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!