NZ-Akaroa

One of the places we visited in NZ was Akaroa, on the east coast near Christchurch. Absolutely stunning, it is a tiny town in a bay where the mountains meet the ocean.  We took a boat trip out, led by Murphy the dolphin detector dog. He did a brilliant job; we saw tons of hector's dolphins (which are highly endangered).  The dolphins had a great time bow riding with our boat.  We also saw albatross, blue penguins, and fur seals in a rookery, but photos of them will come later :)

Conference Venue

I think they did a great job choosing where to host the conference :)

Kea

I was luck enough to see a Kea while here. They are the only species of Alpine parrot in the world, and only found on the southern island of New Zealand.  They are hard to find now a days as they have been hunted out by farmers because the birds would attack sheep stock.  Gorgeous birds though; I didn't catch a picture, but underneath the green wing feathers they are a brilliant orange color.

New Zealand!

 

I made it to New Zealand safe and sound after a very long flight.  Things couldn't have gone smoother.  Started off the trip right today by going out with friends on a wildlife tour.  We saw all the big critters you hope to see in the area: yellow eyed penguins (photos up top, though that is a juvenile so he doesn't have the yellow eye band yet), blue penguins, fur seals (the guys up top), sea lions, and albatross (massive! their wingspan was 3 m!) 

 

 

Friendly visitor

  

 

This lovey little seal decided she wanted a cuddle today.  I was recording another pup (one of my weaned study animals) and she decided to keep me company.  She was very curious about all of my equipment, and my boots.   And when I needed to leave, I just asked nicely and she scooted off.  A very nice sunny morning encounter :)

What a fantastic way to be finishing up my time on the Isle

End of the season

My field work has come to a close. All of the pups I have been following are now weaned, and will be spending a few weeks of playing on the Isle before going out to sea.  That is it for all my data collection for my thesis; now it is just analyzing and writting up to finish!

Will probably be leaving the Isle to go back this weekend, so with my free time I am sure there will be lots of seal photos to add to this collection :)

Yet another weaner....