Flying in to London

We boarded the plane.

And had a brief layover in Shanghai!

Now we are resting up in London, and off to Dublin in a few days!! 

Ready for an adventure!

Bags are packed! Where do you think this adventure will take us?

A new kind of adventure

Hello everyone!

    Many of you are probably wondering why I haven't been wandering quite so much recently.  Well, the distance started because I was in the final stages of finishing my Master's thesis!  I submitted it towards the end of 2013, and received very good feedback from my review panel.  Although it caused a lot of sleep deprivation, the end result was absolutely worth all the work I put in! 
If you are interested, the final product can be viewed in the AUT library collections here!

    After my thesis was finished I returned to Canada for several months.  I enjoyed spending time with my family and catching up with my friends in Maple Ridge! 

    Some highlights from the time home was visiting family in Calgary and getting to travel to the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller (officially known by children 27 and under as "THE DINO MUSEUM!" 

 

I was also very honored to be able to speak at TonmoconV!  A wonderful convention where cephalopod enthusiasts gather to discuss current ceph-y affairs, research, and general frivolity.  

And of course, I was able to enjoy Christmas at home with my family!

    Now I am beginning a similar but surprisingly different adventure!  I have returned to New Zealand to being working on a phD!  I am extremely excited about continuing on with my research on glass squid, and I look forward to the challenges this next degree will bring me!
    Coming back to AUT feels very different than it did for the first degree.  I already had a place to live, I had friends waiting for my return, the staff at the University knew who I was already, and I was able to quickly start working.  I have been in NZ for three weeks, and am quickly getting back into my daily routines.  Watch this space!  More to come on my exciting new adventure soon!

Thanks for reading!!

Auckland Museum: My ocean

Everyone knows I love going to Museums!  So I was thrilled when I was invited to explore a new exhibit at the Auckland Museum: Moanna - My Ocean.  It explores life across the shorelines of New Zealand, to animals living in the depths of the ocean.

The ocean is home to animals that are both small (ex. plankton) to large (ex. great white sharks).  Each live in different environments, and this exhibit does a great job of highlighting some of the special features of each.

Explorers start at the shoreline, looking at birds of the coast, and then moving on the animals that live along the continental shelf.  For instance, did you know that the Snapper actually lives up to it's name, and has a pretty scary set of teeth on it?  One of the highlights of this part, was a 3D movie, which was housed in it's own 3 dimensional, sea urchin inspired, theatre.  (If you ever have an abundance of leftover pool noodles, now you know what to do with them!)

Next, visitors move on to the pelagic (mid-water) zone.  This area displays several large sharks (life size replicates of actual sharks living in the Hauraki Gulf.  However, if they were real sharks, you wouldn't be able to do this!
This area also has a 360 degree screen, which shows the behaviour of schooling fish.  The fish are not part of a movie, but actually have individual artificial intelligence.  They move via a programmed routine, and react based on what predators are thrown at them, and how neighbouring fish move.  That being said, the show is not the same twice!  It was really exciting to watch! 

Finally, we moved into the dark depths of the deep-sea. 

Many of the animals that live in this area are unique, and modified to live in a part of the ocean that is very cold and dark.  Explorers can experience the feeling of all the pressure that one would experience living under all that water.  What a squeeze.  It's hard to imagine that even at a depth like that, many animals (such as this crab) grow to incredible sizes! 

After visiting the depths, visitors return to the shoreline, where they can examine a few more coastal species of birds, urchins, sharks, and this wonderful yellow boxfish! 

If you are in the Auckland area, I would highly recommend you visit this amazing exploration of the ocean around New Zealand!

Education Update

I'm afraid that the Wandering Octopus has not been on any fantastic adventures recently, so there have been no blog updates.  However, I would like to share with you what is going on in my life.

I have been working hard over the past two years working on a Master's degree at the Auckland University of Technology.  My thesis has been written and is currently being reviewed (insert dramatic music here).  It is 90 pages long, and over 20,000 words.  I feel extremely accomplished in the work I have submitted, and I am anxious to get the reviewed manuscripts back so I can begin working on the final edits.  However, this will not be happening until early August (so I have about a months break time).

I have been working at AUT over this semester, teaching an entry level scientific writing course, and invigilating final exams.  Now that all of that is done for the semester, I finally have a few weeks to breathe. 

My time in New Zealand is coming to a close, and I will be returning to Canada at the end of the month.  (But hopefully, I will have time to go on one or two more adventures with the Octopus before I fly out).  However, I hope to return here next year to begin a phD, as I am enjoying the topic that I am working on, and hope to expand my research to a larger group of squid! 

Thank you all for continuing to follow me, supporting me, and showing interest in my adventures!

Aaron & the Wandering Octopus

The Octopus in Brazil

First of all, I would like to mention that taking three back to back flights to get to Florianopolis, Brazil was possibly not the greatest idea in the world.  That was a VERY long day.

However...

I made it!  Waking up in Brazil the next morning was amazing, I had a lovely view of the ocean from my window.  Most days we had beautiful sunrises, which made the fact that we were getting up at 6:30 slightly less painful.  That being said, the early wakeup calls were worth it, because I had a fantastic time at the conference.

I know that the idea of a room full of scientists studying cephalopods would not be an exciting prospect for many individuals, but I was in my element!  There were some amazing presentations of the work being done in cephalopod research right now, including some amazing video footage of rarely seen species from the deep-sea.  I gave a 15 minute talk about my study species, which went really well.  I received many compliments from people whom I look up to in the scientific community.  We finished the conference with a closing gala dinner, which had a diverse array of food, and some Brazilian entertainment.

Despite the lovely weather in Brazil, I spent most of my time indoors, so did not take full advantage of the sun.  I did have a couple of days of being a tourist before heading back to New Zealand.  I discovered that Florianopolis is home to projecto Tamar, which rehabilitates injured Sea Turtles.  It was an amazing experience to come so close to these beautiful animals.

 I spent the remainder of the day wandering around Florianopolis, which is an island off the Brazilian coast connect by a bridge.  The city is full of tropic parks, sandy beaches and colorful buildings.

On the ride home, I had an overnight layover in Rio de Janeiro.  Once there, I stayed around the corner from the Copacabana beach.  One of the things that has always been on my bucket list, was to see Christ the Redeemer.  I was thrilled to be in Brazil, so I went to see it.  However, when I got there, the mountain was covered in a thick cloud, and I was told there was not visibility at the top.  But did I let that stop me?  Noooooooooooooooope!  I started climbing the hundreds of stairs to the top of the mountain, and eventually, the statue came into view.  After about 20 minutes of waiting, the clouds cleared for a brief instant, and i was able to snap of few pictures and enjoy the monument I had journeyed to see. It also has a great view of the harbor the city is built on.  I was also glad to meet some of the locals.

Brazil is a beautiful and interesting country to visit, however, make sure you know a little Portuguese before you go... it'll make the trip slightly less stressful.  For the most part, the locals spoke little English, but they were very helpful to tourists who obviously didn't know any Portuguese.

Thank you Brazil for a wonderful trip!  I hope the next time I visit I will be able to experience more of your beauty, and less of the inside of a conference hall!

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...