Baby Steps

View from Maori Hill / City Rise to the northeast showing
University in mid-distance and hills (volcanic rock) beyond.
The Dunedin Harbour is to the right; hills in distance to right are
part of the Otago Peninsula.

I spent Sunday refamiliarizing myself with Dunedin. It was a relatively nice day (still damp and somewhat chilly), so I just walked up and down hills all day, which included a visit to the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. I am really sore from all the steep hills. I also checked out the bicycle Dhana lent me (I brought my own helmet and lock etc.) - and discovered how incredibly scary it is bicycling on steep downhills - I'd forgotten that too. I got a three-month membership to the Swimming Pool / Gym. This morning I had my first early morning swim for a very very long time.

View in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens

I  stopped in at GNS (Geological and Nuclear Sciences) en route to work this morning and met up with Dr. Nick Mortimer, with whom I hope to do some provenance studies work. We talked about my plans, and he gave me pointers on navigating my way through the mountain of literature that has evolved since I last worked here, and gave me copies of the two key new maps that I will need to refer to. I also learned about how new stratigraphic names are handled in New Zealand (I'll probably be naming some).

New Zealand Bush - on the banks
of the Leith near the Botanic Gardens

Since this morning I have learned how to scan paper images to my thumb drive on their copier, so I am now only keystrokes away from actually making headway.

I smelt all the herbs