One last adventure

Kia Ora! We woke up early today so we could squeeze kayaking in before the forecasted afternoon rains. Luckily, we were successful and we had a wonderful time kayaking.

The drive to the kayaking spot gave us lovely views of Akaroa harbor and the crater rim. Seven million years ago, volcanic eruptions formed a crater and 7,000 years ago one of the crater walls failed, allowing water in to form Akaroa harbor. We drove from the inside of the crater to a bay on the outer edge. 

The class at a crater rim viewpoint

A couple of penguins

We kayaked in Flea Bay, originally named Pōhatu meaning “land of many stones,” referencing the area’s use by the Māori for growing kumara. Pōhatu Bay is part of the Pōhatu Marine Reserve, established in 1999 in an effort to protect the penguin colony in the bay. When the reserve was established, they had 300 breeding pairs. With rigorous predator control, that number rose to 1,260 breeding pairs in 2015-2016. However, even though trapping efforts are higher than ever, the population has declined to 900 breeding pairs due to fish decline from La Niña. This still makes Pōhatu Bay the largest penguin colony on the New Zealand mainland.

Pōhatu Bay

Pōhatu bay houses the white-flippered penguin. As mentioned in the blog on July 28th, the white-flippered penguin is a subspecies of little blue penguin unique to the Canterbury region that is distinguished by the white edging it’s flippers. These penguins are also a lighter blue to match the water of the region, which is light blue due to glacial silt discharged from the alps. The valley is full of nest boxes all up and down the cliff sides (yes these tiny penguins will make the trek up steep cliffs to nest up to 800 meters inland) and many of the boxes are labeled with names or are decorated in some way. We were able to see a pair in a nesting box as well as some penguins on the rocks in the bay. 

Penguin houses

Penguin pair!

We kayaked around the bay, up one side and down the other. We paddled by seals, shags, and oystercatchers on the rocks. In the cliff-sides, we could see evidence of the land’s volcanic past. Distinct layers of rock, black at the bottom and fading to brown then red at the top with black rock indicating hot, slow-cooling magma and red rock indicating ash mixed with sediment. Each layer is from a different eruption. The sides of the harbor were pocked with caves which started as gas bubbles trapped in cooling lava and which were opened to the sea and expanded by erosion. Some of these caves were quite big and we were even able to kayak inside one!

Rock layers in the cliffs

Paddling into a cave

The group spots a penguin

Our kayaking adventure ended with a series of races. Nico and Maya were the fastest going forwards, but Debriana and Veronica won the backwards race.

Back on land, we wrapped up the day with a great dinner at The Laboratory. Love the class shirts! 

Group photo!

On to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve tomorrow and then back to Florida on Monday.

Thanks for a great class!

Veronica