Third Time in NZ is the charm

Post date: Oct 05, 2016 6:52:27 PM

Our third, and last, field season in New Zealand. And it was by far the best. We had all the collecting down. We had optimized and figured out the inoculations. We knew people and places to go. And team Jordan and CJ were ready for it.

Jordan has grown his hair out. I don’t know why, I told him it looked awful. Repeatedly.

And on this trip we did a lot of hiking. Starting with the Kepler Trek, which is not for beginners. This is me at the end of the 4 days and 65 km hike. The only thing keeping me upright is the sign.

But with a landscape like this, how could we resist going out and playing in the mountains.

I don’t always take photos of my food. But this pie was the first meal I had after leaving the Kepler track. I have never loved a meal more in my life. It tasted like heaven.

We also did the Queen Charlotte Trek. Which was 3 days, 75 km. Great views. God my feet.

And while we were working or trekking, we stayed in Christchurch with our friends Angela and Will. This picnic was on Christmas day. That’s the strange thing about New Zealand, Christmas is a summer holiday. We had a Christmas picnic.

This demonstrates what a good field assistant Jordan is. We came up to Lake Rotoiti. It was covered with ducks, and there were hundreds of eels under the dock. I was worried about trying to get the snails given these two obstacles. Jordan put on the wet suit and declared “I’m going to take this net, go into that water, and get us some fucking snails.”

As usual, we stopped by the North Island to see Trish and Dave. They had left the farm and moved to Wellington and were thriving!

They are avid SCUBA divers and both Jordan and I are certified. So we went diving! Jordan’s arm isn’t injured, he just got a massive tattoo a few days before we went. So he was trying to keep it dry.

Wellington is the windiest city ever. This statue demonstrated how bad it can get. It literally knocked me over at one point.

The world looks strange from New Zealand sometimes. Well worth the view though.

And Peter Jackson’s workshop is in Wellington, so we had to go visit. The Weta workshop has a collection of all his great statues and imaginings.

Like this troll. I have had worse guys hit on me. Less attractive ones too.

Portia had the opportunity to meet the Dark Lord or Mordor.

One of the strange things about my field work in New Zealand was the timing. We were in Christchurch before the first big earthquake and after three years we were back. The city still looked like a disaster. Stores like this were not uncommon. Keep in mind this is in the main city, right downtown, in a first world country. And it hasn’t been touched in three years.

Buildings like this were propped up using shipping crates. In this case the only thing standing was the front of the building, the rest having had collapsed. Waiting to be fixed.

None of the buildings in this photo are occupied. None of them.

Sometimes whole roads were obliterated.

This store particularly struck me. It was a former sportswear store. The clothes have been cleared out, but the mannequins remained. Standing around (or dancing) waiting for the city to be fixed. After three years.

Remember that gorgeous cathedral? From a few years ago? It’s gone. They haven’t rebuilt it yet.

But the city has a sense of humor and a sense of artistry. People have made small spaces between former building into playgrounds, like these traffic cones what are being used for checkers pieces.

And they are making things out of the shipping crates now found all over the city. Like the Re-Start mall, an entire shopping complex downtown made out of shipping crates.

The last two weeks of the trip were different. We picked up company! First we got another field assistant, Meredith. She was travelling through New Zealand, and we met up. She liked us and our work enough that I offered her a job. For two weeks. She accepted.

Then we were joined by another graduate student in my lab, Jon (who soon received the nickname Dijon). Here we are, in front of the famous Lake Alexandrina.

The four of us quickly became a well oiled machine, called Team Snail. I lead everyone, and they came along like a three ringed circus. But the work went quicker with more hands, and we had some time for fun. After the work. Always work first.

We went to see glaciers (one of the more awkward photos of Team Snail).

We climbed to the top of mountains (like this one above the Nelson Lakes).

And we did another great trek, the Routeburn. Three days, beyond beautiful, indescribable. But I’ll try.

After climbing uphill for a few hours this is me on top of the mountain. Almost at the highest pass. This is one of my favorite photos ever.

There were these bizarre hanging lakes on top of the mountains as well.

On the descent we found a waterfall. Apparently one of Jordan’s life long goals is to go swimming in a waterfall. I have never seen him so happy.

However, this is a mountain waterfall. Which means it is filled with glacial melt. Which means it’s really cold. Which is the look on my face right now. Not so much happy as cold. But a little happy.

And then we stopped back into Queenstown to get Fergburgers. While sitting in the park eating we noticed a Moa. Now, moas are extinct, so this is a statue. Both Jordan and Dijon determined that they needed to ride it.

So they stalked their prey.

Jordan, the ridiculous athlete leapt onto the back of the moa with ease.

He then helped Dijon up.

Now on to the next adventure!