Mid - Congress Field Excursions

Mid-congress field trips will be of a half to full day duration and provide a satisfying combination of technical and cultural interest. Where possible, the tour will take in a mix of technically stimulating sites and cultural, scenic or recreational activity with lunch at a local vineyard or strategic location. Opportunities may include the following:

Auckland

  • Muriwai and Maori Bay. Spectacular steep cliffed volcanics on an open surf coast. Landslides, huge pillow lavas, eroded landforms, colourful conglomerates and migrating seabird colonies, followed by stops at a selection of vineyards.
  • Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands. Options to accommodate the fit and the less mobile. Travel by ferry to Auckland’s newest (about 600 years old) basalt scoria cone and a lava field volcano in the middle of our spectacular harbour. See lava caves, lava fields, young pohutukawa forests and a spectacular panoramic view of Auckland.
  • Orewa, Puhoi and Waiwera. Roading through unstable weak rock, including allochthonous melange and highly sheared mudrocks. 

Coromandel

Golden Cross and Waihi Gold Mines. Visit underground and open cast gold mines set amongst spectacular landslide topography. Key issues for the mines include subsidence of urban areas; tailings ponds and dams; environmental management and restoration. Lunch at historic Coromandel township or Waihi Beach.

 


The Taupo Volcanic Zone

These trips include an experience in geologically active terrain, an insight into the primeval origins of our planet and the cradle of life, spectacular geysers and mud craters, sinter terraces and fumaroles, steaming cliffs, active faults, and opportunities to raft through narrow gorges cut through ignimbrites or relax in a geothermal spa.

Waikato

  • Waikato Coalmines. Cut slopes up to 150 m high in weak rock, and open cast pits in coal measures at the Huntly East underground mine. Key issues include slope stability and surface water control.
  • Waikato Hydro-Energy Projects. Arapuni dam remedial works, a headrace in unwelded ignimbrite and tephra, a dam and reservoir in fractured ignimbrite of the now flooded gorge of the Waikato. Paleo-topography, rhyolitic tuff, a deep gorge, abandoned river channels double as headrace.