kiwisforthesummer2018

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Placeholder for Friday, July 6th, 2018

Hi folks, we are traveling on the Banks Peninsula with very spotty Internet, and none in Hinewai Reserve where we will be staying tomorrow night after our hike. Look for two posts tomorrow to cover Friday and Saturday's adventures. - meryl : )

First Road Trip...

Destination: Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula.

Birdlings Flat

Semi-precious stones among the grey river stone

First up, looking for agate, and semi precious rocks like jasper, at Birdlings Flat (a beach just between Lake Ellesmere and the Pacific Ocean that is nothing BUT rocks). Then tea time at Little River to warm up after a fine but frosty morning.

A view from the Hilltop

Up a curvy hill to a spectacular view (albeit a little low cloud) out across Barry's Bay and Robinson's Bay to Akaroa.

Swift Crane on Lava Rock

Crab

anemone

We stopped next at Onawe Pa Historic Reserve for lunch with beautiful views of the bays and lava rocks. Of course we had to take a little time to explore and check out the little chitin, limpet, snails, sea anemone, and fiddler crabs.

A Tui in midsong

View of Akaroa Harbor


Dr. H attempts to tell us about the Tui after a very loud fire station siren went off in the park where we were gathered

In the afternoon we went out in Akaroa in search of Tuis. Tuis were no longer found on the Banks Peninsula after 1980s because of habitat loss. They were reintroduced in the last few years into Hinewai Preserve, and much to the delight of locals, have established themselves. We were so lucky to see many after just a few minutes of looking for them!

By the Harbor in Akaroa

There rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the views of Akaroa, snooping around in the shops, and getting settled in to the backpackers.

Tomorrow, we get to go to Hinewai!

Sweet Dreams Everyone, Meryl : )

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

A farm, a wetland and a beach all in one day!

July 4, 2018

We started out the day by meeting up with a local couple, Pauline and Malcome (and their five cows), at their home just a short drive away form LU. As we pulled in, Dr. Hostetler explained that students visit the couple every year to learn about their native hedgerows and choices of other native plants in their 15-acre yard. Malcome gave us a tour of the area and explained to us that they made the decision to plant natives to make life easier, as they don't have to be trimmed as frequently as the exotic hedgerows that many others have. He also told us that just recently their neighbor decided to do the same!

Malcome showing Maddie the old mailbox he's converted into a birdfeeder for silvereye birds

Native hedgerow on the left (one way to tell it's native is that it's still green in the winter)

Once we got back to the house, the couple welcomed us in for tea time and shared with us photo albums of their yard transformation and shared stories of life in Lincoln. We all really enjoyed their company, warm wood burning stove and stories.

After saying goodbye, we headed to Travis Wetland where we learned to perform a bird transect. We saw plenty of pukekos, grey ducks, paradise shelducks, and for the first time we were able to identify fantails and silvereyes in the back part of the wetland. Dr. Hostetler also taught us how to identify the difference between a manuka and a kanuka tree--when you run a kanuka (kind) tree, it doesn't feel rough like a manuka (mean).

Rub test

Corinne, Emily and Dr. Hostetler performing a bird transect

Travis Wetlands

Group shot!

After the wetland, we had tea time and then headed to New Brighton Beach ("New" after Brighton Beach in England) where we enjoyed a little time by the water!

-Caroline

A Day Of Restoration

Today our day consisted of doing a restoration with Banks Peninsula conservation Trust. This restoration was a little different from our previous one. Instead of planting trees we were ripping them out! Our goal was to take out some invasive plants from a natural area. The two invasive plants were Barberry and Hawthorne.

While we were busy at work, a few New Zealand natives were found, a weta and a walking stick!

After our restoration work, we headed over to Smash Palace. Smash Palace is a restaurant in Christchurch that hosts an event called The Tuesday Club. The Tuesday Club is a group in which each week a new speaker gives a talk on a subject of their choice. This week, Dr. Hostetler did a talk on climate change in Florida. We listened to the talk and got to interact with some of the awesome members of the Tuesday Club.

Overall another great day in New Zealand!

-Kat

Monday, July 2, 2018

Ancient Trees, Sheep on the Street, Space Invaders, and Queen Bey

Our New Zealand day began once again as yesterday had before: 16 hours ahead and with a lecture by Dr. Colin Meurk. Today we learned about the theory, principles, and practices that go into ecosystem restoration.

We were reminded again that only by connecting people with the nature around us would we truly be able to revive our natural ecosystems. After a short pit-stop at the Coffee Culture in Lincoln, we traveled via Gator Waka to the Riccarton Bush.

This ancient floodplain forest is one of the only sanctuaries with untouched native New Zealand flora left in this area. It is surrounded on all sides by a predator-proof fence, keeping out rabbits, mice, cats, and other exotic land mammals (including unwanted humans). Within the bush was a variety of podocarp trees and native vines.

As we traversed the path Dr. Meurk would often stop to teach us about the species we were encountering. We learned that the Riccarton Bush was formerly used as a kiwi sanctuary, but due to potential non-native diseases from pigeons, the practice was stopped.

After a quick lunch in the Gator Waka (it was a bit too rainy/cold/windy outside), the Florida kiwis took downtown Christchurch.

Here we played a ginormous Space Invaders game projected across the street. The game's levels focused on saving downtown from the aliens. The Gators brought home the win of course.

We also encountered a number of strangely colored sheep on the sidewalks. They gathered in small flocks and insisted on staring at us from afar. Not a single "baa" was uttered.

At our final stop for tea downtown, we visited C One Espresso. This quirky coffee shop sported a hidden passage behind a moving bookshelf where Harry Potter audio books played over the speakers in the restrooms (I never thought I could enjoy using a public restroom so much!) The shop also had a novel way to transport food: ordered chips were shot through pneumatic tubes to the tables!

Full of scones and tea, we visited a gift shop, a sporting goods store, a warehouse store like a Walmart on steroids, and yet another coffee shop (this one had the Dr. Hostetler Seal of Approval). On the ride home, we jammed out through the Gator Waka Bluetooth speaker to none other than Beyonce's "Love On Top". Dr. H remarked that we were mostly in key before bidding us goodnight.

-Paige

P.S.: I have included the link to that song for your enjoyment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7vObnFUJc

Meurky Meeting and Mahoe

We couldn't have asked for a better sign that today was going to be wonderful than waking up to a gorgeous double rainbow and "warm" weather.

Today our intrepid little group met one of the leading conservationists in New Zealand, and one of the men responsible for our trip, Dr. Colin Meurk. After meeting us at the gate of the Landcare Research facility, the Florida hoodie clad Dr. Meurk walked us through the basics of different New Zealand biomes, from nival rock and ice to swamp forests and everything in between.

Dr. Meurk lecturing

We also learned about factors in the degradation of New Zealand's biodiversity, such as invasive pest species and human meddling. While talking about New Zealand's varying temperatures in winter (14 ℉ to 68 ℉), Dr. Meurk commented, "[the lower temperatures] are cold from a human perspective, but you have to imagine how a plant would feel."

Photosynthesis

He stressed many times in his lecture that one of the challenges faced by conservationists today is a lack of connection to the environment; that because we don't form those bonds with trees and animals native to our part of the globe, we feel no remorse when species begin to slip away.

After our lecture with Dr. Meurk, we walked around a subdivision done by a local Maori development company where we saw different native birds, like the pukeko and black-backed gull.

Pukeko

Identifying plants

Dr. Hostetler explained to us how to identify the plant species Hebe (if the leaves grow in a perpendicular fashion) while we explored a community that incorporates the natural environment into a human development.

Views from a nature trail inside the community

After lunch we headed to the Mahoe Reserve to do some native planting in what was an old illegal trash dump after being used as a gravel pit and that the local high school took over as their environmental project. This was our first experience getting up close and personal with the native flora as we planted juvenile cabbage trees, flax, and coprosmas. By the end of the day we had planted 208 individual plants, that will hopefully continue to grow and create a lasting native habitat for years to come.