Another month!

Wow time here is flying.  My last post was an assignment to write and post a blog entry about fisheries management in New Zealand....so feel free to read that if you're interested but this is an update about the past  few weeks.  Unfortunately, the internet here is like a certain amount of MB and we used a lot of the data for this month in one day with a lot of people uploading photos from the South Island, so I can't upload any more here at the moment...We are about to start our research projects & will need internet for that, so we have to plan ahead a bit!  But if you want to see where I've been, you could search google images for Kaikoura, Arthur's Pass, Nelson, Abel Tasman National Park, and Takaka!  I'll put up some photos when I can :)

We spent a day driving down the North Island from Kaiaua to near Wellington, a solid 9 or 10 hour drive.  I slept most of the way.  The next morning we got up super early to make the first ferry across Cook's Strait.  It felt WAY more choppy than the first time I was on the ferry!  It was a rough trip but we made it to the South Island and drove a few more hours down to Kaikoura.  Kaikoura is a really touristy town right on the coast & surrounded by big (ie. they got snow on top of them while we were there) mountains!  Right offshore is a reallyy deep trench, which causes upwelling which makes the area really rich for marine life.  We spent the week at the local marae, which is sort of like a church type building for the Maori community.  We started our time there with a Porwhiri, a formal introduction ceremony, where the visiting group presents a speech, a gift, and a song to the marae and its members.  We all slept in the same room, the Wharenui ('wh' is pronounced life F), which is covered floor to ceiling, and even on the ceiling, with amazing sculptures of ancestors and of historical events for the local iwi (tribe).  Brett, who works for the Department of Conservation and is also an active member of the iwi, gave us a great explanation of each panel of sculptures.  Originally, Maori was not a written language, so a lot of the stories and histories have been passed down orally for a couple centuries.  The first day, we had a 'mihi mihi,' or introductions, where we each went around and said something about our ancestry, where we are from, and who we are/why we are here today.

The focus of our time in Kaikoura and over the course of the South Island as a whole was ecotourism.  Kaikoura has 4600 residents but over a million people visit each year.  So tourism is a huge economic opportunity but also comes with a lot of impacts - environmental and social.  Most of the tourism activities in Kaikoura are based around marine mammals, so as part of that, one of our 'classes' involved partaking in a 'dolphin encounter' tourist trip.....not a bad day's lecture!  We woke up at 4:30am, took some seasick medicine and hopped on a boat, watching the sun rise over the mountains [google image Kaikoura here! haha] We got to go swimming with a big pod of wild dusky dolphins.  I am typically very hesitant of touristy attractions, but it was still really amazing to swim with the dolphins.

The night before we left Kaikoura we had a big talent show at the marae.  It lasted for hours and I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard!  Everyone got up and did something - songs, jokes, raps, games, writing, etc.  It was awesome!  I played 'Come Let Go' by Xavier Rudd an 'Mama You been on my Mind' by Bob Dylan.  The next day we packed up, said our goodbyes, and hit the road to Hanmer Springs for a weekend off.  Hanmer is basically a ski resort town, and we stayed at a campground.  Went running on some trails in a planted forest right near the campground, celebrated St. Patrick's Day, and got a little work done.

From there we headed to Craigieburn, up in the mountains a bit west of Christchurch.  We stayed at an environmental education center.  It's right near Castle Hill, where I had gone climbing a bit in January!  It was MUCH colder there than on the coast, and colder on the South Island than the North overall.  We spent about a week there, learning about alpine ecology, farming and land issues, and tourism.  A lot of Douglas Firs were planted for erosion control but they've invaded and there's a local effort to try to get rid of them.  So we spent one morning helping pull little fir seedlings.  It was bizarre weeding for Christmas trees!  My guitar broke during that week, just fell over and the head popped off the neck!  Rough couple weeks without it, but it actually just got fixed by someone in Kaiaua!  Very grateful for that :)

From Craigieburn we traveled to Nelson Lakes where we visited a mainland island project.  The beech forest there produces honeydew through a mutualistic fungus and the sooty beech scale insect.  It's a great source of sugar for the native birds and insects, but also for the invasive wasps!  Invasive wasps are a huge problem there because they eat up all the honeydew, and also are not very pleasant for people visiting the park.  So there's a whole wasp poisoning scheme going on as part of the project, along with rodent control, to help protect the honeydew cycle and the native birds.

From there, we traveled up to Nelson where we had about 4 days off for spring break!  Went to see the Hunger Games movie, spent a while at an awesome Saturday market there, went to the climbing gym a couple times, went to a festival, hiked in Abel Tasman National Park for a couple days, and tried to go rock climbing in Takaka but couldn't find a climbing partner with a rope!  All in all a fun, relaxing spring break.

Drove back up to Kaiaua, and it was great to get back and not be living out of a bag!  We've had a quiz and a bunch of assignments over the past week, so it's been pretty busy, lots of coffee consumed.  We've been learning about mining in New Zealand this week, which is something not typically thought of to be happening in New Zealand!  Yesterday we went to Waihi where the Newmont company has a gold mine.  The town's motto is 'Heart of Gold' so I had Neil Young stuck in my head all day.  It was really incredible to see the open-pit operation.  So much technology & planning involved.  Now I obviously am not a huge fan of mining in general, but the company does do a good job of being receptive to the community, making sure the community benefits, and trying to minimize impacts.  Definitely a big contrast to the when I was in Ecuador & spent a month living in a region that has been fighting an illegal copper mine there for the past 3 decades.  The majority of residents in Waihi support the mine's presence, and it seems like it does as good a job as any mining operation could do.  Mining in New Zealand is definitely really controversial, particularly coal mining.  So it was really interesting to learn about that this week.  We had Jeanette Fitzsimons guest lecture the other day, and she is a former Member of Parliament for the Green Party and a very passionate opponent to mining, especially coal.  She actually had gone to Waihi earlier in the week to protest the Martha Mine there.  We also got to hear the other side of the story from a Newmont representative and from a local member of the council who is in charge of regulating the company and making sure they abide by the standards and restrictions.  If you google Waihi Martha mine, it is really pretty shocking to see the physical structure of the open pit mine - virtually right in the center of town!

Well right now we have a 3-day weekend right now which is so nice!  Today was absolutely beautiful, warm, not a cloud in the sky.  Laid out reading for a while (Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates - very bizarre & intense book!  I also read The Road recently....I need to find a more uplifting book to read), got my guitar back!, went for a run, and finished my work journal, which was my last assignment.  We just have our final exam on Monday and then we get right into DRP's (Directed Research Projects).  I will be at Warrenheip, a predator-free reserve a little ways south of Kaiaua, working with my friends Lauren and Jon to look at growth and mortality rates of different native tree species.  Very similar methodology to my project in Ecuador!  So I'm looking forward to that starting.  We're spending next week reading and prepping and then a week in the field, a couple weeks of writing back at EcoQuest, and then presenting our results in Auckland.  Time is quickly winding down!

Fisheries management in New Zealand: Maybe not as sustainable as you thought!

New Zealand's Ministry of Fisheries says that "New Zealand seafood comes from one of the best fisheries management systems in the world."  This claim warrants further investigation for what other countries might learn from both its successes and its challenges or issues.  Just because it might be one of the best systems currently in place does not mean it is 100% successful.  The written goals of fisheries management need to be compared with the actual health of ecosystems.  This can be done through scientific studies of course, but a basic assessment can also be done through direct observation.  One day snorkeling at the Goat Island Marine Reserve compared to the next day at Matheson’s Bay next door, outside of the reserve, showed very obvious impacts of fishing activity.   Additionally, the Poor Knights Island Marine Reserve is much larger (1890 ha) and farther offshore than the relatively small Goat Island Marine Reserve (547 ha), so the effectiveness of each of these reserves can be compared as well.

New Zealand’s marine area covers 14 times its land area.  The climate of New Zealand ranges from sub-tropical to sub-Antarctic, and the marine area includes a diverse range of ecosystems (source and source).  One estimate suggests that New Zealand’s marine area could contain up to 10% of the world’s marine biodiversity (source).  Eighty percent of the country’s native biodiversity is estimated to inhabit the marine area (source), and 44% is endemic to New Zealand (source).  Coastal protection is also crucial to New Zealand’s seabird species, which make up 37% of the country’s bird species, compared to only 3.9% of global bird species (lecture, Ria Brejaart).  The marine area supports a $1.5 billion fishing industry and $20 billion tourism industry (Forest and Bird).  Clearly, New Zealand’s vast ocean areas contain substantial biodiversity, which has historically faced and continues to face a range of human-related threats, including sedimentation, contamination, coastal development, invasion by exotic species, marine farming, boating activity, overexploitation, presence of swimmers, and physical damage from boats. 

New Zealand has a range of legislation pertaining to marine areas, including the Wildlife Act of 1953, the Marine Reserves Act of 1971, the Reserves Act of 1977, the Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1978, the Resource Management Act of 1991, the Fisheries Act of 1996, and the proposed Oceans Policy Initiative 2000.  Marine management in New Zealand involves a variety of participants with different and sometimes overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities, and sometimes conflicting interests.  These include the Department of Conservation (DOC), the Ministry of Fisheries (now part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry), Biosecurity New Zealand, the Ministry of Energy, Regional Councils, Territorial Authorities, and Iwi.  The Quota Management System was set up in 1986 to govern ‘sustainable utilisation’ of fisheries resources.  Basically, commercial fishers purchase transferable quota allowances, which are proportions of the Total Allowable Take set for each species, which is supposed to be based on stock assessments.  Oftentimes the people fishing are not the ones who own the quota, because quotas can be leased.  The TAC is divided into commercial take, recreational take, and customary take.  In the 1960s, government deregulation of the fisheries industry led to great declines in fish stocks.  Since that time, policy efforts have been made to manage fishing in order to sustain stocks.  The stated purpose of the Fisheries Act is “to provide for the utilisation of fisheries resources while ensuring sustainability” (source).  Ensuring sustainability is defined as: “(a) Maintaining the potential of fisheries resources to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations; and (b) avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of fishing on the aquatic environment.”  Utilisation is defined as “conserving, using, enhancing, and developing fisheries resources to enable people to provide for their social, economic, and cultural well-being.”  The Act also states the following environmental principles:  “(a) associated or dependent species should be maintained above a level that ensures their long-term viability; (b) biological diversity of the aquatic environment should be maintained; (c) habitat of particular significance for fisheries management should be protected.”  However, the wording regarding these principles is relatively weak: this section “requires that all actions under this Act include consideration of the following environmental principles” (emphasis added).  These environmental principles suggest a level of awareness of the need for more of an ecosystem-based approach to management in order to maintain the economically important species.

A 2010 Ministry of Fisheries summary showed that Total Allowable Commercial Take was 599,126 tonnes, and actual commercial take was 409,449 tonnes.  Recreational fisheries estimated annual take: 25,000 tonnes, and Maori customary take provided for within the TAC was 4,813 tonnes (source).  The New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy (NZBS) of 2000 states that: “Since the introduction of the fisheries Quota Management System (QMS), most QMS stocks for which biomass and productivity data are known are thought to be above sustainable levels.  However, for over half of the stocks managed under the QMS, too little is known to be able to assess whether harvesting levels are sustainable” (source).  Basically, the quota system manages fishing catch, but for lack of information or for decisions influenced by factors other than science, many of these allowable take levels are likely too high to really ensure sustainable fish stocks.  Additionally, the scientific concept that these catch limits are based on is called Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).  This is a very dangerous idea in practice, because if the stock assessment overestimates the abundance of a particular fish species, the MSY level would be set too high, leading to overexploitation and potentially rapid depletion.

Twenty-one species of native/endemic fish were listed as vulnerable on FishBase.org.  “Only in the California Current and in New Zealand are current exploitation rates predicted to achieve a conservation target of less than 10% of stocks collapsed” (source).  Of the 97 species involved in the Quota Management System, 67.5% of stocks appear to be at or near their target levels (source).  However, if these target levels are set too low, even though 2/3 of stocks are meeting targets, they might still not be in a healthy state.  An assessment of 78 commercial fisheries in New Zealand by Fish and Bird found the following results:

·         42% are overfished, or have substantially declined

·         69% cause habitat damage

·         71% cause adverse ecological effects

·         Only 15% have had all stocks assessed in the last 5 years

·         35% were missing basic biological information

A September 2009 “Environmental Snapshot” on fishing activity by the Ministry for the Environment found that commercial fish catch has been declining recently, both due to management efforts and to declining abundance of some fish stocks.  In 2008 29% (of 101 known fish stocks) were overfished.  This represents a doubling of 2006 rates of overfishing (source).

(source)

(source)

The NZBS had several ambitious goals for the protection of marine biodiversity, including protection of 10% of the country’s marine environment in a network of Marine Protected Areas by 2010.  This has not been met.  Currently, 7% of New Zealand’s territorial sea is protected by marine reserves.  In reserves, there can be no commercial fishing, traditional fishing, recreational or sport fishing, no construction, dumping, or dredging.  No-take marine reserves protect all species, known and unknown, and ecosystem processes.  Additionally, there are several other types of marine protection that allow certain levels of activities such as Marine Protected Areas, where regulated fishing can occur.  Seven percent is a relatively large number compared to other countries, especially given the disproportionally large amount of sea compared to land area.  However, less than 3% of this reserve area is in ‘mainland’ marine reserves (compared to offshore reserves).  The near-shore area tends to be affected primarily by recreational fishing activity, while offshore is where the bulk of commercial fishing takes place. 

In comparison to this very small area of coastal marine reserves, 33.4% of the land area is “legally protected for the primary purpose of protecting biodiversity” (source).  “The total marine area protected by mainland marine reserves…is equivalent to around one-and-a-half times the area of New Zealand’s smallest national park on land (Abel Tasman National Park)” (source).  Four of the coastal biogeographic regions lack marine reserves entirely, and the protection at all of these regions except the Fjordlands is under 1% of the regional area (see figure below).  Bill Ballantine, one of the original spearheaders of the establishment of the marine reserve at Leigh, proposes the following guidelines for effective marine reserve protection: representativeness of all ecosystems and regions, replication (at least three of each type of ecosystem), network arrangement (connectivity), and a sustainable size.  He also argues that for science and education, 10% of marine area should be protected under marine reserve status; to ensure conservation, this rises to 20%; to additionally maximize benefits to fisheries, reserves should cover 30% (source).  Also, the primary purpose of marine reserves according to the Marine Reserves Act of 1971 is for scientific research.  Reserves provide great opportunities for comparative studies, but there are also some issues with research.  For example, when we were at the University of Auckland campus at Leigh, one of the graduate students described how she has had great difficulties getting permits to take samples for her research due to issues with the Department of Conservation.

 (source)

(source)

Overfishing of one fish species obviously has implications for that species, but it also might have implications for the larger ecosystem.  For example, at Leigh and Matheson’s Bay, we observed the cascade effects of overfishing of snapper and crayfish.  These are two very important predators of kina (sea urchins), and so their decline removes the pressure on kina populations, leading to greater kina consumption of seaweed.  Kina barrens result in areas of snapper and crayfish overexploitation.  The Goat’s Island Marine Reserve was established in 1975.  In 1977, about 30% of the subtidal rocky reefs were dominated by sea urchin grazing.  By 1997, this figure was down to 3% (source).  Snapper and lobster populations have been allowed to replenish, leading to regeneration of seaweed.  A 2011 survey found higher fish species diversity within the reserve compared to outside of the reserve, and more abundant populations of snapper, butterfish, john dory, banded wrasse, blue cod, and other species (source).  

 Kina Barren.  (source)

Snapper and kelp, Goats Island Marine Reserve (source)

In our February 2012 survey of snapper in both the Goat Island Marine Reserve and the nearby non-reserve Matheson’s Bay, a popular recreational fishing site, we found a much more abundant stock of snapper within the marine reserve area.  Additionally, the visibility at Matheson’s was extremely low, with lots of suspended sediment, not very conducive to fish and plant life.  These two very close habitats show the potentially huge impact of recreational fishing on close to shore marine areas.  This example (and there are probably many examples like this in New Zealand) suggests that the current policies on fish catch are insufficient to protect fish stocks, which has negative implications not just for the habitats and ecosystems, but also for the fisheries themselves.  The Fisheries Act is supposed to protect sustained stocks of fish for utilization.  Fishing boats have been known to sit on the reserve boundary at Goat Island to take advantage of the more abundant and larger fish coming supplied by the reserve.  This is evidence that marine reserves could be in the best interests of fishers, not just for environmental motivations.

Snapper count from transect surveys at Goat Island Marine Reserve (solid) and at Matheson's Bay (striped) over kelp and rock/sand habitats.  Data collected February 2012 by EcoQuest.

In addition to comparing areas within marine reserves to areas outside of reserve protection, it is also interesting to compare different marine reserves.  Goat Island was established as a marine reserve in 1975, and includes the waters 800m from shore for a 5km stretch of coast.  The Poor Knights Islands are 24km off the east coast of the Northland region and contain even more unique habitat and organisms due to the East Auckland Current which brings warmer water and tropical larvae to New Zealand’s more temperate waters. The cliffs and archways provide habitat variation and protection.  A marine reserve was established in 1981 with the goal of protecting reef fish that are vulnerable to overfishing, long-lived, and/or have low rates of reproduction.  Essentially this was more of a marine park than a fully effective reserve until 1998, when it was given full no-take marine reserve status.  From 1981 to 1998, all commercial fishing but only some recreational fishing was prohibited.  In 1998, DOC was reviewing whether recreational fishing had a substantial impact on the ecosystem, and it was decided that there was insufficient information to decide this in the favor of continuing recreational fishing (source).  So the equivalent protection status was granted to the Poor Knights 23 years later than Goat Island.  Already, abundance and size of targeted fish species have been observed to be on the rise in the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve.  The snapper in particular has benefited from the reserve status.  The incomplete protection from fishing for 17 years may have had the inadvertent effect of leading to an increase in recreational fishing due to an image of the marine park having larger and more abundant fish.  Therefore the full protection was critical in effectively protecting the area.

Another comparison between Goat Island and the Poor Knights is the difference in size of the marine reserve.  Goat Island is a very small area, and although we can see the positive effects that the protection has had, it likely is more affected by outside activities and edge effects from non-protected areas.

(source)

Although Poor Knights Islands received full protection later than Goat Island, the fish stocks, habitat, and ecosystems there might recover more quickly and more fully in some ways than Goat Island due to this size impact.

New Zealand has a lot of positive sounding legislation and goals to protect the marine area.  However, these are primarily geared toward protection for sustenance of the fisheries industry, rather than protection for the sake of biodiversity, in contrast to the abundance of biodiversity-focused protection efforts on land.  The rising rate of overfishing is troubling, and changes to fisheries policy and implementation need to happen soon if this trend is to be slowed and reversed.  Stock assessments need to be more effectively, thoroughly, and frequently performed, and quotas need to be established cautiously.  Yield levels close to the MSY can be attained both by leaving approximately 20% of virgin biomass and by leaving approximately 40%.  The latter should be tested to see if 40% can become the new target.  Leaving more fish in an ecosystem would likely benefit the species, the larger ecosystem, and the sustainability of fisheries.  Full no-take marine reserves also should be expanded to protect biodiversity and unique habitats, as well as to benefit fishing in surrounding areas.  In 2009, the Cabinet supported the Fisheries 2030 strategy, with the following goal: “to have New Zealanders maximizing benefits from the use of fisheries within environmental limits” (source).  The strategy is aimed at improving the fisheries industry on economic and environmental criteria.  It appears that overall the current management of fishing in New Zealand has been insufficient to meet the country’s goals both for environmental protection but also for sustainability of the fishing industry.  If policy can take a more conservative approach, even slight reductions in catch limits could have a big impact on replenishing fish stocks, and ecosystems as well as fishers will benefit.

Finally another update!!

So I have been doing a terrible job keeping up with this blog!!  This is my second post & I've been here for just about 11 weeks.  I think it's a good thing tho because it means I've been busy :)  Lots has happened since I last posted in January!  I'll try to briefly sum up what I've been up to since then.

After a day or so in Dunedin, Nate & I drove up to Christchurch for his last few days in NZ.  We had a hard time finding a place to stay at first in the city, as it is still recovering from the devastating earthquake last February.  So we ended up heading to a town on the coast nearby.  Drove out to Castle Hill, a pretty sweet bouldering spot west of Christchurch.  Very different climbing from Pawtuckaway!  It looks like another planet.  We met up with a couple friends of a friend out there, and they showed us around and gave us a place to crash in Christchurch!

Nate left the next day for the states, and the following day I met up with a friend from UNH, Eian.  We each had about 2 weeks left to travel.  We headed to Arthur's Pass up in the mountains, it was pretty chilly at night even in January!  Saw a couple kea there - New Zealand's alpine parrot.  Stopped in Wanaka and Queenstown again on our way south - two of my favorite places here - and did a few day hikes.  Went to the Queenstown gardens where they have a sweet frisbee golf course and a Monkey Puzzle tree, super funky tree.  Eian bungy jumped and we visited the Gibbston winery.

Continuing south, we drove down to Invercargill, which is the site of the story of "The World's Fastest Indian" movie.  It's also in the 'roaring forties' latitude range, so the weather there was a bit rainier and windier.  It also stayed light out until after 9pm.  We were WWOOFing (working on a farm in exchange for room & board) for about 5 days at a small scale dairy farm, run by Sherry and Jeff.  They sell raw milk and make cheese, yogurt, butter, etc.  Sherry is also a nutritionist, and she had some interesting perspectives.  They do a lot of fermented food, like sauerkraut and kombucha, and occasionally they do raw milk diets for a few days at a time.  We had a lot of interesting conversations.  They also play ukulele and Jeff is learning guitar, so we had some great jams!  Lots of Bob Dylan.  We had to work for about 4 hours a day, which entailed removing ragwort from the pastures.  Felt good to be doing some work after 4 weeks of basically vacationing!  We spent the afternoons exploring Invercargill and one day we drove out to the southernmost point of the South Island - closer to the South Pole than to the equator!  It was gorgeous but incredibly windy!   Also went to a petrified forest.  Invercargill is a more industrial city but has a cute downtown, a nice museum, and more rose gardens.  On our way north when we finished the week WWOOFing, we stopped at the factory for Deep South, one of NZ's ice cream companies.  Apparently they don't get visitors often because they were so excited we had stopped there that they gave us a bunch of free ice cream!!  Invercargill is also the home of the Backcountry camping food company.  Also stopped at a moonshine museum, NZ had a pretty long history of prohibition.  Drove back up to Christchurch for Eian's flight home, and I had a few days before I had to fly up to Auckland to meet the EcoQuest group!  Stayed with the climbers from Castle Hill again and they took me surfing, started to get the hang of it eventually!  

EcoQuest is the study abroad program I am doing here, a combination of classes and fieldwork, and for the last month of it we do a Directed Research Project.  I flew from Christchurch to Auckland on Feb. 1 and found the other 25 people in the group in the international terminal.  Got settled in at campus, which is near a small town (= one gas station, a fish and chips place, and a pub/hotel) named Kaiaua.  It's right on the Firth of Thames, and you can see the mountains on the Coromandel Peninsula across the bay, it's so pretty.  We can go kayaking right in the backyard basically.  Very peaceful place to be living!  The program is very focused on group living and learning, and we're in these dorm room 'cabins' I guess is the best way to put it.  I have been playing a lot of guitar here!  A few other musicians in the group which is awesome :)

So we spent about a week here then went to a place called Opoutere for a week to learn about estuary ecology/issues and take part in an ongoing shellfish survey.  It was a pretty rainy week but we did get out and do some kayaking on a nice afternoon.  That weekend a bunch of the girls in the group and I drove up the Coromandel Peninsula, stopping at a couple of small towns and then Cathedral Cove, one of the most amazing beaches I've ever been to.  Had perfect weather that weekend.  We each have to do a 10 minute presentation throughout the course of the semester, and it was my turn for that during the Opoutere week, so I got that out of the way!  Had to talk about the impacts of excessive sedimentation on estuaries.

We had another week in Kaiaua with lectures and assignments and whatnot, then left for a week studying marine ecology at the Leigh Marine Reserve, the first marine reserve in the world.  Auckland University has a campus up there, and we did some fish and kina (sea urchin) surveys both inside and outside of the reserve.  We had a lecture from Roger Grace, who has done a lot of long-term studies of the effects of the reserve, and then a discussion with a couple of local recreational fishers.  Fisheries & marine protection is a super complex, overwhelming issue to try to tackle, lots of conflicting interests.  The reserve has been really effective though and has the potential to benefit fish stocks outside of the reserve as well.  Roger said that a lot of fishers will sit on the boundary of the reserve because there tend to be more, larger fisher coming out of it.  Friday of that week we were fortunate enough to go up to the Poor Knights Island, which Jacques Cousteau put in his top 10 list of dive sites in the world....really hard to describe it here, but it was incredible.  The clearest, bluest water I've ever seen!  Those islands get a warmer current from off of Australia, so some more tropical species are able to survive here.  Lots of corals, seaweeds, anemones, ah it was so awesome!  I can't wait to develop my one-time underwater camera.  Here is a photo one of our instructors took.  Poor Knights is a no-take marine reserve as well, and being able to visit it even just for a day made me really glad that some people took the initiative to ensure its protection.  Really great experience.

Had a super fun weekend in the Northland following the week in Leigh with my friends Molly, Carla, Ian, and Andrew.  We picked up a car Friday and drove to a campground in Whangarei Falls.  The next day we went to the Abbey Caves right down the road and walked through one of the caves there, which has glowworms in it!  Right next to the cave is an area of forest with a ton of cool rocks, reminded me of a small scale Castle Hill.  Then Molly and I went to a kiwi house at a nearby museum and watched one of the kiwis for a while.  They are really hard to see in the wild, both because they aren't super widespread anymore, and because they're nocturnal.  Very evolutionarily goofy creatures.  We drove up to the Waipoua Forest, an area with lots of old Kauri trees!  We got to see 'Tane Mahuta,' the oldest (1200-2000 years old, somewhere in there) Kauri tree in New Zealand!  Very impressive and amazing to think about how many people have seen it, and what it used to be like a thousand years ago.

Camped out that night right next to a kiwi reserve, so that night we walked around trying to spot kiwis!  We definitely smelled a few, and heard one really close but couldn't see it! (They have a really pungent smell, so it's easier to smell than see them).  The next day we got up early and drove up to a sand dune and went sand surfing.  Like sledding on a boogieboard, on sand.  It was high tide so we skimmed right over the ocean for a bit!  Really fun.  Got back to EcoQuest and had to study for our midterm.  Since we have the month-long project, the semester is only about 10 weeks long, so the midterm seemed really early.  Just working on assignments the rest of the week, and Sunday we are leaving for the South Island!  Internet here on campus is fairly limited so I can't post tons of photos, but I will try to add some more periodically.

First Post!

So it's taken a couple weeks to find some time to post here!  Been covering a lot of ground and having an amazing time.  I'll try to do a brief update with a few photos.  Started off with a couple days in LA visiting Andrew!  Then Dec. 22nd I flew to Auckland with my friend Nate - 13 and a half hour flight from LA.  Auckland is right on the water, really clean city and super friendly people.  Pretty quiet on Christmas, walked around the city, got a bit sunburned.  Warm Christmas day!  I got a bit sunburned.

Then we rented a car the next day and started heading south. We stopped in a little surf town called Raglan then went through the caves at Waitomo, which are full of glow worms.  Pretty incredible.  We spent a few days rock climbing at Wharepapa.

Stopped at Lake Taupo, then drove down to Wellington in a rain storm.  Spent New Years in Wellington, met some Germans, French people, and an Italian at the hostel, and ran into Eian from NH there too - we had a class together at UNH!  Small world.  Next day we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton (North Island to South Island) - about 3 hours.

Spent just a night in Picton then headed up to a beach at the beginning of Abel Tasman National Park.  Drove down to Takaka to do some more climbing.  Very different kind of rock from the pockety limestone at Wharepapa.  Met some super nice New Zealanders at the Mussel Inn.

We visited the Franz Josef Glacier for a day.  Kind of cloudy but we hiked up and got to see the glacier a bit!  You can do a guided tour on the glacier or take a helicopter up there, but we just decided to walk up there, still got a pretty good view.

Went rock climbing in Wanaka for a day on a rock called the Tombstone Rock.

Headed to Queenstown for a few days - such a fun place!  It's a big town on a lake, surrounded by mountains.  There's climbing nearby but we didn't make it there.  Instead we spent a day at a the rugby sevens tournament!  Really fun sport to watch.  And the 'sevens' tournament is where the teams play 20 minute matches with 7 people, instead of 15.  Visited the local fire station in Queenstown - such nice people!  The next day we went bungy jumping.....a little scary but Awesome!!  43 meter bridge, not the tallest one in NZ but the original one!  So fun :)

From Queenstown we went to the Fjordland National Park and went kayaking in Milford Sound - gorgeous.

Now we're in Dunedin!  I bought a cheap guitar here today.  Wish I could've bought a NZ-made guitar but those are superrr expensive.  Glad to have something to play though!

So that's a nutshell update!  It's been a whirlwind of a trip, gone by too fast but we've gotten to see some awesome places, meet great people, and do some super fun things :)  Loving NZ already.