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

Winding Down

Student Journals from the past 5 weeks recounting both scientific information and personal responses to our experiences were due today, and we celebrated the course end tonight with time together with the folks who have helped us along the way and a slideshow (cramming as many photos as we could of over 4,000photos into just 150 slides).  We have done so much – worked hard and had a lot of fun! Thank you for the good memories All.

Sweet Dreams, Meryl

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

Antarctic Centre and Horseback Trek

Since we are so close (relatively!) to Antarctica, but unable to visit, we went to the Antarctic Centre to learn more about this continent and expeditions that have gone there. Many (over 70%!) of the flights to the various international bases in Antarctica occur in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Our first part of the experience was to ride in a Hagglund vehicle that is used in Antarctica for transporting people and equipment. Not having our morning coffee yet (some of us), this ride was quite a jolt as we went up 45 degree hills and even floated across water. Some screams were involved . . . .

They are smiling now . . . .

Looking out the back at a hill and a pond that we went through

The Centre had lots of information and displays about current and past expeditions. One factoid that I learned was that certain valleys in Antarctica reach 25C! Also - 3 million years ago - Antarctica was covered in beech forest. Quite warm as this was due to sides of hills reflecting light into the valley. There was also an Antarctic storm "experience" - but honestly, it was not near as cold or windy as what we experienced on Quail island!

At the entryway into the venue

Reading about past expeditions

Beech forest in Antarctica!

Experiences a little of the Antarctic weather

Even a wee igloo

Of course, there are penguins in Antarctica and we learned about penguin behavior and biology. In fact, the white-flippered penguins were on display and we were able to see the keepers feed them. "The White-flippered penguin is one of the smallest and most endangered penguins in the world. It is endemic to Canterbury, New Zealand breeding only on Banks Peninsula and Motunau Island"

White-flippered penguin - like the one we saw the other day when we hiked Godley Head

The students wanted to go horseback riding, so after lunch, we went to a place near the Waimakariri River. "Wai"means water in Maori - similar to "Kai" which means food. This is Maori language week in New Zealand so I had to throw this in here. We saddled up and trekked along the river and back.

Getting ready!

Explaining the finer details of riding a horse

On the trail!

OK -- artsy shot

Cat on Hay!

'Til tomorrow, Mark

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 : )