Philosophical and Moral Question...

Are human beings to be viewed as part of nature, and therefore as a legitimate element of any ecosystem to which they choose to attach themselves? Or are they, because of their inherent selfishness, hubristic sense of superiority and unrivalled capacity for manipulation, an alien and malevolent ingredient in ecosystems that have evolved in their absense?

I've been thinking a lot about this while living here in New Zealand, as humans only arrived here about 800 years ago, and have already had an enormous impact on the land.

What do you think?

Young Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Note the varied size of the fruit. This is called "hen and chickening" and is a sign of poor weather during the earlier part of the season. Grape growers are not happy when they see this. The '07 vintage is going to be a tough one for Marlborough.

Cook-out at Dr. Fox's place...
We had a great time the other night listening to some of Nick's stories, while eating WAY too much meat!

A portrait shot of the youngest falcon chick in our project at the moment. He hatched later than most of the New Zealand falcons this year.

These are the fine silken threads that glow worms hang from inside of damp caves. With the lights out, these bioluminescent beauties are really amazing, despite their somewhat creepy appearance in this photo.

A view of Monkey Bay. A small cove in the town of Rarangi. This is the spot that the Dryland's/Nobilo company named their "Monkey Bay"line of wines after. I had an absolutely wonderful day here last week. There's bouldering here as well as some caves with glow-worms.

Atop Mt. Richmond with a nice view of the Wairau river valley and town of Blenheim. And yes, that's a new tattoo... my birthday present to myself. It's a fern leaf that I drew with a bit of Maori "flare"to it.

Found these guys lounging on a hillside while hiking up the Wither Hills last week. They possess the most impressive testicles I've ever seen on any animal.... really.... I'm not kidding.

A glimpse of the Wither Hills, as seen (appropriately enough) through a patio window at Wither Hills Winery.

Don't worry mom, I'm totally in control. I didn't really comprehend how "highball"this problem really was, until I was sitting on top contemplating my down-climb. Beautiful rock though.

More bouldering...

A rare find at Castle Hill....
A boulder with a few crimps on it!
This climb was a BEAST!!!

A view of the limestone boulders at Castle Hill. It's tough to get a feel for scale here, but some of the boulders in this shot are about 30 feet in height. Really tricky climbing with few features and very little friction!

My New Zealand/Vermont climbing partner Dave Vuono, at his best with camera in hand. Dave and I had an awesome time at Castle Hill.

Nice form Miles! This is the Waihopai river, where we've been exploring numerous jumping spots and swimming holes.

I know it looks "Sketch-LaBeesch" but there's actually a deep hole just upstream from Miles (below Nate)! We've been spending a lot of time jumping into this stream, and letting the current carry us through the vineyard. And we've been catching trout here as well!

This photo only begins to suggest how vast some of the vineyards are in the Marlborough region. Beyond, are the Richmond hills, just catching some of the first light of the day.

The first photo of our pet hedgehog, before he learned to trust us and not ball-up all the time. We kept him for a few weeks, but recently liberated him to our back yard.

This is one of the vineyards that we've been working on. We hacked 2 female falcons out of this willow tree, and they've been doing really well. The Sauvignon Blanc grapes that are growing here get exported to the states. Look for "Geisen S. B." at a wine cellar near you.

Miles (and our friend Matt) took this little female from her nest and immediately fell in love with her. Sadly, she didn't care to share a smooch with him.

This is the beach where I spent Christmas day. It's a great spot called "White's bay,"just north of Blenheim. After the beach, we went rock climbing, and then caught the evening rise for a bit of fly-fishing before dark. Great day!

Not to worry... there wasn't a fist fight. Miles likes to tell people that he had to put me in my place, but I've been telling a different story; I fell out of a tree (a disturbingly common thing for me to do)

This is one of the young falcons that we're working with down here. A female named, "Jackie." She's about 39 days old in this photo.

Gotta find something to do to kill time in the vineyards...

This was the last sunset that I saw on the north island. The following day, I caught the ferry down to Picton.

Of all the rivers I've fished in New Zealand, I'm most infatuated with the aesthetics of the Mohaka. This shot was the start of a fabulous day for me and Miles.

These are some of the Maori boys that I met at the Mohaka river and spent time with for a few days. They were a great bunch of young guys, and shared with me a lot of their culture and stories.

This is about the only time I actually think that sheep are cute. Once they're fully grown, I'm generally pretty disgusted by them, but this cute little guy was soaking up the morning sun before I scooped him up.

This photo at least suggests the number of birds at this particular colony. The noise (and the smell) was intense.

One of tens of thousands of gannets at the colony. Their bills and eyes are exquisite.

The ring of white on the plateau in the middle of this picture is only a small part of the gannet colony at Cape Kidnapper's. Not a bad view for all of these baby birds to grow up with!

I grabbed up this baby tern while hiking along some sea cliffs in the Hawke's Bay area.

Great view of a stream I was fishing while hiking and camping alone in a back-country forest.

Another nice rainbow landed on a streamer while fishing at night.

The biggest rainbow trout I've ever landed on a fly-rod! This fish came out of a stream in the Rotorua area of the north island.

Absolutely gorgeous, gin-clear trout stream. Sight fishing at it's best!

This small rainbow is the first fish that I caught in New Zealand. By New England standards, it would be quite a good sized fish, but down here it's just mediocre. Regardless of size, it made for an excellent dinner.

Hand feeding a baby kiwi up in Rotorua. I had a great time getting a behind-the-scenes tour with Carol, the bird handler at a facility called "The Kiwi Experience."