An Epic Journey

On Saturday, I drove out to Mt. Potts and Mt. Sunday, just for the day. It was one of the best trips I have taken thus far! Mt. Sunday was used as the location for the Rohan village "Edoras" in the Lord of the Rings films. It was chosen, apparently, because the mountains surrounding it are exceptionally rugged and striking. Well, it definitely didn't disappoint! Mt. Sunday isn't much more than a hill with some cool outcrops on it, but it is surrounded by some amazing mountain ranges. Mt. Potts was one of the nearby mountains to the east. To start the day, my buddy Nick and I did the 6.5 hour round-trip hike up Mt. Potts. It was pretty tough (we gained 1400m of elevation), but the views from atop the ridge were definitely worth it. On the way down, the clouds started to clear up and we had blue sky for the rest of the day, perfect for an 1.5hour round-trip to the "summit" (if you could call it that), of Mt. Sunday. To be atop Mt. Sunday, under blue sky, and surrounded by awesome mountains is an indescribable experience. You'll have to see the pictures. Part of what made the day so awesome was that we were the only people out there. You had to take a 25km gravel road out to the trailhead (after 25km on a road that probably isn't traveled much either), so it is in a very remote and isolated valley. Again: indescribable.

Mt. Potts & Mt. Sunday

I spent the whole day Sunday studying because I had a test and two assignments due today (Monday). I think they went well, so I can't complain. More assignments ahead, and soon enough the Easter break - hopefully a 4-5 day hiking trip is in store.

St. Patrick's Day & Field Trip

Hey Everyone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Yesterday, I headed into Christchurch with my friend Nick to partake in the St. Patrick's Day festivities. We met up with a student from Michigan State, Jason, and his wife, Fina, and went bar-hopping for awhile. We went to a few Irish pubs, and a few microbreweries in town. It was a really fun day. At the Twisted Hop, a very small & very nice microbrewery, I had a bowl of Irish stew that was sooooo good. Eventually, we ended up at Sullivan's Irish Pub, which was packed with festive people. Nick and I ended up sitting down in a booth with this New Zealand family and they showed us a really good time. It was great to be able to chat with some locals, listen to their family histories and life stories, and share a few laughs with a band playing in the background. It was such a fun day. Check out the pictures here:

St. Patrick's Day

Today (Thursday), I had my first field trip. My Soil Resources class went out to Brooksdale Sheep Station in the high-country (i.e. the foothills of the Southern Alps), and looked at some soil pits that have been previously dug by a PhD student, who accompanied us and showed us around. We also spent a good deal of time examining the areas geomorphology, which was pretty interesting and showed evidence of a massive landslide event, as well as a pretty clear fault trace through a mountain pass. We did some field chemistry tests for soil pH and metal-hydroxide concentrations, and looked at how they changed as you moved down the soil profile. It was really interesting. See the pictures for that here:

Brooksdale Station Field Trip

Anyway, I hope all is well back home. I miss you all so much!

Mt. Somers

Hello again,

Things are moving along well here in NZ, and this week was pretty busy. I met up with Grandma on Wednesday for lunch and on Thursday for dinner, and it was a lot of fun. She seems to be having a really good time on her trip, as is Lenore. It was so nice to see some family! On Saturday, 4 of my friends and I drove about 1.5 hours across the Canterbury Plains to Staveley village, where we planned to take a trail to the summit of Mt. Somers. There was rain a few days before in Christchurch, which fell as snow on some of the higher peaks in the area. Mt. Somers had some snow patches on it as well, but most of it had already melted. The hike was supposed to be an 8-hour round trip. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the summit because of some bad weather at high elevation, but it was still a really fun hike with some good views. When we were about 45 minutes from the summit we stopped to have lunch and also keep an eye on the changing weather before we made the final push. In the 20+ minutes that we were sitting eating lunch, the temperature probably dropped 5-10 degrees and the wind really picked up. Rain was threatening too, so we decided to just head back down. I think it was a good decision, because we were getting blown around a little bit during our descent, and it was cold enough for us to don winter jackets, gloves, and hats. Once we got down a ways, it was much warmer and the jackets came off. It was really exciting in a way to be turned back by nature. The whole event made me appreciate NZ and the power of nature all the more! In the end, our hike ended up taking about 6 hours, and was a really fun time.

Mt. Somers

On Sunday morning, my friend Katie and I did a 10km "fun-run" in Lincoln village, organized by the local Rotary. It was a lot of fun and a great way to meet some kiwis outside of the university. They had photographers taking pictures at some points, so hopefully I will be able to snag some pictures of me in action in a week or so. My first big academic assignment, a viticulture report, was due on Monday. I spent the rest of my Sunday writing it - it seems that I'm getting to the stage in the semester when the introductions end and assessment finally begins. Bring it.

This week & weekend I will be busy as well. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, so I plan on heading into Christchurch and walking around the city, meeting some locals, and taking part in the festivities. Hopefully I can get some corned beef & cabbage...and a pint of Guinness to wash it down. It should be a lot of fun! On Thursday I have my first field trip; I'm heading out to Brooksdale Station to look at some soil pits and profiles that have been prepared by a PhD student here at Lincoln. As a class, we will be looking at the influence of slope aspect on the development (pedogenesis) of Allophanic Brown Soils. I'm really excited. I have a busy week academically next week, so I will need to spend a portion of my weekend doing schoolwork, which is fine. Because of that, I'll probably only do a day hike on Saturday, but maybe I'll take off Friday and stay overnight somewhere if the weather is good. In any case, more fun times are ahead!


I hope all is well back home. HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Nelson Lakes National Park

Hey Everyone!

This weekend I made it out to Nelson Lakes National Park with three of my friends from Lincoln. It was an amazing trip! We left Thursday afternoon because Friday was a field trip day (they happen every 3-4 weeks at Lincoln)and none of us happened to have field trips this time. We spent the night at a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite about 3 hours from Lincoln. The next morning (Friday), we drove the remaining 1.5 hours to Nelson Lakes National Park.

At about 1:00 on Friday, we departed with our packs on a 2-day tramp to Angelus Hut. The hut is closed for renovations right now, but our plan was to camp near the hut. I've done plenty of day hikes before, but this was my first overnight backpacking trip - I had to carry my tent, sleeping bag, food, water, and extra clothes all in with me. It was a cool experience. Anyway, we hiked the Robert's Ridge track on the way in and it was very scenic. After a very steep inital climb (~2hours), we reached the ridge and walked along it (gaining elevation steadily) for the next three hours. The last 0.5 hour was a short descent into a small depression where Angelus Lake sat. Right before that final descent, however, a hard rain started and we were faced with high winds and a lot of precipitation. We scrambled down to the lake and set up our tent when the rain had died down somewhat. About 25 minutes after we set up the tent, the rain stopped and the sun came out. If we had only waited a bit, our tent would still be dry! We were fine, because we had rain gear and plenty of warm clothes, but it was still cool to have a little drama on my first serious trip in the bush. The next day (Saturday), we hiked out 5 hours along the Speargrass Track, taking us into dense Beech Forests and back to Lake Rotoiti, the place where we started.

A quick swim in the mountain lake was really refreshing, and we hopped on the road again to get a little bit of driving done. We stayed at the same DOC campsite as we did on Thursday night, and it was a fun time. The next day, we headed home to Lincoln, but not before we made a quick stop at the beach and swam/scrambled through the big waves.

Check out the pictures:

Nelson Lakes National Park

Grandma will be around for a few nights this week as part of her recent elderhostel travels. I'm really excited to see some family. Love you lots!