Goodbye Classes, Hello Research

Week 13. A very hand-cramping, wet-tramping, and fuel-hungry week.

Poor Knights, my favorite part of this entire New Zealand experience, was followed by something a little less favorable: Final Exams. One week after our arrival back to EcoQuest campus, all 26 of us students sat in the Wharekai where we took our 4 hour final exam, covering all classes. The exam was 3 questions long, one for each class, and formatted as essays. Not very fun, but we were glad when it was over. We were given the rest of the day to relax and veg, for the next day, DRP's started.

DRP's (Directed Research Projects) was the concluding activity to the EcoQuest program. Yes, it meant that papers, quizzes, exams, and lectures were over with. But it also meant extended hours of research, late nights of analyzing data and writing our final research paper, and a presentation to all stakeholders. All by the beginning of December.

A few weeks ago, all EcoQuest students were presented with 5 different DRP projects, where they could more or less choose which one to be their first, second, and third choice. There were 2 biodiversity projects, both stationed on island off of Auckland, a lizard project, also stationed on an island off of Auckland, and insect project stationed at EcoQuest campus, and my project, the frogs, stationed in the Hunua Ranges. The "froggers" consisted of myself, Jess, Zack, Adrian, Miranda, Jo. A very good team, if I do say so myself.

The first few days consisted of reading a stack of papers that stretched from the floor to the top of my waist. We were told that by the end of the week, we needed to have a rough draft of our introduction and methods sections. On top of reading and writing, the froggers were told that we would be in the field all day Thursday to practice research techniques before our first official data collection the following day. In other words, we had Wednesday to read and write. Oh good.

From that Friday to the following Friday, the froggers spent time in and time out hiking, scaling cliff and ridge faces, climbing up and around waterfalls, tramping through waist-deep rivers, and turning over thousands (ca. 17,200) of rocks, searching for the elusive Hochstetter's frog. Though every waking moment of this project seemed to be filled with wet feet, cold bodies, and tiresome legs, we pushed through. We were warned that this was going to be the most physically demanding and intensive DRP project, but we didn't care. The challenge was accepted. And we couldn't be more happy about it. We absolutely love our DRP project, unlike many other groups.

The next few weeks, what little time we have left at EcoQuest, will focus on data analysis, writing our research papers, and creating a presentation that will be seen by stakeholders around Northland North Island.

So what did I learn in the past few weeks?

1. There are only 19 days until I depart from this beautiful country that I have called my home for the past 3 months - so sad,
2. Frogs are not fun to find, and
3. Don't stray away from an opportunity that is displayed as hard or challenging. Sometimes, the hardest things in life tend to be the most rewarding.