The future is Brazil!

I am excited to announce that the Wandering Octopus and myself will be travelling to South America in a little over a month.

I have been accepted as a speaker at the Cephalopod International Advisory Council Symposium (CIAC) in Florianopolis, Brazil! Brazil is a country that I have always dreamed of traveling to, but never thought i would have the opportunity. I'm so excited, both to be travelling to this exotic location and to be presenting the research I have done in front of the Worlds leading Squid and Octopus experts.
 
I'm hoping that despite my busy travel schedule, I will have an opportunity to bump into this guy...

The Octopus in Tasmania

Last week was the combined New Zealand/Australia Marine Sciences conference in Hobart, Tasmania. Heather, the octopus and I flew over for the week to enjoy multitude of amazing speakers, and to present our own research to the scientific community.

Hobart is a harbourside city on the southern tip of Tasmania. (So in the middle of winter, it's a bit chilly). It prides itself on it's Seafood, and there were many floating fish and chipery boats in the main harbour. We also made a new friend in "Jeremy" the Pufferfish, who was lazily swimming around the harbour. Hobart is also a very historical city. It is situated at the base of Mt. Wellington, so it's a bit hilly, but makes for a very picturesque hillside. Many of the important buildings in Hobart are made of the original sandstone, which makes everything look like it's from a different era.
The conference was held at the Wrest Point hotel, but we stayed in the Pickled frog Hostel, which was about a 10 minute bus ride away. The conference center was located right on the water, which was great because we had amazing, sunny weather the whole time. We woke up fairly early in the morning, and caught a bus to the conference. Every day we had several keynote speakers to get our minds working. We would then break for morning tea, before heading off to a day of presentations. Most of these were given by students, like myself, or researchers at other institutions. The topics ranged from whales and dolphins, corals, ocean warming, pollution, deep-sea food chains, and of course SQUID (which was totally the most interesting topic).
At the end of the week, we had a gala dinner, which included a three course meal, a live band, marine themed decorations, and dancing. It was a great way to finish off an engaging (but exhasuting) week.
My only regret was not being able to see any live Tasmanian devils!

The Octopus gets a vacation.

I apologize for all the time I have been away from my blog. In all honesty, I have been extremely busy with school and my new job, and havn't done anything worth posting about... until now. It's fall break here at AUT, so the octopus, Heather and I decided to take a wee vacation over to the island of Waiheke. It's about a 40 minute ferry ride away. It's a beautful lush island with lots of nature trails, quaint boutqiues and beaches! (However, the buses only run once an hour, so if you miss them, you end up taking walking trails around the island... which end up being alot of hills and stairs!). We stayed at the Bioshelter backpackers, a hostel that prides itself on being environmentally friendly. It's got a very unique design, and looks more like a Bali resort on the inside. Probably the most notable room in the whole hostel is the toilet, which is rather unqiue! Each room has several beds in it, but as it was not busy, we got a room to ourselves! We spent the day familiarizing ourselves with the small town of Oneroa, and especailly familiarizing ourselves with the beach! (It's a hard job, but somebodies got to do it) Waiheke is very much a vacation island, so every cove seemed to have boats tied up in it. We spent the afternoon snorkeling, and collecting sea shells. We finished the day off enjoying a pizza on a beach front bistro!

The next day brought warm sunny weather. We decided to do some more swimming. This time, we hiked around the north tip of the island to Ray island. It's not accesible by road, so we had the entire beach to ourselves. We spend hours looking through the tidepools, and swimming in the crystal clear waters. We then decided to call it a day, and took the ferry back to Auckland. A short vacation, but relaxing none the less.

The Octopus goes to Sydney

The octopus and i went home for Christmas, and on our way back were able to stop off for a few days in Sydney, Australia. It wasn't ALL touristy stuff, I actually went there for my friends wedding. but seeing as we were in the area we took the opportunity to do some sight seeing! Sydney is probably best known for two things: the Opera house

and the plethora of unique exotic animals that live there.

The octopus and I got a chance to visit the Sydney Aquarium, and were greeted by the coolest statue ever (made entirely of Lego I might add). In the aquarium, the octopus had a chance to catch up with a distant counsin. (Look closely, there is a cuttlefish in that picture). We also joined my friend Meaghan on a glass bottom boat ride, this allows you to get up close and personal with some of the fish in the tropical aquarium! We also got up close and personal with some very large sharks!

Afterwards we visited some of Australias natives. We saw Kangaroos, crocodiles, dingo, the cassowary (much cooler in real life), and of course, the cuddly Koala!

Had a great time in Sydmey, it was just too bad that my visit there was so short! I'm looking forward to whenever I have a chance to return and explore more of Australia!

Christmas in Squidland

So, first and foremost! MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas in Auckland is VERY different to those in Canada!

When walking around downtown Auckland, you can't help but notice the holiday cheer. Images of Santa, department store window displays, decorations hanging in Malls... wait... are those guys wearing... SHORTS? What is with this weather! As I am used to the wet and chilly winters of Vancouver during Christmas, I'm finding the Summer weather of the Southern hemisphere is NOT putting me in the Christmas mood. Seriously, who wants to order a hot holiday beverage from Starbucks, when you're slathering on sunscreen?

Despite the inescapable weather, I have managed to partake in several holiday traditions, both old and New.

Heather and I put up a little Christmas tree in our apartment, and made some paper decorations for it, including a squid themed, angelic tree topper! We also made some delicious sugar cookies and decorated them. And finally, hung some stockings on the odd chance that Santa visited our house!

Heather and I went down to see the Santa Clause parade. It was a bit of an odd amalgamation of floats. There was the usual: Christmas trees, Frosty, and Rudolph... as well as several unexpected guests: such as Mickey Mouse, Pikachu, and a life size dinosaur! Luckily, the big guy made an appearence! (I was ready to see him in a hawaiian shirt and board shorts) But it was a good start to December, and really displayed the Kiwi holiday spirit!


The octopus and I walked down to the harbour one night to see the "Telecom christmas tree", which is made out of several hundred LED lights. It is constantly changing color and pattern, and below the tree they have been bag chairs so you can look up and watch the light show. There are also several phone booths with a direct line to Santa, so you can make your Christmas phone call!

This year was my first experience with "Glow", a Christmas concert/service put on by St. Lukes church. It is a huge event, selling 10,000 tickets. Each person gets a glowstick and the whole concert is done in the dark. It has a really cool effect as you shout your favorite Christmas carols at the top of your lungs!

Now, I'm ready to head off to the airport and take a plane ride home for the Holidays! Enough of this sunshine, bring on the snow! (fingers crossed) My bags are packed with the essentials... well, maybe a few more shirts...

"Sir, are you smuggling dophins in your luggage?"
"Noooo, whatever would give you that idea..."

Bon Voyage!

An Octopus for all seasons

Spring has sprung here in New Zealand. The Octopus and I decided to take a trip to the Auckland Botanical Gardens to see what was in bloom.


The gardens are quite expansive. It took me several hours to walk around them, and I'm fairly sure that I didn't see everything. They contain area's of edible plants, native plants to New Zealand, prehistoric palms, and a large strongly scented rose garden. There are currently 21 statues created by logal artists displayed in the gardens, which were inspired by nature. These ranged in size from small water lillies made from recycled plastic, to a giant pohutukawa (the new zealand Christmastree). Interesting journey through nature and art... although sometimes the garden stated the obvious.
So whether it's sitting on a swing, feeding the birds, or just having a think: enjoy these activites outdoors! See what amazing colors spring has to offer. (This offer only available in New Zealand during December... all other locations offer is void.)

The Octopus visits Queenstown

Thank you everyone for your patience. I know it has been several months since I last posted anything. I'm afraid that the joys of school have overtaken my ability to adventure! On my spring break I went down to New Zealands South Island and visited Queenstown! For those of you who live in Vancouver, it would be like visitng Whsitler. It's a ski city! We stayed at a lovely hotel called the Sherwood Manor!
After arriving in town, the first thing you notice is the Mountains! It reminded us alot of the Rockies back home! We spent the first afternoon wandering around town, and took a gondola ride to the top of a nearest mountain. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking!

Day two involved sunshine and more mountains! Can I just say that the weather reports predicted rain for the entire visit we were there, but it was amazing weather! (I guess the weather forcasters are equally as accurate in New Zealand as they are in Canada!) That morning we took a cruise around the lake that Queenstown is situated on. It had a great view of the surrounding area (and the mountains), and the captain even let the octopus drive the boat for a while! We then took a bus to Arrowtown, which is a small village 30 minutes outside of Queenstown. I was established during New Zealands gold rush, so Arrowtown is a very historical area.

Day three involved and early morning. We got on a charter bus and began a 4 hour trip to Milford Sound, on the West Coast of New Zealand. This invovled driving through the mountains (quite literally, we had to go through a tunnel and everything). On the way, we got to see some wildlife, including the worlds only Alpine Parrot: the KEA! The boat ride around Milford was amazing. Tall mountains with huge waterfalls cascading down them. It was very picturesque. We even made some new friends on the boat! We also saw a penguin, and some seals! The boat took us right up to the base of one of the falls! It was close enough to touch it!

The next day we boarded a jet boat which raced up and down the lakes and rivers of Queenstown. It went extremely fast (hence being called a jetboat), and wizzed around rocks and logs! The boat only needs about 3 inches of water to drive, so it can go reeeaally close to the shore!

On our final day, we went up to the ski slopes. I'm not much of a skier, but the Octopus really wanted to make a snowman. Instead we went snowtubing, which is totally alot more fun than skiing. After a long day of snow, we had a quite flight home!

I had a great time in Queenstown, and wasn't able to do everything that it had to offer, I guess that means I'll have to go for another visit! :)