arrived on O'ahu

Aloha @ll, I arrived on wednesday night (I left NZ on thursday morning local time). I got a nice red PT cruiser as a rental car instead of the small one I booked. That is pretty cool. On thursday, I bought a pair new shorts and a new Gophone. Unfortunately, my old one is expired.
I am staying at Nancy's place in Honolulu (close to Waikiki and Manoa). When I arrived and yesterday she was very sick. She had a flu with fever and everything, but yesterday she was much better and today we planned to go to the cinema to see Harry Potter (I couldn't see it in NZ, because all shows were totally sold out).
Then, of course, Ki and the guys in the Naish shop on thursday. It is always so cool coming back to Kailua. Yesterday I went there again and was hanging out at the beach talking to Hana and some of the others and got a little bit burned by the sun.
Today I'll give some horse riding lessons at the leeward side. So, I'll be more or less busy with that.
Read u tomorrow,
Nina

last day in NZ

Hi guys,

So, it's more or less my last day in NZ. Tomorrow at 11am is my flight and I'll arrive today at 10pm in Honolulu. Cool, hm?
I just sent a package with my wet suit and some winter stuff back to Germany. I hope, that I won't have any overweight on my luggage.
Today there are still a few business things to do: meetings with Giovanni and Rod from NIWA, bringing back my rental car, etc. and then I hope I can see the new Harry Potter in the cinema and I will go out for dinner with Bryna and Christian. Yesterday, I already talked and said goodbye to Terry and thanked him for his support, because he is gone on a field trip today. He was really nice. The whole group gave me really the feeling that I am part of them. (Thank you guys!!!)
I am absolutely looking forward to come back in summer (northern hemisphere winter).
And then I went out for dinner with Alex. It was a lot of fun (we talked about surfing most of the time).
So, next blog will be from Hawaii.

Read u in Hawaii,
Nina

sand bar raglan

Hi @ll,
Today I finished the last survey: the sand bar in Raglan. Jose, Shaun and I deployed Nimrod from a Jetski and it worked out perfectly, even in the rougher spots on the sand bar. Unfortunatly, the Nimrod's PVC tail broke during the very last deployment. That's really weird: It broke during the last deployment at the very last survey. That means, I got everything done. Wow, 9 surveys in 4 weeks!
No, I've a little bit freetime!
But tonight, I am super exhausted. It was a lot of fun on the jetski, but now I am really tired.

Read u tomorrow,
Nina

New Plymouth and the Taranaki region

Hello @ll,
So, today I drove back from New Plymouth to Hamilton. With some GPS and SD card problems we finally finished the survey in Port Taranaki succesfully. With my cold it was a little bit exhausting, but we made it.
After that it was almost dark, so I went to the cinema to see "Brüno". It's funny, but I think that the best scenes are already shown in the trailer. Pretty funny is his german (at least in the english version). His german is really quite bad.
Then after another night in my superfancy hotel and a very good breakfast with bagels and fresh fruits I drove home. I stopped for a coffee in Piopio. Pretty cool cafe there. You can't miss it. It's probably the only bigger one in the small town.
Unfortunately, my cold got worse. So I got some food and DVDs and stayed the rest of the day at home. Anyway, it was raining. I saw "The Dark Night" and "Hellboy II: the Golden Army". And probably, I will watch "Brothers of the Head" later.
Tomorrow I will continue hanging out and relaxing and will go in the afternoon to Raglan. Hopefully, we get the survey done there on monday.
I'll keep you posted,
Nina

From the east coast (Tairua) to the west coast (New Plymouth)

Hi @ll. Time is running and there are still some things to do. Yesterday, we did the survey with NIWA in Tairua. For the first time, divers deployed Nimrod to hit exact positions in 2m steps. It worked out amazingly. As soon as I have the pictures from Rod, I'll show you those. So, we came back from Tairua (east coast, coromandel), I slept in Hamilton and drove today 3hours to New Plymouth (Taranaki, west coast). Tomorrow, we'll do the measurements in Port Taranaki. The guys from the port booked this superfancy hotel with ocean view for me. That's supercool.
The pictures show the Taranaki region. The white small thing on the first picture is a mountain with snow and on the right you see the sea, how it is on the other side of the street from my hotel. Is that cool?
There are just 7 days left. Next thursday I have to go already. The time is really running.
Read U,
Nina

Napier

Aloha,
Yesterday and today I was in Napier and Nora's guest. Nora is a schoolmate of mine from the Gymnasium in Vreden. I arrived in the evening, so that we spent the monday evening talking about the things we have done in the last 10 years. Napier and Haumoana (the place where Nora and Guido live) have a beautiful gravel beach. Today Nora took me with her to work at Marineland, where she cares about and trains pengiuns and sea lions. It was amazing! The pengiuns as well as the sea lions were so friendly and have such a good relationship to the people who work there. I was allowed to feed the penguins and sea lions and had soooo much fun.
Nora, thank you again for that supercool day.
CU hopefully soon again.
Tomorrow we will do the field work in Tairua with NIWA. The first time that divers will deploy Nimrod from under the water surface.
Read u soon,
Nina

last day in rotorua

Hi @ll, Here the promised pictures. You see, the lakes are really great.
Yesterday we went again to the hot springs. Unfortunately, it rained a lot and it was okay, but not too warm. So, we left pretty soon and went to some kind of hot pools close to the hot springs. For $12 dollars you can choose between 6 pools with temperatures between 37-40°C. That is really nice. Alex and Charlotte joined me in the morning and Bryna and Christian came to Rotorua in the afternoon.
Again it was a supercool day. So, if you come to the North Island of New Zealand, you have to go to Rotorua for a few days.
It seems as if I have 2 days off, because the swell is too big in Raglan. Then I would like to go to Napier (Hawke's Bay) today to meet Nora, a classmate of mine at the Gymnasium in Vreden, who lives in Napier, now.
Read u,
Nina

lakes

Hi @ll,
Tonight is the last night in Rotorua. The surveys on lake Rotorua, lake Rotoiti and lake Tarawera went well. We did more than 100 positions (that's a lot of data to process at home).
Rotorua and the area around it is really beautiful. At lake Rotoiti as well as at lake Tarawera are a lot of beaches, where you can just go to with a boat. It is really nice. Rob showed us a lot of these spots.
After work we went to the Redwoods, a nice wood with huge trees, nice walks and trails and mountain bike treks, and yesterday to the hot springs. It's amazing. It is a small shallow stream and pool, where hot water (nice warm) comes up and you can hang out in the water. Then there is a small, cold stream passing by, in which you can float a little bit and cool down, if it is getting to hot. In the evening we went to "Pigs and Whistle" a nice pub, where they played quite nice music and dirt bike videos.
Today we went Rafting on Kaituna river. That was so cool (literally). The water had about 10°C. We had really thick wet suits, but after going down a 7 m waterfall and getting totally wet, it was freaking cold. But it was a lot of fun. The river is just beautiful, we had very nice (and cute) guides. It was supercool. My first rafting experience and I like it! Definitely, I will repeat that in the summer, when the river has 22°C.
So, if you get the chance sooner or later: Check out Rotorua, go with a boat on the lakes, go to the redwoods, hang out in hot springs (for free!) and go rafting. It's great here.
Sorry, pics tomorrow or so. The server hedre is too weak.
Yours,
Nina

Lake Rotorua

Hi @ll,
Greetz from Ann's Volcanic Motel in Rotorua (I am watching Karate Kid!). Today we did a long South-North Suvey across lake Rotorua. It was really rough, 9°C and strong winds. But we managed to deploy Nimrod 84 times and got nice data.
Rob, the boat driver (originally from London) and Jackie, a Masterstudent who helps me (from San Diego), and I had a very nice time. Even if my hands were bleeding from the rope.
After the survey, Jackie and I checked in to our rooms in the Motel (ver nice for €35 per night) and went to Rotorua City Center where you find a park with hot springs and sulfur banks. Then we went to the Kiwi center. Yes, finally I saw real Kiwis (not the people, not the fruits, the birds!). They are so sweet. Then Jackie and I went to the Polynesian Spa to hang out the one or other hour in hot lake pools (which were like the sulfur banks smelling like hell) with a nice outlook on lake Rotorua.
Keep your finger crossed , that the surveys continue like that.

Read U,
Nina