Guest Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 We spent some time just wandering the University of Otago campus. Otago was the first University in NZ, and is a major research institution. It felt a lot like University of Toronto, where it had the old, historic buildings and then lots of newer ones. Like Toronto, it has the residential college system. It's a nice place. Since it's the middle of summer break, most buildings not used for the conference were closed. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 The WCH has officially ended. DD and I are in agreement that it was by far the nicest Herpetology conference (and I would say the nicest conference, period, including the ones I've done without her) that we've ever attended. Part of that is is the biggest, but part of that was simply that the Caliber of material here was so high, and while there was a lot of networking, it wasn't an excuse to party while ignoring the conference. And the University, and really, Dunedin in general pulled out the stops and made the conference very welcome. The next one will be in 2024 in Kuching, Malaysia. Unfortunately, I probably don't have any excuse to go. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 4 hours ago, daijobu said: The bagpiper was interesting. Were there a lot of Scottish immigrants to NZ? Also a bit surprised to see the double decker bus. I mean I know it was a British colony, but I didn't know they could be found outside London. (Makes me wonder what sort of container ship carries double decker buses?) We have a few double decker buses here. They are used for tourist buses, but I do remember getting a ride one as a pre-K excursion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Apparently Weds is the day the cruise ships that go around NZ/Australia to different ports dock in Dunedin, so the train station/CBD was set up for tourists. I assume the bus was one of the excursions. (Those trips sound pretty neat-they Spend several weeks, and dock at various cities for a couple of days at a time.) We're heading back to Auckland today for one final day/night-we pretty much had a choice of a 7 hour layover or doing the same flightswith a day in between, and decided that 7 hours, with a switch from domestic to international, sounded pretty awful, especially with another full day of flights ahead... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Thanks for all the wonderful descriptions and photos of your time in NZ and Australia! It's been really fun and educational. Speaking of universities, has you dd decided where she wants to go? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Apparently Weds is the day the cruise ships that go around NZ/Australia to different ports dock in Dunedin, so the train station/CBD was set up for tourists. I assume the bus was one of the excursions. (Those trips sound pretty neat-they Spend several weeks, and dock at various cities for a couple of days at a time.) We're heading back to Auckland today for one final day/night-we pretty much had a choice of a 7 hour layover or doing the same flightswith a day in between, and decided that 7 hours, with a switch from domestic to international, sounded pretty awful, especially with another full day of flights ahead i kind of like the Dunedin airport signs 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 21 minutes ago, wintermom said: Thanks for all the wonderful descriptions and photos of your time in NZ and Australia! It's been really fun and educational. Speaking of universities, has you dd decided where she wants to go? She still has another year. UAH is the current front runner, though. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 (edited) If Air New Zealand had trouble with snakes on shirts, bags, backpacks, etc, they would have had a hard time with the Dunedin-Auckland run today. I think over half the plane had a visible reptile. DD’s backpack has sprouted a tuatara, huntsman spider, and Corrobee frog from various zoo and animal center gift shops since we left Memphis ;). https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/snake-t-shirt-flight-johannesburg-wellington-stevie-lucas-a9261096.html Edited January 11, 2020 by dmmetler 4 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 On 1/10/2020 at 5:53 PM, daijobu said: The bagpiper was interesting. Were there a lot of Scottish immigrants to NZ? Also a bit surprised to see the double decker bus. I mean I know it was a British colony, but I didn't know they could be found outside London. (Makes me wonder what sort of container ship carries double decker buses?) The Scots settled Dunedin Quote I found: The Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland founded Dunedin at the head of Otago Harbour in 1848 as the principal town of its Scottish settlement. The name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. But we get bagpipers here in Wellington too and double decker buses. The double decker buses can hold about 40% more people, so Wellington is using them to reduce congestion. But they are find that it takes longer to load and unload as people have to go up and down the steps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 One thing I really noticed on this trip was how accessible public transit is, not just in Sydney (or Auckland, but for Auckland, we never got out of the areas that most cities have good transit in, while in Sydney our house was in the suburbs), but in Dunedin, which really isn't terribly big, and is also fairly contained (a side effect of being built inside an extinct volcano). The cities we've been in have also been very bike/scooter friendly, and bike/scooter shares are common. It's nice, especially since my daily updates on my Nextdoor group for my local neighborhood are complaining about increased spending on public transit because "why should people who have cars pay for those who don't". Having been in a place where public transit and biking are really viable methods of transport, I rather resent that in a week I'm going to be driving my DD to and from the college regularly,which is easily within biking range, but requires roads where bikes aren't allowed and it would be unsafe to try-and the nearest public transportation stop is AT the college. Of course, I suspect it helps that both Auckland and Dunedin have been comfortable temperatures for biking. Biking mid-summer in Memphis requires the ability to take a shower and change clothes when you arrive-bexause you will be a sweaty mess. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Today we went to Butterfly Creek, which is a neat little zoo near the Auckland airport, which, based on the people there, is most popular among preschoolers and people with long layovers. It primarily has small native species (lots of inverts-they do captive breeding and release for Wetapunga, the giant weta (think really, really giant grasshopper for US folks. Then double it for the Wetapunga vs the Weta). We were also able to finally see, although not photograph, Kiwi. They also have an assortment of rescue animals, lots of education animals for kids to interact with, including typical farm animals, pet animals, etc, and separate collections of model, some animatronic dinosaurs and mythical creatures, complete with zoo type displays on them, their range, diet, how they were discovered, etc. Someone obviously had fun with the mythical creatures, and I can't help but think how much that would have meant to DD at the age of many of the kids there. They had things like the large NZ eels sharing a lake with a sea serpent. I'll try to post pics, but my WiFi is not super happy. We fly out in a few hours, and I think the airport area is overloaded, so it may have to wait until we're back in Memphis. It's been a good last (part) day in NZ 🙂 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 I'm glad you got to see a kiwi! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 I'm thrilled. The guys have been very reluctant to be visible, but these two were out and active. I suspect it was because it was much more empty-the little kids mostly went for the animals they can pet and the animatronic dinosaurs, while at Auckland Zoo, it was crowded (and in the Kiwi Creche at Orokunai, it was simply too early, since they're nocturnal). Similarly, we only saw tuatara at the Auckland zoo, Although several places had them (including Henry, the over 100 yr one that lives in the Otago Uni Zoology building, but seemed very reluctant to poke his head out for hordes of Herpetologists 🙂 ) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Last NZ money spent on chocolate and snake lollies. Ready to board this plane so we can be home at this time today due to the weirdness of time zones 🙂 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 @dmmetler I have loved following your adventure. Thank you for sharing all of your activities and all of the photos. And please pass on a huge congratulations to Alli. I hope you all come to our side of the world again sometime. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 A few last photos from Butterfly Creek. One thing I loved was the "history" and references given on the "mystical creatures", which matches the other animals. 5 yr old Alli would have been all over this, and even at 15, she found it cool. The Sea serpent shares with the real "sea serpents" (freshwater eels) The flight home was not super comfortable due to the weather conditions-there was a lot of turbulence (which is a real problem when the fasten seat belt sign rarely goes off on a 12+ hour flight-the bathroom lines got really long 🙂 ). And security/customs/immigration back in the US was really tough-I don't know if it's always like that, but we had a round of US screening on top of usual screening in Auckland, then immigration when getting off the plane in Houston, then another round of screening to transfer to a domestic flight to Memphis. I'll try to get the camera downloaded and hopefully the talk up somewhere. Thanks to everyone who came on this trip with us! It's been an interesting journey, and it has been good to be able to unload it in one place. And I definitely want to go back at some time in the future. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 DD got a kick out of this video at customs (at about 3 minutes). https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/video-gallery/2015/01/youve-arrived# FWIW, my baggage had a note that it was hand searched. I'm guessing it was all those Kinderegg toys in their plastic capsules :)-gotta make sure none of the chocolate eggs got in! And Air New Zealand has the best safety videos. Although by the 6th flight, the charm had worn off a bit, the United airlines safety demo was a lot less fun. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 (edited) OF COURSE a lizard would survive a trip inside someone's suitcase. When I was returning from Thailand, the customs officer was skeptical that I was returning with no souvenirs. I'm really not in to souvenirs. And then I had to confess that I had forgotten I had actually bought a t shirt at the airport. Another time I was asked how many languages I spoke and I totally flubbed it. See, I had sort of learned French in high school and Japanese in college, but not really well, and by that time I had forgotten most of it. So I was counting to myself, English --that's one, French--that's two, but wait, not really, does it count? I hardly remember anything, bon jour!, and then there's Japanese, but I remember even less of that--wait, how many was that? Does English count? I don't come off well under pressure. Edited January 14, 2020 by daijobu 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 On 1/10/2020 at 7:50 PM, dmmetler said: She still has another year. UAH is the current front runner, though. Had to look this up. There are simply too many US colleges and all the letters are confusing. 🤪 Sounds like a nice warm location! More scope for lizards and snakes than up in Toronto would be my guess. 😂 All the best with your dd's on-going research, on-line course and studies! I'm really looking forward to hearing about her future educational journey! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 Video is up! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 I thought this would be a good place to share this article about falling iguanas in the NYT. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 I have a friend who teaches middle school science in Fort Lauderdale-every year or two some kid brings in a cold stunned iguana to her science lab-only to have it revive a period or two later, leaving kids screaming about the zombie lizard, asshe says, at least after the first time, she makes sure she has somewhere to put them so they revive contained somewhat and in a reasonable habitat :). 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 DD’s article for Athena’s on the WCH https://athenasacademy.com/the-reptile-overlord-reflects/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 Thank you! I'll show it to dd when she's up here next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 On 1/15/2020 at 6:45 AM, dmmetler said: Video is up! My daughter thanks you for posting the video. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 An animal KinderJoy range finally made it here 🙂 (and I'm sure DD can be talked into helping me collect some more animals 🙂 ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 I just noticed this. Thanks so much for posting the video of your dd's presentation. She did a great job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 11, 2020 Share Posted April 11, 2020 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12323579&fbclid=IwAR23ho0BUY6OMMzSNMfJioTBGlFc0mO4xlFKwKqjOziW-zdE-1vmk2sATtQ baby tuatara confirmed at Orokunai!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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