Immediate report of Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition 1989-90: VUWAE 34

Event Diary

Event Diary

Nov 13	We finally lifted off at 1127, landing on the Ice Runway at 1715. Scott Base was in turmoil as they were about to film the "Its in the Bag" show. It was supposed to have been filmed the previous night. Once the filming started the whole base shut down.
Nov 14	Heather and Richard go out to survival school. Jack starts to organise gear.page 48
Nov 15	Jack joins Heather and Richard at survival school.
Nov 16	More time spent packing up gear.
Nov 17	Fly out to Miers, leaving Scott Base at 2100. Second flight arrives in the Miers at approximately 0100 on the 18th.
Nov 18	Set up camp and go for a look at the Adams and Miers weirs.
Nov 19	Emptied some of the wind traps and found "patterned ground" sites below the lake for the albedo study.
Nov 20	Installed thermistors in the glacier and at the two sites below the lake. Set up survey stations for the Miers Glacier. Put the waratahs in Lake Salina and Lake Miers for the staff plates. Dug out the Lower Miers weir.
Nov 21	Resurveyed the Miers Glacier.
Nov 22	Resurveyed the Adams Glacier.
Nov 23	Fixed the toilet. Mounted the staff plates in the Lakes. Emptied the wind traps.
Nov 24	Learning exercise on the EDM. Measured the sand in the delta. Restored the thermistor site near the Miers hut. Surveyed the staff plates. The transducer covers were finished.
Nov 25	Installed the Foxboro stage recorders and transducers at the Adams and the Miers weirs. Put in the transducer at the Lower Miers weir. Restored the two thermistor sites below the lake - the marble and volcanic sites.
Nov 26	Measured the sand in the delta.
Nov 27	Installed the Miers climate station.
Nov 28	Installed the Lower Miers data logger.
Nov 29	Installed the Adams climate station, and wired up the data logger at the Miers. The flow of the Adams reached the lake.
Nov 30	Spent the day visiting the Garwood.
Dec 1	Zenith promotional photos were taken at the bottom of the lake and at the Adams weir. Changed the Foxboro charts.
Dec 2	Set up the albedometer. Changed a couple of computer programs. Straightened the mast on the Adams climate station.
Dec 3	Climbed the peak known as "The Heart". Did a stream gauging in both the Adams and the Miers streams. Checked the albedometer, and the Lower Miers weir. Checked the data loggers at the Adams and the Miers, and took bearings of the wind vanes at the climate stations.
Dec 4	Checked on the Miers and the Adams climate stations. Measured the ablation surfaces found on Lake Miers. Jack left at 1700 for Scott Base and then New Zealand. Fixed the Foxboro at the Miers weir.
Dec 5	Richard determined 10 sampling sites (A-J) along the Miers. Installed the freezer box. Heather worked out a timetable and programme for the patterned ground research. Jack McConchie waiting to fly to New Zealand.
Dec 6	Put the albedometer onto the lake. Richard measured velocity profiles in the Miers stream. Heather measured a "polygon" at the volcanic site. Richard fixed up a divergent channel of the Adams. Jack McConchie leaves for New Zealand.page 49
Dec 7	Undertook gaugings, velocity profiles, and samples of the Miers stream at the 10 sites. Current meter leads broke.
Dec 8	Took sediment samples at the first five sites along the Miers. Changed the Foxboro charts and collected data from the data loggers. Filtered the samples taken during the day.
Dec 9	Measured two of the polygons at the marble site. Measured the width of the cracks of the polygon which Heather had measured 6/12/89. Set up markers on either side of the gauging line to determine the bed and water slopes.
Dec 10	Took the albedometer off the lake and went to the volcanic site to measure another two polygons. Installed the albedometer at the marble site.
Dec 11	Did gaugings, sampling and velocity profiles at sites A, B, E, F, G, and H on the Miers stream.
Dec 12	Helo arrived 1000 with a resupply. Snowed all afternoon - no work achieved.
Dec 13	Gauged sites J, I, C and D. Visited by Gary De Rose and Brian Freeman. Sampled across site E for 7.5 minutes. Filtered samples.
Dec 14	Measured a polygon at the marble site. Moved the albedometer to the volcanic site.
Dec 15	Measured three polygons in the Adams moraines. Changed the Foxboro charts. Packed to go to the Garwood.
Dec 16	Did not go to the Garwood, as Gary and Brian had not been helicoptered out because of low cloud. Took photos of Richard's sample sites during a low flow. Put a few screws in the Foxboro housing. Measured the volume of sand in the swales.
Dec 17	Sampled etc, at sites A, B, C, D and E.
Dec 18	Moved the albedometer from the volcanic site to the Miers Glacier. Took samples from the site outside the hut. Sent an Antgram to Jack requesting new current meter leads.
Dec 19	Went to the Garwood. Did stream gaugings in the afternoon.
Dec 20	Did a second series of stream gaugings in the morning. Walked back to the Miers Valley by lunch time. Recovered data from the data loggers. Water was flowing over the top of the Miers weir, and beginning to scour the back of the weir.
Dec 21	Did a gauging of the Adams during a high flow. Gauged various sites along the Miers. Visited by Garth Varcoe, Duncan Webb, Malcolm MacFarlane etc. K061 moved into the lower Miers. Visited by K061, but missed making contact by 5 minutes.
Dec 22	Retrieved the albedometer from the glacier, and set it up at the site close to the hut. Changed the Foxboro charts. The water had scoured around the edge of the Miers weir. Sand bagged all night long to retain the integrity of the weir.
Dec 23	Sketched the glacier snouts every two hours over a 24 hour period. Sand bagged and back filled the weir until 1000. Santa visited at 1230. In the evening, continued to sand bag until midnight.
Dec 24	A quiet Christmas Eve.
Dec 25	Christmas Day. K061 joined us in the evening for Christmas dinner. Spoke to K047 in the early hours of the next morning as they were working the "night shift".page 50
Dec 26	Recovered data from the albedometer by the hut, then shifted the albedometer to the marble site. Did patterned ground work at the volcanic site. Collected data from the dataloggers at all three sites. Saw a skua for the first time.
Dec 27	Sampling at sites A and B. Three hours doing each site, including across the bed sampling.
Dec 28	Sampling at sites C and D. Three hours doing each site, including across the bed sampling.
Dec 29	Analysed three polygons at the sandy site; a swale up near the Miers flume. Changed the Foxboro charts at the Miers and Adams. David arrives at Scott Base from Christchurch.
Dec 30	Moved the albedometer from the marble site to the volcanic site. Analysed another polygon at the volcanic site. The Adams was up quite a long way, up to 0.426 m. Gauged it at this height.
Dec 31	The Last Day of the decade. Sampling at sites G, H and I. Three hours doing each site, including across the bed sampling.
1990
1 Jan	The First Day of the 1990s. Collected data from Lower Miers datalogger and reattached transducer to the weir. It had come adrift and was sitting in the "v" notch of the weir. Collected data from the Adams and Miers dataloggers.
Jan 2	Collected samples of material in the cracks at the marble, volcanic, moraine, and sandy sites. Analysed another polygon at the volcanic site.
Jan 3	Collected albedometer from the volcanic site and moved it to the Lake Water site. Sampling at sites F and J. David goes out to Survival School. At 1600 David departs Scott Base for Miers Valley. On the way the helo stops at K061 with a resupply and picks up Simon and Rob to take them to the Catacomb Hills.
Jan 4	Heather and Richard took fifteen minute samples at each of the Miers sites. David did the first inventory of the Adams and Miers glaciers.
Jan 5	Richard and Heather sampled the rising and falling stage at Site E from 0600 until 1830. David set out photogrammetric survey lines, and established suitable base line lengths for the photo centres. Changed the Foxboro charts.
Jan 6	Heather and Richard installed thermistors in the sandy site. Looked at cross sections of cracks and photographed the moraine site. David established photo-survey control stations.
Jan 7	Richard and Heather moved the albedometer from the Lake to the sandy site. Remeasured the depth to the permafrost at the marble and volcanic sites. Recovered the data from the Lower Miers, Miers and Adams data loggers. Did a stream gauging of the Lower Miers. David did a detailed survey from all the photo stations.
Jan 8	Richard and Heather went to the Garwood and undertook a series of stream gaugings. David undertook the first photography of the Miers glacier snout.
Jan 9	Heather and Richard returned from the Garwood after doing a couple more gaugings. Problems with the cables of the current meter. David completed the photo survey of the Miers at 2 am, thus able to maximise the best lighting conditions.
Jan 10	Stream bed and water-slope survey of the Miers stream. Went down and visited K061, as it was their last night in the Miers.page 51
Jan 11	Moved the albedometer from the sandy site to the moraine site. Re-surveyed the last water-slope survey lines to link with the benchmark BMM21. Michael Kopp and Josie McNee arrived in the middle of the afternoon. Heather collected samples from the "sandy type" ridges that had appeared on some of the patterns.
Jan 12	Tried to sample at Site D, but there was insufficient flow because of the lack of sun. Measured some ripples in the sand. Resurveyed a couple of the positions of the stream sites, to determine the height of the prism. Changed the Foxboro charts. Pat Sole and Joe Gary arrived from the Marshall valley just on midnight after a 4.15 hour walk.
Jan 13	Snowed all day. Josie and Michael left at 1000. Pat and Joe left at 1300. Gary De Rose and Stu Thome called in mid afternoon. Recovered data from the three data loggers.
Jan 14	Determined the "levels" of the patterned ground at the volcanic and marble sites. Checked the level and location of the Lower Miers weir to record the distortion. Did a stream gauging of the Lower Miers.
Jan 15	Recreation day - photographing. The Lake Miers Swim Club invested a further three members.
Jan 16	Richard and Heather sampled sediment over a rising and falling stage at Site E. David did the final intersection survey of the Miers glacier control. Moved all the survey marks and equipment to the Adams.
Jan 17	Surveyed the levels of patterned ground at the sandy and moraine sites. David laid out the photogrammetric survey line for the Adams glacier.
Jan 18	Surveyed and measured the ablation poles on the Adams glacier.
Jan 19	Heather and Richard took the albedometer down to the marble site. David did the photo-survey of the west side of the Adams glacier snout. This was completed at 0030. Recovered data from the three data loggers and did a further stream gauging of the Lower Miers.
Jan 20	Surveyed and measured the ablation poles on the Miers glacier.
Jan 21	Richard and Heather did a gauging at Site E, and measured channel slope. Tested the interference caused by the sampler with potassium permanganate: Retrieved the wind traps, and emptied three. David laid out the base line survey of the East side of the Adams glacier. The EDM was found to continue to operate in fight snow.
Jan 22	Wellington Anniversary Day. To celebrate the anniversary it was decided to go down to the beach for the day. Unfortunately not the best of days. Richard goes up to the high peak on the northern side of the valley on the way back.
Jan 23	Shifted the albedometer from the marble to the volcanic site. Visited by an American science party. Took down the Adams climate station and shifted everything except the weir back to the hut. Photo-survey of the east ridge of Adams glacier snout. Control survey completed 0015.
Jan 24	All equipment removed from the Miers site, bar the flume. Ancient surveyor saved from embarrassment by young maiden.
Jan 25	Lower Miers equipment moved back to the hut. All photo-survey marks removed and equipment moved to hut. All survey control stations punched and plugged.
Jan 26	Beautiful day so Richard went up Mt Lama for some photos of the valley. Heather went to get photos of her sites and collect samples from various sites for her mapping work. Removed the albedometer from the volcanic site and packed it away. Measured the sand on the delta. David photographed the survey and photogrammetric equipment as a record.page 52
Jan 27	Packed up some of the gear. Surveyed the location and level of the Lake Salina gauging staff. New survey station established on the Salina Moraines as ideal sighting purposes. True north established by local sun time. Panorama of skyline peaks established from bearings at Station P.
Jan 28	More gear packed and as much gear as possible moved to the helo pad. "Uncontrolled" photos taken of Miers and Adams glacier fronts for photogrammetric accuracy assessment. Closer photography of extended western section. Long focal-length (150 mm) photography of Adams glacier.
Jan 29	First helo arrives 0920 for return to Scott Base. At Scott Base the boxes for return on the ship were prepared. All NZARP gear returned.
Jan 30	Waiting to leave.
Jan 31	More waiting.
Feb 1	More waiting.
Feb 2	Still more waiting.
Feb 3	David Winchester and Heather Campbell left for New Zealand.
Feb 4	Richard Hawke still waiting.
Feb 5	Richard Hawke departs for New Zealand.

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