The Journey Home and Beyond

Our 2015 Iwi at Takahanga Marae in Kaikoura

Kia Ora.  Having been immersed in Kiwi and Maori culture for the past five weeks will now make the journey back to American culture another adventure.  Our students will take with them lasting memories of the challenges and opportunities of what not only New Zealand faces, but what the rest of the world faces as well.  Preserving biological diversity, conserving resources, and maintaining a balance between natural and human built environments are key to a sustainable future.  And, it will take all of us with our diverse backgrounds to come together in many different ways to help make lasting change for a bright future.

Dear students, we hope that what you have experienced with us in New Zealand will help shape the decisions you make for our future in exciting and positive ways.  We thank you for giving of yourselves openly with your hearts and minds so that our time together could be such a special learning opportunity for us all.  We have really enjoyed being with all of you, touring the wop-wops, and sharing a daily cuppa. Sweet As!

From the land of the long white cloud, safe and happy travels!  See you in the land of the flowers (La Florida).  With a Hongi and hug to each of you, Mark, Meryl, Jámm, and Tupelo

Last JC Penney pose at CHCH Airport this afternoon

Saturday, August 1 - Inspiration from Graeme's Farm and a Walk on the Wild Side

We started our day with inspiration from Graeme and Karen's lifestyle block farm.  Graeme works at Landcare Research and in his "spare" hours manages to keep a farm of apples, apricots, and almonds.  When he is not tending to his trees, he is busy keeping up with all of the latest technology from the world so that he can be as off the grid as possible.  He especially loves the technology coming out of America and believes that we have all that we need to make the world sustainable. Graeme’s house and farm sport solar panels and all sorts of gadgets he has rigged up and is even working on getting his own wind turbine up and running.  All very inspiring to show how much can be done with little things and little steps to lower our impact on our planet.

Of course Graeme and Karen also keep some sheep for keeping the orchards clear and it is lambing season so we even got to see and feed a few babies!

 

Solar Panels

Cute Lamb

 After lunch at Hillyers and some time at the Lincoln Market, we watched some girl’s rugby at Lincoln before heading out for a special visit to Willowbank.

Uni Rugby at Lincoln

Willowbank is a wildlife reserve where we had a chance to see up close both native and exotic animals. The highlight is that we actually got to touch a Tuatara! In addition, we had a Ko Tane or Maori experience where the “gals” got to try Poi Balls and the “guys” got to try a haka. Afterwards, we gathered in the restaurant to have a hangi, which is food smoked in the ground. Very tasty!

Pukeko

Kunekune pig - only found in New Zealand

Kea investigating Niko's head - hello?

Tuatara

Willowbank guide explaining about the kiwi

Poi dance

Hangi dinner

Cheers Meryl and Dr. H

Alp Foothills Restoration with Trevor and Heather

Today we traveled into the Alp foothills near the town of Springfield to visit with landowners Trevor and Heather Taege. Trevor and Heather own a large farm right on the beautiful Waimakariri River. Over the past 3 years, Trevor and Heather have planted over 5 acres of native plants on their farm. Planting native plants helps reduce the prevalence of diseases, increase native wildlife biodiversity, and decrease the amount of maintenance that would be required compared to exotics. Trevor and Heather have received their funding from several organizations such as the Malvern Lions Club, the Selwyn District Council, and Environment Canterbury. 

Trevor discussing our restoration project

Unfortunately, a recent snow and wind storm has damaged many of the native plants. Several of the large branches landed on the juvenile plants and are restricting their growth. Our restoration project was cutting and removing branches that had fallen from the recent storm and had landed onto young native plants. We cut and lifted several large branches and moved them to a place nearby away from the young natives. Some of the branches were so large that I was definitely getting a strenuous upper body workout today. I have slacking on workouts recently, so I am glad that the activity was 

rigorous.

                                                        Derek lifting a large tree branch

Gaby saving the native plants

During the morning activities, Trevor also pointed out some of the native plant species in the area. Some of the common species that we saw today are Kanuka, Manuka, Cabbage Tree, Totara, Kahikatea, and Lancewood. We also looked at specific characteristics of many species to differentiate them. After lunch, Trevor talked more about his farm and important planting techniques. He pointed out that it is important for each native plant to be planted greater than a meter a part. Planting too close together or overplanting is a common restoration mistake. Planting at the appropriate distance apart is important so each plant can uptake enough nutrients to survive and live a long life. In addition, Trevor felt that in New Zealand it is important to plant natives in Spring (late August/September). Plants that are planted at this time of year have the best chance of surviving. Planting distance and time of year are vital factors of the planning stage in a successful native plant restoration project. As important as the planning is, over the course of our restoration projects here in New Zealand, we have seen that the maintenance of the restoration project has been the most challenging. This is because maintenance is usually not as appealing as the initial planting stage and because it requires added time, energy, and money that can often be unexpected. It felt good to help Trevor and Helen with their restoration maintenance today.

Niko modeling shot

After finishing the restoration in the afternoon, Trevor gave us an elaborate sheep herding display and shearing demonstration. It was truly a remarkable site to see. First, the sheep dog “Pete” showed off his skills rounding up sheep. Then Trevor sheared a sheep. Then, Trevor explained a bit about how the business of sheep farming works. He explained that sheep wool grows about ½ inch a month; so sheering season is usually around twice a year. When the wool is sold, it usually goes towards making clothing and goods similar to it.

Trevor shearing the sheep

Group picture

Waimakariri River

After our sheep presentation, we had a couple of Heather’s homemade biscuits and headed to a hiking trail called Lords Bush. 

Lord's Bush Scenic Trail

While walking on the trail we saw a couple native plant species including, Bracken Fern, Black Beech, and New Zealand Jasmine. We also licked some of the honeydew drops from the Black Beech trees. After this, we headed back to Lincoln, Derek and I went on a nice run, and we all had dinner at the dining hall. Today was a truly fantastic day. I am going to try to enjoy every moment left of this incredible experience.

Have a great night.

“Don’t count the days. Make the days count.” - Muhammad Ali

-Lawson

White Flippers and Victorious Tititipounamu

Amazing how just a few degrees more and no wind can make one feel warm, even if it is only 53F degrees.  So we had that kind of morning and the sky was clear and the sea was calm when we arrived at our first destination for the day - Cave Rock (it was so clear, we could see all the way up the coast to the Kaikoura mountain range).

Cave Rock

Exploring tide pools

A tide pool

After checking out some of the anemones in the tide pools on the rocks, we headed over to Taylor's Mistake to hike the Godley Head track and look for endangered White-Flippered Penguins (and http://www.penguin.org.nz/resources/WFPT-Document-1.pdf).  The morning stayed perfect for our exploration of the small 200 meter-stretch of nesting boxes that are protected by a predator-proof fence (built in 2010), lay down a very steep ladder, and are at the base of the cliff and edge of the sea.  These boxes were put in place to both help protect these penguins that only nest in this one spot and off a nearby island, and to help with scientific study of this species.  To our delight and amazement we found two of these beautiful little penguins each in their own little box.

At the start of the hike in search of penguins (we will go almost all the way out to the land mass behind us before we go straight down to the rocks at the water's edge)

Predator proof fence from above

Heading down the ladder to the sea

Exploring the nesting boxes along the shore

A nest box

Amazing!

Hanging out by the nest boxes

Back up at the predator proof fence

After lunch, we explored The Tannery (a historic building from the 1800s that has been rehabilitated into shops) for a short time.

The Tannery

Then, the weather turned colder and cloudy and a little rainy, but we still showed up for our Cricket lesson/match.  Team Tititipounamu was victorious over Team Morepork, 43, 31, and we were all thankful when it was all over.  We did have a fun time learning the game, but think that 5 day matches might be agonizing.

Team Tititipounamu up at bat defending the wicket with Team Morepork out in the field

Victorious or not, happy to not be going on for four more days : )

Thanks for another fun day all! -Meryl

July 27th-Restoration at Coalgate Reserve

When the crew loaded into the Gator Waka on this rainy Monday, we headed to another reserve managed by the Te Ara Kakariki trust. This reserve is called the Coalgate Reserve, which is located in the very small town of Coalgate (population ~276 people) in the Selwyn District of Canterbury. We met with John Stroh of the Te Ara Kakariki trust, who explained to us the struggles the trust faces in terms of funding their restoration efforts. The funding for these sorts of projects is sparse but necessary for supplies and employees that coordinate volunteering and purchasing plants.

One of the ways they've found around this is to encourage local businesses to become involved in conservation by sponsoring the planting of native species. The trust initiated a team-building opportunity for businesses that expressed an interest in environmental issues, in which the business would purchase plants and pay their employees to volunteer for a half-day planting plants in a reserve. This way the business strengthened the teamwork among their employees in a constructive and recreational way that benefits the area's biodiversity. A beneficial side-effect of these kind of activities is that these employees gain a better understanding of the local environment, which hopefully sparks their interest in conservation efforts (and hopefully they'll start to contribute to restoration in other settings as well). By charging a considerable amount per native for the company to plant, the trust is encouraging the business to actually take care of these plants, rather than then letting them die because of neglect.

Afterwards, we got some dirt under our nails by weeding the Coalgate Reserve and freeing some of the plants that had grown too big to have combi guards. When everything was sorted out, we stopped at a nearby cafe for tea time and came to home sweet home! Here are some very official pictures and videos of us hard at work!

Interviewing the esteemed Christina Barnes about freeing plants from combi guards

Bridget Chalifour weighs in on the weeding process

We still get excited about sheep, no shame

Weeding around the native plants 

Paint Lawson like one of your french girls

:)

Paulita looking stunning next to an unfortunate plant that has already died because of the combi guard

Bridget looking out for combi guards/Lorde

Derek pulling up grass

Dr. Hostetler telling a really bad joke at teatime probably

Sincerely,

His Royal Highness Niko

Coes Ford Reserve

              Today was a short day with the group as many of us left Lincoln University to spend our free weekend in Queenstown. Our morning was spent with Brooke Turner from Te Ara Kakariki at the Coes Ford Reserve. Established in 2006, Te Ara Kakariki is a trust focused on restoring natives in the Canterbury region, where less than 1% of the native flora remains. 
               As we have learned previously, one of the most effective methods for increasing biodiversity is through the establishment of ‘greendots’ and corridors so there is as much land as possible for the native wildlife to utilize in hopes of increasing their population size. Te Ara is Maori for pathway, while Kakariki means green (and is also a type of endangered parakeet in NZ) - so the trust literally translates to green pathway. Working with landowners, community groups, and schools, the trust hopes to raise awareness and encourage involvement in restoration efforts on the reserve and other nearby areas. 
               There has been a 97% success rate when involving the private landowners, but like many things, monetary restrictions play a large roll in whether the landowners take part in restoration efforts. Each plant initially costs about $4.00 (including combigaurds); however, actual cost per plant after 3 years is closer to $25.00 when factoring in the cost of maintenance. The first two years of growth are slow to start, but progress picks up rapidly by the third growth year. After about 4 years, the plants can do well enough on their own to survive and provide a viable habitat to attract the native fauna, which is the ultimate goal of the these projects. In order to sustain a biodiverse ecosystem, there needs to be a minimum of at least 10% native plant population in an area so there is still much more work to be done in the Canterbury Plains. 

Excited to start helping.

Learning about Coes Ford Reserve from Brooke Turner

No Child Left Behind. (except Christina)

Plant growth after about 3 years.

Me way hoter

Headed to the older plantings

Niko and Derek searching for a combi gaurd.

Derek and some combi guards he destroyed.

Freeing the natives!

        After we finished our work removing the combi gaurds restricting the natives, many of us headed to the airport for a quick flight to Queenstown- the adventure capital of New Zealand! 

Queenstown group!

P.S.- Christina got her boot!

~Kacie