New Zealand Maymester 2017!

The morning was just like any other as we all woke up and were eating breakfast in the common room of the lodge by 8 AM. The fog was intense, and we all piled into the cube van and the smaller motor vehicle around 8:30, not knowing what the weather would be like for the rest of the day. We were GABE’d out as we made our way to Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. We stepped out of the van to a cool -1 °C. The group began the morning by walking over to the sunlight and engaged in our first ever morning calisthenics session, leaving our sore bodies very grateful. Once we were alive, awake, alert, and enthusiastic, we hiked about a kilometer up sheer stairs to a spot that overlooked Tasman Lake, where we toured yesterday on boats. At the lookout, Dan described our task of the day: discovering the relative ages of three moraines we would visit over the day. We could do this using by measuring lichen diameter on rocks, because the size of the growing lichen indicates that the larger it is (and ...

Dawn in Twizel on the edge of Lake Pukaki brought us foggy morning air and the classic maymester breakfast spread. Hopping into the van and soob 2.0, we careened through dismal weather and progressively crushed hopes along the highway, climbing in altitude. Nonetheless, morning clouds lifted onto beautiful vistas of the lakeside and the day was saved! We stopped mostly to look at a sheep farm that happened to sit above a huge flat gravel area. As a understandably confused sheep farmer brought his dogs past us and closed the gate, we determined we were looking at a glacial outwash plain. Next we took off to an overlook above a menagerie of braided rivers fed by the glacial melt as we got more and more hyped to see the glacier we keep hearing about. Up the mountain in amazing sun we reached the Hermitage lodge and flanks of Mt cook. After seeing the lodge, a favorite of Sir Edmund Hillary, we hopped on a bus with a cranky driver (made us appreciate our own chauffeurs!) before a short...

After our adventurous free day in Queenstown, Dan treated us to a late morning. With a 9:30 departure, we hit the road to our next stop, a small town called Twizel. Most of the drive was in a gorge along the fault between the Pacific and Australian plates, which created beautiful mountains surrounding each side of the road following New Zealand’s Southern Alps. We took one scenic highway-side detour before arriving at our intended destination: the south end of Lake Pukaki, a glacial lake running from the foothills of Mount Cook down about 50 km south. We made sandwiches with baguettes and toppings brought in the cooler, and ate them while admiring the uniquely blue water from the boulders of the dammed end of Lake Pukaki. Here Dan gave us a basic introduction to glaciers, which are our focus for the next week in the South Island. Glaciers can be thought of as flowing bodies of ice, which carry rock and debris “downstream.” At higher altitudes, snow collects and compacts into ice, addin...

Woke up bright and early and started cleaning the lodge we were staying in. After taking out the trash, tidying the rooms, and carrying all our bags down the steep scoria hill, we packed into the cars and headed for Auckland. After 5 hours of listening to Tom's authentic New Zealand music, we arrived at the airport an hour before our flight. We were shocked when security only took 5 minutes, we had the luxury of getting to leave our shoes on and got to take through as many liquids as we wanted. We were also never asked for identification (yikes!). We had an absolutely lovely flight with Air New Zealand, watching the sunset over the horizon as we said goodbye to the North Island. Some of our favorite parts of the flight included the hilarious informational video, the complementary wine, and the assortment of cheeses. After landing in Queenstown and grabbing our bags, we piled into an identical white van and drove to our motel - The Pinewood Lodge. Us kids had a delicious dinner at t...

We woke up after a night spent at the Hotel Skotel Holiday Inn in good spirits. The showers were heated, the breakfast was plentiful, and we were ready for a full day in the field, even after being separated from our home sweet Snowline. Our first stop was along the road on the way to the Mangatepopo Valley Tongariro Crossing Trailhead. We did not know what to expect, but we definitely did not expect to foray through the bushes and newly formed snow from the day before. As we scaled up the mountain, we took a stop at an outcrop, where we whipped out our handy dandy notebooks and went to town on our STC to analyze this mysterious structure. Through our observations, we were able to determine that the layers in the outcrop were deposited at an angle, facing into the side of the mountain. Although the individual layers were well-sorted, there was a wealth of grain sizes, ranging from very fine sand-sized material to very coarse, cobble-like clasts. We decided that the layers we were s...

Today we woke up to an unusual surprise – about 5 cm of windblown snow that had accumulated throughout the night. Although Mt. Ruapehu looked like a spectacular winter wonderland from our window, we began packing layers on layers (six for some people) and trundled down the hill from our ski lodge, resembling the kids from A Christmas Story. Our assignment seemed fairly simple for the day - create a detailed map of the geology of a valley at the base of Mount Ngauruhoe, which some might know as Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings. Mount Doom seemed an appropriate name as we worked through five different elements of rain, sleet, hail, snow, and as Lydia describes, “snail,” a mix of it all. We ventured out to the valley at the base of the mountain for some mapping, armed with only tracing paper and a map. As we hiked several kilometers through the valley, we examined features such as topography, vegetation, and the texture, structure, and composition of the rocks we saw. By examining th...

Leaving the comfort of our heated rooms, we prepared for a day full of roadside adventures by packing our lunch, putting on our layers, and praying it wouldn’t rain. Between us two blog writers, today we wore 18 articles of clothing; not including hats and gloves! Gone are the days of simply walking out the door and into the van. Instead, we made the treacherous trek down a precipitous slope of boulders before snuggling into the van. Our first stop for the day was a (you guessed it) roadside outcrop, off of Highway 47, north of Mt. Ruapehu. Donned with our essential hi-vis gear, we were able to diagnose ignimbrites from Taupo and a lahar and volcanic deposit that came from Mt. Ruapehu. The Taupo eruption left 7 layers of pumice. Some layers were very fine grained, while others had pieces of pumice up to 15cm. These large pieces were found in pockets rather than continuous layers. These layers sat on top of the darker Mt. Ruapehu deposit indicating the Taupo eruption was mo...

Some days of geology field work feel like a vacation – today was not one of those days. “Monsoon” is perhaps more accurate. Our day began before dawn in order to pack and have one final breakfast in Rotorua. We packed into the van, rain gear at the ready, to pick up our newest member, Tom Garden, a graduate student at University of Canterbury. With Tom on board, it was a quick drive to our first stop at the Wairakei Power Station, a geothermal power plant. Tom walked us through the basics of power generation, with wells being used to extract steam and brine in order to power turbines and generate electricity. Overall New Zealand has ten geothermal systems, providing 15% of the total electricity consumed in the nation. With Tom introduced, it was time to get to work on the first outcrop of the day. Once again donning our fashionable high-vis vests, we observed a roadside outcrop. After two hours of observations using the STC method (structure, texture, composition) and soaking thr...

We had our first free day today :) Although very rainy, it sounds like we all had fun. Nora, Melanie, and Maddy went white-water-rafting (on level 5 rapids!!), lone-hobbit-Liam found his way back to his hobbit hole for a tour of Hobbiton, and Robby didn't get to go zorbing because it was too windy (it's a sore subject). Overall, we had great free days, and are ready for Mt Ruapehu, our next stop. **Mount Ruapehu does not have consistent cell or internet** If you don't hear from your favorite Maymestees for a few days - DON'T PANIC. We're happy and healthy in the "wop wops" aka the middle of nowhere. Love, Lydia

Today was our first day collecting samples as a team. We had our first breakfast at our hotel in Rotorua, and were off for our first day of ~real geology~. Last night, Guil talked about how today would be less predictable than our previous days. He explained that this is because we would be looking for samples for their research on a specific eruption in the area, and they weren’t sure of the location and condition of outcrops. We were ready for anything! First, we had to go through the ordeal of collecting permits for driving on backroads and retrieving samples for study in the US. We then drove to the Kinleith Forest and drove around for hours searching for an accessible outcrop. There were many hurdles along the way that put our skills as a team to the test: branches across the road, a fallen tree above the road, and two trees blocking the road with their roots still in the ground. But with rock hammers, all hands at work, and great communication, we were tree-umphant! At the...

This morning was our last day in Ohope. As we packed up our bags early around 6:45am, we were excited to finally be able to head out to White Island since the weather was nice enough to allow a voyage there. After a fairly short hour and fifteen minute ferry ride, we anchored about 30 meters from shore. After being given hard helmets and gas masks, we were fully prepared to invade the Island of White. We boarded a small dingy with hard hats on en route to the shore, where we were greeted by our island guide Fiona.  Once on solid ground, we began the gradual ascent towards the crater of the White Island volcano. We stopped at two locations on the way towards the crater, looking at places in the ground where steam was coming from the ground that was either bubbling in pools or flowing from holes in the ground. In addition, we also observed seismographs and webcams that GNS scientists had placed to monitor the activity of the volcano.  We learned that the Taupo Volc...

We woke up earlier than usual today to the disappointing news that our previously scheduled trip to White Island would not occur due to inclement weather. However, Darrren, Guil, and Lydia had another exciting day planned for us: visiting The Redwoods in Rotorua, a giant California Redwood Forest. We piled into the Cube van and the smaller Subaru outback and enjoyed a very scenic, hour-and-a-half long ride to Rotorua, with some of the music from Harry Styles new album. When we got to Rotorua, we stopped at a bakery for some pre-geological snacks. With snacks in hand, we pulled up to The Redwoods and set off on our hike. After hiking for about half an hour, we reached a scenic outlook, overlooking the entire basin of Lake Rotorua. Here we learned that the ridges we were standing on were the edges of a 13 km wide caldera. A caldera volcano is one that, after eruption, collapses in on the empty space created by the erupted magma, creating a giant, crater-like area, called a caldera. We sp...

We were ecstatic when we awoke to a gorgeous sunrise, which many of us slept right through after the cold wet day before. We enjoyed a surprisingly orderly breakfast, and made our way to our first outcrop of the day, hoping to learn about the different explosive volcanic deposits.  Quickly moving past a brief stint of vandalism (we ruined a perfectly good lawn finding a place to park), we received a brief lecture from Darren about field observations and sketching. Armed with our measuring tapes, hand lenses, and hyper-fashionable high-visibility orange vests, we explored the mixture of pumice and lithics in the outcrop. Lithics, for those keeping score at home, are small fragments of country rock entrained during eruption. After a few hours of intense study, we came to the conclusion that this interesting mixture of pumice, lithics, and ash was a result of an explosive eruption. due to the consistent wavy layering and organization of the grains of the outcrop. In particular, we no...

We woke up today to a bit of rain. After double checking that our raingear was thoroughly packed, we made our way over to Guil and Lydia’s to prepare our field lunch and down a hearty breakfast. While letting the rain subside, we gathered together to learn a quick overview of rocks (if one exists). With a guest lecture from our new accomplice Darren Gravley, a professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, we learned the difference between felsic and mafic igneous rocks, the components of magma, and how viscosity and volatiles affect the processes of volcanic eruptions. After this, it was time to head into the field. We all packed into the van and “Soob” for a scenic hour-long drive towards the southwest of our temporary home in Ohope, to Tarawera falls. Though the rain continued, we were no less excited to start our hike led by Darren. During this hike we learned how hydrology, ecology, and geology all interact with one another. Though unrelated to geology, th...

Super exciting and adventurous second day!! A few of us woke up early and watched the sun rise on the beach (only ~30 meters away from our apartments!), which was a wonderful way to start the day! At 8:00 AM we all met up for our first group breakfast and it was both chaotic (with 13 people in a small room) and delicious! Then we packed our lunch and piled into the cars, ready for a full day on the coast. We drove half an hour to our first stop – the top of a cliff in Whakatane, which overlooked the cute houses in the basin and had an absolutely incredible view of the ocean! We had a group discussion about sedimentary transport processes and made observations about what agents might be involved in the movement of sediment in this specific location. We all came to the conclusion that one of the most prominent sources of sediment were the mountain ridges surrounding the basin, and the basin itself was a sink (where the sediment is deposited) - especially at the end of the long meandering...

We've all made it to New Zealand and survived our first day! Most of us arrived yesterday or the day before, and got a chance to explore various parts of Auckland, including the SkyTower, One Tree Hill, and the islands of Rangitoto and Devonport. We all met to go out for our first dinner as a group, and then returned to our hotel to sleep after our long travels. We woke up this morning, had a quick breakfast, and piled into the van and Subaru. Our first stop was a quick ten-minute drive away to Mt. Eden. When we arrived, Guil and Lydia passed out some trip essentials: rainproof field notebooks, maps, pencils, and, most importantly, containers for snacks. Before our quick hike to the summit, we learned a few ground rules, our favorite being GABE (Geologists Always Bring Everything). At the top of Mt. Eden, we oriented ourselves on our maps, looked at the volcanic crater, and took our first group picture!  Our second stop of the day was just down the hill at the base of Mt. Eden ...