I recently completed my second visit to Aotearoa New Zealand as part of my research design and planning process for my PhD. This 3 week visit was a part of a large undertaking to build my own research project and to do so collaboratively, ethically, and through prioritizing local indigenous community concerns in my research area. My research is focused around understanding hazard at (Mt.) Ruapehu maunga, a stratovolcano in the center of the North Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Specifically I’m interested in the risk of lahar (volcanic mudflow) coming down off the top of the maunga and how these geological phenomena affect the surrounding communities of people that live nearby, the visitors to the national park the maunga resides in, and the corresponding infrastructure of both. While in Aotearoa, I had three main objectives: 1) Continue to ensure the work I do is additive, not redundant. This involves moving beyond literature review to speak with the scientists at universities and in government there about unpublished work, and gather feedback on where they see a need for more study. 2) Investigate what services I can provide for the community I am visiting. To do this, I need to ask questions of community members and scientists in order to determine where I can be useful. 3) Tailor my research questions so that they address concerns of the community members. I tell them what my interests, skills, and resources are and ask what they are interested in. I was able to meet all three of these objectives due to a great variety of factors, including some luck, but most important was my ability to communicate and build relationships with others from a few different walks of life. This trip required patience, openness, curiosity, but ultimately was only able to be this successful because of two years of groundwork, including two previous stints in Aotearoa. Reflexivity and flexibility, essentially a willingness to be wrong and learn more, throughout that longer process, as well as while I am in the field, were also essential components to this success. While I still continue to learn and grow in this aspect of my research, I have reached a point with this project where I have achieved my objectives. I have identified a specific scientific problem that is 1) scientifically interesting and valuable 2) provides opportunities for outreach and 3) addresses indigenous community concerns in the area.