Hi everyone, sorry for the long silence but I have been one busy girl! The end November and beginning of December found me packing things up in the lab in preparation for my departure for the holidays and shipping off my remaining slugs down to the lab in the south island for the summer intern to use. I also completed my 6-month probationary period with an oral presentation of my research proposal and question session with committee members (which went very smoothly!) which now means I’m a ‘confirmed’ PhD student here at the University of Waikato. Can’t believe I’ve been here 6 months already! It was also the beginning of warmer weather here in Kiwi land as the seasons are opposite from home. Very strange heading towards Christmas with the days getting longer and warmer….
Luckily I headed north December 7th and landed in London on the 8th. The flight was a total of 30 hours of travel time with stops in Melbourne and Dubai. Got to see some old friends and make some new ones while in England and was very very reluctant to leave (see pics). But of course was over the moon excited to come home for the holidays! It was so great to see everyone, and we even made it down to DE for the NYE weekend. For those of you who I didn’t get to meet up with, I’m sorry… two weeks was just not enough time at home and I’ll have to make the next trip longer - or you can just come visit me ;) .
January 11th found me stuck in the Chicago airport waiting for my delayed flight and stressing about missing my connection to Auckland (big thanks to Mom and Dan for helping me stay sane!). I was extremely lucky to meet the nicest girl at the Air New Zealand counter (after running through the airport) in LAX who got me onto the last seat on the last flight out that night and personally walked me up through security and to my gate. So I am now plugging Air New Zealand for anyone who wants to visit as THE airline to pick. We’ve had beautiful weather since I’ve been back and after a week of a crazy sleeping schedule I’m finally feeling back to normal.
We took advantage of the nice weather this past weekend and went for a little hike up one of the trails on Mt. Pirongia. Was about an hour up to the Ruapane lookout – but a steady climb the whole way with a scramble over some steep rocks at the end = shaky legs on the way down. The video is from the lookout point. We were lucky and had great views when we got to the top as it is common for clouds to come in quick and ruin the experience. Mt. Pirongia is south-west of Hamilton and from the lookout point we could see all the way to Ragland on the coast and back to the Waikato river and Hamilton which sits in the valley. Don’t know if the video or pictures do the view justice though. Enjoy the pics and video and let me know if there is anything in particular you want me to start including in my posts. Miss you all!!
xoxo - L
Dan and I in York
View from the top of St. Pauls - so many stairs!!
Big Ben
NYE in DE!!!
Hi Sweets,
ReplyDeleteTook me a while to realize that I had to go to your blog itself to access the video and to leave a comment. Maybe by the time you come home I'll remember how to do all this.
Great update. More, more! We'd love to have little videos of your day to day life there as well, the lab, University grounds, the town, where you ride.
Love you,
Mom