At the start of June, the team met at Hamilton Gardens for a wānanga led by Wiremu Puke (Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Porou). This began with an introduction to mātauranga Māori in geosciences research – particularly as it relates to Ngāti Wairere, as mana whenua for much of the area in which we are working. Wiremu also shared some of the history of Ngāti Wairere, and took us on a tour of Te Parapara Garden. We were lucky to have Wiremu, as one of the leaders of its planning, and construction, explain the significance of the garden design and layout, especially to the direct descendants of Ngāti Wairere, as well as visitors.
An article about Te Parapara is available on the web, and the abstract is free to read.
We have also completed CT scanning of all remaining cores from our March field campaign, with the help of Nic Ross at Hamilton Radiology. This means we can identify tephras and avoid cutting through them when we begin the next stage – opening and describing the cores. Masters student Richard Melchert has already been working on the cores from Rotoroa (Hamilton Lake). When we look at the CT scan images in more detail, they will show us the structures of any tephra seismites in 3D. We remain very grateful to Nic and Hamilton Radiology for their generous support.
Tephra Seismites 