Welcome to New Zealand or Aotearoa – „Land of the long lingering day [twilight]‟ – and to our three-day pre-conference North Island field trip „Ashes and Issues‟. We trust your stay in New Zealand is both informative and friendly and there is something for everyone on the trip. The itinerary in brief and a map of the North Island showing the main scientific stops are shown above. At the time of guidebook preparation, we have a group of 23, including four students, on the tour with participants from Japan, Taiwan, USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand. The tour leaders are Prof David Lowe (Univ. of Waikato, Hamilton) and Dr Haydon Jones (Scion Research, Rotorua). Assistant leader is Prof Paul McDaniel (Univ. of Idaho, Moscow), on leave at the Univ. of Waikato July-December, 2008. We offer a warm welcome to you all. Because we have considerable distances to travel (especially Day 3), as well as a range of stops planned, we will need to leave the hotel at 8.00 am each day.