Yesterday we reached the base of silts at a depth of 194m and encountered diamictite. The rate of penetration decreased significantly and a decision was made to run 12 inch casing to that depth. This morning, the drillers started to construct and install the casing string and this is expected to be completed by late tomorrow (7 October). We will then advance the casing to greater depth using a dual-rotary drilling method until bedrock is reached, or the casing cannot be advanced further. After crisp but cold conditions late last week, the weather deteriorated yesterday, and by 10 pm torrential rain and strong winds made conditions on site very challenging. The wind was strong enough to move one of the shipping containers but the drillers continued working through the night. Meanwhile, setup of on-site facilities is progressing steadily despite the adverse weather. On Sunday, we put up a canopy between the science containers to provide a sheltered work area, and our computer systems and the DMT Corescan3 and fixed camera photography have been installed. The canopy was strong enough to survive the storm. Today we will focus on establishing the thin sectioning facilities. Many of the science team have now arrived in Whataroa, but several people have departed temporarily for the ICDP training course being run this week in Franz Josef Glacier. While they are away, we will continue setting up equipment and preparing for open-hole drilling later in the week.