Biodiversity photo contest

The last two weeks have been a real roller coaster ride. I got some great news on the 10th September - I won the International year of Biodiversity Photo competition run by the Dept of Conservation, Forest and Bird, NIWA & UNESCO. Judges were Kim Westerskov, Craig Potton and Norman Heke of Te Papa. And to top it off DOC flew me down to Wellington, put me up in a swanky hotel and took me to the awards night at Zealandia! All that and a cheque for $1,300. I had a sore arm from pinching myself to see if it was real. Here's my winning photo.

I had a great day in our capital city shopping & visiting the art galleries and was even given a tour of the DOC building, an eco friendly design that was full of friendly people. It was all wonderful til the flight home. The weather had been a bit dodgy but nothing major until I was 20kms southeast of the Whakatane airport when the weather turned very violent very suddenly. We spent 20 mins circling the airport being tossed like a salad waiting for an opportunity to land. Troy was waiting in the carpark with the car rocking in the wind gusts as he watched the rain blown in sideways along the runway. My parents listened to the plane fly low over their house more than once as I sat a couple of hundred feet above them gripping the armrests in a cold sweat. When we finally landed it was without incident but there was some very relieved passengers I can tell you. " Welcome to Whakatane, we hope you enjoyed your flight." YEAH RIGHT!!!