Bros, Possums, and SUNSHINE (followed by more rain)

Hello again friends and family (both mine and Eric’s),
The last time we left you, we were enjoying a beautiful night in the wet wan together as we enjoyed each other’s company and the lovely smells that come form our sink. We touched another glacier, it was raining again, we had fun playing in the glacier “danger zone” where everyone else happily strolled with us, unconcerned by this lumbering geo-hazard (which NZ is full of apperntly).

Then, being fed up by 2 weeks of the rainy West Coast and our spirits a little downheartened we headed over Haast Pass into Otago, the slightly dryer region of the South Island. We stopped for night in Wanaka, lots of “bros” there for the snowboarding. We decided to head off on a tramping (backpacking) adventure to get ourselves in the backcountry. The route chosen was in one of the ranges farthest inland (hopefully with the least snow up high) so that we hopped to get up high and summit a peak or too. The huts we were traveling too were privately owned, after talking to the owner we realized this was a pretty low use route (because there are more popular routes when it’s warmer than the end of winter), but the huts were free and we were told we probably wouldn’t see anyone else this time of year. Our first day was a fun adventure of driving over several river fords to get Luby to the trailhead, which was a huge river delta emptying into one of NZs massive alpine lakes. Then we packed gear and the following morning we headed off for a day of trail free ridge hiking in beautiful weather, but things here in NZ are a bit steeper than CO, that came to be pretty apparent as we pounded up ridgeline after ridgline working our way up into the mountains.

We finally got up high enough to see Mt. Dingle, which was our goal for the trip, though upon seeing this glorious peak we realized without some ropes, crampons, and ice axes this might be a little out of reach for a summit.

So we decided to summit the tallest peak in our area that was accessible in this late winter/early spring snow capped alpine environment. From there you could easily see (and point) at our original goal.
-summit pic
From the summit you could get a great view of the basin where our Moonlight Hut was, a couple thousand feet below us. It was truly a beautiful and remote place.

We got down to the hut after a full 2 lunch day of ridge hiking and endless assents and descents. It was a tough day, but hey, IT WASN’T RAINING!
But the fun wasn’t over yet, turns out we were the first people to the hut since last fall and upon entering the hut we found the place completely rubbished (trashed). We surprisingly came upon the current resident of the hut hanging out in the corner, a possum, not looking so happy with us being there. Well, to make a long story short, and to protect those that are maybe not so accustomed to some of the harsher aspects of life, we did our duty to help in the elimination of an invasive species from this pristine New Zealand environment. With that behind us, we spent a while cleaning up the cabin, glad to wash the table free of possum terds, and enjoy this backcountry world, knowing there was just a little more safety for all those native ground dwelling birds out there.
Later in the night, the fun didn’t stop, I was awakened by a growling screaming noise from outside, flowed by a clawing and scratching noise by the fireplace hole I had covered up near the doorway. I guessed that that our possum friend from earlier may not live alone, and his mate was trying to get in. I turned on the headlamp to investigate and the clawing stopped upon using the light. Thinking that I had scared the friend away I fell somewhat back to sleep only to be awakened again by a renewed clawing at the blocked up hole, this time though, not wanting to sleep through any unwanted entrances and potential mauling by pissed off possums, I got up, put on the headlamp, stepped into Eric’s jandals (kiwi flip-flops), and grabbed the axe. Meanwhile Eric snored away peacefully, blissfully unaware. I headed outside, upon opening the door I half expected to be jumped by a band of large cat sized possums with gnarly claws, so I decided to go out axe poised. Got outside, no sign yet, headed for the hole’s entrance, but found no one there to meet me, did a lap of the cabin and nearby woods ready to scare away anything (just imagine meeting a guy walking around in the woods in the middle of the night wearing only flip-flops, boxers, and a headlamp carrying an axe, I bet you’d be a little scared too)…and I guess the scare tactics worked, went back to sleep, and didn’t run into any varmints the rest of the night.
So the next day, deciding the ridge route maybe wasn’t exactly what we wanted again, we took the “trail” back down the stream and river valleys back to the van. Whatever trail was there, had been overgrown, so it was a fun morning of bush whacking followed by an afternoon of about 2 dozen stream crossings, most waist deep in beautiful silty freezing cold spring meltwater, but hey, it was faster than the ridgelines. And, IT WASNT RAINING!!

We finally got back to the van, luckily in one piece, and not ever coming close to being washed away by the Timaru River.
The following day we headed back through Wanaka to Queenstown, and as we got into the city we got a glorious flat tire. Being a pretty big piece of shrapnel puncturing our tire, it went flat pretty fast, so we pulled over, pulled on our bright orange overalls, and got nice and muddy fixing the tire (seeing as how it was raining again, right on par). We felt pretty proud of ourselves for getting everything fixed and good to go in 20 minutes. Then we headed into Queenstown. Turns out it is a pretty crazy place, we were keen to leave this morning and head over to Milford Sound or Te Anau for sea kayaking in the fiords. Unfortunately, when we went into get the original tire repaired or replaced, the later being the only option due to the size of the hole, there were no tires of the right size in this town so they had to order one in, supposed to be here tomorrow, in the mean time we are waiting it out in ski town paradise, pretty much the Aspen of New Zealand.
Well let you know what the future holds, sorry if this entry is a bit babbly, I’ve been sitting and writing concise thesis text all day and this entry is about exactly the opposite of that, figured I ’d mix it up

Eric and Zion bring the Van to you!

I know you have all been waiting....

its here. The van (affectionately called the Wan, think german accent) 

can now be enjoyed from your very own home.

We are further south now near the Fox Glacier. Saw the glacier, even touched it! Our goal is to travel through Wanaka and Queenstown to be in Te Anau sunday or monday. Tuesday we hope to leave for a few days of sea kayaking in fiordland.

Hopefully the rain will stop soon..... but it doesn't look promising.

Long time no post

Fans, friends and family sorry it has been so long since our last post. Although some of you seem to think we are casually traveling New Zealand we have actually been super busy with nerdy geology. I (Eric) left Zion to his own devices on the North Island while I took the ferry South yet again to begin my work at the OceanaGold Globe-Progress mine located in glorious Reefton New Zealand. Reefton is home to about 1000 people and for most is just a stop on the way to the West Coast, however it is worth a stop the people there are wonderful and the wilderness is spectacular.
While I was working my way South Zion stayed in the Wellington area to finish an Electron Micro Probe Analysis of volcanic tephras portion of his project, see nerdy picture below:

During this time our fearless advisor Christine Siddoway came to visit us yet again. By visit I mean make sure that we are actually working. Christine spent a few days on North Island with Zion, then flew to the West Coast where I met her for a few glorious days of field work.




After two days of work on the coast a fierce weather system moved in with lashing rain so we returned to Reefton for another look at the rocks there. At this point Zion met up with us having hitchhiked from Picton where the ferry arrives. The photo below is from his hitchhiking adventure with a beautiful view of the rainy/snowy Southern Alps.



After reuniting with Zion Christine had head back to Colorado leaving us all alone to finish up our work here over the next month. Since Christine Departed Zion and I have been gathering data for my research on the West Coast just north of Greymouth. We have been fortunate to have some gorgeous weather here although it is known as an extremely rainy area.
The following photos are from my coastal field sites on the beach here on the West Coast.



Life on the West Coast includes fantastic sunsets when its not raining….



Living in a van on a tight budget sometimes means that the food options are not always ideal. Desparately in need of trip to grocery store we setteled for tuna, salt, oregano, and ketchup sandwiches as a snack one day YUM.


In addition to great rocks there are also fascinating tidal pools and lots of angry seals.



Lastly, I need to say a special hello to my Grandma Nini and her friend Babs who I hear are blog fans back in Mystic CT.

Business Time

Hello again, now for some pictures and the latest tales from the North Island. Field work has been going well, I've finished all of mine up (me being Zion), as far as I think. got a lot of great data, spent a lot of time mapping and surveying an active fault running through the eastern farm country of the North Island, besides the fun with mud and GPS equipment, we also made a lot of good friends too, the people here are probably the best part, they are very friendly and hospitalitly seems to be the main theme around here, though, based on the picture below I guess that is not surprising, who wouldn't want to welcome these fine young lads in for a cup of tea.



Did I mention the field work was great, well I guess if you minus the daily rain showers, which you can tell by his expression, Eric is more than fond of.

But despite the rain, the area had some beauty too, morning fog was common before it started raining.

We made some friends too, here is the first farm family we stayed with (notice the fault scarp running through their back yard), they invited us to stay with them for several days during our first week of field work, Eric and I were both thrown back by how generous they, and everyone else in the area seemed to be. It was a good time, there son was 12 and had a lot of questions for us. The first morning we were there Eric had an experience he couldn't stop talking about, we got to ride in the back of the truck around the farm while the steers were shifted between paddocks, and Eric was amazed by how well Sam, the sheep dog, could corral up the entire heard and move them into the next paddock. This was Eric's first farm experience, sadly we never were able to convince any of the farmers owning planes or helicopters to get us up into the air, but we were offered a 4-wheeler at one point.

Besides the farming adventures, Eric and I were fed some Delicious home cooked meals while we stayed there, beef, potatoes, and beer goes down well after an 11 hour day of field work.

Speaking of field work, this is actual proof that we are really actually doing work here, not just going around in a van all day talking about how it is a pretty MANtastic life.

We came back to Wellington for a few days to fix the GPS equipment, it was giving us problems which we got fixed, then we went back north to the Dannevirke area again, this time though, we were invited to stay at a catholic monastery with benedictine monks (who also happen to have the fault scarp running right in front front of their monastery). They set us up with our own little cabin, the "Honey House", out behind the Monastery. We had our own little place, probably so we didn't smell up the rest of the place, or have to wake up at 4 AM with everyone else. They fed us too, though this time there wasn't any beer involved.

All in all the rain and clouds did clear up now and then, got some good days and some great view of the mountains in the background. I realized the place is a lot like if you took the farm country of Wisconsin and put it into the scenery of Colorado, so not too bad.

Oh, and I thought I would leave you with one of those "pretty pictures" again. Eric is doing well with the standard kiwi attire of short shorts and gumboots. More to come soon, next stop-South Island.

just a quick update, sorry no pictures

This is Eric writing and I justed wanted to let everyone know what we have been up to. We returned to Wellington from the Hawke's Bay area (Zion's field sites) on Sunday. Zion has been VERY busy sorting out all the info he gathered while we were up there as well as fixing our GPS survey system which died on us. I attended the AUSIMM confernce in Wellington mon-wed. The conference was for australian based mining and exploration companies who are interested in New Zealand's mineral deposits. There were a number of people there with knowledge of my research area which also happens to contain some gold deposits. The conference was great, interseting talks, met some very helpful people, and had some delicious food.

Today (thursday) Zion is preparing some samples for microprobe analysis and hopefully we will be heading back up north towards the Hawke's Bay region for another week of field work. Last week we stayed with a farming family who happened to live almost on top of the fault line that Zion is researching. This week we are hoping to stay at Monestary that is also located right next to the fault. We should be back in Wellington again by next thursday and Christine our advisor will be back to check our progress soon after that.

The next post will have pictures, I promise

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