The sun is at it’s most active at the moment, because the magnetic field is about to flip which it does every 11 years or so (amazing that it’s so quick!). Anyway, this gives rise to increased solar activity, and can mean increased likelihood of auroras. The earth was given a big blast of energy and there were incredible auroras seen all over the place. As luck would have it, we’d agreed to go to a pub quiz with friends just exactly when it was at it’s most active. I wish I’d just said “sorry, can’t go!”.. by the time I went to view it, you could only see anything with a long exposure.

Anyway, some pics and video’s from around the place. Video is from Ian Griffin who makes amazing astrophotography.

My own humble offering. It was still pretty cool to get the picture though. I’d very fortunately bought a second hand D3400 which was a massive step up on my old D60. I think I now know why I’ve had very very poor photos when trying to take night pics. The D60 iso goes up to 3200, and the D3400 is 25,600 which is a completely different beast for night pics.

I’ve been contracting for about 7 years now, working remotely for a US based education company. It has been an incredibly good job to have, especially while Anna has been young. Having the ability to travel back to Europe and work there for extended periods has been just brilliant. I really enjoyed working with my colleagues, and working on a product that is in the education sector. Stressful at times, especially for the first few years where I was the solo dev. Being in charge of literally everything website related was a bit nerve wracking when the odd thing went wrong (almost always something outside of our control with our hosting provider).

Anyway, it has long been time for a change. A job came up at Vibrant Planet which is a platform for landscape and wildfire resilience, and I decided to apply. It had been such a long time since I’d done an interview I really wasn’t sure how it would go – but, it went well enough that they offered me a role. It’s another fully remote job which I’m thankful for, as I really like the flexibility. I’m also incredibly excited to be working in the climate resilience sector. To get to keep doing programming and also do something positive for communities in our changing climate, well, perfect. It is a full time role (instead of the ~ .8 or less I was doing before), but, there are a lot of upsides so I’m excited for the change.

There had been a girls trip planned to walk the Paparoas. Unfortunately a bunch of them had to pull out so Kate asked if any boys would be keen – and I was.  I’d done parts of the walk before, and unfortunately missed out when the lads went to do it for Paddy’s 40th, and I’d done some of it when Maaike and I walked to Moonlight Valley, still, a great chance to stretch the legs, so, off we went.

In my head I’m definitely still in my late 20s early 30s, at least regarding tramping fitness.  However, I don’t currently get out every couple of weeks for a 20km walk, and, I’m not in my 20s or my 30s ;)  So, in my head I was like “this is a great walk, should be an absolute doddle”, but, in reality I found it irritatingly hard work.  I was properly tired by the end of the second day when we got to the Pororari hut, and honestly, kinda irritated that I wasn’t finding the walk easy!  Lesson learned – I really do need (and want!) to work on my fitness a bit more.  60km is still 60km.

It was lovely to be out and about.  Many thanks to Kate for letting me be an honorary girl :D