Alright! So of course it’s been nearly a month since I last posted. Fear not, for I am still alive!I’ve been trying to keep up with school and stay afloat, after starting the semester off at a disadvantage thanks to gallivanting around far away lands for the first two weeks of the semester. So writing anything here has basically been at the bottom of my priority list.

Anyway, it’s nice to be back in the States, but I do miss New Zealand. Air New Zealand now has some crazy sale going on for another week where you can by a round trip ticket from San Francisco to New Zealand for $800… and they’ll throw in a free flight to Australia as well! Oh dear… how I want to take advantage of that! (Of course the offer is only valid for their winter months, but that might be an interesting time to go there)

As far as the rest of my life is going, there hasn’t been too much exciting going on other than school (which has taken up the majority of my time lately). Up until this last week, the weather had been absolutely beautiful and was a very nice thing to come back to. We even got to see some incredible sunsets from the house as well!

The Farallon Islands silouhetted off in the distance by the setting sun.

For our geologic mapping class, we went up to the Marin Headlands (north of San Francisco) yesterday and the previous Friday to begin some mapping exercises for our course. It’s quite hard to concentrate when you have this view behind you however…

I’ve also been working on my senior thesis lately as well, which involves looking at diatoms from a place near Death Valley called the Tecopa Basin. It’s basically a paleontology thesis where I’m trying to determine a paleoenvironment for this area about one million years ago. I haven’t done the field work for it yet (since I was in New Zealand), but a professor brought some samples back from when he was in the area in January. So I’ve really just been in the lab for the most part processing the sediment. I’m supposed to do my field work out there (and collect more samples) around the beginning of April.

Some samples sitting in baths of hydrochloric acid. Fun! (It looks like urine… I know.)

Here is a pic Michelle snapped of me when she stopped by the lab and wondered what sort of ridiculous outfit I was wearing. Hah. I’m trying to follow in my father’s footsteps and be a mad scientist!

Lastly, to leave you with a picture comparing where I was to where I am now. Here is a pic we took in New Zealand one night while playing with a fellow student’s digital SLR (those were soooooooo nice). It’s the constellation Orion (upside down compared to what we’re used to).

Constellation Orion viewed from New Zealand (upside down!)

Orion as viewed from San Francisco. It’s flipped the other way, but hard to tell since there’s so much ambient light in the picture that washes out the stars.

Back in the States and jumping right back into school.

Anyway, I went ahead and created a photo gallery with pics from our stay on the North Island. Check it out!

North Island Photos

Alright, it’s my last full day in New Zealand! How quickly the last 6 weeks have gone by. I’m quite sad to be leaving actually. Though at the same time, I’m anxious to get home, see my friends and share stories. We’re in Rotorua all day today and will be trying to catch the Super Bowl somewhere in town. My flight leaves here tomorrow at 7pm!

I arrive back in San Francisco on Tuesday at 10:15AM! (Interestingly enough, while I was having lunch on Mt. Ngauruhoe, another couple came by who were also from San Francisco. Small world!)

Anyway… internet use here is incredibly expensive! Time to go.

So long New Zealand.

About after about 9 and a half hours of hiking today, we completed the Tongiriro Crossing. It’s the best hike I’ve ever done. I took *200* pictures today and have no way to upload them. Grr!

Anyway, I am quite wiped out. It’s currently 10:43 PM and we got back about an hour ago. Time for bed.

(3 more days in New Zealand!!)

Alright, we’re currently staying outside of Tongariro National Park at the backpackers hostel located there. It is quite an awesome place. We played volleyball with a few people earlier this evening and then did some rock climbing (this place has it’s own rock climbing gym! Awesome!).

Tomorrow we are going to hike the world famous Tongariro Crossing, which is roughly 20 kilometers in length. Among the highlights will be climbing Mount Ngauruhoe (famously known as Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings movies). Apparently, we actually have a beautiful shot of it from our bedroom window. Unfortunately, it’s been cloudy! (Supposed to be cloudy tomorrow too! Grrr!).

Also, I haven’t been able to upload photographs I’ve taken lately due to the fact that most computers I’ve encountered have lacked the proper USB connections. So I might just have to wait until I get home next week.

Anyway, things are going swell! I’ll write more soon.

Tomorrow morning we depart Wellington to head towards an area called White Rock. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to upload any pictures as the area is fairly remote and we’ll have no internet access until next weekend.

I definitely love Wellington though. I’ll be sad to leave (but the amount of money I’ve spent while I’ve been here is insane! Ugh). Who knows though, perhaps this is definitely an area to consider for graduate schools.

So here I am, half way around the world. John, one of the other guys in this field camp program, and I were talking about various research projects we’ve done. He briefly mentioned some work he’s done in the Caribbean on volcanoes there.

That reminded me of my old geology friends at Cal State San Bernardino, who were doing some work in Dominica one summer, before I transferred schools up north. I remember them saying they stayed in a hotel with another student research group who were from the midwest.

I asked John (who is from Illinois) if he ever worked on Dominica and knew of any students from CSUSB. It turns out that he was part of that other student research group! Incredible. Half way around the world and I meet someone who coincidentially knows a group of old friends.

Anyway, we have a day off today in Wellington. It’s been fairly laid back and it is shaping up to be another nice day. I’ll have to figure out a cheap way to take advantage of it. While I definitely love cities, they sure are expensive to stay in. Yikes.

So our time in Wellington has been fairly relaxed. Tomorrow is our first full day of work since we’ve reached the North Island. It will mainly focus on aspects of geophysics, which is exciting since it is something I’ve considered for grad school.

Today was a half day that was spent with a tour of various parts of Wellington and briefly discussing the geology of the region. We checked out various scenic sights such as Mount Wright and Mount Victoria, as well as walking around the geology department at Victoria University.

A very large piece of pumice

Since today was a half day, we decided to take advantage of it and hang out in the bar in our hotel last night. We came across a rather interesting character who was dressed up in a purple jumpsuit. Naturally, we had to take a few pictures with him. My friends… meet “E.T.”

You might notice that I’ve shaved off my goatee! Oh yes. Everyone seems to think it actually looks better, and I kind of like it myself. Just a random shakeup I suppose.

Here are some random pics from the ferry ride over:

Lastly, I must say that Kiwis have some fetish with bizarre signs. Check these out

We arrived in Wellington at about 9:30pm last night via ferry. Field Camp is officially half way through! It’s exciting and kind of sad at the same time to realize how fast time is flying by. I am really loving this country.

Wellington is apparently known as the windy city. When I first arrived here three weeks ago, there was hardly any wind. It was blowing upwards of 60 mph last night as we took the ferry over and still blowing quite hard today!

Interesting note: In the Internet Cafe I am in, they were just talking about the weather and said gusts of 120 kph were possible today (almost 70 mph!). Oh… and sharks have been spotted in the water near a beach earlier today too. Fun!

Anyway, we have a day off today. So I’ll try and post some more pictures later.

We arrived in Christchurch yesterday after spending most of the day driving across the South Island. We left the town of Harihari on the west coast and are now on the east coast. The drive over the Southern Alps through Arthur’s Pass was absolutely stunning and is definitely one that I’d like to do again in the future.

Over the past few days, we looked at the contact between the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates as it crosses through New Zealand. We saw some interesting geologic structures along the Alpine fault (at a spot where it is a thrust fault), such as Miocene rocks (anywhere from 5 to 23 million years old) laying on top of Pleistocene sediments (less than 2 million years old).

At the contact between two plates. Pacifc plate is above my head, while I’m standing on the Indo-Australian Plate below.

We also got to look at the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers as well. It was the first time I’ve ever seen a glacier in real life. The shear size of those things are amazing. As we walked up to the Fox Glacier, we got to see huge chunks of ice fall off the face of the glacier and splash into a river below. The booming sounds that echoed across the valley were quite humbling. One of the other students on the trip was able to capture some of the falling blocks of ice on film as well. It’s a great picture.

Today is our last full day on the South Island. We drive all day tomorrow to Picton and take a ferry at 6pm to Wellington, where we’ll spend the next 3 weeks on the North Island. It’s crazy to think that we’re basically halfway through our field camp program.

Franz Josef Glacier
Here’s one that will make my mother happy: What geology is all about – Danger

Face of the Franz Josef Glacier (note person near the cave for scale).

In front of Franz Josef Glacier

Fox Glacier

Looking down the valley from Fox Glacier

Trying to spell: FOX

Fox Glacier from afar