Our flight to Melbourne was set at a very civilised time so we were able to get to the airport and wander around rather easily! I was somewhat concerned at the weight of our return luggage, having dispersed rocks between myself and my Long-Suffering Husbands check-in luggage. I think the limit was 20kg and I was sweating as to whether we would be under or over. In the end we were just under 18kg (phew!) and the rocks were safe for now….until we get to Australia and have to explain to customs why we have bags full of rocks. But that’s something to worry about later…..for now I have to manage the flight back to Australia without breaking my on-board vomit record of three vomit bags. My Long-Suffering mentor, having witnessed and experienced the carnage of my in-flight sickness, had done her research and managed to find a medication which, so the New Zealand Pharmacist assured her, would prevent any form of motion sickness in most humans. Being a scientist, I was more than willing to put this hypothesis to the test. So, an hour before the flight was scheduled to board I began popping pills left, right and centre……. As a […]

Thank goodness! Her voice returned! Yay for all those highly medicated, very stinky throat lozenges! She might not be able to fully feel her tongue, but my Long Suffering Mentor has got enough of a voice that she can do her presentation. Hallelujah! Dr Sanja Van Huet is a smart lady. She is a Taphonomist, a fancy word for a person who studies the sediment surrounding bone or teeth or any other interesting trace element from ages past. She’s the dirt lady of the dinosaur world – just kidding! She would hate me saying that! Anyways, her presentation of the overview of Late Quaternary fossil sites from the Nepean Peninsula, Victoria was very successful, despite, at times, sounding like a croaky teenage pre-pubescent boy (tee hee hee!) Having thoroughly enjoying the morning sessions of Tephras and Volcanism (Oh….My….GAWD!) and an open science session, lunch was a welcome time of catching up for the last time with people I have met, and talking about how much of a hangover they have from the wine the previous night (everyone did look slightly seedy!). Then I quietly slipped away to join my Long Suffering Husband, who I truly love, and is so supportive […]

I refuse to disgrace myself in front of a crowd, but I swear! This presentation-thing doesn’t get easier! I’ll be very lucky if one day I make it to my old age without gaining the reputation of the girl who shit her pants in front of an auditorium full of smart people! My presentation was scheduled for 11.20am. Which mean’t I had the first session of “Coastal Dynamics and Processes”, which I actually found extremely interesting and relevant to my own research, and funnily enough I managed to understand the majority of what was said, to fidget through! This session, being the most relevant to my Long-Suffering Mentor’s speciality meant that a barrage of questions were being scribbled down on post-it notes for me to ask at the end of certain presentations, due to her complete loss of vocal abilities, with only 24 hours to go before the Good Doctor had to present herself (God help me!). Pretending to know what she was asking about, while withstanding her rib-stabbing and gesticulations was somewhat embarrassing, but I put it all down to the experience of being a student to a very passionate, intelligent and highly-regarded scientist, who just happened to see something […]

Today began with another watching of the sunrise as I was too excited to sleep! The mid-conference field trip is always a highlight of any conference but the promise of seeing multiple volcanoes in one day was too much for this budding geologist! So, having dragged the Long-Suffering Mentor through our now common early-morning ritual of caffeine, and more caffeine (keep-cups anyone?!) we arrived at the bus stop complete with hiking packs and comfy boots! Our first stop was Mount Eden (Maungawhau). It’s a volcanic cone with a huge crater that is 50 metres deep. We were able to walk around the edge of the crater and the views over Auckland were stunning! Due to indigenous beliefs we weren’t allowed to walk down into the crater – Mataaho was a deity said to live in the crater and to be the guardian of the secrets hidden in the earth. The volcano is a scoria cone so, of course, lots of scoria was to be found (and some collected!). Next we went to the magical place of Cascades Kauri Park. This park consists of some remnant native forest and had the most magnificent Kauri Trees. They were absolutely huge – I’ve never […]

Okay…..so it always gets better on the second day doesn’t it?…… Our first sessions for today began with Human-Environment Interactions. Sounds great doesn’t it? Nice and simple? Yeah I thought so too…..and then talks such as “Anthropogenic Influences on the Sedimentary Evolution of Coromandel Harbour” (Alexander Harpur), and “Testing Lessons from the Past : Using Paleoenvironmental data to define pre-human baselines at Lake Pounui, New Zealand” (Andrew Rees)……and I was starting to rock in a corner while thumb-sucking. Despite my Long-Suffering Mentor assuring me that I was going to be okay and wasn’t, in fact, on another planet having an out-of-body experience that wasn’t altogether enjoyable, I remained dubious until morning tea rolled around and I all but ran for the scones and tea bags! It was while waiting in line for the English Breakfast that I met the lovely Dr Helen Bostock who was one of those presenters from the first day that I had been trying very hard to avoid! She assured me that even she was having trouble understanding some of the science (although I think she was just being kind and having noticed the skittishness in my eyes and the panic in my voice had sensed I […]

The sunrise from our beautiful apartment was breathtaking! And I can testify first hand to that because I was so nervous that I was awake and watching it! Having managed to get some caffeine into my Long-Suffering Mentor and prompt her to perform some personal hygiene ablutions (she is NOT a morning person!), we ambled across the road to our first sessions of the 2016 AQUA Biennial Conference – Quaternary Perspectives from the City of Volcanoes. The first sessions were on Millennial Scale Climate Variability. Huh? After a wonderful and inspiring morning tea which consisted of me scarfing scones in a corner trying to convince myself it was all going to be okay and I wasn’t the only idiot in the room, we began the second sessions on Australian Peat Deposits and the Paleoecological Potential. I was shitting kittens….. I was bombarded with wiggle graphs. Paleoecologists LOVE wiggle graphs! It’s like cocaine to them – they can’t get enough and the more the wiggle the better the high! It was like being the only sober person in a room full of happy drunks! The only words I understood were the ones I was busy googling while trying to keep track […]

It’s not like I’ve lived under a rock (excuse the pun!) but, I have never been outside of Australia in my whole life! While others were travelling Contiki tours, AB and I were married at 21 and having babies at 23! While others were building careers, I was looking after 4 children and juggling a job as a vet nurse. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change a thing! But to say that at the age of 43 I still didn’t have a passport was somewhat strange…… So, when my Long-Suffering Mentor suggested we go to the AQUA conference (Australasian Quaternary Association) that was being held in Auckland, New Zealand, I said…..”yeah, okay!”……actually……I jumped up and down squealing like a little girl whilst holding my hands between my legs to contain my pee….but that would be setting a rather undignified scenario for you…..so we shall just say I agreed, and applied for my passport! Here is a picture on the day it arrived…..and no I didn’t wear the shirt on purpose! And so began our planning for my first EVER trip outside of Australia! The conference was for five days, starting with an ice-breaker on the Sunday night (which my […]