Turtles, Bats, and Cane Toads

Howdy all

Its been another fun few days here in the rainforest. Last weekend we had a free time in Cairns, full of shopping, lounging by the pool, and making some international friends. It was beautiful and warm and a great break from school. On our way to Cairns we stopped by James Cook University to have a look at their collection of dried vegetation samples from all over far north Queensland.

After returning to the center, we had an animal filled day. First we went to platypus bend, where we helped with a study about bum breathing turtles. They were ADORABLE! I got to hold a baby turtle and take the measurement of a rather rowdy male. After releasing them back into the wild, we were off to a bat hospital. The bats were really cool. Most of the ones there were either orphans by mothers paralyzed by ticks, or adults injured by barbed wire fences. The bats were so docile and unintimidating. I never realized bats could be so cute! We also went spotlighting at Mt Hypipami and saw a bunch of possums.

The school part of things is pretty interesting. I decided to do my final project about the correlation between lung worms and fat bodies in cane toads. After catching cane toads over the past few nights, today was full of dissection and examination. The toad I worked on was extremely infected. Its lungs were almost black with all of the worms present. It was awesomely gross yet fascinating. Its crazy to believe there are only a few more days left in studying abroad, let alone my entire undergrad career.

Mission Beach and Cassowaries

Hello again

This week’s adventures included lots of wet weather. Last weekend we went to Mission Beach to go camping and gather data about conservation in the town. It was nice to be in a town and able to get away from the rainforest for a bit. We visited C4, which stands for Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation, and learned about their environmental organization. That night we were free to venture into town and have fun. Unfortunately the rain followed us, so we woke up to a wet tent. On the way back to the center we stopped by another rainforest preserve and I FINALLY SAW A CASSOWARY! It was very exciting. I advise anyone who doesn’t know what a cassowary is to google it. The next day we had off, so we went to the tourist town of Kuranda to go to the markets. There I went to the “koala gardens” where I got to hold a koala and feed pademelons and wallabies. They also had a wombat, which is a super cute but kinda pointless looking animal.

Since then its been back to doing schoolwork. We’re focusing on fauna this week, so we hunted skinks this afternoon and will focus on catching and dissecting cane toads and recording microbat calls tomorrow night. It should be interesting.

Back from the Outback

Hey y’all!

Since my lasts update, I’ve finished up my Sydney adventure and returned to CRS. Sydney was awesome, though im glad to be back. Sydney included lots of going out, visiting 2 aquariums, Sydney wildlife world, the city Skytower, and Manly beach. I finally got to see the elusive cassowary (but sadly it was encaged behind glass). The city is beautiful even though it rained at least a little bit every single day. I wish the weather would have been nicer so we could’ve enjoyed the beach more. Instead we did lots of shopping and took a lot of much needed naps.

Back at CRS, things have been much more relaxed than the last half of the program. We gained 7 new students, one of which is even from the UW. Exciting stuff! This half of the program is more researched based, so it involves more field work and analyzing in the lab. It’s definitely not as intense as my science courses back home, but it involves more bio and ecology. We spent the past few nights in Undara, which is in the Outback. It was amazing! The vegetation there was less lush than the rainforest, but it was much warmer and clearer. We did field sampling in the dry rainforest and went through some lava tubes, which are like caves made from the last volcano eruption. We also saw kangaroos, kookaburras, and a lot of wallabies. We had campfires both nights and I even slept sans tent, just under the stars one night. The sky was unbelievably clear. The next morning a few of us hiked up to a bluff and sat on the rocks to watch the sunrise. It was an unreal experience and makes me want to go camping a lot more when I get back to the States.

Other than that, it’s been a lot of fun having more free time in this part of the program. We’ve started a nightly ritual of watching True Blood and Dexter after dinner. I didn’t realize how much I miss watching good tv with good company. I’ve also tried to start running program for my last few weeks here. It’s hard to believe I’m already over halfway done with my time in Australia. I’ll miss it when I return home to the States and have to find a real job…

SYDNEY!!!!

ello mates!
Sorry for the ridiculously long drought between posts. The past week has been full of writing my final paper and studying for my final exam. Before finals we went to the Daintree National Park. It was one of the prettiest places I’ve seen so far. On the way to the Daintree, we stopped by a golf course to take pictures of a mob of kangaroo. We also saw black cockatoos along the side of the highway. At the Daintree we stayed at the Crocodylus Hostel, which was pretty much just elevated tents. On our first day there, we went on a croc cruise and saw a snake and a few crocodiles in the water. Over the next 2 days we went to 3 different beaches, 3 each more beautiful than the last. We had more lectures and toured more parts of the rainforest as well. We saw one of our professor’s eco-friendly houses (in the rainforest) and a palm forest she helped reforest the buffer zones on. Sadly, we never found the elusive cassowary (google it. It’s a huge weeeeeird bird.) After we got back I spent most of my time studying and writing my paper. Then we spent the weekend in Cairns. There we went out on the town Saturday night then snorkeled the reef on Sunday (which happened to be the 4th of July). Snorkeling was absolutely AMAZING! I saw a sea turtle, sting ray, a giant clam, a ton of huge clownfish, plus other random fish. I even got to hold a purple starfish! The waves were wicked though. It was overcast and the waves were crazy choppy. All in all, 10 of the 18 people I was snorkeling with ended up getting sick on the boat ride back. Sad day. After we got back to CRS (the Center for Rainforests Studies, my home away from home) we had a 4th of July celebration, complete with brats, potatoes salad, cake, and sparklers. The next night was the official last day of the first session. We spent the night singing around the campfire and saying our goodbyes. It was really sad to see some of my friends go. Now that the 1st session is over, its break time for the next 6 days. Seven of my friends and I are taking our holiday in Sydney. We got in yesterday and spent the day looking around our part of the city and recovering from our 4 am airport departure. Last night we went to a comedy club and saw 2 comedians who were surprisingly funny. Today we played tourist and took the train to the Circular Quay and saw the legendary Opera House. We even got tickets for a performance Friday night! I’m super pumped! We also went through the botanical gardens and walked more around the Darling harbour.
That’s about all so far, hopefully I’ll update again before I leave Sydney. The internet has pretty much died back at CRS, so it’s hard to do updates there. (It will unpredictably give reception, and even then not everything will load. It made things pretty impossible to do my research paper.)

In the land of Oz...

'Ello mates!

After a long day of travels (including leaving the Auckland hostel at 5 am) I am finally in Australia! We first flew to Sydney then to Cairns, which is in the Northeast corner of the country. From there it was an hourlong drive down twisting roads to get to the Center for Rainforest Studies, my home away from home for the next 7 weeks. We had dinner (I tried crocodile…its tastes like chicken) and then some orientation (like how to not die during the night). Luckily I survived my first night with no scary encounters. Today we had 3 lectures on Australia geography and fauna and toured the sight. Sadly it was overcast so I didn't get a complete feel for the area. Its super mountainous though! And there is a ton more animals here. We have turkeys wandering around our picnic tables and birds all over. And there are bugs!! And spiders!! We even had a mouse run into the common room as I was writing this. I’m not too worried about the animals, but there are some people who have freaked out already. I must admit though that the terrestrial leaches kinda freak me out. Australia is a complete 180 from NZ though. There we had hardly any wildlife other than birds.

We also actually have internet here! It’s not too reliable or fast but at least we don’t have to travel to town to check emails. That is a definite plus in my book.

Along with the staff we had in NZ, there are 3 interns, a site manager, and a cook. The cabins are pretty nice. We have 8 people to a cabin and 4 bathrooms that are a few minutes away. The site is a World Heritage area because of its unique location and ecosystem. It’s only a few hours from the Great Barrier Reef too!

More later after I explore the rainforest more! And pictures?

Also, I am in the process of planning my trip to Sydney in 2 weeks. Let me know if you have any tips or suggestions! :)

Last day in NZ

Kia Ora!

Okay folks. Get ready for a long update.

So the first few days were spent at Kiwanis Huia Camp, which is in the Waitakare forest ranges of the North Island of NZ. We settled in and began exploring the area. Our days usually consist of an early morning, with breakfast usually at 7:30. After that we have a few lectures followed by lunch. The food so far has been pretty amazing. Much better than expected. In the afternoons we typically go into town or a forested area for field lectures. One day we ventured into Auckland and did some more exploring and souvenir shopping. The roads here are ridiculous. They twist and wind up and down through the hills. The cliffs tower over the roads and the drive gives amazing views. I took about a million scenic pictures.

We went to the Auckland Museum and spent a few hours learning about the Maori culture and the history of NZ. We saw a cultural performance by the Maori and saw their traditional clothes, songs, and dances. A few of the students even got up on stage to try poi. Poi are balls on a rope that are spun for dancing and percussion. It looked pretty sweet.

When we were at Kiwanis we spent our free time going on hikes, to the local store, and walking on the beach. We spent a night watching the Flight of the Conchords, and had a cupcake decorating contest. Unfortunately I was not creative enough to win.

After spending 4 days at Kiwanis, when went to a Mauri, which is a meeting place for the Maori. We stayed with the Prime family, who were incredibly generous and nice. The greeted us in the traditional way, by calling us into the building with a welcome song. Kevin Prime, the father of the Prime family then greeted us in Maori and English. All 29 of the students slept in the same room, which got pretty cramped.

Kevin took us into the bush, and we learned about the native trees and animals. We also learned about the methods used to deal with invasive species, particularly the possum. The hike to the bush was hilly and extremely muddy.

One night we had a hungi. A hungi is the traditional cooking style of the Maori. A pit is dug and lined with coals. A pig and vegetables are placed on top of the coals and covered to cook the meat. After dinner my friend Rebecca and I sang and played guitar for the Prime family women.

We also had a talent show to showcase our many talents. The students in our group had talents ranging from singing, to karate, to dancing, to playing the cup game. After the show was done it pretty much turned into a dance party. Epic amounts of fun.

Kevin’s cousin passed away the day before we arrived, so some of us got the opportunity to go to a Maori wake. It was interesting to see how similar it was to a Western wake. We had tea and a light supper after the ceremony, in which a friend Erica mistakenly drank 2 glasses of cream, which she thought was milk. We returned to the Mauri for dinner and stargazing (we could see the milky way! The Mauri was out in the country so the stars were clear and bright. We even saw about 10 shooting stars!).

The Prime family Mauri was not very ornately decorated, but we did get to see a fully carved and painted Mauri. The wood carving was absolutely beautiful. Inside the building was full of photos of the current and past Maori tribe members.

We also went to Waitangi, where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. This treaty established the land use agreement between the Maori and European settlers. We ended up not going into the area where the treaty was actually signed because of a price misquote on tickets. Instead we ended up going to a Maori rally about sovereignty and the treaty. We then explored the city and found faux penguins (they were actually pied shags. Sad day)

After spending time at the Mauri we returned to our home away from home at Kiwanis. We stopped at a native bird recovery center. This was one of the highlights thus far. There we got to see a talking Tui bird, and an injured Giant Petral, and a Harrier hawk. We even got to pet a Kiwi! Back at Kiwanis we had more field lectures, hanging out time, and visited another museum.

We stayed at Kiwanis for 3 more days then headed out to Tiri Tiri Matangi, an island bird sanctuary for the day. There we saw all sorts of native birds and had an AMAZING view of Auckland. After we returned from our ferry ride we were set free in Auckland (which brings us to this weekend).

In Auckland we were finally able to let loose. On Saturday we visited the Auckland Zoo and explored the city. My friend Rebecca and I explored the city, eventually ending up at a vintage clothing/record store. There the unbelievable happened. As I was rummaging through the vintage t-shirts, I happened upon a Wisconsin shirt. It was a vintage Coca-Cola shirt that was from APPLETON WI! I travelled half way around the world just to find a shirt from my hometown. Crazy.

After shopping in town we went to a local pub to watch the All Blacks (NZ) vs Whales rugby match and eat dinner. Then we went out on the town to experience the local bar scene.

From here we head out to Australia bright and early Monday morning. Wish me luck!

Ps. More pics on facebook! check em out!

Auckland NZ

Hello Friends!
I'm writing to you from an internet cafe outside of Auckland NZ. We arrived early Sunday morning after a 12 hour planeride from LAX. It wasn't half as bad as I had expected. I sat next to a native New Zealand man who now resides in Texas and his 5 year old daughter. She was absolutely adorable! She had a southern accent but some of the mannerisms of her Kiwi father.
From the airport we went to the campsite we will be staying at for the next few days. It is in a national park and is really much nicer than I was expecting. We have electricity, running water, and everything!
There are 3 professors living with us, a cook/director, and a "student affairs manager". The professors are very interesting. The geography/ecology professor is named Siggy and of German decent. Botany is taught by Tim, an Aussie, and Environmental policy is taught by Rohan, who is from Tasmania. We had our first classes this morning and got an overview of the next few weeks. Then we ventured to the other part of the Park and had a field excursion to learn about the native plants and animals. So far it is pretty interesting. I'm ready to venture more into the rainforest!
The other students are from all over the country, especially the East Coast and South. It is so weird being with people who don't know about the Badgers!!

That's all I have time for now but more posts (and pictures!) to come soon!