Paturau April 10-15

It was another touch and go as I returned from teaching the second year geology field camp at Borland, packed a few more things, and was off bright and early the next morning for the marathon drive across the South Island to one of my very favorite corners of New Zealand. A few key stops and detours, good music and great company kept the drive manageable. There is always a worry when revisiting a particularly special place that it will not live up to your memories of it, and thus in the revisiting, you taint the significance of the place in your mind. That was no issue as I showed up to the Easter caving weekend at Paturau and was bombarded with the familial friendliness I remembered last time around. These are my people.

Within the first 15 minutes I was offered three separate cups of tea! Gear was moved to make room for my tent in a prime spot sheltered from the wind. I was invited into tent trailers for chats. Familiar faces from a year past and new faces greeted me all the same. Easter weekend is the big family weekend for New Zealand cavers. Cavers and their families flock from all across the country to converge at an idyllic, grassy paddock between a lazy tannin-stained creek and the Tasman Sea near the end of a long, isolated dirt road. Camper vans and tents of all shapes and flavors give the appearance of a circus. Over a dozen kayaks sit next to the river happily loaned out by their owners if you feel like going for a paddle up the creek to the lake. Children sliding down hills on retired "Green Party" signs, biking around the camp, and older kids trying out their balance on the slackline. Also in attendance was a parrot who constantly sat on a man's shoulder and a tricycle-sized rabbit (a.k.a. the "Easter bunny"). Laughter was persistent. I couldn't help but smile. It was the 20th anniversary of the Easter weekend caving trip so Saturday night there was a big potluck dinner in the woolshed with about 80 people in attendence. Photo albums from years past were available for browsing and someone's sheep was roasted on a spit (I can't remember her name but she was delicious).

Easter day was like a week of vacation amalgamated into one day. I started off with a morning walk on the beach. A Easter egg hunt was staged for the kiddies. After some pretty unsuccessful attempts at the slackline, I went to a beautifully decorated cave by the name of Echo Valley Palace and happily snapped photos. Parents carefully took their kids through holding them by their hands. One little one slept in a backpack. Giulia and I decided to take the long way back by continuing the hike up the hill and then traversing the ridge to enjoy beautiful views of lake, limestone and sea. Next we borrowed some kayaks and paddled up to the lake, brewed an amber red by plant tannins. After a swim, I found two nikao palms and set up my hammock. I kayaked back to camp, then climbed a limestone cliff rated a 16 (easy) with a few others enjoying the weather by not going underground. A 4 meter high boulder was rigged so that kids could practice climbing and rappelling. Noticing the lengthening shadows and softening light, I retrieved my camera and ran down the beach to get to my favorite spot several kilometers away with the amazing sculpted limestone. I missed most of the good light but still merrily snapped photos of the miraculous patterns and forms. After the light left I slowly walked back, enjoying the clear evening until I was stopped by a fisheries volunteer on a quad bike. I might have been annoyed except he offered me a ride back to camp which I gladly accepted! I then sampled the elaborate homemade hot tub, followed by warming myself by the 2 meter high bonfire as I reflected on the day. I slept soundly.

The next day I got to climb an awesome limestone climb with a 2 meter high stalactite I used near the top of the climb. I don't know the name or the rating, but it challenged me as I am not in the best climbing shape at the moment. I found a new hobby in photographing interesting mailboxes (notables include a microwave and a dryer tank). Giulia and I leisurely (detours to Takaka, Paynes Ford and Harwoods) made our way back to the caver hut on Takaka Hill, my home away from home.

A long, grueling drive brought us to our good friends' place in Akaroa. There are indeed worse places to retire to! An evening of lovely food, company, art, books and music was the perfect end to a rejuvenating holiday. It was the kind of holiday that filled me with vigor, life, motivation and wonderful memories, all of which hopefully will be slow to fade.

20th anniversary potluck

Octogenarian about to go caving

Photo by Giulia

Photo by Giulia

Borland April 4-9

I helped teach a second year field camp looking at a folded and faulted basin and the underlying igneous and metamorphic rocks in, and near, Fiordland. Weather started solid for first two days before spawning snow, rain and horizontal blizzardy sleetiness. At one point we were caught exposed on the beach by horizontal driving sleet for a long 15 minutes; students huddled together like penguins, all facing downwind. Students were less than engaged when the weather was roaring but in all it was a good trip. Exhausting, but enjoyable. The trip was largely a geologic tour encompassing road cuts, river sections, alpine exposures and beach outcrops. We got to see the Green Lake landslide, the largest in the world at 26 cubic kilometers, which was rightfully impressive. Similarly impressive, one of the professors often known for his tangents, managed to lecture students on the proper ways to formulate successful treaty agreements while looking at pillow breccias.

Above: Deep geological discussion with intense southerly storm t minus 10 minutes away.

Pillow basalt (seal for scale)

Haast Pass Canyoning Mar 28-29

I'm starting to lose the distinction between work and play as both seem to involve rocks and suffering to a large extent. This weekend was my first serious foray into canyoning in New Zealand. Divergent from most canyons I have done in the US, these ones are wetter, colder and slipperier. In a country with rapid uplift, previously extensive glaciation, hard rock and excessive water, there is an abundance of dark, narrow, waterfalled gorges, many of which have yet to be descended. My new found canyoning buddies and I did what is likely to be the second descent of a canyon by the name of Jubilee Creek (we probably started higher than the original group). This canyon had an abundance of awkward rappels and downclimbs on slippery rocks, but was still a great adventure as there was zero signs of humans and we had to select or make our own anchors. This canyon had about six abseils with one that we bypassed because of a particularly nasty looking log wedged in a raging waterfall right where you would go down. All told it was about 6 hours of shivering in a thick wetsuit. Not the best canyon I've done, but good company and a good adventure.

The second day we descended the classic canyon in the area, Cross Creek. It was 3 hours of bliss if you could get over how cold your extremities were. Beautiful abseils to 30m, numerous jumps to 9m into emerald green pools, several slides, giant potholes, some slot sections, kilometers of beautiful folded schist and even a natural rock bridge. It was just a consistently fun canyon. I am convinced I need to get a waterproof camera (all photos except first two are courtesy of Julie and Chucky). We scouted the water levels in the bottom of some of the nearby canyons and the other canyons look awesome. I cannot wait for a return trip. This trip was only the tip of the iceberg! Really keen to do some first descents in the future.

Wilsons Creek

Jubilee Creek

Cross Creek

OK so it was not all suffering!

Dunedin Beaches March 23-24

I got to enjoy some unusually lovely weather by taking a couple short walks to Sandfly Bay and Tunnel Beach. Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula is famous for its wildlife. Seals, sea lions, Yellow-Eyed penguins and even a Fiordland Crested penguin (rare) emerged from the sea shortly before dusk. It was a stellar sunset and the lighting was vibrant for photos. The next morning I took the short walk down to Tunnel Beach where a tunnel bored through a cliff in the 1870s allows access to a scenic little beach surrounded by cliffs.

Tunnel Beach

Martyr River Fieldwork Mar 14-22

At long last some fieldwork of my own. My field area encompasses some of the most remote, trackless portions of New Zealand, including several large rivers that are uncrossable following rain, thick bush and ample sandflies. I spent a week with a field assistant camping near the Jackson River Road (only region of field area less than a day's journey from a road) and making day trips into the creeks and rivers in the area desperately looking for outcrop. Success was moderate. Weather was lovely and the fast-flowing rivers were mostly negotiable with a bit of care. A few crossings reached the critical level above my waist where I start floating downstream- one of the many uses of field assistants is not letting this happen. The water was cold, the valleys were rough, and the outcrop challenging. It is clear I will need a raft to get to some outcrops and set up some ropes to rappel down to others. A previously-described key outcrop is wholly non-existent, succumbed to landslides and bush in less than 5 years. Another important outcrop (above) has much better exposure than last-described. It is amazing how dynamic these river valleys are- they literally change from year to year. I was confined to my car for an entire day as continual rain flooded the rivers and creeks and rendered all uncrossable. Sandflies were voracious and a reason to hide in the car even when the weather was fine. Field work logistics seem to be getting complicated and this is by far the most accessible region of my field area. Others will necessitate helicopters, and possibly jet boats and whitewater rafts. In short, it was largely a reconnaissance trip with lots of slippery rock negotiating, bush bashing, river crossing and occasional geologizing. At least I know what I am in for...

Before heading back to Dunedin, I crashed an international geology conference on the Alpine Fault. A quick sidetrip was taken to look at rocks in the Hokitika Gorge. Nearby I got to see several trenches dug through Alpine Fault traces to determine paleoseismic events. One earthquake appears to have caused 1.5m of vertical offset and about 8m of horizontal motion over a length of several hundred kilometers!

Hokitika Gorge

Alpine Fault paleoseismic trench

In the trenches

A West Coast beach