Botanic Garden, Museum, and Hike

Nearing the end of the course (sigh!), the class explored the Christchurch Botanic  Gardens and Canterbury Museum. The Gardens contain quite an assortment of exotic and native plants. Many of these plants came from around the world, but in addition to the exotics, there was a section of New Zealand native plants. Here the class could review plants that they have seen  on the trip.

The class in the gardens

Giant Sequoia

The Canterbury museum has quite an assortment of natural and cultural history. One highlight was displays of Moa skeletons and a display of the Haast eagle that hunted them.  There was also a display of the Pau House, that a couple in Bluff decorated with Paua shells and was a famous house in New Zealand.

Students looking at display at Garden visitor center

Maori display

Pau house

To my delight – there was an exhibit on spiders in New Zealand.  I enjoyed this display = so please forgive the number of spider pictures below. The only native, venomous spider in New Zealand is called the Katipō, These spiders are rare and only found on beaches.

Jumping spider

Katipo spider

After lunch, we headed up into the Port Hills for one last hike.  This look out point allowed us to view Lyttleton harbor and the Canterbury plains at the same time. A southerly blew in and it was a bit cold and windy at the top. We did see an awesome 360 view. 

Gatorwaka and peewakawaka

Lyttleton Harbour

On the edge (but safe!)

Another view

Of course, we had tea time on the way home. Cheers Dr. H

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 20-22, 2015 From Green Development To Endangered Species And A Whole Lot In Between

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.

Pegasus Development

A walk on the beach

A Greening Waipara native garden at Pegasus Winery

A Greening Waipara native garden at Tourless Winery

Daryl speaks with us about farming, sheep, and the importance of native plants to the wineries.

One of Daryl's Merino sheep

Daryl carving the roasts just before dinner

Niko is clearly the winner of this year's lip sync contest

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.

In search of Honey Dew

Seal on the rocks at Ohau on the coast

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.

Our Iwi at Takahanga Marae

Enjoying the view as we walk up to the Hutton Shearwater project area

Another beautiful view on our hike (we can see the boat that the other students are on but no whales [just lots of seals])

The predator proof fenced area for the Hutton's Shearwater Project

Another beautiful view of the Kaikoura Range from our hike

Seal!

Cheers, m&m : )

Tussock restoration at Quail Island

We ate breakfast on the go today as we traveled to Lyttleton Harbor to catch the ferry that would take us to Quail Island, which had been used as a leper colony and had school for delinquent youths over the years, among other things. The island had already been cleared of most of it's native vegetation by the time Europeans arrived in 1850, so restoring it is a serious undertaking.

The leper colony

 We met Ian, our leader for the day, in the harbor and he explained our tasks when we arrived at the island. We would be planting Silver Tussock fragments, or parts of the larger Silver Tussock, in to small pots. The tussocks that we planted today will be planted in the ground by more volunteers in several months. The process was simple: fill the pot about half way with soil, place the tussock fragment inside, and then fill in the soil around the tussock to hold it securely in place.

Talking tussocks

We were like a well-oiled tussock planting machine

Found a friend in a pot!

The fruit of our labors. 320 in total!

The trust responsible for the restoration of Quail Island was established in 1998 and has since planted about 80,000 trees, as well as eradicated mammalian pests like the rat, stoat, and the hedgehog. There are many exotic plants on the island, such as the Monterey Pine and Cypress trees that tower over the landscape. The large trees may not be the most disruptive exotics, though. Exotic grasses shade out native seeds dispersed by birds and don't allow them to grow. The trust hopes to bring back healthy populations of native birds by restoring natural vegetation. Quail Island has nesting populations of Bellbirds, Keruru, Grey Warblers, and even White Flippered Penguins! We didn't see any penguins, but that may have been for the best as they are easily disturbed. 

A nesting box for penguins

When we finished planting the tussocks we headed over to a cabin for our PB&J lunch. We were treated to a fire, and Dr. Hostetler found a book of jokes that were terribly cheesy, even by his standards. 

We ate our lunch here

Before Dr. Hostetler broke out the joke book

After lunch most of us took off on a walk around the island. We stopped at a small structure with information about the island, and read signs posted at various portions of the trail to learn more about the island. Dr. Hostetler told us about the vegetation we saw, but Jamm and Meryl made sure to keep him on his toes and challenged some of his IDs. The views from around the island were incredible, but the most striking thing by far was the wind. I think I would have flown away if I wore baggier clothes. We looked out over the cliffs for the first part of the walk, then made our way to a rocky area where we found a skink and a couple of geckos. Afterwards we passed a shipwreck and made our way down to a beautiful beach, where we spent some time before heading back to the dock to catch our ferry. 

Paula has a vision for Quail island

It was a rite of passage for young Maori to climb these cliffs and retrieve bird eggs

Walking around the island

Trying not to get blown over by the wind

The island's namesake!

Small gecko found under rocks

Tupelo's large gecko

Shipwreck!

It was a cold, windy, but awesome day. After stopping in Lyttleton for some hot drinks we made our way back to Lincoln to eat dinner and pack for our next adventure. It really feels good to be able to participate in restoration projects like this one and make a difference while we're over here learning and enjoying ourselves. 

- Derek