Field work on the on the beach, trail runs in the rainforest

We have been on the South Island for a week now and have been traveling constantly. After arriving in Picton we took the cheapest bus possible (more like an oversized van) to Christchurch where we picked up the van.
We are now the proud drivers of Luby the camper van. It came with the name. In case you were wondering the van has over 400,000 kilometers on the odometer. Living in the van really isn’t too bad; however I would not recommend it as a permanent residence.
Our first adventure with Luby was driving over Lewis pass from Christchurch to Reefton. This road is considered a major highway. Here we have realized that a major highway means switchbacks, pot holes, and a road that is generally too small for the huge logging trucks.
The bonus to living in a van is you get to park for the night in some spectacular places. The photo above is the view from our favorite highway pull off near Greymouth (very close to Eric’s study area). As we spend more and more time in the van it is becoming increasingly MANtastic. In this photo you can see a delicious meal of baked beans and crackers. Hopefully there will be a virtual tour of the van coming soon on the blog. I should mention that pictures alone can’t do the van justice, there is a very distinct smell of curry, dirty clothes and general funk that is necessary to enjoy the van experience.
This week on the south island has been a preliminary recon mission to find outcrops for my (Eric’s) project. Look at that quartz vein sticking out of the rock!
So we hiked up a creek looking for good rock exposures for my study….. no luck. But we did find lots of small water falls, birds and VERY dense rainforest.My (Eric’s) field site and myself modeling the orange overalls. Life is good.
We left the west coast just as a LARGE storm moved in. The west coast is known for rain and stormy weather. The amount of rain fall is measured in meters here. I have heard the average annual amount of rain might be as much as 8 meters.
We stopped for a trail run at Paparoa National Park. Here we ran through the densest rainforest either of us had ever seen, complete with palm trees and huge ferns.

Two Men headed south for the start of a Vantastic Adventure

Since we last reported in, we have had many adventures and misadventures. Things are progressing well and I'll be back with more from the South Ilsand after I sort through some pictures, all I'll say for now is that I wish it stayed lighter a little earlier than 5:30, but who can complain when were in such a gorgeous place. So without to much of a sneak peak of what's ahead in our VANtastic lives, here is the latest (that I have ready) on us (in slide show form, beacuse that is just more fun)

Slide 1: Our advisor Christine, CC Geology Department Chair, and master of the “Flying Fox” (one of the best playground toys in the world, who doesn’t love a 40 meter zip line)

Slide 2: Rob “The Man” - My (me being Zion, Z, or Zed) main advisor for this project, a seismic hazard/neotectonic researcher for GNS Science (the New Zealand geologic survey), and also a master of the Flying Fox (and apparently a serious man on the dance floor too, or at least we hear)

These two serious PhD folks, Christine and Rob, showed us two geologically immature boys around the active tectonic system in the southeastern part of the North Island. I was able to get a good handle on where my research project is going from Rob, and Christine was able to give me additional help in formulating the objectives of my thesis on mapping the trace of, and determining offset and earthquake periodicity along, the Ruitanawha Fault

Slide 3: While we contemplated paleoseismicity along outcrops of the fault Eric practiced his ever increasing musical skills, shovel air guitar, rocking out with some seriously offset terraces -
….oh and did I mention that we bought matching neon orange waterproof overalls with reflective tape included, we were a laugh for all the farmers we had to talk to get access to there land. They would look at Rob and Christine first, and then turn to look at me and Eric and laugh, it was a good ice breaker….too bad all of us except Rob (the Native Kiwi) couldn’t understand anyone said…I had to asked a farmer his name to write down, after three time of him telling me, then him spelling it, I finally realized his name was Tim Hope...tough one

Slide 4: The Pacific Ocean off of Napier, it’s a little weird to think about going one week and looking east out across the Atlantic Ocean, than a week later going and looking east across the Pacific Ocean. Makes you appreciate how big, or small, or world really is…

Slide 5: Eric looking very good with the sexy face in front of the Tasman Sea (the west side of the North Island) during a nice storm, there seam to be a lot of those here this tiem of year…

Slide 6: a pretty picture I want to through in there, a waterfall downstream of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, it was a nice night going to hot springs and sleeping nearby an active volcanic field, sadly we didn’t see any lava, only a waterfall, rain, and Christine as she caught up to me in the slide at the hot springs resort and took me out

Slide 7: On our way, Eric and I round the corner out of Wellington Bay and head across the Cook Straight under the view of the Southern Alps

Slide 8: Eric and his “camel tail” on the bow of the budget ferry (notice the large ding in the starboard bow) as we enter into the protected harbors of the South Island…later in the day we took the budget “bus” down to Christchurch…I don’t have a picture, but imagine a largish van, with a little trailer behind it, filled with Germans.

Slide 9: a final picture, the view from Picton Harbor as we step ashore onto the South Island and start another leg of our adventure, we picked up the camper van, and I am sure we will have some vantastic good times ahead as we find ourselves sharing a bed in our honetmoon van of “marrital bliss”...more to coem shortly once I get the pictures downloaded...thanks for reading

Gum Boots and Vegemite

Now it's my turn to throw in my "artsy fartsy" photos and give a little more detail on the adventure.

We are out for another few days of field work. It will be the unstoppable four onthis field adventure, myself, Eric, Christine, and Rob (our more than gracious kiwi host). THe goal of this adventure (besides the obvious of finding traces of faults in the hillsides, and ourselves) is to find ourselves some new field wear from the thrift stores (our curent gum boots (mine curtousey of WHOI) are great, but we need more authentic kiwi wear), mainly a bush jacket and some nice bush hats, pictures of these great items to come.


From our last field excursion (reported by eric below) I grabbed some nice photos depicting the greatness of the sheep/mountain contrast found in this currently cold and wet world.

Notice the distinct sheep/mountain characteristics found in N Zed

Eric and Christine hard at work in the field (also note the distinct contrast)

Well, that's my little bit for now, we'll let you know how things go after our next adventure ahead. SOem more rain and a ferry crossing to the South Island are on the horizon. FOr now I'll leave you with an "artsy fartsy photo" of just your average NZ countryside stream.

Rattle your Dags!

After our first few days in Wellington, we had a weekend adventure to the Masterton area to do some preliminary field work relating to Zion's research. Our weekend adventure almost didn't happen due to "heavy snow" which really means slush. Also this means that when you are at the top of the mountain pass it is necessary to create the largest ball of snow possible and put it on the bonnet (hood) of your car so as you drive down all of your kiwi friends will see and beep at you. We stayed in a hostel/backpacker and woke up to a perfectly clear sunday morning with spectacular mountain views. We had a fantastic day in the field looking at the Wairarapa fault complete with a lunch of kiwis, vegemite, wine and cheese. I think Zion will post tomorrow with some more artsy fartsy photos.
-Eric

Zion asleep at the airport

Rob's house in Haitaitai where we have been staying.
The miniature car behind Zion is our rugged field vehicle.

Field Day #1

Rubbish, Motorways, and looking right, then left.

We made it to New Zealand, good times were had on our 12 hour flight from LAX, lots of free wine and endless movies. Now we are in Wellington, we saw some volcanoes, and Eric smells, more updates to come.

Oh, and it looks like we are going to be having some nice warm nights ahead as me and Eric share a bed in the bitter cold of the NZ winter. We want to give a big thanks to Rob Langridge for offering his house and a nice comfy bed for us boys to share. NZ seams to be quite the place so far.

Blasting at the mine

The video below is of a blast at the mine.

Look closely at the beginning and you can see the whole thing ignite

Will anyone want to read my blog?

I have never had a blog, is my life exciting enough that other poeple want to read about it? I figure that Pictures from New Zealand should at least attract some attention. 

Recently life has been busy, I finished work at the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine on Thursday. Since then I have been preparing for New Zealand. We will be leaving tuesday afternoon so I have been quite busy getting things together. 

I am looking forward to Zion's arrival in Colorado Springs tomorrow (sunday) night. 

My hope is that this blog will provide a glimpse into our adventures in New Zealand so that friends and family can see pictures and read about what we are up to on the other side of the world.

Hopefully there will be many pictures of New Zealand to come, but so far all I have are pictures from the mine and Victor Colorado:

Drills at the Mine

The Mini Bike

"The Big House" my home in Victor

The Old Ajax Mine