So once again this is my last post from down under. I leave here on Monday, heading back to heavy snow according to the forecasts. Not too much to report since I came back to Melbourne. Given the amount of time I spent here in December, i haven't really been up to anything new.

Just a last post to say that I've updated my photos with the last of my pics.

Taupo

Bay of Islands and Northland

Christchurch

transcoastal

Wellington

Back in Christchurch, and it seems exactly the same! Little bit of a nightmare getting here. My flight was delayed 4.5 hours, which doesn't sound so awful, apart from the fact that menat we didn't land until 4am. Luckily the shuttle that I had booked for 11pm, was there to pick me up and take me to my hostel, and so I was in bed by 5am.

I've booked a trip to Akaroa tomorrow, just to visit some old haunts, then I head off early saturday morning, on the train, to Picton, and then Ferry, to Wellington.

Nothing much else to report, looking forward to the rest of my trip around Kiwiland....

Moving day again...a little bit further this time; I fly to New Zealand later this afternoon. It's going to be a bit of a shock to the system, moving around every few days, but I've stayed way to long in one place and gotten too comfortable ;). So the plan as it stands right now, is to spend a few days in Christchurch, take the train up to the coast to Picton, and then the ferry across to Wellington. After a few days in Wellington, I'll head up to Taupo, then Auckland where I am hoping to do a short bus tour of the Northland area. I only have 18 days, and then I will be back in Melbourne once again for a week before flying back to the UK.

Now, it may or may not be true that I scheduled the dates of my New Zealand trip around concert dates, but I'm saying nothing. Okay, so I went to see Editors last night, and will see the Decemberists on the 25th Jan, but that means nothing!!

Looking forward to going back to the land of the Kiwi's, I saw a girl with this hoody:

Sweet As, bro

it made me laugh out loud and reminded me so much of being in New Zealand!!


Nothing else really. I've been pretty slack in doing much since I have been here for so long, and have been here before. I did manage to survive my first Christmas season away from Scotland, which I think is quite an achievement!

Oh, and just for my mum who apparently has forgotten what I look like, this:

From Shark Bay 2009

in the blue vest is not me, it is one of the other dolphin girls, Anna (see below, with bonus Ella):

From Shark Bay 2009

As you can see, we don't really look alike.

Christmas Eve in the Southern Hemisphere, and I've checked out of my room at the hostel, and am killing time until I meet Claire to head over to the family's house where we will be spending Christmas.

It does not feel like Christmas at all, between travelling and being in the hostel and the sun - yesterday was 35 degrees!! But it is quite nice to take a break from the usual Christmas madness, and it will make next Christmas all the better, I'm sure. Typical, though, the one year I'm away Edinburgh has lots of cool snow and it will likely be a white Christmas.

Since the last installment, I left Monkey Mia. The journey would have been bad enough to begin with 3:30am start, 12 hours to Perth, but then of course our bus was delayed....9 hours. Stayed one night in Perth before Maggie went off travelling with her Mum, and I flew to Melbourne. Since I have been here I have mostly been relaxing and enjoying being in a city again. I met up with Claire and we have done some of the sights together. She even dragged me along to a Neighbours night for her birthday.

I still have 10 days here, I had intended to go to Sydney for new year, but the prices were ridiculous so I decided to give it a miss and just stay here. I'm going to see Editors on the 4th Jan, then flying to New Zealand on the 5th. I'll have less than 3 weeks here before I head back to Melbourne for another gig (The Decemberists) and my flight back to the UK on the 1st February. Scary thing is that's only 5 weeks on Monday!

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, enjoy all the snow for me, since I am stuck here in the sun ;)

P.S. some new piccies....

Shark Bay 2009

Melbourne 09

Updated my photo album...let me know if there are any problems with the link.

Shark Bay 2009

So now that I have my own internet connection once again, I realised I could update this more freely....

What has happened since I last posted?? As I mentioned I had been considering extending my stay and I swithered about this pretty much for the last 3 months - much to Maggie's dismay. As will surprise very few of you, I decided to stay. At the moment I'm booked to fly back on the 1st February. The plan as it stands right now is to head to Melbourne after I leave Monkey Mia. Maggie and I are heading to Perth on the bus next Friday, and I fly to Melbourne late on Saturday night. I'll be there over Christmas, then Sydney, New Zealand and back to Melbourne for my return flight. I will see Claire and probably do Christmas with her in Melbourne, although Ev and her boyfriend Ale may be there too. Apart from the flight to Melbourne, it's all subject to change.

Here in Monkey Mia ther wind has been getting worse if you can believe it. We had 10 days straight off the water, one day out there and now the next week looks pretty poor again (apart from Saturday morning). The big problem with this is there is a film crew coming out to film the dolphins this weekend. They are trying to document the birth of one of the new calves (well not the actual birth, but as much as they can), so they have been on standby while we have been on watch for signs that the dolphin in question is about to give birth. So far nothing. Anyway, they have decided just to come this weekend, and from what I have been told will want to be out on the water every hour that is light regardless of the weather. Add to this the Professor in charge of the project has returned to deal with the filming and it does not lead to a very relaxing last week. I'm not relly too sure whether I'll be out on the boat with them or what, but we will see what comes...

Apart from the work we have just been hanging out with the sharkies, well mainly Gena and Carrie, having bbqs, early thanksgiving dinners, trying not to melt on the hot days (it was around 38 on Tuesday)...

Hope all of you are good, don't forget to email me all your news. Thanks to those who sent me parcels, they were greatly appreciated. I won't have an address after I leave here next week so don't send anything!!

So apparently this is the windy season in Monkey Mia, which explains a lot. At the moment we are in the middle of another windy week, which means no boat work. Although, we were quite glad of it on Monday because we had been out 4 days in a row (which was a lot for us this season!), so we were a pretty tired.

Last week, I met up with Claire (Starr) as she passed through Monkey Mia on her tour of WA. It was really nice to see a familiar face. We met at the dolphin feed in the morning, where she got to feed Nicky, and then again at the bar at night. We had been throwing around the idea of meeting up in December and doing some travelling together, although I wasn’t sure how serious she was and didn’t want to encroach on her travel plans. Anyway she still seemed into the idea and she said the magic words (New Zealand!) so I decided to check out how expensive it would be to change my flight back to the UK and stay on for a couple of months more, aiming to come back probably in February some time. I’m still looking into it, but if I do, the vague plan as it stands right now would be to meet up in Melbourne at the beginning of December, stay there for Christmas, head to Sydney for Hogmanay, and then over to New Zealand in January. I’ll update as soon as I know more.

( This gets pretty long – the short version is WE SAW HUMPBACKS! )

( photos )

The wind is still very much with us here in Monkey Mia, and looks to be here until the end of the week.

So,today we went to a small local aquarium called Ocean Park. They have a lot of local species of fish, rays, turtles and sharks. My fave were the baby turtles, look how cute:

( baby turtles )

The sharks were cool, but not quite as impressive as our encounter a few weeks ago. Speaking of that, here are a couple of pics (not taken by me) of the shark feast:

( Dinner time for the sharks )

Lastly, here are a couple of pics from a walk we took at low tide one day

( a walk on the beach )

Oh, and you'll all be glad to know that post only takes a week or so to get to me, so there is plenty of time for you all to send me things (and vice versa)!!

I'm sitting in the Ranger office looking out onto the beach while one of the daily dolphin feeds takes place. I'm also watching rather a lot of dark clouds moving towards us. The wind has been stopping us get out to do any actual research work. Mostly it's been a case of get up and see what the wind does.

I have managed to get out on the boat a few times despite this, including a trip out to see a stranded humpback whale which died on the sand flats. All the researchers headed up to see it last sunday in the hope there might be some sharks around and we were not disappointed. We arrived to see around 10 Tiger sharks feasting on the carcass. It seariously felt like we were in the middle of a live action BBC nature doc. I don't think anyone could quite believe what they were seeing!

Other than that, I've had a few short attempts at surveying the dolphins, and I've been down to the beach to see the morning feeds. It's taken me a little time to recover from the travelling and get used to all the sun - but I seem to be feeling a bit more normal now.

Hope everyone is good - don't forget to email with all your news (no matter how boring you think it is), and pictures. I'm going to trying and put a few pictures up later tonight, if I can.