United Kingdom

Scotland

However we arrived in Aberdeen, Scotland, where it was a cold 6 degrees C - a drop of 30 degrees since Phoenix. We had thought that by May it would be warming up in Scotland (May 2012 had been very warm). So we didn't have a lot of warm clothes with us.

The thing about blogs is that it helps you to remember when you did things.... we realised that the last time we visited the UK was in October 2009 - 3 and a half years ago. Where did time go? The excuse for this trip was an invite to James Bostock's wedding just outside Inverness (Thanks James and Becca). It meant that all the Bostocks would be in one place and easy to catch up with everyone without having to travel around the whole of the UK - or near enough.

On the way up from Aberdeen to Inverness we had an obligatory stop at a whisky distillery - Glenfiddich Distillery and a wee taster or two.

Glenfiddich distillery

The wedding ceremony was in the church at Strathpeffer and the reception at Tulloch Castle in Dingwall. Aaron and I had dressed in our smart Tartan outfits - as befit the occasion. It wasn't really summer weather anyway. 

Aaron standing in front of Tulloch Castle with his tartan waistcoat.

The wedding was followed by a Ceilidh (pronounced Kaylee), traditional Scottish dancing with a live band (a bit like American square dancing). The great thing about Ceilidh is that you don't have to be good at dancing and you can dance with anyone, in fact most of the time you are switching partners during the dance.   However it is hard to take photos as it is very fast and there wasn't lots of light. 

The next day there was an afternoon tea at Becca's parents house, and then most of the Bostocks went out for dinner at a local pub. Where Aaron got to try some haggis (traditional scottish food - mixed grains and seasoning, stuffed in a sheep's stomach - sometimes also doused in whisky). The day after we went for a  rather wet walk in Glen Affic to burn off some of the calories, then we headed down to Loch Ness to hunt for the infamous and mysterious monster. 

The monster in a pond?

Loch Ness - waiting for the monster to appear...

Another castle on the shores of Loch Ness

So Aaron got the true Scottish experience - rain, cold, whisky tasting, castles (more castles), ceilidh, haggis, and looking for the Loch Ness monster - the only monsters, our nieces (not really). 

Our nieces Andrea and Annabel

Bristol

After a cold week in Scotland catching up with most of the Bostocks we had a couple of days in Bristol to see Helen's friend Laura. Unfortunately we both had colds and the weather was pretty awful, so we had a relatively quick look around Bristol and then just chilled out, including Laura treating us to the Lido pool and spa to warm up. 

The iconic Clifton Bridge with Laura's flat at the base of the house just to the right.

The Chilterns

Our final stop on our quick UK tour was to catch up with the remaining Bostocks that couldn't make it to the  wedding, Uncle Paul, Thalia, Christopher, Hattie and Sophie. It was great to finally meet Sophie who has just turned 3. We stayed with them over the weekend playing with the kids and visiting the hole in the ground - that will be their new home, hopefully in the not too distant future.... We are excited for you... we would have loved to have built a house from scratch. 

Hattie the princess (4 almost 5 years old)

Christopher the astronaut (6 years old)

Sophie the ballerina in a box (3 years old)

The hole in the ground that will be the new house... 

Arizona

We began our around the world tour with a stop in Arizona to visit family and friends as well as go on a few adventures. The last few times we have been to Phoenix it has been mid-summer, with extremely unpleasant temperatures. In late April Aaron promised me it would be a lot cooler. Unfortunately temperatures were higher than average for this time of year (over 35 degrees C, >95 degrees F)... so after a day or so catching up with family, we escaped up north with Aaron's parents Ralph and Judy, where it is higher in altitude and cooler.

Petrified Forest

First stop was the Petrified Forest National Park, where large amounts of petrified tree trunks sit in the middle of the desert. The trees lived on a large floodplain in the Late Triassic, over 225 million years ago and were then buried by mud and volcanic ash. Silica rich groundwater has infiltrated the wood and crystallised in the wood tissues, preserving the wood. Along with all the wood there have been many dinosaur fossils found in the area. The sediment is rapidly eroding around the trees, exposing more and also causing the fossil wood to roll into hollows under gravity.

Petrified log

Bits of logs that have eroded out of the hills

The national park also includes an area called the painted desert due to the vivid reds of some of the layers.

Painted Desert

This area was once occupied by humans as far back as 10,000 years ago. There is evidence of dwellings and pueblos (villages) built out of rocks and petroglyphs carved in to the desert varnish on some of the large boulders and cliffs. It seems amazing that people could live in this rather hostile environment. They were probably concentrated around the rivers and washes which run at some times during the year. 

Petroglyphs carved in to the desert varnish

Canyon de Chelly

Then we headed north to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced d'shay) National Monument on the Navajo Indian Reservation. This is a spectacular canyon system - Canyon de Chelly in the south and Canyon del Muerto (death - doesn't bode well). Where the canyons meet they are only 10 m deep, but they are up to 300 m deep further upstream. The exposed cliff walls are made up of ancient sand dunes, stained red by iron. 

Sandstone cliffs made up of sand dunes with steeply angled beds

The main story, however, is about the archaeology of the area with the earliest inhabitants around 2500 BC with evidence for organised pueblos in 750 AD. The pueblos were built in caves in the cliff, for protection. I'm not entirely sure how they got up to the caves in some circumstances as it looks pretty vertical. I guess that was the point - to protect themselves.

Aaron, Judy and Helen walked down to the bottom of the canyon to check out the White House ruins, where the canyon quiet was challenged by a large number of Navajo primary school students on an excursion during free entry to National Parks and Monuments week.

White House Ruins

Mummy Cave

Along with the remains of the old buildings there are lots of petroglyphs in the canyon which tell stories of the the people living in the canyon through time.

Spider Rocks

Around 1600 AD the Hopi Indians appear to have left the canyons, the reason is not clear - possibly due to drought, disease, conflict or news of better lands elsewhere. The Navajo Indians arrived in 1700 AD and farmed the land at the bottom of the canyons - just as they do today. They grow corn, peaches and raise sheep and goats. It was very dry when we were there, with only a small stream flowing down the canyons and little grass, but we met a local who told us that they wait until the monsoon season before they start farming.

The US millitary destroyed the crops, Hogans (houses) and livestock and removed the remaining Navajo from the canyon in 1863, after 17 years of ongoing conflict. The Navajo were allowed to return in 1868 to rebuild their lives. 

South Mountain

Back in Phoenix it was hot so we spent a lot of the main part of the day inside in shopping malls or visiting people, we had to get up early to do anything outside, other than splash in the swimming pool. We got up early-ish on two mornings and went for a walk on South Mountain, one of Aaron's old mountain biking haunts. Unfortunately we missed the main wildflower season, but the cacti were just starting to flower. 

Prickly Pear Cactus blossom

Saguaro Cactus blossoms

Aaron walking on the National Trail past a large Saguaro Cactus

Tunnel to Hidden Valley

Just squeezing through Fat Man's Pass

Sedona 

Aaron's brother Craig, brought his our nieces and nephew down to Phoenix for the last few days. We also spent an evening with Judy's brothers (and partner). Due to a large number of the Lyman clan in one place (first time since our wedding) Kendall had organised for family photos.  We look forward to seeing how they turned out.... 

We also had a family outing to Sedona, so that Uncle Les could take us out in his jeep on some of the 4WD tracks around the area. While others were out on the jeep, Aaron and I also went for a short climb up Bell Rock. 

Les Lyman's jeep tours

Bell Rock

Halfway up Bell Rock

Sedona red rocks

With climbing temperatures.... we were looking forward to escaping Phoenix.... 

Retaining wall extension

Voyage to Wilkes/Adelie Land, Antarctica

Over the last 6 weeks I have been bobbing around on the Southern Ocean. The main aim of the voyage was to go to the Wilkes/Adelie Land area of Antarctica to retrieve some oceanographic moorings from the Mertz Polynya. It was an international voyage as the moorings had been put in a couple of years ago by the Australians and French.

Scientists are interested in the Mertz region as it one of 3 regions where deep water masses are formed. A polynya is an open body of water that is surrounded by ice, the area is kept open by the katabatic winds that come off Antarctica and blow the newly formed ice away from the coast. As sea ice is relatively fresh, so when it is forming it leaves behind very salty water. This cold, salty water is very dense and sinks down to the bottom of the ocean. This water flows around and is found in most of the ocean basins of the world.

In February 2010 the Mertz Glacier Tongue, that formed one side of the Mertz Polynya, broke off when another ice berg hit it. (It had already started to crack as it had probably grown too large and with all the pressure from winds, tides and other physical processes had become unstable.) The removal of this ice tongue from the region has completely changed the region. The location of the Mertz Polynya has shifted. Oceanographers are interested to see if this has changed the amount of deep water formation in this region and how this might impact the global oceans. The oceanographic moorings were put in to the area to continuously monitor the amount of salt, temperature and currents so that they can estimate the formation of the high salinity, dense waters.

Unfortunately these changes to the Mertz Glacier Tongue have also completely altered the sea ice. The area where the moorings are located was completely covered in thick sea ice this summer. The RV Tangaroa is only an ice strengthened ship and not an ice breaker - so despite the experienced Danish ice pilot, there was no chance we could get through.

Sunrise allows us to see how much sea ice there is and try to find a path through... 

So change of plan... we spent most of our time looking for evidence of the high salinity, dense waters as they flowed off the Antarctic shelf and down a series of canyons. Searching for the end product, rather than the studying the formation of this water.

Nearer the end of the voyage we did get an opening on to the shelf to the east of the area we had hoped to get to. Over the last decade this area has often been covered in ice - so we went to explore, to see if there is high salinity water forming in this region as well. Possibly - the oceanographers still have to study the data. Unfortunately we had to retreat north very quickly as the sea ice was forming rapidly...

We were also looking at the biological productivity. We were looking for physical and chemical evidence for blooms of phytoplankton (the grass of the sea). On the shelf there was a large bloom....The large amount of productivity is obviously supporting a lot of animals - as we saw lots of birds, seals and penguins, and a few whales and orca. We had several very good photographers on board that got some amazing photos.

Some of Adrian Bass's amazing photos of the charismatic wildlife we saw.

So what has this got to do with geology? Well I was collecting some marine cores in the area - in the hope that changes in the mud provide clues about changes in the ocean currents over time - 1000s of years rather than the last few decades. We were also mapping the sea floor, providing the oceanographers with the information about where the canyons are exactly, and lots of ice berg scours, moraines and glacial features on the shelf. The latter provide us with evidence about the extent and dynamics of the glaciers since the last glacial (20,000 years ago).

I also collected some cores on the transit south and north to New Zealand, to fill in some gaps from some of my previous voyages. I hope that some of these cores will provide some important clues about changes in the Southern Ocean since the last glacial.

6 weeks is a long time to be away. Fortunately we had a great team on the ship with everyone getting along, most of the time. We had great food and in general we were very lucky with the weather, only losing a couple of days to storms on the voyage down. I did experience my first bout of sea sickness ever.... I will now have more sympathy for others on future voyages. Fortunately I got my sea legs after a day or so and was fine the rest of the trip. Unfortunately I always suffer from land sickness when I get home. The land was swaying for me for a couple days.

The team (Photo by Adrian Bass)

I now have enough samples and data to keep me going for the next decade... so I don't need to go to sea for a little while (at least a couple of years).

Sunset, with pancake ice starting to form (one of my photos)

More information and details (photos and fun) on the 36 blogs from the voyage (www.sciblogs.co.nz/fieldwork/).

Antarctic Voyage

While Helen is out at sea she has been posting updates to a blog for her cruise. You can find it here: Antarctic Voyage

Ruapehu Cycle Tour

To keep myself busy while Helen is out at sea, I decided to go for a bike ride. Thanks to Waitangi Day (New Zealand's national holiday) and some clever rearranging of my four day work week I managed to have a five day weekend. My friend Craig and I, organised a 4-5 cycle tour taking in parts of the Mountains to the Sea national cycle way.

Hapuawhenua Viaduct

Mt Ruapehu

The start of the 42 Traverse

Whakapapa River at the end of the Traverse

Road block

Out of the volcanoes and into the sediments

At the start of the Kaiwhakauka Track

Kaiwhakauka Falls

Mount Ruapehu