Blog

It's been an amazing month in New Zealand! We are now at the halfway point in the program having done two weeks of volunteer conservation work and two multi-day expeditions. Right now we're relaxing in sunny Nelson before our final week of conservation work at Nelson Lakes National Park. Canoeing on the Whanganui River - expedition 2 Riverside cave on our canoe journey Carnivorous snail survey on our second week of volunteer conservation work Jordan enjoying mountain… Read more

A selection of pictures so far..... Craig Read more

Pie in the sky Chiang Mai…finally doing the laundry Chiang Mai…it's good to be high Chiang Mai…buy a lady get a guy Chiang Mai - these are all the names our group thought up to help market the city in the States because, in the words of Tony the Tiger, its grrrrrreat! Chiang Mai is a blast and a half and during the course of the last few days our group got a much needed massage, completed an 'amazing race', visited a Wat (temple), and spent a morning at a Burmese childr… Read more

Hello from Chiang Mai, Thailand! This is my first time blogging on the team blog and I want to share about our fun experiences from a few days back in Sukhothai, the ancient capital of Thailand. Although back then it was known as Siam - always makes me think of the movie The King and I. It was built in the 13th century I believe and the best way to explore the ruins...bicycle! I have ridden many bicycles in the states but these bikes proved to be quite a challenge to… Read more

We are now relaxing in the lakeside resort town of Taupo after an arduous five days of backpacking, scrambling, climbing, slipping, rapelling, tubing, canoeing, caving and camping on our journey from Waitomo to the Tasman Sea. For some this was their first backpacking trip. For all of us, the challenges of slippery moss covered rocks, tangles of vines, and having to find the energy to make camp after 9 hours of exertion was at times overwhelming. Everyone found the trip … Read more

The day we went to The Bay of Islands, we woke up really early, made some breakfast and packed the trailer. It was about 3.5 hours up to the Bay of Islands, which actually went by pretty quickly. On the way we got onto a ferry to get to Russell, where we stopped to get lunch and snacks for the week of volunteering. We met Chris, the DOC (Department of Conservation) man we would be working with the most. Once we packed all our packs and food onto the small boat we started… Read more

Today was the first day that we all got together and had our first meetings. It was all alot of fun, and in some ways adventurous; we were running/sliding down hills, dodging sheep paddies, and hanging off monkey bars! Then took I much needed R&R; at Mission Bay beach. Everyone in the group seems to have a certain dynamic to add and I think we are all excited to get started on our adventure, I know I am. Tomorrow we depart at 6:30 am for the Bay of Islands, our first vo… Read more

Photos by Jenn Read more

Sua sdei from Cambodia! How is everyone doing!? =) Here is my Cambodian experience: Takeo Province: After bribing the Vietnamese officials at the Vietnam-Cambodia border (We gave them coconut candies), we entered another splendid country including magnificient temple ruins, endless acres of rice fields, smiling orphans and beautiful skies. On our first few days in Cambodia, we home stayed in a small town of 10,000 people in the province of Takeo with a ki… Read more

Here are the links to all of my SE Asia photos so far: http://picasaweb.google.com/jessica.nicholas/SEAsia2008# http://picasaweb.google.com/jessica.nicholas/SEAsia2008PartII# Enjoy! ~Jessica Read more