Monday, June 20, 2011

June 19th, 2011

   Yesterday we had our much needed rest/catchup day. we spent the entier day in the common room working on our pictures and bogs. It was raining (hard) so it's not like we were missing out on anything. Good timing! 
   That night we all compiled our "funny pictures" and made a slideshow. That's Peter, our guide. 
    
   Afterward we watched Anchorman which I'd never seen before. It was funny, but not as funny as I thought it was going to be after all the hype. To be fair most of the hype was from, like, 7th grade boys. So it's not THAT big of a let down.
   This morning we drove an hour and a half to Hokatika to meet Ulla Lohmann our Nat Geo Expert. She and her fiancee, Sebastian (they got engaged inside of a volcano. Whatever) , finally made it after 5 cancelled flights. I was beginning to doubt she existed. She's completely precious.
    
    We all went on a hike around the gorge and then to the black sand beach that's a couple of blocks from our 'cabins'. 
   Then we went out to dinner (Lindsay and I split the most AMAZING salmon) then to the owner's house for Ulla's first talk. As it would turn out, the owner's wife is in a small photography club and they wanted to sit in. 
   Ulla started to tell us her story: at 15 she discovered a new dinosaur (well, I guess it was old. you know what I mean) and then won a science competition that gave her a scholarship to go study amphibians in the Amazon. Promptly afterwards she went to college in Australia (the school hired her for a year after she graduated as a photographer) then she went and discovered a lost tribe and their mummified ancestors in the forests of Paupa New Guinea. All before she was 21. I'm feeling a little behind schedule. 

G'day Kiwis!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you had a wonderful couple of days and are in very good hands. Keep those newsy updates coming! And, love the pics!

    LYL!

    P.S. Brittany and RLT are a little blog challenged and are having difficulty posting. But they've tried!

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