely really interesting and a good time! After that we dropped some people off at a ... read more

I hope that you do not mind when I place photos on the web before an actual explanation of the activity. That’s just the way it’s working out at the moment. I find myself with exactly three months left in Australia and about two months left at The Magdalene Centre. It is hard to believe that I have been working an entire month already. Things are very busy, as you would expect when providing emergency assistance. I am very thankful for the opportunity to gain such valuable experience and am finding myself in the working stages of my time there. Last Tuesday, we all took an outing to the Botanic Gardens to watch a movie in the park. Moonlight Cinema shows movies beneath the night sky during the summer months. We had the opportunity to bring ... read more