Photoblog 4 you...

Whitianga meeting :D

2008-04-30T04:43:00.021+12:00

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...

2008-02-17T15:01:00.014+13:00

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!

2008-01-12T17:40:00.000+13:00

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

2007-12-21T15:54:00.000+13:00

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

2007-12-15T17:18:00.000+13:00

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

Update3

2007-11-26T16:27:00.000+13:00

The huge party...

I'm pretty sure that someone is fear and trembling reading the title... and yes, you're right! It's the time to show to my Italian friends what New Zealand guys are able to do with their beer's bottle!

We had this awesome party on 17th of Nov (eh sì.. per il mio compleanno!!! :D ) for my birthday but especially for the French's leaving :(

We started in the morning at Virgile's place with a brunch... I mean... someone started to cook for the brunch, someone else (like me) just to help and take some pictures... :D

As you can see it was really "hard" to cook, but the result was... delicious!!

And in the afternoon we went at Gaelle and Manu's place, ready for a bbq!
A lot of friends came and it was a really great party, so.. thanks everybody again!!!

Until now the party was a "nice normal" party... but Simon and Tim (two of the few kiwi there) decided that it wasn't enought... so they started a "balancing beer competition"...
(sorry for the photos, they aren't so good, but it was too difficoult to laugh and shoot the pictures in the same time... :D )

With these performances, also Rogerio (a Brasilian guy) showed us that he could do that either:

And the winner is...

SIMON!!!!!!!!!!!
But after that Tim was still able to balance his beer in his hand, and we should be proud of him!

After that, a birthday Pavlovla was waiting for me... thanks very much to Gaelle, Raphaelle, Manu and Virgile!!!

That's all (or may be I should write "that's enough"???), thanks again to everybody, it was a really nice party!!!

Something else about the Balancing Beer Competition....
Now I have to apologize again with my Italian friends and my parents (my sister will be proud of me.. I hope), but I couldn't resist...

Lo so... scusate... è veramente una pessima pubblicità per gli italiani... perdonatemi, ma mi conoscete, nn ce la faccio a resistere a queste cose, è più forte di me!!!!
Mamma, babbo... giuro che non ero ubriaca... scusate!!! :D

Of course I can't compete with Simon... :D

Ok... I think that for my parents definitely this is enough...
See u guys! :D

Update 2

2007-11-24T16:59:00.000+13:00

Hello everybody!
This time I'm gonna tell you my second trip in NZ to discover Tongariro Crossing (http://www.tongarirocrossing.org.nz/)!!!

Tongariro Crossing (9th-11th Nov)
We were 4 when we left Palmy on Friday evening: Manu, Gaelle, Virgile and me (3 French and 1 Italian... sounds good, but we missed one more French, Raph... :( ), with a booked room in a backpacker in National Park and full of enthusiasm for the great walk waiting for us!
Of course Gaelle and me had to stop during the trip to shot some pictures, and sometimes our driver (Manu) was really kindly...

...but not always:
(honestly, this is the second shot... in the first one I was able to get the only car we encountered in the evening...)
And to defende him, I have to tell you that Virgile and he missed a sexi-show in Palmy on Nov the 9th to go in Tongariro National Park... but come on guys! It's one of the 24 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites!!!!

After a night in a backpacker, in the early morning (too early... at 7.30!!!) a bus drove us to the beginning of Tongariro Crossing (in Mangatepopo, on the left end of the black and red line in the picture).

We were just a little bit worried because the weather wasn't so nice... but luckily after 15-20 min we started to see the SUN :D

And a wonderful view appeared... Mangatepopo Valley Track:

Unfortunately, we had "only" 8 hours to finish our walking, because the last bus going back to our backpacker was at 16.15. It was really hard for Gaelle and me to walk and shot picture in so few time!!! :-\
Specially because the climb arrived soon...

But don't think that we were tired... it was just the beginning!!!

Climbing and walking, we were more and more closed to Mt. Ngauruhoe Summit (nelle foto, un altro vulcano attivo... eh sì... ero ancora a rischio di doccia lavica!!!)...

...up to South Crater, between Mt. Ngauruhoe e Mt. Tongariro...

After South Crater, we decided to go in Tongariro Summit for a short (and dangerous!!!) walk out of Tongariro Crossing. Honestly... I was really really scared to walk there...

(il segreto? Non pensare quello che stai facendo, pensa solo a DOVE mettere i piedi... o al massimo CANTA!!!)

But now we have a picture in Tongariro Summit (1978 m)!!! And we're still alive... :D

During the way back, we could see the nice view of Blue (non quello di Rotorua, un'altro... ma stavolta è davvero blu!!) and Esmerald Lakes...

...the next stages of our walk, after Red Crater:

When we arrived at Esmerald Lakes it was lunch time and...oh yes... we had our lunch on the Esmerald Lake's shore... :D

At Blue Lake we had the time just for taking a couple of picture... the bus couldn't wait for us :(

Then we started our way back... finally no more climbing!!!
And we had also a nice view of Taupo Lake:

The final tract of Tongariro Crossing was in the forest... under the trees' shadow... a dream after 7 hours of sun! Even if our feet didn't feel so good... :D (I know... I really can't complain for the nice weather... we were bloody lucky about this!!!)

Just a picture to show you HOW I was after Tongariro Crossing:

... half dead... :(

And Tongariro Crossing is supposed to be EASY... May be I don't have the fitness to walk... :(

The day after (Nov the 11th), we left our backpacker to have a look to another volcanic mountain: Taranaki (http://www.taranaki.co.nz/).
We drove along the "Forgotten World Highway" to go there... it is really "forgotten"!!! And we discovered WHY during 2/3 hours of a "great" bow-street... honestly I was about to throw up (ebbene sì... altro che Prata!!! Non ne potevo più...) but I wasn't alone... don't you agree Gaelle??? :D
But we weren't enough nauseated to don't shoot picture!!!

Finally we arrived in the civilised world, just in time to eat (yep... nauseated but still hungry!) and go at Mangamahoe Lake, in which we had a really nice view of Taranaki volcano and we met a lot oh hungry and screaming ducks (about this: thanks to Gaelle for the pictures and to Manu for his bravery... :D Sorry Manu, but I HAD to show this picture...)

During the way back, we stopped in New Playmouth, a town between Taranaki volcano and the sea...

...before to come back in Palmy.

Thanks to Gaelle, Manu and Virgile for this nice weekend... :D

Giulia

Update 1

2007-11-21T17:21:00.000+13:00

Hello!
Finally I've found 5 min to write here... it's so difficult to don't work!!! :D
Anyway, I've to update my blog and tell you what I've done in these two months here...

Update 1- Rotorua Weekend (20th-22nd Oct)

I left Palmy (Palmerston North, la città dove lavoro adesso) with a lot of French guys (really not so many just... 7!! Manu, Gaelle, Virgile, Raphaelle, Xavier, Morgane and Olivier) and 2 Brasilian (Flavia and Matheus) on Saturday morning, ready to go in Rotorua!

During the trip, we stopped a couple of time to take a great picture of Mount Ruapehu, an active volcanic mountain in Tongariro National Park (vi ricordate che alla fine di settembre ci fu un'eruzione idrotermale accompagnata da un lieve terremoto in NZ? Ecco... questo è il vulcano in questione...), and of Taupo Lake (anche questo originato dopo un'eruzione vulcanica... siete più tranquilli adesso che sapete che potrei essere sommersa dalla lava da un momento all'altro???):

At the first stop of our schedule, we visited the amazing Wai-oTapu Thermal Wonderland ( http://www.geyserland.co.nz/ )... just a little bit smelling... but really wonderful!!!

(so che le foto potrebbero essere meglio, ma state "tranquilli" che: 1- dopo questo viaggio ho cambiato macchina fotografica, 2- NESSUNA macchina fotografica digitale può fotografare i veri colori di queste terme..)

On Sunday 21st, in the morning we went in the Rainbow Spring Nature Park just to gave a look of the NZ's animals: kiwi, tuatara, geckos, parrots, fish (a lot of fish), wallaby (I know, it's Australian, but it 's so lovely!!!)... and... don't believe if someone tells you that kiwi are slow or sleepy, they're really smart!!! Try to ask to Virgile and the other guys... about 30 min to shot 2/3 pictures!!! :D

After this, we had also the time to gave a look (and shoot pictures) of the town (by the way... Rotorua's sulphur smell is not so bad! Per rendere l'idea in Italia: avete presente Bagno Vignoni???)

In the night, Manu, Gaelle, Raphaelle, Olivier, Virgile and myself went in a Maori Village to watch a Maori show (with a typical Haka dance) and have traditional Maori dinner (Hangi).

The result? Just this:

(Raph sorry for this.. :D )

We spent the last day (sigh sigh sigh) of our nice weekend walking around Green Lake and Blue Lake... but don't ask me WHY one is called Green and the other Blue Lake... I haven't realize the difference between their colour yet... :\

Anyway, we had a really nice walk around these lakes....

And voilà a picture of the almost whole group (Raph was shooting the picture...) on the Green Lake's shore:

This was just a short summary of my first NZ's trip, and... see you for the next "update"!!!! :D

Giulia

My new life...

2007-11-18T17:54:00.000+13:00

Hello everybody!

I have to begin this blog with some apology:
-with my italian friends and my sister (scusa Sara, ma almeno fai un pò di pratica anche tu!!!) because I'm gonna write my blog in English
-with my non-italian friends for my rubbish English! (and with some of them for the picture I'm gonna show in this blog... :D )
So, sorry everybody!!! :D

Ok, after this nice beginning, I want to try to explain you WHY I've created this blog.
First af all, because of my italian friends. I'm in New Zealand now and they always stress me to see some pictures of this amazing country, so: spero di accontentarvi ora!!! And I hope that in this way they could understand what a nice adventure I'm living here...
Then: I arrived in New Zealand 2 months ago, and in so few time I've met a lot of nice people, and this blog is also for them...or may be just for myself, to remember the nice time with them... :D

Now I've just to find the time to write all the nice (and really intelligent) things my brain is thinking about... :D

See u soon guys!!
Giulia