New post in the “The Cave Journey” blog by our scientist Cinthya:
Fieldwork
QUEST workshop at Waikato University
From 9 to 11 September 2019, the Waikato University QUEST partner organized a workshop on Quantitative palaeoclimate reconstructions using speleothems in the Avantidrome, Cambride (New Zealand). QUEST project partners as scientists from the field were invited to share progress and prospects beyond the timeline of the existing QUEST funding. Up to 15 scientists participated and presented and discussed updates of their research. Highlight was the presentation of a new prototype of an auto-sampler. The last day of workshop led to the Waipuna cave, with intensive sampling and in-situ measurements of drip water.
QUEST-Workshop in the Avantidrome, Cambridge (New Zealand). 
Presentation of the new auto sampler during the QUEST workshop in Cambridge (NZ). 
Fieldtrip at Waikato workshop to the Waipuna cave. 
Rainwater sampling at the Waipuna cave. 
Data collection at the Wapuna Cave meteo station. 
Sampling in the Waipuna Cave. 
In the Waipuna Cave.
During her scientific stay in New Zealand, Cinthya published her experiences in her “The Cave Journey” blog: https://thecavejourney.wordpress.com/
A very active southern hemisphere team!
At the end of November, Beth and Cinthya had a very fruitful time while participating at the annual conference 2017 of the Geoscience Society of New Zealand, presenting preliminary findings of speleothem magnetism and cave monitoring in and around Waipuna cave.
In the meantime, Adam, Inken, and Cinthya had an intense work in the field visiting Waipuna cave to carry out the SH summer monitoring collecting water samples from the drip points and taking measurements of the physicochemical properties. Additionally, the team installed the first sampling device for the analysis of cave organic aerosols, with the objective of characterizing the cave´s response to external conditions. After, 5 field trips and a lot of hours of intense work underground, the team returned home tired but very happy, with many samples and a bunch of data ready to be analyzed at the Waikato University, University of St Andrews, and Johannes Gutenberg-Universität laboratories. Now, all of us are looking forward to the next adventure.
Sampling in the Waipuna cave
Fieldwork in Waipuna Cave, New Zealand
Seb is currently visiting Beth and Adam to conduct fieldwork in Waipuna cave. The goal was to survey surface and cave tracks to link drip monitoring sites in the cave with the meteo station at the surface, install loggers, download collected data etc.
Two trips were very successful, although the autosampler – to be deployed – failed us due to moisture creeping into the electronics (again). It is currently being repaired and will be installed as soon as time permits.
Adam in Waipuna