Hokitika Gorge (brought to you by Amy and Jámm)

Jámm taking over plant ID for the day

Hard fern looking anything but

Kiekie and some filmy fern

A rainy start but the gorge is still impressive

Searching for the elusive pounamu (greenstone) 

Fantail

Assorted Plants:

Rimu

Kidney fern

Totally edible and certified delicious berries

Filmy fern

Matai Berry

Another filmy fern

A trumpet!

Under The Weather

Looking at rocks while Jámm, Amy, and Meryl collect flax for weaving

Marianna found this cool rock that was split in two

Lexie made this cool rock split in two ; )

We learned to weave flax fish, but Amy had to show off and make flowers

Well, the West Coast is a rain forest...  Today calls for 100 percent rain all day.  With our fearless leader under the weather, we took it easy today.  Breakkie at Maggies, a little snooping around the Greymouth shops, a short visit to the beach between rain showers, and some flax weaving.  Then, an afternoon off to rest up.

Hopefully everything will be a little brighter tomorrow.
- Meryl

Kiwis, Pankakes, and Kaves

First day on the West Coast sure was packed to the brim! We started off our day having breakfast at the iconic ‘Maggie’s Kitchen’ where the owners, Alan and Maggie, made us feel at home with their warm personalities and tasty food. We then headed over to Crèche Du Bois Gentil, the Friendly Forest Kiwi Crèche where we would be spending the next 5 hours. Jo Halley, manager of this Crèche, was there to greet us at the predator proof fencing that surrounded the 13 hectare land.

Jo leading us into the Crèche through the predator proof fences

 The role of this Creche is to be a sanctuary for the Great Spotted Kiwi where hatched chicks will spend the first 6-8 months of their life protected from introduced mammalian predators such as stoats and rats. Health checks are done monthly for the chicks and we were able to see one today with a Kiwi named Najima. Najima, meaning star in Arabic, was named by the Muslim community from one of the Mosques that was attacked earlier this year. Jo and Ray, another employee who happens to live next door to the creche, quickly caught Najima and pulled her out gently by her feet where it is the least likely to injure her. In two shifts, everyone got a turn to marvel quietly at how cute a kiwi was in person.

Jo with baby Najima

After the kiwi interaction, we helped with restoration by planting 96 baby coprasma plants and even moved a wooden foot bridge. Ray was very pleased by the end of the day with our work.

                                                 Maryanna, Tess, and a Coprasma plant

                                         Sheamus taking a break, attempting to befriend a bold New Zealand Robin

 
Half of the group strategizing how to move the bridge

Once finished at the sanctuary, we headed to Punakaiki Beach to see pancake rocks. Made of limestone, these rocks have layers giving them the appearance of the famous breakfast dish. Being there at high tide we also had the pleasure of seeing blowholes, which happens when waves crash and water is pushed vertically up through the rocks creating a wall of ocean spray.

                                                             Pancake rocks!
We then went for a quick hike to Paparoa National Park which was a landscape straight out of Jurassic Park. Dramatic cliffs, gigantic tree ferns, and beautiful reflective waters gave us a prehistoric feel. Weka’s were also spotted at the end of our hike as well, which are a close relative to the kiwi we had seen just a few hours earlier.

Dramatic cliffs greeted the group on our hike

                                                           Calm water reflections

Weka spotted

Being on the West Coast, we of course watched the sun set over the Tasman Sea and some of us even put a hand in the water to say we had been in this new body of water (to us at least). We hurried down the road before dusk in hopes we would be able to see the Westland Petrels come in for the nights. Being a pelagic bird, they rarely come on land but during this time of year they nest on the cliff sides during the nights. After sometime waiting, we began to see them slowly coming in and probably ended up seeing at least 100!

The little black dots are, in fact, Westland Petrels











The last event on our agenda for the day was to go into a cave and search for glow worms. With just the red lights emitted from two headlamps, all 14 of us crawled into the rock caverns in hopes to not hit our heads and see the glowing invertebrates. After ducking and slowly moving for about 10 minutes, we look up and see a number of the fluorescent creatures on the ceiling above us. Glow worms actually glow the same way that dinoflagellates in the ocean glow, by bioluminescence! They attract prey like moths and tourists with their glowing looks.

Shoutout to Lexie for this decent picture of the glowing worms :)

Safe to say that while today was action packed to the brim, it was full of new and thrilling experiences for everyone in the group.
Catch ya later, -Grace

Picture Tour Guide Aross Arthur's Pass From Lincoln to Greymouth --- Where To Stop

Stop here at Springfield to see the world famous (in New Zealand) giant doughnut sculpture!

Next destination: Castle Hill. Enjoy the beautiful blue sky, the bright snowy mountains, and the pretty rocks.

Standing here at Castle Hill all sounds of wind, cars, and various animals are silenced. It's very peaceful.

Come to Lake Pearson on a calm day to see the water become as smooth as glass. Get photos of the mountains reflecting in the water that you can brag about for years!

The Waimakariri river is a great place to stop and take photos, especially on a clear day.

Stop for lunch at the Cafe in Arthur's Pass. If you're lucky, you may see a Kea! Just make sure your food is very secure --- these alpine parrots are very cheeky and it is very bad for them to be fed.

Ready for a nice hike? Stop at Devil's Punchbowl Falls to see this stunning waterfall.

If you're like us, you can also take a look at the forest at the start of the hike to see if you can find a Peripatus (aka Velvet Worm).

You're almost there! We recommend stopping at Viaduct to look for more keas and to enjoy the views (you can't see it in the picture, but we did spot a kea flying overhead from far away and heard it's calls).

And... it's always good to take an unplanned detour to take pictures of these adorable fluffy "Oreo" cows.

Hope you enjoyed your tour across the Southern Alps! We have now arrived in Greymouth and look forward to more adventures over the next few days.

Cheers,
Tupelo

Planting with Pups

     Our day got a later start than usual much to my own relief as the Super Rugby League final last night had left me rather drained. We headed straight to Hillyer's to pick up meat pies for lunch (chicken and apricot for those curious as to my choice). We ate them during our second lecture with Dr. Meurk in which he covered the theory, principles, and practice of ecosystem restoration. He stressed that there were various approaches to restoration, some of which are better suited to given conditions than others. In illustrating this point, he referenced Hugh Wilson of Hinewai Reserve whom we had met this very week. Hugh is a proponent of letting nature run its course with as little direct human intervention as possible. His decision to allow invasive gorse to grow in Hinewai is a textbook example of such a practice. However, Dr. Meurk emphasized the importance of the unique conditions in Hinewai that have been conducive to the success of Hugh's program such as the presence of native seeds in the soil.

     We left the Landcare Research facility for Mahoe Reserve across from Lincoln High School where we received our very own pair of gloves. How honored we all felt! We were introduced to Sue Jarvis, a founder of the Lincoln Envirotown Trust, who told us about the history and aim of the reserve to return the area to something like how it would've looked a thousand years ago. The reserve has been active since 2003 and draws volunteers every year to plant trees there. Dr. Meurk then demonstrated the proper technique for planting the seedlings spread all around the reserve before sending us on our way.

Dr. Meurk shows us the ropes, spade in hand.

Grace, Tess, and Maryanna show Jay the love he deserves for being such a good boy.

Another Jay shot for good measure.

 Bauer and Lexi work along the hillside to give their seedlings as strong a start as possible.

Joe, Tess, Grace, and Maryanna pose after a hard day's work.

Say treeeee!

Bauer under a free-standing arch made from the pots of the 270 plants.

We split into pairs and began working. The rocky soil gave us some difficulty in making proper holes in which to plant the seedlings but after a few plants we fell into a rhythm and by the end had planted 270 seedlings as a group! Amongst others, we planted cabbage trees, New Zealand flax, propinqua, kahakatia, kanuka, kohuhu, and marshland ribbonwood. We planted deep on the floodplain of the reserve as well as in the more stressed environments along the hillside, the whole time playing with two dogs who had energy enough for the entire afternoon. Jay (short for Justin Bieber) was quite lovable and helped to make our day. Joe and I spoke with Sue for some time about the climate of New Zealand which had afforded us a particularly comfortable afternoon in which to work. After a group photo and the effort to pack the remaining plants into the cars we left in the Gator Waka for the day. Tomorrow, we will head for the west coast bright and early where we will stay until our return on Friday. - Sheamus

Feeling Cultured

Today, we took a break from hikes and restoration projects by enjoying more of Christchurch.  We started off the day by heading back to the Riccarton House, but this time, instead of walking through the bush, we walked through the local farmers market that was being held there.  While there were some technical difficulties regarding a certain honey stand's credit card reader, we were still able to enjoy everything the farmers market had to offer, including (but not limited to) perogies, vegan hot chocolate, and olive oil.

The Riccarton House looked a little less distinguished today surrounded by so many tents

When we left the farmers market, we went straight to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, where we met up with Dr. Meurk. We were primarily there to see the portion of the gardens devoted to natives; however, we couldn’t help but stop to see some spectacular exotics, such as the giant redwood. 

“I always wanted to see a redwood. I just never thought it would be in New Zealand” -Grace

The redwood with Tupelo for scale 

Dr. Meurk explaining to the group that while the native kauri tree he was pointing to was planted, the seedlings around it were natural

Meryl had explained to me that in the aftermath of the earthquake in 2011, much of the city was closed off for reconstruction, but the gardens stayed open. This caused the gardens to become a sort of natural gathering space for many people to come together, grieve, and process. With that, it is very fitting that they had Silver Fern planted in the gardens. 

The Silver Fern is a symbol for New Zealand, as it represents not only strength and enduring power, but also an attachment to the land itself.

Before leaving the gardens, we stopped for lunch at the Ilex Café, which didn’t disappoint. After lunch, we went through the cafe’s small interactive exhibit. 

We especially enjoyed the magnet puzzle

The Ilex Café exhibit was just a warm up though for the real deal. After leaving the café, we walked over to the Canterbury Museum, which had many exhibits including ones on the Māori, Antarctic, and the mummy of Tash pen Khonsa. After spending over an hour there, we all agreed that there was still so much more to see. 

This was a depiction of the pre-Māori people hunting a giant Moa bird with their (now extinct) Kurī (dog) 

While we were sad to not able to see the art gallery today, our time in Christchurch was cut short for a good reason: we needed to head back to our dorms at Lincoln to bundle up! Thanks to Dr. H’s good friend, Dean, we were able to get tickets to the Super Rugby Finals between the Canterbury Crusaders and the Argentinian Jaguares. We knew it would be chilly, but we were all surprised when Dr. H. told us to wear at least four layers! Going into the game, most of us had no clue how rugby was played, but thanks to Lexie, our resident rugby expert, we caught on eventually. While we were all new to the sport, we were very excited to see the Crusaders take home the title for the third time in a row. 

We had some pretty great seats! 

After the game, while everyone else was battling traffic, we hung out at another one of Dr. H’s friend, Bryan's, house which we had parked at. While there, we were able to socialize, look for constellations, and enjoy some down time before making our way home. 

While the day started off leisurely with the farmers market, botanic gardens, and museum, the rugby match gave us a late night, so we are very excited to get to sleep in tomorrow. 

Cheers!
Maryanna