Freetime Fun, Day Out in Christchurch

Devin Checks out the Time in Christchurch

Tupelo learning to skate backwards

Sadly, we have only a few days left.  Our five week journey seems to have gone by so quickly. We started our day with student’s choice - a morning out in Christchurch where the students had time to sightsee/shop, or ice skate, and then tucked into some Hillyers pies for lunch.

All manner of birds were brought with early settlers of New Zealand including these Sebastopol geese with crazy feathers.

Not sure why you would pack up and bring a wallaby to NZ, but NZ has trouble with those too.

Bailey feeds a Kea with a broken beak.

Personality of a rock, but Tuatara are soooooo awesome!

The Girls give Poi a go

The Guys give the Haka a go

A Hangi feast

With Devin, our Chief, heading up our table, we enjoyed a four course meal by a warm fireplace.

We spent the afternoon and evening at Willowbank.  Willowbank is a wildlife reserve where we had a chance to see up close both exotic animals that settlers brought and cause problems here in New Zealand (everything from deer to rabbits to wallaby, etc), as well as native animals which the reserve is trying to rehab, educate the public about, or help with repopulation efforts (kiwi, kaka, etc). In addition, we had a Ko Tane or Maori experience where Devin led us as our Chief into a Maori village, and during a music and dance performance, the “gals” got to try Poi Balls and the “guys” got to try a haka Kapai! Afterwards, we gathered in the restaurant to have a hangi  which is food smoked in the ground. Very tasty!

Cheers, Dr. H and Meryl

Grassy Knees and Licking Trees

This morning began with a relaxing stroll through the Riccarton Farmer's Market. Pies, sweets, breads, and cheese were the main fare along with fresh fruits and veggies. A violinist raising money to record with a band, a high-school trumpet player fundraising a band trip to America, and a man playing the harmonica near the entrance serenaded us as while walked among the tents. 

Maddie and her donut-thing

Maddie and Eliza enjoying the morning

Soon, we were all gathered around this bench watching the ducks swim past with our various purchases. Jámm finally got his baguette, Cole got some good cheese, and I got a beeswax candle. There we were, minding our own business, when suddenly... 

He was not enjoying the market

this guy shows up uninvited. Shaking his tail, bobbing his neck aggressively, and hissing at our baguettes and cheese, we fled the scene just in time for tea. On the way to Darfield Bakery, we had a lively debate about Devin's so-claimed "lack" of a belly button (he has one). At the bakery, we could get a drink AND a snack, a luxury much appreciated since Lincoln's breakfast start-time and our depart-time were relatively close together this morning.

(There were open seats)

After that, we completed our drive to Trevor and Heather Taege's farm. Trevor is one of the first farmers to begin planting natives on his land. The blocks are spread across the farm between sheep and cow paddocks. We walked through them and assisted Trevor with pulling dead natives that didn't survive the season and trimming some of the trees and bushes in the way of the path. In a deal with the local city council, Trevor provided the land needed to plant this native bush and bought even more plants to put in after fencing in the blocks himself and saving some of the money he got for the project.

Broadleaf, Matai, Pokaka, Totora, Black Beech, Coprosma, Kohuhu, Kanuka, Golden Akeake, Fuschia, Kowhai, Whauwhaupaku, Kahikatea and some BIG New Zealand Flax were some of the plants growing here.

A Jámm for size reference

We were also delighted by the presence of Trevor's lovely sheepdog. 

This is Pete

Eliza may be a little less enthused than the others.

"Did this all come from Pete?!"

Maddie and Emily also shared an intimate Hongi before we broke for lunch. 

"I am in your bubble"

After that, Trevor told us more about the animals he keeps on the farm. Currently, there are about 170 sheep and 75 cattle, but with the birth of lambs and the change in seasons, those numbers bump up to 500 and 100, respectively. He also selectively breeds the ewes to give birth at a certain time to ensure that the lambs have enough grass to eat around the farm. Then we got a demonstration of herding by Pete, who is a heading sheepdog.

Pete, being the best boy

They seem a little nervous... 

After that, we went inside to watch Trevor shear a sheep. If you have never seen the process, I have a video of that for you as well! Little did we know that we were spending the day with a champion sheep shearer, his record is 350 sheep in 8 hours!!

Just look at that wall!

After shearing, the wool gets sorted into the good fleece, the belly wool, the head and neck wool, and the miscellaneous bits and pieces. From then on it is shipped off to be processed and sold.

From left to right: belly, bits, and neck

The good fleece

We then toured one last part of the native bush before playing some cricket. 

"Can I ring the bell??"

Little did we know that the Tuatara's crushing defeat against the Hungry Keas was attracting an audience.

The curious cows watch on...

They were obviously Tuatara fans

Our last stop for today was the Lords Bush Scenic Trail, where we licked honeydew from Black Beech trees. A scale insect eats the sap of the black beech but can't process it, so excretes it. This excretion is what bees take to make honey and what we ended up licking. 

All of these pretty little beads are sweet little bug poops

And, to close, a collection of us licking trees:

1 lick

2 licks

3 licks

4,

normal

honey's

such

a

bore!

Thank you Scale Insects of the world!

-paige

Rolling Hills and Rocky Roads

We're getting back to it today after a long, but fun weekend. It was a bit of a cold start this morning and with some rain, we got to see a rainbow. It luckily stopped raining shortly after we arrived for restoration with Rima. Windbreakers and boots donned, we took the rocky road up to our restoration site. 

Looking up at the restoration site

But the Gator Waka and Piwakawaka couldn't make it up without four-wheel drive. Rima and her team shuttled us in their trucks across the Birdlings Flat stones and we reached our destination. While we waited for a few more of us to be picked up at the bottom (pictured above), Rima explained the Maori connection to lakes Forsyth and Ellesmere. It all started with a cloak and a woman. She had put the sacred Maori cloak on and started a civil strife. In the ensuing conflict, many Maori chieftains were lost (along with 98% of the local population). Europeans arrived and began to buy land from chiefs who didn't even own the land. Yet, the water was never sold and remains critical to their culture. Eels inhabit the lakes and provided fats to keep them warm during winter months. 

Rima talking about the lakes (Lake Ellesmere in distance)

Lake Forsyth (Wairewa) looking a bit green

Rima and the others living on the property have a huge task ahead of them at this site. Since gravel closed the lakes off to the ocean and runoff has caused algae to grow, eels are truly threatened. A canal has been made in the meantime for them to continue their journeys between the lakes and the ocean. The part we were involved in is creating a seed source for a future forest. In another eighty years, we may see the grassy hills turn into a forested landscape. Our job was to remove the weeds (grass) in and around the fenced-in native plants. The fences discouraged invasive rabbits from trying to destroy the future forest. Even the plants had their own defense: some actually played dead!

 Pulling the grass

  

Before weeding

   

 After weeding (different plant)

To join us, we had Bonnie, a peppy dog who just wanted love. Even though we got a bit distracted at times, the job was finished and we completed the work started two years ago by another UF study abroad class that planted them (Editor's Note: Around 300 plants that are having a 95-98% success rate because of the TLC weeding). In the last three years, around 3,000 plants have been planted. However, the threat of drought and severe oceanic winds still haunts the hillsides. So the plants Rima put down needed special care while we worked there.  (Editor's Note: Follow-up weeding is the not so glamorous part of planting natives.)

Eliza and Bonnie

Group photo after we finished!

So we made our way back down the hills and across the stones until the cars got stuck in a rut of rocks. We all got out and walked the short distance back to the Gator Waka. Luckily, Rima's team lived on the side we had just come from. And while we waited for the next group of students to get picked up from on the mountain, some of us tried a balancing act on the playground. After that, we had tea time at Coffee Culture and headed back to our dorms where Dr. Hostetler looked at iNaturalist with us before we called it a night.

Until the 'morrow,

Devin

Why did the Pukeko cross the road?

This day of restoration began with a talk from Antony Shadbolt, a Landscape Architect and Ecologist for the Christchurch City Council. He first spoke to us about the Styx River Reserve #2, soon to be the Dense Kahakatea Forest Reserve. This reserve is part of the city’s plan to create patches of natural land that connect larger natural areas like Travis Wetland and Riccarton Bush. This area was once a wetland that was drained by Europeans colonizers for agricultural purposes, which ultimately led to highly polluted waters. This situation can be compared to the drainage of the Florida Everglades. Drainage of these wetlands has had a large, negative impact on wildlife biodiversity.

Antony gave us a tour of the reserve and explained the plans for this land. The non-native trees on the reserve were drilled with poison to create a soft and tall structure for birds and other cavity nesting creatures. These trees were banded with sheet metal to prevent disturbances from possums.

Metal bands around trees to prevent possums from climbing.

We then came to the Ka Putahi Creek, one of the most polluted waterways in Christchurch. Along the creek, sedimentation ponds are being constructed to slow down water flow and allow and solid pollutants to settle. The creek was also serpentine to allow for more diversity along the bank.

The Ka Puhati creek is one of the most polluted in Christchurch.

Today we helped restore natural areas around this creek. The first site we visited butted up against the river. The plants must have been left out overnight because they were all frozen solid and nearly impossible to remove from their pots. So, we moved on to the next site…

This site was at a portion of the creek that was sandwiched between a motorway under construction and farmland. This farmland is eventually to be developed for homes, allowing for the residents to have nature right outside their doors. As we drove down to the river, the local cows thought we were there to feed them and raced us to the end of their pasture. This was a pleasant distraction until their farmer actually came to feed them and they ran away.

The nice cows that chased us.

We continued, and Antony explained more about the ecology of the river and how this was the biggest waterway realignment undertaken in Christchurch before we moved on to our third site of the day.

At our third site, we met Haymish who was with Conservation Volunteers New Zealand. He is married to Sophie who we have worked with with the Banks Peninsula Trust. We planted roughly 260 plants to contribute to the Kahakatea forest being planted there. We spent hours digging holes and listening to music. It was at this site that we encountered the Pukekos… Their melodic screaming was music to our bleeding ears.

Kahakatea forest planting.

When we finished at the third site, the sun was going down, but we weren’t quite finished. We returned to the first site to check on our defrosted plants and finished our jobs there.

We ended our day with a stop at Coffee Culture for our late afternoon tea. On the way there we encountered a Pukeko crossing the road, and thus my favorite joke was born:

Kat: Why did the Pukeko cross the road?

Eliza: To scream at its’ friends.

Now, we are all preparing to head out for our free weekend!

-Bailey