No pictures yet

So why no pictures?
Because the cord to download to the computer has vanished.
UGH!
Can not find anywhere- but am going to try to by new cord tomorrow so you can all see the beach!

The Gold Coast

Before and after work on Wednesday I got to swim. (This is the type of climate I need to live in all the time!) This is the view to the South in Surfers Paradise

The Royal Children's Hospital of Brisbane

Wednesday, January 30th, 2007 had a productive meeting with nurse researchers and nurse leaders at the Royal Children's Hospital of Brisbane. They are interested in pursuing some research with me.

Alison Williams (nurse researcher)

Jeanine Young (Director ofNursing Research)

Me!

Marie McLaughlin(This is the nurse who contacted me via email) They would like to evaluate the pathway I developed with Karen Goldschmidt for infants admitted with early breastfeeding difficulties.

Griffith University

On Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 I had the opportunity to present at Griffith University. They are a large university with three campuses that offer degrees in nursing. Ruth Cantrill and Wendy Moyle were lovely enough to arrange all the details. Wendy, Ruth and Diane

Surfers Paradise!

Can you believe we are staying in a place called Surfers Paradise?
WOW! The only thing I can really compare this place to is maybe Fort Lauderdale or Miami Beach. There are highrise condos everywhere. Lots of restaurants and shopping.
The beach is beautiful with crystal blue water. It will be hard to go to work this week!

Flight to Brisbane

The flight on Saturday to Brisbane was great!
We got upgraded to the first two seats in first class.
It is 3 hours earlier in Brisbane then it is in New Zealand.
So we got our car and drove from Brisbane to the Gold Coast.
We had dinner at Fratelli's on the water and were exhausted because at 10pm it was really 1 am (which is much too late for us!)

Leaving New Zealand

Saturday, January 27th, 2007.
We are leaving New Zealand today. We fly at 4 pm local time over to Brisbane, Australia where we hear it is quite hot. Looking forward to that because it rains A LOT in New Zealand!

Dinner with Joan and Robyn

Thursday night, Joan picked John and I up at our hotel and we met Robyn for some good pizza in downtown Wellington. After dinner, John and I walked through Wellington (It only takes 20 minutes to cross the whole city!

The sculpture behind Robyn, me and Joan is from the Lord of the Rings.

Presenting at Wellington Hospital

On Thursday, January 25th, 2007, Diane presented for the Capital adn Coast District Health Board at Wellington Hospital. There were over 40 participants from all over the region who came to the two presentations (Preserving breastfeeding for the rehospitalized infant and Promoting and supporting breastfeeding in vulnerable infants). There were midwives, lactation consultants, and nurses from all over, and also policy specialists from the Ministry of Health.

The picture (from the far right) is of Dr. Joan Skinner from Victoria University of Wellington, Robyn (a midwife and PhD student) and Penny Wyatt, a lactation consultant at Wellington Hospital.

Picton-Where you take the ferry to Wellington

Picton's claim to fame is that this is where you catch the ferry to travel to the North Island into the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. Picton has a population of only 3,000, yet the ferry and cruise ship traffic is quite brisk! This is a picture of Picton harbour.

Sheep and Cattle

It would not be right of me not to talk about the sheep and cattle in New Zealand since there are more of them on the islands then there are people. Here are a few fine specimens that decided they should either share the road with us or pose for us as we drove slowly past.

The Spirit of New Zealand

The Spirit of New Zealand is a beautiful tall ship we saw while we were out fishing in the Marlborough Sounds. You can charter it and sail from Auckland.

New Friends at French Pass

During our stay with Danny and Lyn Boulton at French Pass Sea Safaris, we were able to meet two lovely couples, Alan and Gail Clarke who are from Northern Ireland and Keri and Mike who live in the suburbs of Wellington. We watched the comet with them, dined with them and heard quite a few tall tales. Gail and Alan travel around New Zealand in a 1928 Model A Ford. This is a photo of us and the car!

Nature Boat Tour and Fishing

Tuesday January 23rd, 2007- We took a 2 hour cruise in the Marlborough Sounds with Danny. He showed us New Zealand fur seals and more babies! He also knew an amazing amount about the NZ ecosystem. We saw tons of birds and a tiny blue penguin!

Later that afternoon, we went fishing. John and I outfished the locals! Diane caught the 2nd keeper of the day- a blue cod (a really tasty white flaky fish). Of the 13 keepers we contributed 6 so the others made out on our fishing expertise!

Dinner that night was delicous-blue cod on the barbie!

McNaught's Comet

Well what a show we had on Monday night-January 22nd 2007. Danny and Lyn Boulton, our hosts in French Pass, told us that the comet viewing has been very good and where to go to view the comet. So after dinner that night, John drove myself and our new friends, Gail and Alan and Keri and Mike who we met at Danny and Lyn's place up to the top of the moutain to see the comet. So I am actually posting the first picture - Yeah!

French Pass-The Marlborough Sounds

So ask a native Kiwi (New Zealander) where French Pass is and they very well might not know. But leave it to us we found it! French Pass is a very small community with one accomodation (other than tent camping -shudder to think of!) out on the tip of the sounds. It is a 2 hour drive from the main highway on mostly gravel road that twists, turns and corkscrews around the Mountains until you get to the very end. We arrived there by 1130 am on Monday the 22nd and by 1200 we were be shuttled by boat to D'Urville Island. D'Urville Island is home to exactly 30 residents, but they have restaurant and bar! We spent 4 hours here having lunch and some beers and enjoying the beautiful sunshine!

Starbuck's in New Zealand!

So some of you may have been wondering......... How is Diane surviving without her daily Starbucks a day?! There have actually been Starbucks sightings in Queenstown (open and we did not go in!) and Dunedin (closed at 0830 am on a Sunday morning!). However, following our night's sleep in Nelson-after the 12 hour driving day- we did take advantage of the Starbucks in Nelson before our drive to the Marlborough Sounds and French Pass.
FYI- a "flat white" is essentially the same thing as a latte.

The Drive through Arthur's Pass

This is the water under the bridge at Raikia Gorge-crystal blue water from the snow melt.

Sunday, January 21st, 2007 we had to drive from Dunedin all the way up to the tip of the North Island. There are only three places to cross over the island because of the mountains. We drove up the East Coast and crossed at Arthur's Pass. Basically the road just follows the gorge/river in between the mountains. We drove for almost 12 hours to get to Nelson.
NOTE: for those who don't like rain-the West Coast of New Zealand is not for you! However, Nelson and Marlborough Sounds is the sunniest place of all of New Zealand!

Dunedin- A Cool University town!

Saturday, January 20th, 2007-We took the ferry from Stewart Island back to Bluff in the afternoon- a quite bumpy ferry ride! We drove up the East Coast to Dunedin because we had met a farmer in Queenstown from there who said what a great town it was because of the University of Otago. We got a place right in town and went to the "Speight's Ale House" for dinner. Speight's beer is called the "Pride of the South". Fish and chips and good lager! We went to a couple of other pubs after that and saw some interesting bridal party festivities!

Greenvale Bed & Breakfast, Stewart Island, New Zealand

Wendy Hallett is the best hostess! She welcomed us to here home on Stewart Island. The island has a population of between 350-400 people only, most of it is a national park, wildlife preserve. Very peaceful. Last night we watched the sunset at about 9:45 pm from observation point. Very beautiful. Going to hike today before we take the 3 pm ferry back to the South Island. Anyone planning a trip to New Zealand should plan on coming to Stewart Island and staying with Wendy!

Land's End

We spent Thursday night in a lovely B&B named Land's End- very appropriately so- literally at the very end of the South Island of New Zealand. The morning of the 19th we took the ferry to Stewart Island.

Doubtful Sound

Thursday the 18th of January. Our second day in the Te Anau area. We had to say goodbye to Julie and Phillip at Blue Ridge this morning it was sad to go! But we had a full day trip booked to Doubtful Sound. Doubtful is way more remote than Milford Sound. We had to take a 45 minute trip over the lake and then went to the underground water powerplant. From here another drive through the mountains and then another boat ride. Out on the fiord though- totally peaceful. We saw a colony of about 500 sea lions and the most exciting thing was that the moms just had their babies! They were less than 1 week old and John got a great picture of a baby nursing!
After this full day trip we had to drive south to the end of the island.

Milford Sound-Part 2

The views at Mildford are outstanding. There are 2 waterfalls active all year round, but after a rainfall there are hundreds. This is an example of one of the waterfalls

Milford Sound

We stayed in Te Anau at the beautiful Blue Ridge B&B. Phillip and Julia were our lovely hosts. They fed us a great brekkie and we got on the road to Mildford Sound. A beautiful drive. At the sound we took a boat ride out. Really the sound is a fiord (formed by glaciers). Absolutey beautiful. We enjoyed a full day here and headed back into Te Anau for dinner and sleep

Queenstown

The flight from Auckland to Queenstown was easy and pain free. Queenstown is awesome. A very hip, young, fun place! We had a fabulous lunch on the lake and then we took the gondola ride to the top of the mountain and rode the luge!

This is the view from the top of the gondola!

We also took an amazing jet boat ride on the two rivers that form the lake. The Shotover river was only about 4 inches in some spots but the boat went over no problem. After the boat ride, John shopped and I got some cool Keen hiking sandals that the girl in the shop said were "the bomb".

The Drive from the North

Monday 15th January. This was not a fun day! We drove from the North Island down towards Auckland. Everything takes longer than predicted. We tried to snorkle in Goat Island but it was too rough and too crowded. We finally made it to a lovely beach around 5pm. Thankfully it is light until 9pm!

This is the picture perfect beach

Urupukapuka Island

The photo is of the "Hole in the Rock"

Sorry not to update in a few days. Unable to get internet access. On Sunday the 14th of January we drove to Paihia and then onto Russell in the Bay of Islands. We took a boat trip out into the Bay of Islands and saw the "Hole in the Rock" and Cape Brett lighthouse. There were literally thousands of birds and fish feeding on plankton. The trip back into the Bay of Islands we anchored in Otehei Bay which is on Urupukapuka Island. Here we had a hike to the top and enjoyed the views.

Cape Reigna

Saturday 13th of January-from our resort we took the drive to Cape Reigna. The highways here are two lanes -with one lane bridges. You will never see so many sheep, cattle, and other animals in your whole life!
So it was still misting/raining on our drive but we made it to Cape Reigna and the lighthouse. At this farthest point North in New Zealand, the Maori believe this is where your spirit leaves the world when you die. It does feel like the end of the earth.
We decided to take a hike to the beach from up at the lighthouse despite the misting weather.
The hike down was a bit treacherous because of the weather, but once on the beach-breathtaking! The sun also came out and we walked this entire strech without seeing one other person! The water was turquoise and crystal clear.
After our 3 hour hike we went to see the huge sand dunes that people sled down on boogie boards (we did not) and then onto 90 mile beach.
On a work note- I have been in contact with my colleague in Wellington and they are so excited to have me come next week and give two presentations. The other cool thing is the Australian Breastfeeding Association would like me to do some media interviews once I get over to Australia.
Signing off for now- pictures soon- I promise!

The Drive from Coramundel to the Northland

Pumpkin is one of the cats at Otama Beach Resort. He kept us company and gave us wake-up meows.

So Friday morning, the 12th of January- we woke to pouring rain. A fun day of driving in the rain. It was 2 hours back to Auckland from the pennisula and we spent an hour at the Auckland airport recovering our bags- but the good news is we have them! From Auckland, we headed North- and the great thing is right outside of Auckland we found the Kemeu wine region! We just had to stop to do some wine tasting-only 2 vineyards -but a nice thing to do- and yes it was still pouring! The drive from Auckland to Doubtless Bay is supposed to be 4 hours- it took us more like 7 with the stop for wine tasting and a quick bite to eat in Whangarei. Whangarei is the biggest town in the Northland with a population of 40,000. From here it took us 2 hours to get to Taipa Bay Resort. And yes it was still pouring!

The Coramundel Pennisula

We stayed on the Coramundel pennisula until Friday morning. It was beautiful but very rural there. The biggest town had a year round population of 4,000. We saw beautiful beaches -Otama beach-Optimo beach- and great shells on Rings beach

This is our view from the Otama Beach Hideway.

We enjoyed the beach here!

We are Here!

Well we made it to New Zealand after our layover in San Francisco where we saw my brother David, his wife Anyi, and their daughter Fayen. The flight over was great! Sadly half of our luggage did not make it. Oh well! It is sunny and beautiful here. We will try to get some pictures up this week.

This is my brother David, Anyi and Fayen

How do you pack for 3 and 1/2 months?

About 36 hours until departure, but how to pack for all this time away?! At least I am going to warm weather and summer clothing takes up less space!

Leaving on Jan 8th for New Zealand and Australia

I can't believe it is almost here! For the spring semester I will be traveling to New Zealand and Australia. I will be a visiting professor in Dr. Peter Hartmann's lab at the University of Western Australia and also a visiting professor at Curtin University of Technology. Both are located in Perth which is the West Coast of Australia.