Āwhina Global

Āwhina in Dubai

My Āwhina t-shirt went with me to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) over December/January 2010 to see my first grandson
who had been born in November 2009.   

I am standing outside on steps at the Madinat Jumeirah, which is resort complex consisting of two boutique hotels, some
traditional Arabic summer houses nestling among gardens and waterways and all built around a traditionally styled Arabic
souk or market place. Like virtually everything in Dubai it is not old (it was completed in 2003) but is a very good place to
use money. In the background is the much photographed Burj Al Arab, the 7-star hotel shaped like a yacht sail. It is about
half a km away off Jumeirah Beach, which faces the Arabian Gulf. Winter in Dubai is a virtual concept as it is better than
many NZ summers - this day it was about 28 degrees, no wind and at that temperature an Āwhina t-shirt is almost too thick!   

My son-in-law, who is a VUW graduate architect and has just finished working on some of the Dubai Metro stations and is
presently working on Masdar (an eco-city in Abu Dhabi), thought the t-shirt very stylely and wanted it, no such luck.    
I was very pleased to show my support for Āwhina and its work by helping it be seen in the UAE and to bring back the evidence.   

I've also included a photograph of an UAE native....

(updated 18/02/10)

Āwhina in Matakana Island

Te Ari, Dave and Whare at Opureora Marae, Matakana Island, Bay of Plenty.

Āwhina in USA

Dale with Barack in LA, with Michael Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard in LA; Grand Canyon, Arizona

Awhina in Portugal

Kia ora Āwhina whanau,

Lesley here, just reporting on my first international conference in Lisboa, Portugal.

Conference Name: 8th Larval Biology Symposium
My Presentation Title: Variability in larval behaviour at different stages of development for species of lobster and abalone from New Zealand.

The conference was great, met a lot international expertise.  I never thought I would get nervous about meeting a scientist, but when you have read a lot of their work it’s scary (but totally worth it!)
I fully recommend presenting at as many international conferences as possible; there is so much interesting research out there.

Portugal is an awesome place with a lot an interesting history.
I choose to use the photos of the Torre de Belém for 3 reasons:
1: Torre de Belém was build as a fortress to guard the entrance to Lisbon's harbour,
2: It was the starting point for many of the voyages of discovery, and for the sailors it was the last sight of their homeland.
3: On the day we visited it was wearing Te Ropu Awhina colours.

I saw a link between Torre de Belém and how I see Te Ropu Awhina:
+ They are both fortresses that guard (us from the stresses of uni).
+ They are both starting point for our voyages (of course unlike the sailors we will see our homeland again).
+ They both have orange apparel.

Nga mahi nui
Lesley

Āwhina goes wild

Eli with a wild parrot at Wilsons Promontory National Park Victoria, Australia

Āwhina in Canada

Long time Awhina mentor Te Raina and whanau checking out their new surroundings.

Āwhina in Niue

Helene and her supervisor (also Geography Programme Director)  David Kennedy carrying out their research in Niue. 

David had this to say: "Just back from a teaching field trip down south, it was only a day after the Niue trip so while very useful it's good to be back in one place for a while. I’m also going to write a short article for the Niuean newspaper about our trip, especially with Felicia now working for the Meteorological service and Haden at the Environment Ministry, who both helped us out. Amazing the contact Awhina has with the islands, and how incredibly useful they are when doing research there". 

Āwhina in Tokomaru

Āwhina Summer Studentship 2007/2008

During December 2007 and January 2008, I, Ramona White, will be working as a research assistant for Joel Baker and Richard Wysoczanski in the geology department at Victoria University.  I will be assisting in a Geochemistry project which will involve field work, lab work and analytic work.

The purpose of the research project is to extract and examine calcium/ magnesium isotopic ratios in limpids, paua and midden shells. The calcium makes up the calcium carbonate which is precipitated to make the shells. Magnesium is abundant in the ocean. The magnesium ratio levels will fluctuate depending on temperature with warmer ocean temperature levels associated with high magnesium levels. Isotopic ratios will give us a paleotemperature proxy of the oceans during the shell life. For example, a grown paua will live to 15 – 30 years. During this time, the temperature levels of the ocean in which it lives will be imprinted in the paua’s shell. The data collected from the shells, will allow us to compare the temperature inscribed on the shells to the temperature recorded from NIWA over the years. As such, it will be shown how precise and accurate the process is. The outcome can also be compared to show how long the seasonal cold and warm periods last for.

The work of the research will require me to collect samples of limpids, paua and/or midden shells from the surrounding coastal beaches around Wellington including Makara. Limpids are found on the rocks and can be found above sea level where as Paua will need to be retrieved through diving to depths of between 1 and 15 metres, where pauas are found. After the samples have been collected they will be taken to the lab and cleaned up before being bisected through the growth lines with a diamond cutter which. will show us the age of the shells. I will be also use the plasma mass spectrometer collect isotopic calcium/ magnesium data.

All the information collected will help Joel Baker and Richard Wysoczanski to understand changes in the ocean due to climate change. This process can be used on the shells in the southern hemisphere to determine if the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period were in fact global occurrences and, if so, how fast the acceleration of climate change is due to human impacts.

Āwhina on Dunk Island
7-11 October 2007

Haley at the Antigen Presentation conference on Dunk Island, off the coast of Cairns Australia.

Āwhina on Ice
5 September 2007

Alex takes a chill with her awhina hoodie at Franz Joseph.

Āwhina in London
4 September 2007

During a quick trip in south London, Nathan was snapped at the London Eye. Nathan is a qualified actuary. What's the probability of catching him at other well known London landmarks?

Āwhina in Print
30 August 2007

Congratulations from Awhina roopu to Hannah for her 2007 Spectrum Print Book Design Award. Judges made the following comment: "Hannah Rainforth's 'Barnaby Bennett', illustrated by Ali Teo, is simply charming, a model of its kind for younger children, with inventive typographical and pictorial variety."

Āwhina in China
25 July, 2007

The tour to China was organised by Alistair Shaw who is a Lecturer and Tutor within the School of Asian Studies. The tour spent a good deal of time exploring the Tibetan autonomous area in the northwest of the Sichuan province in China’s southwest (bordering Tibet). The tour route took us to the Chengdu Panda Research Centre, over high mountain passes (5050m at one stage) and into the Grasslands of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, ending up on the Sichuan/Tibetan border at Dege. This is the home of the famous Tibetan Scripture Printery. We also visited the famous Red Army site in Luding where a battle was held crossing the Dadu River. We then traveled around Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan) and visited such things as the Sichuan Agricultural University, Giant Buddha of Leshan (70metres tall, carved out of a cliff) and the San Xing Dui Museum (the site of ancient Shu culture) amongst many other stops on our trip.

Personally the trip was an amazing adventure. It was great to be somewhere that is completely different and to experience the incredible culture. It was a great experience and I would definitely recommend to anyone to go to China.

Andrew Parnell BSc(Hons) Geography,
Postgraduate Awhina Mentor.

Āwhina in the Solomon Islands
21 July, 2007

Āwhina Alumni Wes left for the Solomon Islands on Saturday 21 July. He is currently training in the Army and has been a Territorial Force soldier for 4 years. Wes graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science majoring in Molecular Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry. We wish the best of luck to Wes and his comrades.

Āwhina in Antarctica
27 November, 2006

I am proud of my Āwhina hoodie. Liz gave it to me on the condition that I was pictured with it on in Antarctica – and here it is! The photo was taken on the edge of McMurdo Station. Behind me, across ice is Captain Scott’s first hut in Antarctica ( Its on the brown peninsular above the A and T in the word STATION). The hut makes quite a contrast to the huge modern American station.

I am down here working on the ANDRILL project. We are understanding the history of the Antarctic Ice sheets in particular the giant Ross Ice shelf. Antarctica wasn’t always covered with ice, once it had trees and rivers, animals and birds (not penguins and seals). The ice sheets started to form as the Earth cooled from about 35 million years ago and we are trying to document the history of their development

Why is this important? – well humans are putting huge amounts of greenhouse gasses into the air and the temperature of the planet is rising. We will be reaching temperatures that the Earth has not seen for many millions of years – and we need to understand what will happen to the ice sheets as the temperature rises. Will they shrink? Will they disappear altogether? – lets hope not because if the did disappear that the sea would rise 65m flooding much low lying costal land, and completely covering many pacific islands.

Its thanksgiving here in McMurdo – and we are all going for a big thanksgiving dinner, turkey, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. Today we are expecting a balmy maximum of -1 degrees with a minimum of -6. Not too cold for down here.

Mike Hannah

Ed: Mike is the Head of SGEES (School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences)

Awhina Postgraduate Research Topics
23 August, 2006

The following list is the latest titles of research work that Awhina postgraduate students are doing. Other work is located on the Awhina Postgraduate Research for 2005/2006 page.

• Opioid receptor mRNA expression in the developing rat brain: a fluorescence in situ hybridisation study
• Malignant Hyperthermia ? If you can?t take the heat, get out the Dantrolene
• Quantifying undiscovered oil and gas in the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand
• Marine Science meets Gollum
• Exploring the Program Design Space using 3D visualization
• Stimulus Equivalence and Memory
• Schistosomiasis: Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water
• Why I take drugs even though I know they are bad for me
• Pollinator-plant interactions in Phormium sp.: the effect of an introduced pollinator
• The energy budget of Stichopus mollis for use in a semi-closed Polyculture system
• Exploring the concept of the virtual Iwi

Definitely some good work being done ... so if you are a postgrad make the time to get involved. You'll have fun, learn a lot and meet other Awhina postgrads.

Students Speak Out!
6 October, 2005

Students Stacey and Atilua talk about their studies on camera at Victoria University of Wellington.