I'm in the process of editing in pictures into my previous posts from Tonga and New Zealand, but here are links to the photo galleries for the Tonga and New Zealand legs. Transit from Tahiti to Tonga New Zealand

I got back into San Diego last Friday and have been slowly getting back into the swing of things. My last days in New Zealand after leaving Stratford near Mt. Taranaki saw me spending an oh-so-exciting evening in not-so-beautiful Hamilton, New Zealand's largest inland city. It really reminded me of Modesto ...

I'm in Stratford, New Zealand at the base of Mt. Taranaki. After reviewing the itiniary for traveling around the eastern cape, I decided there wasn't enough there to make it worth my time, so I headed down to Wellington with Catherine, my travel partner of the last couple of days. ...

I'm currently in Napier, a town on Hawkes Bay on the east coast of New Zealand. I'm traveling with and have run into several more people that I met in the hostel in Lake Taupo. So far I've slept in a rail car and gone rappeling (abseiling) then innertubing down an ...

I'm out of Tonga and in New Zealand now. Time's running out on this internet access terminal, but I'm going to be in and out of communication for a while. I'm going river rafting on an underground river today, then who knows. Maybe up to Rotorua and rent a mountain ...

One more day and a wakeup to Nuku'alofa, Tonga. Weather's been nice during this short hop between Tahiti and Tonga. As we are sailing in Exclusive Economic Zones the entire way, we are not allowed to collect data. Thus this trip is mostly housekeeping. I'm planning on grabbing some pictures tomorrow ...

We left Papeete yesterday at 1600 local on our way to Nuku'alofa, Tonga. I'm about $11,000,000 poorer after 5 days in Papeete, the land of $10 beers and $60 flipflops. I can officially report that the city of Papeete is a hole, and the only thing that ...

Found this beauty courtesy of someone on 2nd Mate HookaJoe's website. Yep, it's been one of those port stops. Six weeks at sea makes you want to soak up drink like a sponge, and by god I've done my part. Working my ass off too - we have the WHOI Jason team ...

Below is the final underway cruise report from the co-chief scientists on this cruise. It offers a summary of what we were looking for and what we found. The R/V Melville returns to Papeete on Monday March 21, after a successful site survey for an IODP drilling program. The ...

We finished the last core in relatively shallow water - 1500 meters. It was basically full of shells and sand instead of mud, which was a marked departure from most of the other cores. In other news, it's been a banner week for satellite-related issues out here. Twice we had problems ...