Land of the Hobbits

Post date: Oct 05, 2016 6:44:9 PM

We returned to New Zealand for field season number two! One of the biggest changes? We didn’t stay in Christchurch. Why? Because most of the city looked like this:

That is all that’s left of the apartment I stayed in during my first year in New Zealand. Christchurch is almost completely flattened. So instead we stayed in Nelson.

Who is we? That also changed the second time in New Zealand. Instead of Shaughn, I found myself a new field assistant. A young whippersnapper, Jordan. Jordan worked for me at WSU in the lab and did a great job. He was also outdoorsy, and seemed focused. So I offered him a position and he accepted. We made an awesome team, and still do.

He has a thing for wildlife and is constantly trying to make friends with the locals. Sometimes animal locals. Sometimes the locals don’t want to meet him back.

We also drank a lot. Jordan had never done wine tasting or beer tasting. We fixed that problem. This was one of our favorite bars in Nelson, Sprig and Fern.

My favorite spot in New Zealand (there are about 5 favorite spots), is Kaikoura. The ocean comes up and meets the mountains. And because of the sharp drop off (usually only ~10 ft off the shore), there are lots of crayfish. These are kind of like lobsters, in size and texture, but slightly tastier. And you can’t beat the view.

Because I wasn’t paying Jordan (don’t feel bad, his life isn’t that hard), I made sure we had some days off to do things that were fun. His one goal was to go skydiving. So on the prettiest day of the trip he went and jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.

The last week we were in New Zealand my mother came to visit. We did a full trip around the south Island and saw many of the sites! But it started in Kaikoura (seriously, one of my favorite places). Instead of one crayfish, we ate a seafood feast! Fresh from the water that morning. It was epic.

Staying in Nelson means that we got the opportunity to see parts of New Zealand we hadn’t been to before. Like the Abel Tasman trek, which is along the beach the entire time and relies on being able to juggle the tides.

Mom, on the beach in Kaikoura.

The whole gang on a boat in Queenstown. I don’t really like Queenstown, but we had fun playing in the mountains and riding a boat.

Finally we went to the Moraki boulders (finally isn’t the right word, we went to all sorts of cool things between the boat ride and the boulders but this post is pretty long already).

These boulders are pretty rare and odd. They are all very spherical, and randomly tossed on a beach. Like a giant was playing at marbles, and then left his things lying around.

Jordan can’t help but be a clown. Over our six weeks in New Zealand he because one of my closest friends, a team effort that still survives to this day.

Despite all the fun and games, I should note. Field work is hard!