Gidday. I thought that it was time for me (Ted) to write on here and give an update of some things that I've been doing at work, so here goes.

Volcano Study: The first month I was here (March), I was in the middle of the North Island at Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngaurahoe (better know as Mt Doom from the Lord of the Rings). We flew around these volcanoes for about a month making measurements of the Earth's resistivity at ~100 locations. Meg helped out for a weekend and got a few heli rides too. The weather was great and the views amazing. Perhaps the highlight was getting flown up to, and dropped off on the summit of Mt Ngaurahoe. We made a measurement just outside of the crater, very cool! By the way, this is an active volcano, but there isn't any lava in the crater, it's all just rock at the moment. Once the pressure below builds up enough, magma in the subsurface will then erupt, and you'll hear about it on the news! Related to that... the measurements that we made will help to image the magma below the volcano. This information is quite useful to those who monitor this natural hazard.

Geothermal Work: After the volcano fieldwork, I was in Taupo (NE of the volcanoes) for about 2 weeks making measurements with the same equipment, but this time working on a geothermal energy project. New Zealand currently gets ~15% of the countries power production from geothermal energy. Basically, below the North Island of New Zealand, one tectonic plate (Pacific) is sliding beneath another one (Australian). This process generates a lot of heat, and fluids. The end result near Taupo, is that water 2-3 km below the ground is at ~350 degrees. So, energy companies drill to this depth, extract the water, at the surface it flashes to steam and they use it to drive turbines to generate electricity. The steam is then condensed and nowadays is starting to be sent back into the earth to complete the cycle. So this method of power generation has a minimal impact on the environment. Good!

Now, what am I doing? Well, the government wants to increase geothermal energy production and move away from nastier sources of energy. This will require companies to drill deeper (~4-5km) where fluid temperatures are hotter. So, to nudge companies to explore deeper (which costs more money) a project has been funded to image the deeper structures of the geothermal systems. This is what I'm working on at the moment.

What else... I'm heading to Taiwan next week for a conference and looking forward to that. I haven't been back to Taiwan since I was there collecting data for my PhD, so it will be fun to return and hang out with Chih-Wen, the student I was with while collecting my PhD data.

Other than that, Meg and I are anxiously awaiting getting to move into our new home on July 2! Less than 3 weeks away now...

To finish off, as Meg's been doing I'll explain a Kiwi phrase.
Phrase: Rattle your dags.
Translation: 'hurry up' or 'get a move on'.
Explanation: 'dags' are sheep poops that defied gravity by clinging to the sheeps bum wool. Over time, these harden up and become a permanent fixture. Then the farmer comes along to sheppard his flock, the sheep run and subsequently their dags 'rattle' to and fro.

Take care
Meg and Ted

More from the New Zealand Dictionary

Well, we now have 3 weeks and 3 days until we get our new house, not that we are keeping track. I realized that by the time we get our place, and finally unpack all the stuff we shipped, I will have gone 5 months living out of only two bags. Until a few weeks ago I really hadn't missed anything too much; I mean I wanted my bike and a few other things but otherwise was surviving. However, I think 4 months must have been the threshold because now I miss everything, my warm clothes (because it is getting kind of cold here), our familiar furniture, our books and other things to do. I am definitely tired of being in transit and looking forward to finally settling in; to be able to set up a routine and start exploring our new neighborhood will be great.

We are now living in a one bedroom, furnished apartment on The Terrace. It is actually closer to my work than I was before and still a good location for Ted heading onto the highway. It is nice to have our own space and it is still very handy to the city so we can continue to explore the area.

As it is winter here the weather has gotten kind of gloomy. So far it hasn't really been too cold, day time highs around 13C, but it does rain a lot. Luckily most of the city streets are partially covered so even in a hard rain you don't get wet, meaning we aren't totally trapped inside.

I have heard a few more New Zealand words and phrases I thought were interesting....

Sussed - Similar to "sorted", it means organized, or figured out, but is not used as often as sorted. I often hear it used in questions like "have you sussed out our travel plans?". I think I may have even heard someone say they were going to "suss" it out, as in figure it out. I definitely prefer sorted myself.

Done and Dusted - This saying is not said by everyone but those who like it, like it a lot. This is used as a further emphasis to "done" and often in the context of completing a large transaction or piece of work. For instance, our real estate agent likes to use this saying to refer to the process of buying a house and completing a purchase (or in his mind a sale). I find that people who like this one tend to use it quite frequently.

Taa - Not sure how to spell this one, but as it sounds like baa but with a T, I thought T-a-a would work. This is used as an informal shortcut for the word "thanks". Like when someone holds a door for you, you say "taa". I guess 2 syllables was 1 too many.

Well I guess that is all for now. We hope everyone is doing well.

Meg and Ted