London: Day 2+3

Day 2 of London was spent visiting the London Museum of Natural History.  I got a chance to look at their collections and take note of some important specimens I will need for my phD!  It was a great opportunity for me, and I look forward to visiting them again!  I was able to have a quick peek at the very large giant squid they have their!  This was particularily exciting as the AUT squid lab will be doing giant squid dissections next week, and I will still be away. 

 

Day 3 was spent travelling to Stonehenge!  It was such an amazing experience and I felt very humbled to be in such a spectacular location.  The stones are so large, and it's intriguing to imagine how the henge was constructed. 

 

 

Day 1: London

Hello all!  After about 24 hours of flying, we landed in London! 

 

London had a lot of expected things!  Amazing landmarks:



 

Amazing people:

 

And we also saw some unexpected things... like this gigantic fish!

 

 

Turns out the London has a fantastic little aquarium!  They put a big emphasis on shark conservation and breeding!

On our first morning, we dropped in to visit the Queen....

... but she apparently had a prior engagement. 

Oh well, I'm sure she'll be free for tea tomorrow.

 

We got a birds eye view of the city from the London Eye!

 

Day two looks promising as I will be visiting the cephalopod collections at the National Museum of London.  They have a lot of important specimens to view for my phD!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Hello from jolly ol' England!

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!