Working on DRPs

Been a busy few days here at EcoQuest. My group and I have been working about 10 hour days creating activities and creating worksheets. It's exhausting. Sadly this leaves little time for other things in my day. We have been watching movies and such after dinner to relieve some stress.



I did get a pet caterpillar! His name is Marvin and he will soon be a monarch butterfly. Currently he is pupating (he has made a chrysalis). Now we just need to wait for him to emerge. So excited. I always wanted to be a girl scout as a girl because my old friend Mackenzie got to spend the night at the science museum and she came home with a monarch butterfly caterpillar. Well now my days of envy are over. I have Marvin now. Here he is.

Watching "Flight of the Concords" currently. So funny. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Allergies are plaguing me at the moment. Let's hope this ends soon.

Need to buy another plane ticket tomorrow...which sucks.

A Few Days at EcoQuest

Been a slow few days here at EcoQuest...hard to believe I know. We started working on our directed research projects (DRPs) last week. All of us have been split up into groups, two groups counting bird populations, one group measuring frogs, one group counting and studying invertebrates, and one group looking at lizards, then there is us (Emily, Kim, Amanda, Kate, Hope, and Me) the education for sustainability group.

We are working with the Kaiaua Primary School to create a learning module for 10 weeks to teach them about invertebrates and biodiversity. Daunting task really, though it's a chance to get really creative about activities for the kids to do. We actually go to the school tomorrow to meet some of the kids. Should be fun.

Ever since we got back from Northland, we had been working on our introductions for our DRPs. I had to research the New Zealand curriculum and try to write about it. I feel like a teacher. There is so much information about the curriculum, and its all woven into each other. Hard to explain. Just trust me. Anyways we wrote our introductions (first drafts at least) and they came back with very few corrections to be made. Apparently we are on track, and maybe even a little ahead of the game. Sweet As!

On our day off (Sunday) we woke up late, ate breakfast, and then walked over to the marae for the tukutuku. Tukutuku are the woven panels between the carvings in the Wharenui. Each tukutuku is made from woven flax and has a multitude of colors. Unfortunately we missed the actual weaving process, but went anyway. We met a bunch of adorable children outside the Wharekai who captured our attention for quite some time. They were so gregarious. They were quick to memorize our names. After that they started singing us songs. Some of the girls even sang us the song "Billionaire" in Maori. That I have to admit was really cool. Then we met up with Hermoine who showed us the weavings, and we got to see the new carvings that were put up in the wharenui. Later in the day we sat down and talked with a traditional carver. He was interesting but talked a lot and filled (rather crammed) our heads with information. Interesting fact: New Zealand was named by Abel Tasman (who has a national park named after him...where I spent my 5 day break on the south island) who thought he was in Chile. Turns out, he wasn't. So they named it New Zeeland after Old Zeeland a peninsula off the coast of Denmark. Then James Cook spelled it wrong, naming this beautiful country New Zealand.

Came home and made friendship bracelets out of harakeke, a broad leaf grass endemic to New Zealand. Tough work, but they are pretty cool. A game of scrabble then commenced. I love scrabble, truly I do. That night we made stirfry for dinner. Yum!

Celebrated Hope's birthday with mamosas and Cinderella.

Monday we had to turn in our papers...ew. Then we spent the entire day sorting invertebrates. Frozen invertebrates. For like 6 hours. Didn't find much, but got to listen to some awesome music and talked about movies. Pretty sweet day. It was Hope's birthday so we made a delicious meal of homemade meatballs (my first time, and they came out amazing. Watch out mom you have competition) and spaghetti. We also made a rainbow cake. It came out a little thin, but still tasted delicious.

Today we went to the Auckland Museum! It was incredible. Part science museum, part natural history museum. We did not spend nearly enough time there. Oh well, I'll be in Auckland for a few days before leaving for Fiji so I'll just have to go back. Here are some pictures.

Northland

Last post from this past week. After our last snorkel dive in the Poor Knights we headed back to land for our time off.

We jumped in the vans (my group had the living saloon! a very plush van) and headed to Whangarei for dinner. Ate a delicious plate of nachos and then headed for the Kauri Forest. Unfortunately the other group's van started smoking and smelling really bad. We decided it would be better if we just stayed the night in Whangarei. Crawled into a nearby holiday park and stayed the night.

The next morning we split ways, as the other group waited for a tow truck. Our group headed out to Dargaville (the kumera (a.k.a. sweet potato) capital of New Zealand). Nothing was there basically, and we got lost after driving down a gravel road for what seemed like ages. At the end of the road we found a beach.


Drove back to Dargaville for some fish and chips and then headed in the right direction for the Kauri Forest. Kauri trees are the largest in New Zealand and are rare because they were used for ship's masts in the early 1800s. Some of the trees we saw in the forest were from 600 to 2000 years old. The oldest (the picture of me in front of the tree) is called Tane Mahuta. An old Maori legend says that Tane Mahuta was the son of mother earth and father sky and tried to split them apart.

After the Kauri Forest we started heading up to Ahipara. When we were about 45 km outside the town our gas tank read empty. We kept driving. Before boarding a little ferry we stopped at a gas station. It was closed. Boarded the ferry and decided to get gas at the next town. Gas station found and closed. Kept driving. At this point I started judging the houses that we were passing to see where the best place to stop would be. We figured that we would just ask the friendly townspeople if we could sleep in their backyard. Luckily we pulled into Ahipara (still on empty!). Stayed the night at another holiday park.

At this point we were starving and decided to walk downtown to get some food. Everything was closed. Figures. But it was Guy Fawkes Day so all the people in the town were setting off fireworks and playing with sparklers. I love fireworks!

Made it back to the holiday park and found out that the third group of EcoQuesters was staying there. What are the odds?

Next day we drove around looking for the gigantic sand dunes.



We climbed the dunes for what seemed like forever. They were incredible! Sadly the pictures just don't do it justice. They were so vast and so tall. Awesome. We had a fun time running down the dunes.

Then we started the long drive home. Ate some delicious falafel in Whangarei. Yum. The drive home was cool, especially through Auckland, because there were fireworks going off everywhere. Now I have to start researching for my two papers that are due Tuesday. Final exam on Tuesday too! Oh and work journals due Thursday, AND a paper due Friday. Probably wont blog for the next week. See you next week.

Leigh and the Poor Knights

This week we traveled up to Leigh to snorkel at Goat Island. Goat Island was the first marine reserve in New Zealand. The area is a no take zone, meaning you cannot fish commercially or recreationally in the area. Snorkeling was amazing!!! We saw really big snapper, trigger (or leather jacket) fish, spotted wrasse, banded wrasse, and so many others!


After Goat Island, we drove up the coast a little further to snorkel at the Poor Knights. The Poor Knights are another marine reserve, but further away from the coast. The night before we left we boarded the Pacific Hideaway (our boat for the following day) to hear a talk by Wade Doak. He was easily the coolest man I have ever met! He was around 70 years old, and one of the pioneers of diving. When he was a young man he created a diving helmet out of his dad's coal bucket, rubber tubing, and a pump on land to be pumped by his two girlfriends. (Advice from Wade: always have two girlfriends). He and some of his friends (years later) also discovered a shipwreck off the coast of New Zealand. In the wreck they found gold! One of our academic field leaders, Sally, is a good friend of his and they found all these gold coins. What a magical night. We even got to see his videos of diving the Poor Knights. Everything was so colorful!!!

The first place that we snorkel at was this little cove that was full of life! I saw another eagle ray (similar to a sting ray but smaller). We also saw tons and tons of desmoiselle fish. It was amazing. The next place we went to was Rico Rico cave. It is the largest natural sea cave in the Southern Hemisphere. Inside we started signing. The cave had amazing acoustics, an 8 second echo. Then we jumped out of the boat and snorkeled inside the cave!!!!


We swam to the back of the cave. It was incredibly dark and there were salps everywhere! Salps are similar to jelly-fish but they wont sting you. There were thousands of salps. It was amazing! We had to stick to the wall so we didn't get lost inside the cave.

The third dive we went to a little tunnel and swam though. We had to wait for the waves to push us through this little crevice. It was really shallow inside and we were weaving in and out of the kelp. A few of us even saw an eel! He was about 5 inches in front of me. So cool! We got stuck inside the little cove and had to crawl over some of the rocks and swim wicked hard to get back to the boat.

We did one more dive after lunch. It was just such a cool day! Here are some more pictures.

Cathedral Cove, Secret Beach, and Hot Water Beach

Okay so I have to play a bit of catch up with these posts. Life is as busy as ever here in New Zealand. Last weekend we had the weekend off and decided to go to Cathedral Cove, Secret Beach, and Hot Water Beach.

The night before, a few people left to camp on a beach somewhere, while seven of us decided to stay and make dinner and watch a movie. We made these dumpling/perogy/ravioli things which were pretty good and for dessert we made a giant cookie cake complete with chocolate and vanilla icing. Delicious! That evening we watched "Into the Wild." Next day, sadly it was raining, we loaded in the van and headed for the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. Beautiful drive. As we turned into Thames we became part of the K2 Bike race which was neat.

Finally made it to the coast after about two hours of wicked windy roads through the hills. Cathedral Cove was our first stop. The place is full of large cliffs and tall islands right off the coast. We also were able to walk through the famous archway.





Once we reached the other side we decided to go bouldering around to the other cove (Secret Beach). It took about 30 minutes of climbing which was cool, especially with the waves crashing up around the surrounding rocks. Got to Secret Beach, ate lunch, then headed back because the weather wasn't too nice.

Hopped back in the van and drove to one of our field leader's homes to pick up her mail. Ate some of her asparagus from her garden and headed towards Hot Water Beach. On the way we stumbled upon a cute little fruit winery.

We went inside and had a free wine tasting. We tried Fejioa wine, Manuka Honey wine, Loquat Wine, and so many others. They guy was also very entertaining during the wine tasting, cracking jokes the entire time. He spoke really fast too so you could tell he was a professional at giving this speech. Great afternoon really.

After the winery we headed to Hot Water Beach. Crazy! There is a spot on the beach where the water percolates down to hot rocks and then comes back to the surface like a natural spring. The water was seriously hot! Everyone there was digging pools into the sand like personal hot tubs. We didn't have too much time so we decided to just dig our feet in. Occasionally our feet were buring. It was so cool.

Then we headed home down the windy roads again. The next morning we left for Leigh and Poor Knights...next post.

Martha Open Gold Mine

Traveled to Waihi to visit the Martha Open Gold Mine. Mind blowing! Just absolutely mind blowing!
It was so deep. Deeper than I had even expected! Plus, it was on top of a hill, so you couldn't even see it. Deceiving...

They collect rock from within the mine, crush it, put it through a sodium cyanide solution, and bind the gold and silver to carbon to extract the gold. They only get 1 0z of gold from 10 tons of rock! Hardly seems economically viable. Not too mention that the sodium cyanide solution is toxic. Sure the company says that they are doing things to reduce the risk of leaking, and reduce the environmental impacts...but still, is the risk worth it?

All in all the tour was really interesting. It was cool to see how it works. Crazy though. Our tour guide said that all of the gold that has been mined fits in a football field one meter high! Try to get your head around that.

After our tour around the Martha mine, we drove down to the Karangahake Gorge.

The place was peppered with hanging bridges, awesome...especially when we all ran and jumped across them. The place used to be a gold mine. There are ruins of the gold battery and old train tracks cover the hills which come directly out of the river.

Towards the end of our hike/walk through the gorge, we walked through the old tunnels of the mine. It was incredibly dark! So dark, that I couldn't even see the difference between my eyes open and my eyes closed. It was amazing. The ceilings were covered in glow worms too. Sadly I have no pictures because they only glow in the dark, obviously.

The next day we had a long discussion about the gold mining industry. We then had to prepare a debate on whether the Golden Cross mine should be re-opened for further gold exploration. My team took the negative. It was a solid debate, but my team lost.


We still had a great time debating, at least I did!

Going to Cathedral Cove and Secret Beach tomorrow!!!!!

Awhitu Wild Food Festival

As much as I would like to blog about my experiences on the south island...I just can't. There was too much that happened, and I would describe it in too much detail. I simply just do not have the time. Sleep is too precious here, as is hanging out with friends, and school work. This environment is just not conducive to work...it's too beautiful! It's finally not raining...I know hard to believe. Though 4 weeks of rain was enough for a while.

We had a three day weekend this week because today was labor (sorry labour) day! Friday we worked on our directed research projects for the first time. I am working with Hope, Kate, Amanda, Kim, and Emily, and we are researching environmental education within the New Zealand curriculum. It's pretty sweet, and I get to work with some of the local children at the primary school here in Kaiaua. I miss working with kids. I got asked to go back to Kamp Kohut, and I'm really struggling with finding reasons not to go back. Sure I need an internship...but...ah!

Friday night we celebrated Janet's 21st birthday! Lots of fun. Kate and I made Janet a Hogwarts acceptance letter. It looked awesome! Complete with Hogwarts coat of arms, tea stained paper, a red wax seal on the back with the impression of a New Zealand coin stamped in the wax. Oh ya we got fancy! She absolutely loved it! And we have her reaction on film to view over and over again. It was really nice to get creative. I seriously need a creative outlet here. Mom, if you are reading this...please send crochet hooks, and some yarn from my green and black bag next to my bed. Please and thank you.

Saturday we woke up late (for once in a long time) made a delicious breakfast of eggs-galore (hashbrowns, eggs, onions, garlic, and cheese all mixed together in a pan...yum!). Then we headed out for the Awhitu Peninsula.

Me, Kate, Sarah, Amanda, Holliday, Beck, Denny, Janet, and Cara drove out to the peninsula for a night of camping in the Awhitu Regional Park. It was so much fun. We found a sweet lighthouse, and took tons of pictures.

Ate some delicious pizza too!

The next day we went to the Awhitu Peninsula Wild Food Festival! It was such a nice day (I even got a little sunburn). There were lots of crazy foods to try. I ate curried goat, a mussel fritter (a very popular kiwi treat), a venison burger, hot chips (french fries), and green mussels. SO much good food. While we ate there was also live music. The last band that played was an awesome reggae band. Most of us got up and danced. I had such a great time!

We stayed from 11:30 until the festival ended at 5:00, then started the drive back to EQ headquarters.Did a little work on my paper, then called it a night. Worked on papers all day today, which was a shame too because once again it was wicked nice. Hard to believe that it's getting cold at home. Missing fall. And I keep torturing myself by reading blogs from people in the states who are making candy apples, and carving pumpkins.