It was my first time back in New Zealand since the covid pandemic with a busy schedule of a weeklong geology conference in Wellington, a journey down to do several weeks of Alpine Fault fieldwork, and then a bit of time to myself traveling, catching up with friends, and ideally getting up to some adventures. It was my first GSNZ conference since being a PhD student and so was a nice opportunity to catch up with many NZ geology folks, even if things had a sober undertone due to some of the geology departments being recently gutted and NZ academia struggling overall. My talk went well enough and I enjoyed the many conversations. I also finally got to see the Victoria tuataras out on display. I did not manage to make many evening plans with folks which meant I had the chance to use the long days to squeeze in some nice runs around the city. One evening I ran the city streets to Mt Victoria (4.5mi) for commanding views of the city and a few Lord of the Rings filming locations. Another evening I ran the other direction through the botanic gardens (impressive aloe collection!) to the Te Ahumairangi Hill lookout west of downtown for a nice sunset. I'm far from being a city person but Wellington is thoroughly tolerable thanks to its interesting terrain, easy walking, public art, open spaces, and great views. It was a pleasant week overall with my main stress being to arrange weekend plans before our ferry trip down south the following week.
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