About a week ago I shirked mainland life and mainland PhD work for just under a week of remote island living. Burgess Island of the Mokohinau Islands is situated off the North East coast of the North Island. The island is a scenic reserve and key field site for another PhD student, Megan, who is studying colouration of sea birds such as the diving petrel (Pelecanoides urinatrix). While Megan and another PhD candidate are still on the island, I went along for the first half of their trip to take an opportunistic fossick around the undergrowth for Cambridgea. I didn’t have much luck (at most I found a couple outgroup species for phylogenetic analysis) which made it all just a fantastic holiday before I start knuckling down to begin my own field work.
This post is just a large photo brag.
The last photograph is there to prove that there was work going on. (Even if it wasn’t mine). Big thanks to Megan for letting me come along on the trip that she organised (field trip without having to do all the admin = literally the best thing).
Not depicted: The 45 knot winds and the 110m, 45 degree incline hill that the hut was on.
Dr Leilani Walker 