July 13 & 14

JULY 13, 2022

The crew woke up to the familiar grey sky and rain in Greymouth today. We loaded our bags into the gatorwaka bright and early and headed to Maggie's for breakfast for the last time. After our delicious breakfast we bought some sandwiches and pies for lunch (from Maggie's) and began the drive back to Christchurch through Arthur's Pass.

The crew posing with Allen (co-owner of Maggie’s) 

The rain persisted so in an attempt to wait out the peak of it we had tea time at the local cafe and prayed to the weather gods. 

Waiting out the weather in the warmth

Luckily, our prayers were answered and together we hiked and climbed the icy steps (up 150 meters) to Devils Punchbowl Falls. The waterfall itself is 131 meters tall and well worth the cold and rainy hike! 

Look at how tall! 

Some of us are more wet than others 

After hiking back we decided to stay for an extra 30 minutes in the local town with the hopes of seeing a Kea. Unfortunately, only a few of us managed to see a brief glimpse of one but we gave it our best try! Then we piled back into the gatorwaka and continued our journey back to Christchurch. 

Our final picture in Arthur’s Pass 

As we drove the sun began to come out and rainbows appeared in the sky. We stopped briefly for lunch and admired the snow covered mountains and the rainbow. 

Can you see the rainbow? It’s in the center and in front of the mountain!

Our next stop was Castle Hill, a beautiful hill with an array of limestone boulders that sort of look reminiscent of stone castle! We even saw a pair of native New Zealand falcons in the area. 

We look so tiny in comparison to the limestone rocks

Native New Zealand falcon via Ava’s incredible camera

We were given an hour to explore the area and as you can see we had a lot of fun!

Veronica sliding in the snow

Veronica in her element 

Charisse, Veronica, and Nico atop one of the many boulders 

Ryan eating the rocks (?) but looking more like a baby bird 

Nico playing dead 

The final stop before Christchurch was Springfield. The town embraces the Simpsons reference and erected a giant donut in the heart of the city. 

Taking a bite of the donut 

A better quality photo but without me in it  

We arrived safely to Christchurch and the dorms around 5:30pm. I’m thankful to be back to Christchurch’s slightly warmer and less rainy weather. We’re all excited for what the next day brings! 

P.S.

This is Debriana’s official submission to the snowman competition 

JULY 14, 2022

We woke up to beautiful clear skies in Christchurch this morning! Our first activity of the day was to go to the Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research center and attend a lecture from Dean Anderson about the mammal pests in New Zealand. His lecture explained the troubling paradigm of having to kill animals (invasive mammals) to do conservation (for the native species). Unfortunately, 40% of New Zealand’s land bird species are extinct since human occupation began 750 years ago. But there is still hope for the remaining bird species if New Zealand is able to reduce the brush tail possum, stoat, and rat populations across the country.

Dean Anderson’s lecture 

We then learned about logic models for planning conservation projects. Logic models break down the planning of projects into inputs, outputs, and short term, medium term, and long term goals and by utilizing this model your chances of success are higher. We then split into groups to practice and outline our own initiatives we would start in Gainesville. 

My group planning to add more green spaces to campus 

The other group planning to reduce monoculture lawns 

Gregory Gator contributed by Ryan 

Felicity contributed by Veronica 

After our lectures we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to the Port Hills for lunch. The hike was about 40 minutes each way but the view made up for the slippery mud we encountered. 

The view from the top

Group photo at the top of the mountain
 (I’m a bit muddy haha)

After lunch we hiked back down and took a short drive over to Lyttelton. We did a bit of shopping around before settling down at Coffee Culture for tea time. 

A shop kitty I saw in the town 

Tea time! 

Ryan found some toys to play with in the corner 

At around 4pm we headed back to the dorms. There was a tunnel on the way and everyone attempted to hold their breath through it but no one succeeded (it was a very long tunnel). 

Nico enjoying the tunnel while simultaneously making the gatorwaka smell like car fumes

These past two days have been quite eventful :) We’re all super excited to do restoration tomorrow morning and then (hopefully) have time to work on our journals in the afternoon. See you tomorrow! 

Kia ora!

~ Hanna