Last Day In NZ!!!

Hello everyone,

Sorry that I haven't been able to update this in a while, but I've been super busy! I'll give you a brief run-down on some of the cool things that've been going on.

Arthur's Pass: We took the alpine train through the Southern Alps to arrive at the little village of Arthur's Pass! The ride was lovely. We got to see clear blue rivers and snowy mountain tops. When we arrived at the village we all went on different tramping paths. Two of them, Devil's Punchbowl, and Bridal Veil Falls, had nice views of some big waterfalls. Also, we saw some kea, which are the only alpine parrots. They're cheeky little guys, and are said to be as smart as a 7 year old child. Often they try to pick the rubber off of cars. One little kea tried to steal Nick's lunch bag, but lost that battle.

Class Stuff: We finally wrapped up our herbivory research by presenting our data. We only had enough data analyzed to report on gri lit from two sites. We found, that remnant sites had more herbivory than the resotred sites, as we predicted. Everyone who came to listen to us seemed pretty interested.
We also wrapped up some of the weta work we'd been doing. Lincoln University had some wetas that they'd caught, and we were going to release them into Riccarton Bush (a remnant bush in the middle of the city). First, we had to measure them, I.D. them, put reflection tape on their legs (so we can see them in the dark, since they are nocturnal), and get DNA from them, so that their species type can be identified. I helped with the DNA part, which involved holding cutting off part of the weta's foot. Later that night we went out to the bush, released the wetas, and took turns tracking them in the dark, which turned out to be a quite difficult task.

Saturday:
Some of my classmates took a weekend trip to Hamner springs, others took a weekend hiking trip somewhere, some spent their day in Christchurch, and others went on a Lord of the Rings tour. I did the last of those things, even though I've never read any of the LOTR books, and only saw the second movie. Everyone told me that the trip was worth going on anyways for the beautiful scenery. Anyways, if you didn't know, the LOTR movies were filmed in NZ and much of the Two Towers was fimed in the Cantabury area. We took out a crazy all-terrain vehicle that drove through some crazy rivers, resulting in a very bumpy ride. One of the places that we visited was Edoras. If you like LOTR you know what I'm talking about, maybe? In the end it turned out to be a pretty amazing adventure. Now I'll have to watch the movies and pick out the places that I've been to.

TODAY: Some of us are going to have brunch at a cafe on the Avon River in Christchurch and then heading into Lyttelton to do some hiking.

We head out tomorrow morning!
Hilary

Camping Adventure

Hello everybody!

We just got back yesterday from a four day camping trip on Banks Peninsula!!

When we first arrived in Akaroa, we went on a dolphin cruise around the harbour. We saw a few Hector's Dolphins (the smallest and rarest dolphin). They were so cute! We also saw a few penguins, lots and lots of seals, and some albatros.

Then we went to Wainui to our camp. We put our headlamps to good use and played sardines in the dark. Camp wasn't heated, except for a log fire in the dining hall, and the showers were pretty crappy, so I spent most of the week with icey toes. But, besides the cold feet, I had an excelent time!

We spent most of the second day in the rain and hail doing herbivory work. Also we went on a little hike on a peninsual and talked to a nice man about protecting the native species from exotic pests such as farrets. Then that night the Lincoln University students arrived and we had a fun quiz and my team won. Ginger chocolate. So that was fun.

Saturday we all went to set up weta motels. The motels are basically pieces of wood with holes drilled in them so that the wetas can hide. We wired them to trees, and in a few years they're going to be checked to see what kind of weta is living in them. To give you some background: there are many different types of weta. Two of them, H. ricta and H. femorata live in the Canterburry area. They have always been found in different locations, but recently hybrids of the two weta species have been found. So we're trying to see where each weta species is now found. ANYWAYS, after setting the weta motels at that cite, the NZ kids went to do more weta work, and we did our last herbivory site.

That night we had a campfire, ate New Zealand smores, and played warewolves.

Sunday we packed up and headed back to Lincoln. On the way back we drove up into the hills to see previously set up weta motels. It was snowing a lot, and the vans couldn't make it up the icey hills, so we had a snowball fight instead. Then they decided that we could just see weta movels back in Akaroa. So we drove there and after a long hike up the hill in the rain we got to the motel site... and found a H. femorata weta! YAY!

It's nice to be back in heated buildings, but tomorrow we're heading back to the snow in the mountains! I'm way excited about that!

For now,

Hilary.

Sand dunes!!

Hello everybody,

Yesterday we had a break from our herbivory field work to do some sand dune work. Basically, we went out to the beach, set up a giant grid on the dune, and looked at the density and type of plant growth in 1m X 1m squares. They've looked at this area a few years ago, and want to know if the sanddunes have grown or changed sine then.

It was pretty cold out there, but it was a nice break from leave collecting. And, the data is important for sand dune restoration.

After lunch we met with Jason, a city worker, who told us more about sand dune restoration. The two native plants that help build up the sanddunes are spinifex and pingao. Spinifex is a faster growing grass, so we had the oppurtunity to plant a bunch of that along the dunes, which was really fun!

Then we drove out to a place where the forrest meets the beach. We got to see Katipo spiders!! They are related to the black widow spider, are poisonous, and live on the sanddunes. Noone has died from a Katipo spider bite for a long, long time though, so it was only partly scary, and mostly really awesome.

Today we have the day off. Some of us are going grocery shopping for our camping trip to Banks Peninsula on Thursday-Sunday. Other than that, it's raining here, so we're all just sort of hanging out for the time being.

For now,

Hilary

The Weekend's Adventures...

Hello everyone,

We had the weekend free, so I tried to take advantage of the time away from class.

Satruday

Some students stayed on campus to watch the Lincoln Rugby game, others went to downtown Christchurch, and some of us went to Akaroa.

Akaroa is a small city on banks penninsula with a lovely harbor. Akaroa was a French settlement, even though New Zealand was owned by the British. Akaroa is a good place to see Hector's dolphins, seals, or penguins!! Unfortunately, we were not there at the right time of day, and didn't have a chance to see any of those.

While we were in Akaroa we got in some shopping, and then went on a short hike to a light house and two cemetaries. It was very fun, and the scenery was beautiful!!

On the way back our tour bus stopped at a cheese factory and we got to sample different types of cheeses. Mmmm.

Sunday

Some of the group went to a science museum and some of us went to the International Antarctic Center!

The center was really neat, and fitting for our NZ experience (sine Christchurch is the take-off point for Antarctic expeditions). The first thing we did was ride in a real Haglund, which are the cool tank-looking vehicles that they drive around Antarctica. We drove up big hills, across crevices, and even through a pond (apparently the Haglund is amphibious). It was pretty rough, but fun.

Inside the center we saw the little blue penguins!! Most of the penguins were rescued from the wild and had disabilities. One penguin only had one foot, a few were blind, one had a paralyzed flipper, and they were all super adorable. There was also a pretty sweet movie that had clips of Antarctica that were taken from an airplane.

Oh, and there was a room with an artificial snow storm!! They gave everyone boots and jackets before we went in because it gets down to a wind chill of -18C, which was -0.9 F, which is a normal winter for us in the midwest, and a warm summer day for someone on Antarcitica. Winters in Antarctica can drop down to -40 or -50C. Brrrr.

After the Antarctic Center we headed back to Christchurch and went to the jazz service at the cathedral in Cathedral Square, so that was nice.

Today we spent more time doing our herbivory field work. I believe tomorrow is more herbivory work and some sanddunes work. Thursday we'll be leaving for our class trip to Banks Penninsula. I'm pretty excited.

This is the one of the plants that we are studying. It's called the five-finger. Exciting... = ]

That's all for now,

Hilary

My bad...

I'm supposed to inform everybody that the "suspected swine flu" people at Lincoln have tested negative.

So that's that = )

Rain, rain, go away...

Hello all,

We finished up part of our leaf/bug collecting yesterday. It rained most of the time, and it was pretty cold, so I must confess that I was very miserable. At one point, we were in Cantaburry Park looking for plants and we came up to a plank for crossing the mini-river. So, we're crossing this slippery board, that was only about a foot wide, and has a handrail on only one side (I must note that it wasn't even a REAL handrail, it was a piece of thick wire, that's all), and when we make it across we find ourselves in someones backyard, and have to turn around. That was my adventure for the day, although the whole day was basically a drizzly adventure within itself.

The good news was, Lincoln's cafe, Mrs.O's, has delightful hot chocolate, with marshmallows included, so that saved the day.

Another story related to Mrs.O's: Lincoln University held a Texas Hold'em tournament, and some of us Americans played, not me of course, I played hearts with the other not-so-skilled poker players. Moral of the tale is Jane won! So, I thought it was pretty exciting that she beat a bunch of tough kiwi guys.

Today we did some computer analysis of our leaves. We traced the leaves several times to figure out how much herbivory each leaf experienced. It's quite a tedious process, but today we also got to listen to the department head talk about biogeography of NZ (basically what lives on NZ and why and when did it get here, etc. etc.), and it was quite interesting.

Tomorrow I belive we're doing my computer analysis and then visiting Lincoln's organic farm, so I thought that might be pretty neat, especially if it's sunny = )

For now,
Hilary

Herbivory Research

Hello everybody.

We've spent the past two days, and tomorrow, doing herbivory research. We've spent our time at different field sites recording data on 4 native NZ plants in different types of environment (natural environments and restored environments), to see if bugs are present and if the bugs are eating the plants.

Basically, we find these plants, measure them, pick and take photos of the leaves (for analysis later to see how much has been eaten), and then wack the plant with a beating-stick and catch the invertebrates that fall out in a big tarp so that we can save them in ethanol.

I believe the hypothesis is that there will be more herbivory on remnant plants (plants that have always been there) than restored plants (plants that we recently planted). I hope that makes sense to you all. I can be pretty bad at explaining sciency things.

On a different note, there are two people at Lincoln University, where we're staying, that potentially have the swine flu. They're both being quarantined down the hall from me. But, I'm perfectly healthy, we all are, so that's good.

For now,
Hilary

Our Canterbury Tales Thus Far...

Hello all,

We arived to Lincoln NZ a few days ago (after 36 hours of traveling), and have spent most of the past few days getting used to the country.

We got bus passes, so that we can easily travel to Christchurch and it's suburbs.

Some of the things we've done thus far...

1) Cathedral Square... right in the middle of downtown Christchurch

We walked around town to several different places including the Canterbury Museum (a pretty sweet Antarctic exhibit and some moa skeletons), the Art Gallery (at the old Canterbury College), and many little street vendors.

2) The Christchurch Botanical Gardens

It's sort of like the Central Park of Christchurch. The Avon River flows through it, and there were tons of really cool plants, like red wood trees, lots of orchids, fern trees, and NZs favorite... the koru.

It's a Maori symbol for new life and growth.

3) Willowbank

This is sort of a wildlife preserve. Basically the first part is a typical zoo, but with NZ animals (although most aren't originally from NZ). My favorite was the giant eel (that they let us pet... ). After, we had a show by some of the Maori people. Our own Ryan was appointed cheif, while some of us learned the haka (a pretty sweet Maori dance/chant) or poi twirling (basically, spinning these balls on a string--- the Maori originally used rocks to strengthen their wrists for fighting).

Then a delicious meal, where I tried mussles, which I will never ever ever eat again. But, at least now I know that I don't like them.

After dinner we went on a nocturnal animal walk were we got to see the kiwis!!! They were so cute! Also, we saw some kias, tuataras (dinosaur-lizards with three eyes), and some other cool animals.

4) Today was our free day. Some of us went to Sumner to a little beach (with lots of surfers), and then hiked up the hillside. It was a beautiful hike! (But pretty steep so I'm sure I'll be quit sore in the morning).

The backside was 10x prettier, but I couldn't find photos anywhere online.

Others of us went on a gondola ride up the hillside and went hiking around at the top.

Alright, that's basically all that we've done. Classes start tomorrow so we'll be out in the field doing herbivory studies.

Another thing that eveyone in everyone in America should know... New Zealanders have crazy hair! I've seen more mullets, rat-tails, and other crazy hair-do's than I have the rest of my life combined. I swear.

Oh, and everyone has perfectly shaped hedges.

On that note, Goodnight.
Hilary

t-minus 10 days

Hello everybody!!!

Only a few days until we leave for New Zealand! We'll be staying at Lincoln University in Christchurch. Christchurch is the largest city on the south island of New Zealand. Just take a look at this handy map that I've found.

[Look at the east side of the South Island]

You can see that it's by that little bump (Banks Peninsula), which is where we'll be weta hunting.

Some fun facts about Christchurch:

-It is equally far south as Wavelry ,IA is north.

-It is a key departure point for Antarctic expeditions.

-Known as the "garden city".

-Resident Wizard?

-Parts of the Lord of the Ring films were shot here.

Our trip has two components: Ecology and Maori Culture

Some of the things we're doing include studying the weta (a nocturnal grasshopper-like creature), studying sand dune plants, going on a dolphin cruise to see Hector's Dolphins, hiking at Arthur's Pass, and perhaps going to a Maori (Native NZ people) hangi (it's a feast that's almost like a luau).

This little cutie is a type of tree weta that we'll be looking for.

Well, that is all for now, more to come soon!

Ka Kite Ano (until I see you again),

Hilary