Whitianga meeting :D

Hello everybody!

I know, I'm already in Italy... sorry I haven't got the time to write here before my departure from NZ (so sad guys... so sad), but I would like to show u something else about "my New Zealand trip"!

In this post I'm gonna show some pics from the best Meeting ever in my life (in which I did the most crappy talk ever...): Whitianga '08-New Zealand Phylogenetic Meeting.
One of the gifts for this scientific meeting: a really fancy beaker (work in progress for the photo)!!!

Anyway, look at the Hot Spring in Coromandel Peninsula... amazing (as usual in NZ)!!!




And plenty of strange animals... :D


And along the walk going to the Cathedral Coves:

So... what do u think about???
C u soon (I swear!!!)

Rafting and...

Hello everybody!!!

I know that it was a long time I didn't write here... sorry... too much work!!!
Today I'm gonna tell u the nice rafting-adventure we had on Sat the 19th of Jen.
We were 7 of us: Rogerio, Klaus, Tim, Julien, Morgane, Barbara and me, going for ratfing and bunge jumpee/flying fox!

We had a rafting trip along Rangitikei river, the Sandstone Gorge Trip (http://www.rra.co.nz/raftsandstone.htm), quite easy but with really nice landscape!!!

And we got definitely wet... it wasn't so funny to feel the cold cold water getting into your pants at every single (even small) rapid... :\ But luckily it was a real sunny day and we could dry off!

After rafting, we went in Taihipe looking for the Mokay Gravity Canyon (http://www.tourism.net.nz/listings/frame/unknown/27915) ready (more or less) for the main purpose of our trip: bungy for Morgane and Tim and Flying Fox for Barbara and me!!!

The brave jumpers were firsts, but as u can see they hadn't the same "style"... And the very useful advice just before to go to the bridge didn't help so much!

But they survived even if it seems that the first words of someone after the jump were "never again", can u figure out watching the photos who told that??? (someone with two different sexual chromosomes who's gonna kill me before my departure I think...) :D

But Flying Fox was waiting for Barbara and me...

It was so great!!!! And we were worried about screaming! "Scream or don't scream???" That was our question going at the point of departure... the answer? Watch this video...

We enjoyed a lot our trip and after that be sure that I'm gonna do EVERYTHING: bunge, swing, skydiving.... :D

South Island!

Hello everybody!
I came back on Monday from my great trip in the South Island that it's just... bloody amazing!! Unluckily now I'm suppose to work, so I don't have the time to tell u everything I did there with Ciro, BUT if u want to see our wonderful pics u can have a look here:

http://www.pilusci.org/nzadv/Main.html

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!! :D


Per gli amici italiani: come avevo promesso a qualcuno di voi e, soprattutto, per farvi crepare d'invidia....

...mi aspetto milioni di offese per questo... :D

Auguriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hello everybody,
this post it's just to tell you: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
We'll see in 2008!!! :D

Cheers,
Giulia

PS. we had a Christmas Hangi (tipica "cena" Maori con cibo cotto in una buca nel terreno con rocce "infuocate".. vi spiegherò meglio in Italia... ora proprio nn c'ho voglia) last Friday, and look at this (of course still Tim and Simon... they really love my pictures...):

The Christmas Elf...

...and object lessons of balancing beer:

Kaikoura Meeting 7-9/12/07

Hi!
I went with Simon (the balancing beer guy), Esta, Lorraine and Mary (which work in my Department... I mean, I work in their Department) in Kaikoura for the Molecular Ecology Meeting and I haven't miss the chance to shoot pictures of the South Island! By the way, it was a really friendly meeting and I talked about my results!!! In my rubbish English... :\ But it seems that almost everybody have understood what I was talking about....I hope.

I think that I can write in Italian now, just because the most (all??) of my non-Italian friends know Kaikoura and South Island better than me! And ok... I'm too lazy and tired to write in English.. :)

Per andare a Kaikoura abbiamo fatto il seguente tragitto in auto: Palmy (la città dove lavoro)-Wellington, trasferimento nell'Isola del Sud con il traghetto fino a Picton e poi ancora in auto verso sud fino a Kaikoura.
A Picton ci siamo fermati per campionare alcuni molloschi che servono a Simon e abbiamo incrociato qualche simpatico cagnone con taaaaaaaaaanta voglia di giocare:





Per i miei colleghi: guardate che caspita di molluschi ci sono qui!!! Sono conchiglie enormi, e guardate che poliplacofori!!!


Andando verso sud poco prima di Kaikoura....




...le foche!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Puzzolenti, enormi e dormienti... troppo belle!!!! Ah nella foto in alto a destra c'è ancora Simon che sta cercando i molluschi... notevole l'espressione che aveva la foca... (in the picture with Simon researching molluscs the seals was watching him in a quite marvel face... really I can't understand WHY... :D )
E intorno a Kaikoura, ecco quello che c'è (invidiatemi pure...):

E ecco qualche foto di Kaikoura e del mare... scusate se alcune sono proprio "crappy" (http://www.wordreference.com/enit/crappy), ma ormai nn riesco più a fermarmi quando ho la macchina fotografica in mano...



Al ritorno ci siamo fermati per cercare altri molluschi a Whites Bay:




E poi dal traghetto, abbandonando l'Isola del Sud:

Ok.. that's all and sorry to have written this in Italian... if someone's used to read what I write of course... :D