Ngatamariki Fieldwork

 I drafted this just after I got back from the field with the thought of brushing it up and posting it.   As it turns out I got lazy/forgetful.   I include it as a record of that fieldwork (date of occurrence Mar 18-29):

I’ve spent the last two weeks doing the first bit of fieldwork with another master’s student, Cam Asher.   I went to Ngatamariki geothermal field to do a soil gas survey and to collect gas samples for isotopic analysis.  He’s working on nitrogen isotopic signatures in lichen—hopefully associated with thermal activity. Ngatamariki is approximately 17 km north of Taupo.   It’s a site of a nearly blind geothermal system (there are only 3 areas of geothermal activity and it’s fairly minimal at that), but there is water well over 100° C at depth.   Mighty River Power Company is just starting to put in a geothermal power plant, so it seemed like a good time to grab baseline flux before the plant goes on-line.

            What Ngatamariki also has is Himalayan Blackberry.   The Brits (and Scotts in the case of gorse) found a land with literally no prickly plants (not true as it turns out there’s matagori and bush lawyer) and decided in their infinite wisdom that the situation should change.  As such I spent heaps of time fighting through up to chest high blackberry (BAD) in addition to the native-ish bush and pine forest (tree ferns and such.  Better, though you still really couldn’t see).   The other chunk of my survey was in the middle of a recently logged field.   The slash had been removed so what was left was a dusty plain with no shade.  Needless to say this wasn’t the most enjoyable field site ever.  The data doesn’t look super promising (not really site nor sound of CH₄, which is what I was looking for) but hopefully something will show up in the isotope data.  That being said the springs were pretty (when you found them) and the hydrothermal eruption crater was pretty cool (photos below).    It was a pretty steep learning curve and I still have some things to sort out with my equipment, but it’s off to CHCH for Easter and a break, which I should spend in the mountains!   The rest can wait for just a bit.

My slash field

The hydrothermal eruption crater

Cool algae at the outlet to the crater

One of the springs hidden in the bush

Hindsight being what it is, the data has some true potential.   That being said I don’t view the bush bashing as super pleasant—that’ll take a touch more time.

Mt. Cook

           

All right these are some backlogged posts.  I’m bad at keeping this thing current.  But I have been effectively told off, so there’ll be a flood of post for a bit.  I’ll try to make more frequent/regular updates.   This short first one details events from the week of March 11:

 It’s a rather rare day that Haya Jamali shows up in New Zealand (actually it would probably be quite frequent if Emily was sticking around; both Whitman kids for those who don’t know) as such we honored the occasion by heading down to Mt. Cook.   It was a short trip (I was skipping out on some work I probably should have been doing) and photos of the area really better describe the place then I can.   Suffice it to say that I’m stoked to go back there in the spring to climb.   It reminded me of the North Cascades with sketchier rock and bigger glaciers.   It was a good break from preparing for my upcoming fieldwork.   As always great to see people from home!  After the trip was the usual hanging around CHCH and making and eating good food before I headed up for round 1 of sampling.

The evening drive in.

The morning wake up view.

Emily and Haya on the start of the Hooker Valley.

Cook.

The quintessential Mt. Cook view from Lake Pukaki