Two Thumb Range July 25-26

I will be brief as I think there are only so many ways to describe white snow and blue skies and the pictures probably say it all. Two days of exceptionally clear and still weather seemed to be all the motivation I needed to go for a play in the snow. Snow conditions across the island were extreme, with a high risk of avalanches and a recent death, so we planned a route following ridge lines as much as possible and were extra cautious. The plan was to depart from our car at the head of Lake Tekapo, hike up to the snow where we donned skis and snowshoes (snowshoes for me), traverse a ridge to where we could drop in to a saddle and cross into the next drainage where there was a mustering hut we could stay at. Reality proved slightly different as impressive cornices and unstable snow meant dropping off the east side of the ridge towards the hut would be a risky endeavor. After considering our options we opted to camp on a flat spot on the snowy ridge at an elevation of about 2200m. Needless to say it was a cold night, especially for me since I was the only one in the party sporting leather boots (everyone else had plastic). It was however a beautifully starry night and so calm that we lit two candles out in the open which happily flickered. The morning treated us with beautiful alpenglow on the east face of Mt. Cook and views of Lake Tekapo, the Southern Alps and even of Banks Peninsula far to the east. We tried to continue along the ridge but found ourselves at a place demanding some snow or rock climbing with consequences. We had several options to choose but in the end decided going back the way we came and then dropping down to a different ridge and walking along the Macauley River back to the car would be the sensible thing to do. My feet were quite destroyed by the time I made it back to the car from my stiff unbroken boots.

Lake Tekapo and the Southern Alps

Mt Cook in left background

Stewart Island July 6-11

Stewart Island, known to the Maori as Rakiura, is the anchor stone of the great waka (canoe) Te Wai Pounamu, otherwise known as the South Island of New Zealand. I got to the island via a 2 hour trip on the University of Otago's research vessel, the Polaris II. I spent the journey in a beanbag on the back deck, gently rocking back and forth, listening to good music and watching small islands go past as the sun set (it was a little cold but otherwise pure decadence). We had beautiful weather the whole week- warm considering it is winter and the next thing south in Antarctica and just enough rain to give us a near-constant supply of rainbows.

Stewart Island has a permanent population less than 400 people in one small township along a few scenic bays (1 grocery store, 1 pub/hotel, 1 church, and a few others stores and restaurants mostly closed in winter). 95% of the island is pure wilderness and because of aggressive campaigns to eradicate pests, native wildlife is overabundant.

I was helping teach an ambitious sedimentology field trip with the goal of looking at active and recent beach deposits and to characterize offshore sediments using seismic, side-scan sonar and grab samples from the seafloor. I spent my time on Ringaringa and Ocean beaches (the former somewhat sheltered and the latter exposed to the sea) helping the students identify different sediments and processes. Getting to Ocean Beach involved being dropped off by boat for the day (survival gear, emergency radio and all) and a short bush walk where I saw two kiwis in broad daylight! In the afternoons I usually had about an hour of daylight to myself to go for a run or take some photos, which was very nice. To summarize: I was paid to sit on a remote beach for a week and teach students about geology!