Swinburn. The infamous area of complexity and rite of passage to Otago geology students. Few other New Zealanders would have even heard of this quiet place in Central Otago, quiet at least until the sheep dogs bark at daybreak. It is a landscape of tussock and matagouri and dramatic clouds. At this time of year the area is essentially the closest New Zealand gets to a desert with hot sunburnt days and cool or frosty nights. As we are essentially mapping a station (farm), there are constantly barbed wire fences to cross and plenty of sheep and cows to go around. Most disappointingly, dried cow pies frequently look like rocks from a distance.
Camp is on a nearby station and the students stake their work spots in the wool shed, constructing desks out of whatever they find lying around the place. One night we had to share the shed with the sheep...which was warmer. Amenities are rustic to say the least.
The area makes for a great exercise as there are sedimentary, metamorphic and volcanic rocks to map, often in confusing relationships due to folds, landslides, paleo-topography and hidden faults. As in all good mapping exercises, outcrop is patchy enough to ensure that no one really knows what is going on.
A typical field day had us heading off to the field about 8am, returning to camp at 6pm, a refreshing swim/clean in the Kyeburn, eating dinner as the sun set on the Kakanui Mountains, and working hard in the woolshed until after midnight. The swim was typically the high point of the day, particularly on the warmer days. We ate well and eating dinner while watching the light fade on the Kakanuis was a bit of decadence.
Helping teach this course was hard work at times. It involved running around the field area trying to find elusive students in the midday sun, then endless questions and long nights such that a sleep deficit is gradually built up until the last night when many students pull an all-nighter to finish in time for the 8am deadline on the last day.
Above: Hard at work in the woolshed
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| No. 8 wire |
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| Camp |
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