After a few days Ann departed to begin her return back to U. Maine. Marcus, Tom and Jeremy spent a day doing some site investigations using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) at Alpine Lake then continued further south to the Mataketake Range by Haast Township to collect more modern samples for the chironomid project. Ann's trip back to the Auckland from the South Island involved crossing to the North Island by ferry then traveling up the entire length of the North Island, which is rich in volcanic features.

While Ann was winging her way home, Marcus spent the rest of his time sub-sampling, photographing and archiving cores and chironomid samples prior to shipment back to U. Maine and meeting up with George Denton’s team to continue mapping work. The field season came to a successful end after a brief stop in Wellington, N.Z. to discuss future collaborative projects with researchers from the Institute of geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS).

So all in all the trip went exceptionally well, sunny, hot weather, successful field sampling with lots of cores recovered and fantastic scenery. Coming back to winter and a snow covered Maine has been somewhat of a shock.