We are back from our latest overnight adventures - tired, but with smiles on our faces. We left Monday morning and headed north up the east coast from Christchurch. Just north of the city we stopped at Pegasus development to check out how they are implementing some green building techniques. We also took a short stroll on the beach before heading up to the Waipara valley to learn about their greening project at the wineries. The
Greening of Waipara project is important not just for native bird and animal species, but also in that the native plants encourage natural predator control for pest insects so less spraying is needed in the vineyards. In the afternoon we also met with Daryl, a fifth-generation farmer and owner of Harris Estates Winery, who gave us a good lesson in caring for and herding sheep. Later, we were treated to a delicious traditional New Zealand dinner of soup, lamb and beef, potatoes, vegetables, and pavlova for dessert by Daryl's wife Maree and participated in our lip sync contest. Good fun was had by all and we (mostly) stayed warm in our
sleeper cars for the night.
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| Pegasus Development |
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| A walk on the beach |
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| A Greening Waipara native garden at Pegasus Winery |
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| A Greening Waipara native garden at Tourless Winery |
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| Daryl speaks with us about farming, sheep, and the importance of native plants to the wineries. |
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| One of Daryl's Merino sheep |
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| Daryl carving the roasts just before dinner |
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| Niko is clearly the winner of this year's lip sync contest |
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| The Waipara Sleeper Cars |
We started our day on Tuesday trying
Honey Dew fresh from the trees before checking out the seals just north of Kaikoura at
Ohau. What a treat to see so many seal pups out near the ocean, and a beautiful waterfall at the end of a short hike. Afterwards, we worked out way back down to Kaikoura and enjoyed an overnight stay at
Takahanga Marae.
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| In search of Honey Dew |
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| Seal on the rocks at Ohau on the coast |
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| Up the stream at the waterfall |
On Wednesday, some of the students went whale watching and successfully saw Humpback and Sperm whales and Dusky dolphins, while the rest of the gang took a beautiful hike up to see the
Hutton's Shearwater restoration project. We all met up for lunch and a short time to shop in Kaikoura before heading back to Lincoln.
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| Our Iwi at Takahanga Marae |
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| Enjoying the view as we walk up to the Hutton Shearwater project area |
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| Another beautiful view on our hike (we can see the boat that the other students are on but no whales [just lots of seals]) |
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| The predator proof fenced area for the Hutton's Shearwater Project |
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| Another beautiful view of the Kaikoura Range from our hike |
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| Seal! |
Cheers, m&m : )
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