Letting Beauty Do The Work

Turns out, all I needed was a few days in nature. While Fran has her ocean, my heart responds to forest (or as they say here "far-est"). And what incredible forests they have! As one student said to me, "You can imagine a dinosaur coming through." Yes, I'm finally interacting with students.

They did great without me. See the rainbow?

This week I let Fran and Jeremy fend for themselves for a few days while I went along to help out with the junior-year ecology field trip at the Catlins, in which students develop a research question, design an experiment to test it, and collect the data- then when they get back to campus they analyze the data and write up a paper. Several extra faculty come to help with the first steps. I was excited to consult on three projects: one with an evolutionary question about epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants and trees), one investigating insect communities in forest versus wetlands, and one looking at snail habitat.

The Catlins is the coastline area on the southern tip of New Zealand, and has stunning beaches, dense forest with at least four species of tree ferns, and other types of ecosystems including the peat bog pictured above. Although you can't see it, the ground is literally spongey. I enjoyed helping (mostly watching) the students set up their traps for moths and ground crawling insects.

Sir Alan, talking to student Taylor, who broke his arm skateboarding

A highlight of the trip was also meeting the other faculty, including Sir Alan Mark, knighted (yes, really) for his conservation work.

I came home to Valentine's roses, a beautiful card and chocolate! The next day our Colorado friends Sandra and Scott came to stay with us, and we went on a hike in the Flagstaff Reserve.

Jeremy was completely exhausted by the climb up the hill.

But was sustained by a discovery of a blackberry bush.

The view was incredible.

I think we've all reached some level of acceptance of our new surroundings and are enjoying both New Zealand and each other. The beauty of this stunning landscape certainly helps.