I spent four days helping my advisor Virginia (along with two other students) with some fieldwork on the ultramafic mantle rocks of the Red Hills. This time around we opted to hike in via the Gordon Range to the west, which was a nice hike in as it only gained about 450m in elevation and had over 4km of hiking along an alpine ridge with sweeping views all the way to the sea. The route then rapidly descends to the headwaters of the Motueka River before climbing again. We stayed in the Hunters Hut, which was a great luxury over camping up on the wind-swept ridges like last year.
The weather started nice (albeit windy!), allowing us to hike over to the far side of the Red Hills to fill in a transect we did not cover last time around. The rocks are frequently magnetized (by lightning or magnetite), requiring two people to take a simple measurement. Luke was able to download weather forecasts onto his iPhone on top of the ridges, which was a little surreal. The lee side of the rock outcrops were the best studied...As the weather deteriorated, we started working at lower elevations closer to the hut. The other three stuck around for a for more days so I hiked out alone, leaving the comfort of the hut under light rain and threatening clouds. The return hike required a gruesome 800m elevation gain. The whole alpine section I hiked into strong winds, hail and snow, which was cold, but at least kept me dry.
Oddly enough I was in the Red Hills a year ago to the day, so it turned out to be a nice trip for some self-reflection on the past year. It was a good trip for me, as a few key observations made these bizarre rocks make a little more sense to me this time around.
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| Red Hills in right distance from the Gordon Range |
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