Whales and Seals
Last weekend I visited Kaikoura, which is somewhere I’ve been planning to visit for a while. However, getting there is a bit tricky at the moment thanks to the earthquake last November. Part of Kaikoura’s charm is its position on a thin strip of land between the Southern Alps and the Pacific Ocean but this […]
The Home Straight
Last week was the start of my final term at Canterbury, which means it’s now less than 2 months until I fly home. I’m finding it hard to believe that I’ve been here for over 9 months and that my time here is almost over, the year has gone by incredibly quickly. My feelings about nearing […]
My Last New Zealand Field Trip
Over the Easter Mid-semester break I headed off on my final field trip of my time in New Zealand. This time the destination was Oamaru and the Waitaki Basin on the east coast of South Island. The aim of the trip was to gain an understanding of the geology in the area and reconstructing the […]
Survival in the Australian Outback
Even if you don’t know much about Australia, you’ve probably heard of the Outback – the arid and semi-arid deserts of Australia that take up 70% of the country. Living in Sydney, where it rained for days on end earlier this year, and having visited the world’s oldest rainforest in Queensland, it’s hard to believe […]
Why New Zealand?
When choosing a country to study in, it’s important to make sure you make the right decision as you’ll be spending a significant part of your degree there. There were a few reasons which contributed to New Zealand being my choice of study abroad destination, which I’d like to share with you in this post. […]
More Fieldwork Fun
It’s a common belief that geology students are only in it for the field trips. Whilst this isn’t entirely true, one of the reasons I love geology is the opportunities which it provides to go out and visit new places whilst being able to see what you’ve been learning about in the classroom. Whilst I’m […]
An Explosive Start to the New Semester
A couple of weeks ago it was time for me to finally get back to doing work after almost 3 months off. The new semester (and the new academic year here) doesn’t officially start for another week, but geology students often have field trips out of term time in order to fit them in around […]
Geothermal features
Due to its location on a tectonic plate boundary New Zealand has its fair share of geothermal features spread across the North Island. These are created as water is heated by hot material below the ground and finds its way to the surface through cracks in the Earth’s crust. As I’ve been travelling I’ve visited […]
Walking with Volcanoes
After 5 months of being in New Zealand I’ve finally ventured to North Island, South Island’s smaller and more populated neighbour. When I arrived I was surprised how different the scenery of the 2 islands is, with South Island being dominated by snow-capped mountains whilst North Island has a range of volcanoes, lakes, beaches […]
Geological Oddities
There’s no escaping the fact that geology is all around us and New Zealand is a perfect example of this. But aside from the mountains, glaciers, volcanoes and earthquakes that the country is well known for there are a few more unusual geological features which I’ve come across on my travels so far. Split Apple […]
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