Pictures from my trip to New Zealand

[pHaestus]

I just got back last night from a quick work/play trip to New Zealand. I spent ~1 day in Auckland (I had an 8 hour layover so I took a bus into the city) and 7 days in the Lake Taupo/Rotorua area. Here are some of the best pictures I took (1600x1200):

http://phaestus.procooling.com/NZ%20Trip/

I have a grant looking at the microbes and minerals of the thermal pools of NZ, and a big interest in geochemistry so my sightseeing may not be the same thing that average people look for. Still I think the thermal pools are pretty amazing though to anyone. It was summer there and 25-30C with a good bit of humidity. AKA perfect weather.

[Bigmack]

Really outstanding work!!! And quite an interesting job!! With your permission, I would like to use a couple of pics as desktop wallpaper. The red coloration in the pools, is that alge or microbes? What temp is the water?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,1x10e100 other questions,,,,,,,,,

[pHaestus]

Neither microbes nor algae. It's Antimony and Arsenic sulfide. That pool is 75C and pH 5.5. The microbes are actually present at the very edges of the pool at water level. The white outcroppings all around are silica, and they look the way they do because microbes colonize the edge of the pool at water level. The pool has lots of silica in it which crystallizes on the microbes and eventually covers them completely (winds affect the water level) and then they are silicated on the inside too. The little white stalactites are actually multiple layers of entombed microbes.

[Bigmack]

So what is the primary source of food for the microbes?

[Etacovda]

The Champagne lake(?) was one of my favorites; rotorua is an great spot to visit. You chose the right time to come over - the last couple of weeks have been excellent, but pre-10th-ish of Jan its been very very average. I havent been up that way for what must be 10-12 years, You've made me want to go back more. The bay of plenty is excellent at this time of year - the drop off into the pacific is so slight that the water actually feels like a bath, even early in the morning.

[pHaestus]

Bigmack there are over 100 different redox couples in that pool that liberate enough energy to support life. For example the sulfide oxidizes rapidly to sulfate at the surface because there's oxygen present. There are organisms that reduce that sulfate to sulfides. Deeper in the pool there are organisms that do the reverse and oxidize sulfide to sulfate as their energy source. The bubbles that give the pool its name of "Champagne pool" are methane; the whole area is extremely energy rich.

Etacovada: I was told that most of January was rainy and that I picked the exactly correct 2 weeks to go. My grad student's in your part of the country (Wellington) until April. I think next year I'll tour the North island in its entirety and then the year after that go to the South Island. I have a friend in Dunedin who maintains that the Northern Island is crap compared to the South. That's no surprise from someone in that location apparently

[Etacovda]

ha, yes, dunedin/south island is far superior to the north island; but I would say that, dunedin is my home town.

You'll love central otago/fiordland/the west coast - its magnificent, truely what NZ is about (and what they push on tourism ads)

http://www.aeondesign.orcon.net.nz/C...Iakewanaka.jpg
http://www.aeondesign.orcon.net.nz/C...crownrange.jpg

First is Lake Wanaka, with the Coronet range in the background
Second is the highest point on the crown range road, looking down towards Queenstown. Thankfully, we picked the best day to travel - the only day in the 14 that we were in Dunedin that was hot (27 for most of the day) - 750km in one day, pretty hard on the old 1.3L Ford laser we were using.