Written by Cole Moore and Hanna Sosin

The week has been a blur of activity and school work. Upon returning from our River trip we soon fell back into a packed schedule of classes. Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to being taught the Treaty of Waitangi. An absolutely lovely couple, Jillian and David, taught a continual stream of information on the subject. The Treaty of Waitangi is the contract between the Maori country of the United Tribes of New Zealand and the Crown of England. Due to a difference between the English Draft of the Treaty and Maori version, Teriti, there are tensions in New Zealand that resonate today. Many New Zealanders are unaware of the larger implications of the Treaty of Waitangi due to New Zealand History not being taught very much in the school system.

Wednesday, we got a lecture from Lyneke on plants. After the lecture we walked around the settlement to see examples of the plants we had been taught. Thursday, Peter gave us a jam-packed lecture on New Zealand fauna. Interesting examples of fauna include a carnivorous snail and the kakapo, though there are many, many more. After class and dinner on Thursday we were given a general overview of what to expect during the coming days. Afterwards most of our group members gathering to watch a movie or have an early night.

Ruapehu Field Trip.

Friday we went on a field trip. We packed up about a day’s worth of equipment and set out for Mount Ruapehu with Colin Ogle, Lyneke, and Peter to discuss and observe the unique flora and fauna of the area. We explored three distinct areas, encompassed three different altitudes which means three completely different bush, as they call it here. The first area was at about 650 meters and was essentially a black beech tree and tree fern forest. Lyneke and Colin proceeded to spout off a variety of information on most of the flora while we trailed behind with notebooks and pencils in hand. At points, Peter attempted, not very successfully, to call up birds with a speaker, mp3 player set up. We did manage to see the New Zealand Pigeon, the kereru, which would prove to be a fairly common sight over the weekend.

After eating lunch in the shade of this national park we moved to a higher elevation of about 1,150 meters. At this height the beech trees essentially disappeared to be replaced with smaller podocarps. Not to mention about a 5 degree change in temperature as well. Here at this altitude we passed by a pretty impressive waterfall as well as a parasitic plant known as a mistletoe here. Quite different from mistletoe in the states here it is a fairly unique and gorgeous semi-parasitic plant. After that we finally moved on to the final part of our days excursion where we moved to the altitude of about 1,500 km and were in full on alpine conditions. Very little actually grew here however, what did was fascinating. Alpine variants of common flora as well as things like the worlds smallest podocarp. We thought we were done with the days excursion but we got a little surprise at the end of the trip when we stopped at a motor home park to look at a Black Beech tree. This tree in particular was the home of the only known sample of Yellow Mistletoe in this area.  Not just that but we also got to see the endangered New Zealand falcon perched in the same tree. 

Lunch on the boardwalk at Gordon Park.

The next day on Saturday we would meet up with Colin and Lyneke again this time at the Arboretum in the corner of Wanganui to learn about some of the trees that grow there. After that we would move out to Gordon Park Scenic Reserve to begin a service project there.This project would consist of us getting into groups and removing invasive species from the area. The main species we would be focusing on in particular was called “Jerusalem Cherry” which was an incredibly resilient member of the nightshade family. It looked a lot like the Cherry tomato plant however the fruiting body was orange instead of red, and apparently highly toxic. Regardless we got right to it and spent a few hours tearing this plant out of the environment it was invading. My group in particular consisted of myself and another student Brent Kramer, we collected the most samples of poisonous fruit and removed more of this plant than any other group. After all this we returned to the settlement to wind down for the night and prepare for going to our home stays in the morning. That night each member of our group sought to relax in whatever way they thought best. Some of us hit the town to sample some of Wanganui's nightlife while other stayed on the settlement and watched movie or had an early night. Some of us were even able to go on a 16 Km bike ride to watch the sunset over the nearby black sand beaches.