Catch up!

Alright I know it has been a long time since I have posted so I am going to try and do a quick catch up! So two weekends ago I stayed in Dunedin! On friday after class a few friends and I headed out to the outskirts of dunedin to the base of Mt. Cargill. We did the two hour hike up the mountain expecting to see amazing views of Dunedin, but instead we got to take some great pictures of being inside a cloud.. While it was sad we didn't see the views it was cool being on the top of the mountain and seeing the huge radio towers and satellite dishes, and because the clouds were so low it felt like we were looking out on the edge of the world into nothing! It was a weird feeling, but still super cool. On that saturday I had a field trip for my marine vertebrate class. I went out on a research fishing vessel and got to see first hand the different methods of commercial fishing and the ecological impacts of them. It was really cool! The class left from the Otago marine biology lab out on the Otago peninsula in the town of Portobello! We launched the boat from there and headed out to sea. I got to have an amazing view of the harbor and peninsula, seeing seals, sea birds, a whale, dusky dolphins and a few blue penguins! I also got to dig through fish and invertebrate specimens that we caught! It was a a really good time and a great learning experience I am glad I got to be a part of. The next day I went with the tramping club to a nearby river to do a bit of training for our fiordlands trip(which I just got home from). It was really fun, we learned how to properly cross large/ fast moving rivers safely, we also got free hot chocolate and cookies so I was quite content! When I got home from the rivercrossing training I went to tunnel beach in Dunedin. It is an amazing beach with huge cliffs, and a tunnel that goes straight down into the cliff and takes you down to the sand and water. We hung out, took some pictures and relaxed in the sun. I then went home did some homework and had a regular week at school!!