This year's New Zealand Speleological Society annual general meeting was based in Masterton in the Waiarapa area of the southeastern North Island. Most of Saturday was spent in the council meeting, but Sunday I managed to go caving in Martinborough, even co-discovering about 150m of new passage. The AGM was a great catch-up with cavers I had not seen for a while since I had been too busy with the PhD earlier in the year to make it to the other annual gatherings and I had a pleasant time socializing at the Saturday night dinner and Sunday night barbeque. I even managed to break the NZSS squeezebox record by painfully forcing my body through a 150mm wide slot (or about the height of a tall beer can).
Before the drive back to Wellington, Justin, Hamish and I took the deadend road out to Castlepoint, a small seaside community with a spectacular geologic setting. Here a great reef-like band of highly fossiliferous sandstone stretches 2 kilometers along the coast with some impressive features: the Castle, a 160m high promontory with a vertical cliff on its seaward side, a long, low natural causeway bounding a picturesque sheltered cove, and Castlepoint itself with its well-maintained lighthouse, and dramatic clifftop views. With a little careful footing, much of the point is able to be traversed on narrow natural platforms within feet of vertical cliffs plunging into a blue sea. Despite strong winds and the occasional passing squall, the sea was remarkably calm. In places, natural weathering of the sandstone (above) produced uncanny cobbled surfaces certainly enhancing the castle-like feel of the place. I noticed a great diversity of shells in the sandstone. I was later informed the shells lived in a wide variety of environments from shallow to very deep. Because of the relatively good preservation of the deep water fauna, it has been suggested the sandstone was deposited into a deep submarine canyon which transported sediment and shells from the shallow shelf environment. We enjoyed exploring for about an hour before food called us into a local cafe.
The day was rounded off with a grand feast at one of Wellington's finest Indian restaurants. Thanks to Justin for sorting everything out. It was a nice escape before the final push to thesis submission.
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