Hi all - first-timer from New Zealand

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Ahhh, okay! Yeah, you probably have... I watch very little TV. Just the big sports events and the occasional good documentary. I'm more into running and "poking around on the 'net"...

*gets poked*

Welcome Mooseman!

I've spent almost 3 months in New Zealand during the last 16 months. During my last trip I stayed with friends near Masterton and we made a number of trips into the Wellington area.

Hi jdbob - thanks! Good to meet you!

Yeah, the Wairarapa (province that Masterton's in) is good. There's some great wine made around the small town of Martinborough there - that's not far from Masterton.

I like Wellington. Ok, it's true that the weather can be pretty "extreme" here at times (putting it kindly!) but I *like* a place with definite seasons, and I don't feel the cold. ( I was over in Canada in 2002, and spent a couple of weeks in Calgary ( in July-August ). It was their hottest summer in 30 years, and believe me, it was _hot_..... Anyway, in the evening (around 7pm or so) it cooled down enough that I went for a few runs alongside the Bow river there. Very nice - there's a great track alongside it which goes for miles.

I'm not far from the good ol' Wellington Fault here, and I often run along a hilltop track on a ridge overlooking it. To give an idea of what NZ quakes can be like, here's a seismograph trace from a magnitude 7.0 quake in Fiordland (way down south) a few years ago. It was centred about 60 km off the coast (and quite deep-centred). Click on the image - you'll be impressed .....



Here's the **excellent* site that it was from -
http://www.geonet.org.nz/

( An apology to those at Geonet - I didn't want to just "grab" the screenshot from there without asking, but on seeing that quake, I just *had* to get a permanent record of it (and I guess seismograph traces don't stop and wait... ) Anyway, it' the only one I've got - the boring old magnitude 5's and 6's don't quite match something like this one....

Have a good look around that site - click on the "seismic drums" link to see the network of seismometers that's in place for NZ. If you hear of a quake in NZ, this site is the place to check it out.

As an aside, it was quite funny back in 1995 when Mt Ruapehu had a small eruption here.
There were papers and TV stations in the US and elsewhere that said that the North Island had blown up! Heh.... NZ is actually a lot bigger that it looks on the map......

I *love* geology and actually started doing a double-major in geology and chemistry at university - I eventually dropped the geology major and just went with chemistry. Anyway, I did a couple of geology courses (at Victoria University) and thoroughly enjoyed them. I've been interested in earthquakes and volcanoes for ages.

While visiting Canada and the U.S. in 2002, my uncle and I went to Mt St Helens to see the amazing ash-covered landscape around there. We stopped by a guy giving a talk (a volcanologist probably), and he was very interesting. He held up a photo of a volcano - "who knows which mountain this is?". Silence - I piped up and guessed "Mt Shasta".

"Correct!". A bit more talking, then another photo goes up - "Which mountain?"

I was more sure of this one - "Mt Bandai" (in Japan)

"Correct! You're the first person to get both of those correct!". So that was quite cool ...

Last edited by mooseman on 08 Mar 2007, 4:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm know it isn't quite geology, but I still have a blast using Google Earth to travel the world an NZ! I've marked my house and those of my friends at school. I love it!

EDIT: I also have an interest, or rather fascination, with volcanoes. The bad guy in my story has built his lair on top of one, and uses the lava like water is to a mill to power his city!

Hi KBABZ! Yeah, Google Earth is great! I used it a while back to "swoop down" onto the top of Mt Rainier (which I love - one of my favourite mountains). I'll have to check out that story too - I popped into that thread a while back and it looked good-

Ok.... off to bed for me..... ( It's now almost 11pm, not 7.33 as the time on this posting says.... )

- mooseman

*award*

You read my story?! Cool! It'd be neat if you could drop a few comments on it.

I write software for earthquake recording systems. The geonet folks (GNS Science) use our equipment and I've stopped by their office a couple of times to chat.

In January my hosts and I took the train from Masterton to Wellington and from there to Tawa where we stayed overnight. The next morning we took the train up to Paraparaumu where we got on a Steam excursion train that went through Palmerston North and then down to Masterton. It was a very windy night in Tawa

The driving in Wellington is what I find frightning! Getting from the Airport to SH1/2 just about did me in.

Hi jdbob! Hey, that sounds like a cool job! I think just about any job related to quakes or volcanoes would be pretty cool ....

I see you're from Oregon. Sounds like a **beautiful** state, from what I've heard. Lots of mountains and forests (and a rugged coastline, by the look of things). Sounds a bit like Maine (although I haven't been to either Oregon or Maine). Oregon would have bigger mountains though, I think.

Hey - have you seen Crater Lake (the former Mt Mazama)? That looks great - I'd love to go there!

I agree with your comments about the driving (and I'm not surprised that you were nervous!). I think NZ drivers are *shocking* - I'd go as far as to say that the Aussies are better drivers than we are..... ( Hi to all the Aussies out there! Good on ya for dropping in here..... )

On the driving theme - when I went to Canada and the U.S. in 2002, I found the Canadians and Americans to be very good drivers overall. Mind you, I was in very sparsely-populated areas most of the time - Montana, Wyoming, Washington state. I **LOVE** the north-western states of the U.S.! B.C. over in Canada is great too, and Ontario with its lakes and forest.
- mooseman

Welcome. I'm RedMage the 8-Bit Hero[ine].

Hi RedMage! Good to see the Aussies here!

One of the most amazing moments that I remember in Aussie sport was the 1989 (iirc) league Grand Final between Canberra and Balmain - the one where "Chicka" Fergusson scored
right at the end. Great game! Do you follow sports over there? Cricket, league?

Last edited by mooseman on 09 Mar 2007, 2:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

I feel like I'm the youngest Aussie!

Ok - fair enough....

Do you follow sports much? Most Aussies love their sport...

I hate sport, except archery which I want to do.

Ahh... ok, that's fine.... Yeah, archery looks like good fun. I haven't tried that either, but I can remember Neroli Fairhall getting an archery gold medal in the Brisbane Commonwealth Games back in '82.

I'm just waiting for mum to find out if I can do it!