Akaroa

Richard and I went tramping in Pirongia in the weekend. We climbed up Ruapane, the highest point at about 700 meters. I found it more difficult to climb up some rock. It was good exercise.
We got up really early on Monday to wait in the carpark to be picked up for our flight down to Christchurch. It was the first time I take a flight from Hamilton Airport so I took a short tour there, upstairs at the lounge and downstair in the bookshop. It's not big, but very functional. I bought a Marie Claire magazine for the trip.
The weather wasn't very impressive. In fact, when we got to Christchurch, it was raining. We left Christchurch Airport in a red bus. AgResearch Lincoln is not as big as AgResearch Ruakura, but it's got great equipment. They have scanning electronic microscope and transmission electronic microscope to look at very small things, HPLC and Mass Spec to look at proteins, and also run 2D protein gels. Another part of Lincoln is the manufacturing side, they make fabric, wash wool, make yarn, and make carpet. They also do accelerated testing on carpets from the factory to test how they fare after being rubbed continuously or getting burned.
Allan gave a speech about what we do, and the section leaders talked about their team, then it was the research associates' term to speak about the nitty gritty of what we all do. It was interesting to hear about the other people's work, and we can always do some collaboration in the future.
Dinner was very delicious in Bully Hayes. I had beef, although I should have ordered fish. Bread was extremely tasty. We didn't do so well in the Quiz, but certainly had lots of fun.
We started the second day with some brainstorming about 2020 Science, then Kelly and I went shopping for a little. I got two beautiful stones and some fudge for Richard. Kelly got some wool booty for her sister-in-laws, wool scarf and hat for winter, and stones for Mark.
The jet boat adventure was awesome. We went to the caves and looked at penguins and birds living in the caves. We also looked at Robinson's Cliff, where the bandit Robinson rode his horse up and jumped at the end. We went to the marine farms, and saw the Elephant rock. We spinned in the boat very fast and got wet. It was so much fun! I am glad that I did the jet boat adventure.
The bus didn't come on time so we took a walk to a restruant to have lunch. I had fishn'chips.
We learned about what the other group do and had lots of fun on this retreat. It's a success.