Our day started with a stop at Graeme Rodger’s sustainable home in Lincoln. He taught us about the solar panels on his property and how they interact with the national grid. Power cuts are fairly common in rural areas, so his solar panels allow for his home to fully function when the grid isn’t providing any energy. He also explained how wind turbines work, which was very interesting!
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Graeme showing us his solar power setup,
wearing an awesome sweater his partner knitted for him! |
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| Graeme explaining how wind turbines work by overcoming magnetic forces |
After our ‘enlightening’ talk about electricity, he grabbed some feijoa fruits to feed to his sheep. The sheep love the fruit so much, mothers will walk away from their lambs to eat one! We saw multiple cute little lambs who were quite “sheepish”, as Dr. Hostetler put it. We witnessed the aggressive way that lambs get milk from their mothers. They headbutt their mother’s abdomen to encourage the flow of milk. Some of us agreed that we’re thankful human babies don’t do the same thing! Graeme told us about the nets surrounding the stone fruit trees he has on his property. When the trees start fruiting, birds will eat every single apricot and cherry they can get to, so the nets are placed around the orchard for protection.
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| Feeding feijoas to the mama sheep |
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| sheep family picture |
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| cute lamb |
After a stop at Coffee Culture for a tea break, we all got in the Gator Waka for the drive to Sumner Beach. When we had almost reached our destination, we saw a royal spoonbill in some shallow water next to the road! Some of us have been waiting and hoping to see a royal spoonbill before we leave New Zealand, so it was a welcome surprise! We finally reached a harbor called Taylor’s Mistake. Dr. Meurk explained to us that a sea captain in the mid 1800’s was sailing to Lyttelton Bay, but made a wrong turn along the way. His ship was damaged and he was in the wrong body of water. His name? Taylor, of course.
We headed on out a hike on the Godley Head Trail. We had gorgeous views the whole way and saw many different hikers and dogs. After reaching our destination, we went inside a predator proof fence and down a steep bluff to the rocks below. We made our way along the rocks, peeking inside nesting boxes for white flippers penguins along the way. We saw two penguins nestled inside a box and were all able to look inside! We all made our way back down the bay and to the Gator Waka. We went to The Village Inn for a late lunch.
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| Maddie and her super cute flower bouquet |
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| The view from our hike on the Godley Head trail |
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| "Wow" -Maddie |
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Dr. Meurk rocking shorts and standing on a picnic table
to tell us about the exotic flowers we were seeing |
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| standing outside the predator-proof fence |
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| "Hi MTV. Welcome to my crib." -Bailey |
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White flippered penguin mad at the invasion of privacy
picture by Corinne Allen Titus |
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Group shot with a view!
picture by Amy and J'amm, because it definitely takes
two people to take a single picture |
After a great lunch of fish and chips, we went to the cave rocks at Sumner beach to explore. When the sun was making its descent, we drove to Wunderbar in Sumner. Wunderbar was the only bar open in Lyttelton after the devastating earthquake in 2016. Dr. Meurk arranged for us to meet some other students from Lincoln Uni studying environmental issues there.
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| exploring the rocks at Sumner Beach |
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| group pic in the cave rocks |
Today ended with dinner at an Indian restaurant in Lincoln. We're all exhausted and ready to sleep in a little bit tomorrow!
Sweet dreams,
Eliza
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