Maerewhenau Field Camp!

-- GEOL 252 Field Studies of New Zealand Geology. This field course started on Tuesday May 23, we had a meeting at 9am to talk about logistics. There are about 80 people in the class and about half are Americans, which is kinda lame, but not really. I guess I just like smaller classes and I blame the class size on the international students :) I really like most of the people I met, there are always a few geo majors that are a little more odd than the rest. After the 9am meeting I went back to my flat and finished packing. From 2-5 there was a lab for the class where we reviewed identifying rocks and writing in-depth observations, using a compass and taking bearings, and working with topo maps, geologic maps and stereo scopes. I’m not too good with a compass I discovered. It’s gotten better though. At 5 I went back to my flat to eat. I had to eat all my food so I had two peanut butter and honey sammies (aka sandwiches) and a bunch of milk. At around 7 we packed all our gear and headed out. I ended up tossing a rugby ball with some Kiwis before we left...I’m getting better...it’s so different from throwing anything else.
We went north. The Maerewhenau River Valley is in Northern Otago. In the Maori language the “wh” makes an f sound...that should make it easier to say Maerewhenau :) The drive was a few hours, it was beautiful...but I fell asleep. When we got there we unpacked and found cabins. I didn’t know anyone in my cabin before, so that was a good opportunity to meet new people. I had tea with a few people then went to bed.

-- The first day we got our 4 field maps of our area and a big map. These are topo maps that we are going to mark locations and elevations of rock units so we can map the units and make a geologic map for the area. A topo map is a map with topographic lines that represent elevations so that a 3D world can be shown in 2D on paper. A geologic map is a topo map with the contacts between the different rock units mapped (such as the Otekaike Limestone and the Tapui Sandstone Formation) and then you use different colors to show different formations of rock. So it is as if you are looking down from a plane at our field area and you could see just rocks without the biosphere in the way...that’s a geologic map. Then you have a map that tells you where you are, at what elevation and what rocks you are standing on. :) snazzy.
-- The first day we were all told to get into groups of four. I was with Laura and Tim from IFSA (I didn’t try to be with IFSA people, it just worked out) and a kid named Simon. Simon is from Massachusetts, but he goes to school in Walla Walla WA! It’s weird to be working with someone who has one of my brothers names...I haven’t met too many simons in my life. Any way my group is awesome! We had so much fun. They are all juniors so they have more classes under their belts. But I keep up :) I couldn’t have asked for a better group!!!
On the last day in the field we were at a huge hill and we climbed it to see that it was made out of 3 different layers of rocks.... quartz conglomerate, sandstone and basalt on top. Well we hiked the entire thing with a big group of people and two staff. When we were at the top Laura and I got really excited because we could see all around and draw on our maps, well we walked down and got back to the vans and I couldn’t find my backpack! I’m such an idiot. I couldn’t even remember ever having it or not. It had become so natural to have it on and it wasn’t very heavy. Finally we figured out that it must be at the top. Well we were all extremely hungry and tired, we had two vans full of students. I decided I would just go back and get it and they could pick me up after they had brought everyone back to camp. Well, by team wouldn’t let me go alone, so we all hiked back up the hill (this was a serious hill, my map isn’t in front of me or I would tell you the elevation change) ... it took us 15 minutes...We are beasts. It was at the very top on the basalt were Laura and I got so excited. My team is the best! :) We had such a good time without all the other people or any of the staff, we could do what we wanted and look at the rocks we wanted to ;) and we made it back before dinner.
We were always laughing and making up stupid jokes about the extinct giant bird from NZ, the Moa. I laughed so much on this trip!! We also sang a lot as we tramped around and rode in the vans. :)
Who does a bird hire to do the landscaping? .... a Lawn Moa!!!

-- Each day breakfast was at 7:30am and we all needed to be ready for the field at that time as well. We ate breakfast and packed our lunches. The food was good. I ate a ton of pb&j for lunch and a ton of oranges and apples. Next, we would be briefed on where we would be going that day and other info. Then we load up the vans and the staff drives us to locations.

-- The staff was awesome on this trip...two of them are just upper classmen geology majors. I think that would be one of the best jobs ever! There were a few professors, some teachers and a postgrad or two. It was a good group. I think NZ produces some pretty sarcastic people though :) a few of the staff weren’t well liked, because they were pretty much straight up mean, but it was funny if you could see that they were just joking or at least that was just they way they are. Hahaha they could make anyone squirm just by looking at them. Funny stuff. The main professor was my favorite, he is very nice, funny and he is a good teacher. He is also teaching my other geo class!

-- So everyday we went out and looked at rocks. :) They would either stop at a road cut and let us out or they would drop us off and tell us how many km in what direction they would pick us up. Very first we had to locate ourselves on out maps...it was tricky at first, but as the days went by we became pretty familiar with the area. At each outcrop we described the rock first in our notebooks, then hypothesized on what we thought it was and how it got there. I always had my notebook, maps, water, backpack, rock hammer, compass and hand lens on me to discover as much as I could. The staff were around the first two days to help us and explain how the rocks formations came to be there. Sometimes we sketched the outcrop, I took a bunch of pictures. We had lunch in the field.

-- We came back to camp at the end of each day tired, sweaty, dirty and hungry! We had a little bit of time before dinner was ready. (each group of 4 helped the food lady for a meal or clean up...we did breakfast clean up one morning)...sometimes we swam in the river or took showers or played rugby, Frisbee or something. After dinner was dessert! Then after that we would go put all the stuff we found on our day in the field on the big map that we each had taped to a map board. It was really intense and awesome. Most of the nights I went to sleep before midnight...but the day before we left I stayed up till 2am working on my map.

-- I really like mapping. It’s hard because I haven’t had structural geology or sed/strat yet, but I enjoy it. At home the USGS doesn’t have the area around my house mapped...I WOULD LOVE TO GO TO GRAD SCHOOL SOMEWHERE IN WA AND MAP THAT!!!!! That would be really hard (we don’t have easy flat sedimentary beds to map...we have crazy intrusions, volcanics and flood basalts) but SO SO awesome. :)

-- On the way back one of the postgrad guys (the mean/sarcastic one) was the driver. He has been out of school for awhile, he’s done research and mineral exploration in Australia and NZ. Now he’s back for more school. Anyway, he asked if I knew Spanish, because he wants to learn Spanish this year...just because. So I taught he a few things and in return I got a Kiwi language lesson. haha so I’ll try to use some more in my blogging. We also were in the back of the caravan of vans so we stopped for food...I think that was the best coke I’ve ever drank! The water at the camp tasted like dirt/river water. I love coke.

-- Now I’m back and I have a report to write about the geology of the Mearewhenau Valley area and I have to fix and re-draw/color my entire map. It’s due the beginning of next week.