RestoringParadise
December5-21, 2008
Chapter 1. Introduction
The Maori demi-god, Maui, crouched in the hull of his two older brothers’ waka (ocean-going canoe) on a beautiful Pacific Ocean day of calm waters and blue skies punctuated with floating white clouds. He was hidden because they had refused permission for him to join their daily fishing expedition, as they always did. They said he was too young and would bring them bad luck. The big canoe had set off from their home island, Hawaiiki, its actual location lost in the shadows of time and myth. But Maui was confident he would lead them to many more fish than they had ever caught in a single day, because he was convinced that his forefathers had granted him magical powers. For this adventure, he had woven a special fishing line as instructed by his personal protector.
When his brothers discovered him they were already far from land. Exasperated, they realized they would not be able to take him back home before beginning again because the daylight would fade from the sky before they could come back with the day’s catch. So all three began fishing accompanied by thegrumbling of the two brothers. Very soon they realized that they were hauling in a huge number of big and healthy fish, much more than usual. They began to tease Maui about his “magic powers” but were pleased at the take. Suddenly, Maui’s line was almost bent double by the weight of his fish. He called to his brothers to help him pull it in and they hurried to assist him. The effort was enormous but they persevered using every remaining bit of strength they possessed.
A huge dorsal fin and long backbone broke the ocean’s surface and they marveled that Maui must have snagged a whale! The great contest continued for several hours before the entire “catch” appeared floating
before their wondering eyes. They called the prize “Te Ika a Maui” (Maui’s Big Fish), but today it is known as the North Island of New Zealand. Maori legend insists that this is the true origin of that part of the country. As the three brothers kept on struggling, another large piece of land finally popped above the waves and they called it “Te Waka de Maui” (The Canoe of Maui), today the bigger South Island. Little bits and pieces of land continued to rise during their titanic struggle, the largest of these they called “Te Pung a Maui” (Maui’s Anchor) but today we know it as Stewart Island lying to the south of big South Island. The other little land bits that were pulled along after that “anchor” like a lost rope line, they failed to name. But today, they are called the Sub Antarctic Islands of New Zealand.
Such is the Maori version of the origin of their home islands: Aotearoa, as they call New Zealand in their language. With great fascination, I learned that modern geologists’ have a theory about the origin of this wonderful place that does not conflict fatally with the Maori version.
These scientists deal with plate tectonics rupturing huge land masses occurring 200 million years ago and with powerful under-ocean earthquakes causing sea bottoms to rise. Gondwanaland is the name geologists have given to the supercontinent from which India, Africa, Australia and Antarctica were born. Of course, all the smaller land masses in the Southern Hemisphere also were ripped off this giant continent including New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and much smaller bits. They postulate that New Zealand was torn away from Gondwanaland about 160 million years ago at a time when much of what would become that country was more like continental shelf than a large island.
Over the millennia, more of it sank beneath the ocean and became ocean bottom. Because of all the pushing and pulling of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates and the subsequent earthquakes, synclines and volcanic eruptions beneath the sea, the many islands forming New Zealand today were forced upwards until they reached sea level and above. Isn’t that rather akin to how Maui hooked the sea bottom and pulled it up above the waves?
A further detail in the Maori story concerns the damage that the two elder brothers wreaked on Maui’s “big fish” by trying to hack bits off and gouge deep to obtain the meat. That’s their story to explain the mountains and fjords and plains that form the islands. Geologists say these features are the creation of the volcanic action caused by the constant pressure of the two tectonic plates, the Australian plate moving southwest and the Pacific plate moving northerly. The fissures and earthquakes cause mountains to continue rising and lakes to form in depressions and the coastline to change continuously over geologic time.
Geologists say that the city of Christchurch on the eastern coast of New Zealand’s South island is moving in a different direction from Wellington on the southern tip of the North Island by about 4 millimeters a year! That’s rather quickly in geologic time! The geologists postulate that this strange journeyoccurs becausethe North Island rides the Australian plate and half the South Island sits on the Pacific plate. 1000 years ago when the Maoris discovered Aotearoa, they postulated that the island was a gift from the ocean! Modern plate tectonic theory does not disagree.
After the great rending off, New Zealand was a “whale rider” apart from the other sections of the supercontinent. Its plant and animal life developed completely separately from the rest. Even its geologic development was unlike the other remaining land chunks. No mammal ever evolved in New Zealand with the exception of three bat species, one of which is already extinct. There are some amphibians and reptiles, but no snakes. There is also a “living fossil” from the dinosaur age, the tuatara—an iguana-like creature. Insects and plants evolved riotously on the islands, but they are distinct from those elsewhere inthe world.
But where Mother Nature produced the most flamboyant evolutionary pattern is in the avian world. Birds have filled every niche possible so that birds take the places usually occupied by mammals or marsupials in other parts of the globe. Thus there are birds that live like squirrels or others like forage like mice and occupy similar homes. Most amazing is that many of these native
birds became flightless because there were no predators to create an advantage to flight. No wonder pre-historic New Zealand is described as a paradisefor the creatures wholivedthere!
For millennia, that paradise continued undisturbed except by the slow mechanisms of evolution, the alterations in weather patterns, the uplifts and drops in the land caused by volcanic activity and the pushing and shoving of plate tectonics. The plants and animals were subject only to the dictates of Mother Nature. 1000 years ago, this paradise was invaded. Destroyed may be a better term for it. How? Man arrived in the form of the Polynesian wanderers and explorers we now call the Maori. With man came annihilation. In the case of New Zealand, that devastation took the form of extinction of species millions of years in their development. 800 years after the Maoris, the Europeans discovered New Zealand and more ruin was brought to the lovely land and its vulnerable ecosystem.
Biologists, ecologists, historians all agree that of all land masses, New Zealand has suffered the greatest number of extinctions due to human pressures. Because no mammalian predators had evolved there, the birdlife was totally unprepared for the exotic (in this context, exotic means “non-native”) animals humans brought with them or for the ravages of hunting that human beings practiced. It is not really necessary to indict humanity for its early depredations because people’s actions were based on ignorance and heedlessness rather than evil or selfishness. After all, both the Maoris and the Europeans had never occupied such an unspoiled Eden before. They were also unaware of the damage that exotic species can wreak on an isolated environment. They did not recognize that the islands supported a limitedpopulation of creatures that couldbe shattered so quickly. By the time extinctions were understood, tremendous damage had alreadyoccurred.
For a time after the collision between the Maoris and the Europeans, the natural world was not studied or valued. The Europeans were busily “conquering” the new world and subduing the indigenous human populations.
The Maoris were desperately defending their homes and way of life. No one noticed when the last moa was killed. In 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi between the British and the Maoris finally ended the open conflict and assured more rights to the Maoris than indigenous peoples usually received at the mercies of the British and other European explorers. Then the European period of destroying New Zealand began in earnest as immigrants arrived in greater numbers every year and the land was “tamed” and altered for agriculture and animal husbandry as the Europeans knew it. Whalers and sealers exploited the marine life until it became unprofitable due to the declining numbers of the creatures they sought. Cities grew up in the formerly unoccupied lands driving out the native birds and plants. Huge sheep stations arose in the plains and caused enormous change in the environment, destroying more plants and birds.
Most destructive however was the importation of non-native mammals and marsupials. The Maoris had brought the “fat pig” with them as a food source. This pig was a rooting animal and created considerable destruction of the ground nesting birds. Worse though were the animals brought by Europeans: cats, dogs, stoats, and possums (from Australia), weasels, rabbits, rats and mice. The assault on paradise was bloody and final for many species who had evolved with no defenses against these deadly predators. In biology this is known as evolutionary naïveté. It is estimated that over 50% of the bird species present at the beginning of the human colonization of New Zealand have become extinct, 2 only to the species loss in the Hawaiian Islands.
Evolution in New Zealand produced unique species, endemic to the country 90% of the freshwater fish, 80% of vascular plants, 70% of terrestrial and freshwater birds, all bats, all amphibians, and all reptiles fit into that category. This degree of endemism makes the loss of species even more catastrophic. The slaughter of the flightless moas, largest of any birds anywhere is a good example of what makes extinction so heartbreaking. The Maoris hunted these birds to extinction, long before any European had ever
seen them. As a matter of fact, scientists today believe that the total destruction of the 10 species of moa was accomplished in less than 100 years after the Maoris arrived. Because the Haast’s Eagle, largest eagle in the world, was completely dependent on moas for food, it too went extinct at the same time.
Image Credit: Heinrich Harder
Moas were huge birds, the largest stood 12 feet high and weighed in excess of 550 lbs. The eagle could attack at 50 mph which facilitated its hunting of the huge moas. Besides these very large birds, many smaller species were also pushed to extermination by the exotic predators. The national emblem of New Zealand is the strange kiwi bird, a flightless creature whose feathers look more like fur and whose nostrils are at the end of its beak, the sole bird in the world with that distinction. Even this bird had almost
disappeared before human beings took notice of the precipice on which its fate teetered. Some species were lost before policies and actions could protect them.
As if to counterbalance this dismal past, another stage in evolution has come to pass in New Zealand. Human beings have become aware of their responsibility for the natural world and have decided to sacrifice time, treasure, development, and even some rights in order to restore their country to its paradisiacal past, at least as much as it is possible to do so.
This is indeed a huge mutation in the human genome one that appreciates the physical beauty of nature, the interconnectedness of all life on earth, and works to protect the earth rather than exploit it in every way possible. This mutation has helped New Zealand create a public policy that is already allowing recovery in plants and animals, bringing some threatened species backfromthe brinkandsupportingothers thatarestillin danger.
Today the NZ human being has evolved past most of his fellow humans in this area; he has become the steward of the earth rather than the exploiter, the restorer rather than the plunderer, and the sharer of earth’s blessings with all the life-forms he encounters rather than the selfish total consumer of every good thing. Now there’s an evolutionary change we could wish on all humanity!
Chapter 2. Some Present Day New Zealand Facts
This island nation is about the size of Colorado in land area: 103,737 square miles. To draw a more familiar comparison, Florida comprises 58,560 square miles of land territory. Florida’s peninsula is 447 miles long while it is 1000+ miles from the tip of New Zealand’s North Island to the bottom of the South Island. Florida is 361 miles wide at its most expansive while the New Zealand’s broadest area is on the North Island and measures a slimmer 186 miles across. Florida’s human population has swelled to 15,982, 378 in a smaller territory while New Zealanders number 4,173,460.
Needless to say, Florida’s native flora and fauna have suffered devastating human pressure just like New Zealand’s, but Homo Sapiens Floridiensis has not yet undergone the evolutionary shift described above as characteristic of New Zealanders.
A couple of specific factors about the make-up of New Zealand’s human population are also relevant to this sea change observed in ecological awareness. The median age is 36 so we have a relatively young, but nonetheless mature group of people living there. 70% of the people are of European stock, Maoris make up 8%, but people who describe themselves as mixed between Maori and European are 12% (Asians & Polynesians make up the other 10%) of the population). Perhaps this relative homogeneity is a factor in the development of ecological sensitivity. Maybe the fact that Maoris and other New Zealanders have lived together for 200+ years in peace since the original conquest has helped the two cultures which have so impacted their native land see the biological situation similarly. It is obviously true that the Maori minority is definitely a working part of the nation’s attempts to restore the country to a stable and healthy biota.
Another factor that no doubt facilitates the enormous environmental program is New Zealand’s governmental form: a parliamentary democracy in which Maoris have full rights and representation. A change Kay & I noticed immediately on this visit is the much greater visibility of Maoris in the overall culture: supporting that observation is the ubiquity of the Maori language in printed materials, on signage, place and street names, general recognition of the contributions of the Maoris to New Zealand history, Maori symbols as decorations and logos. It seemed evident to us that the Maoris are much more integrated into the society than in 1987. Further testimony resides in the evident pride that New Zealanders of mixed blood feel about their dual ancestry! And many of them are fostering Maori language and history instruction in the schools for all young New Zealanders. This too is a tribute to the “highly evolved” status of Homo Sapiens New Zealandiensis.
Chapter 3. The Department of Conservation
Recognized around the world among biologists, conservationists, and ecologists for its advanced techniques and success in managing despoiled habitats and crashing bird populations, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation has indeed worked environmental wonders since its establishment in 1987.
However, it must also be recognized that without the support of the nation’s citizenry, this remarkable record could not have been achieved. Indeed, the Kiwis have been strong supporters of policies, procedures, and restrictions that have implemented the restoration of their country’s natural world. Latest polls reported on the Department’s Website reveal that nearly 70% of the population approves of the work the Department is accomplishing!
In 1987, responding to the huge losses in unique and endemic bird species, the government passed the Conservation Act which brought over one-third of New Zealand’s land area under the control of the newly constituted Department of Conservation.
Previously separate agencies, such as the Forest Service, Wildlife Service, Department of Lands and Survey and National Park Service were subsumed under the new larger umbrella agency. DOC, as it is affectionately and appreciatively called by the Kiwis, thus gained unified control of all the efforts at restoringNew Zealand’s erstwhile paradise.
The agency’s challenge as written into the Act was “to manage the nation’s natural and historical assets for the greatest benefit and enjoyment of all New Zealanders, by conserving, advocating, and protecting the natural and historical heritage so that its values are passed on undiminished to future generations.”
The leadership and the members of the department have taken that challenge on directly and have achieved results that are now the benchmarks for other countries and organizations attempting to accomplish
similar ameliorations in their natural environments. Scientists and program directors from nations all around the world visit New Zealand to study DOC’s methods andachievements.
One other significant official act that has promoted DOC’s work and affected most directly the areas we were privileged to visit on this trip was the granting of the New Zealand Sub Antarctic Island World Heritage Site designation in 1998 by UNESCO. While this is the most significant global honor a site can receive, it confers no protection, monetary reward, or management for the area.
The individual country wherein the site is located has all that responsibility. However, recently the World Heritage Site Convention has taken steps to withdraw the designation in cases where the site is exploited, reduced in size, despoiled or otherwise damaged. Such a step has been taken in Saudi Arabia and on Montserrat Island in the Caribbean among others. Of course the threat of embarrassment inherent in such a “punishment” is meant to encourage protection. Needless to say, New Zealand so zealously protects its environmental treasures that it is not under any threat of losing World Heritage Status.
These Sub Antarctic Islands are so well protected that DOC allows only 600 tourist visits a year on each one of them. Tour companies must purchase these “tickets to visit paradise” from DOC, thus creating a source of income for the Department. Furthermore, even with the permission granted, visitors must be accompanied by a representative from DOC to insure that rules and regulations are followed.
The rules cover such things as staying on designated trails, keeping appropriate distances from all creatures on the islands, disinfecting boots before stepping onto the island and when returning to the ship, carrying nothing onto the island such as food or drink or even backpacks. We were even instructed to check our clothing before returning to the ship to insure that we did not bring any “hangers on” back with us like seeds or leaves or
insects. They were very thorough indeed. Our DOC representative was a delightful lady but she never relaxed the rules for us, nor did we ask her to make any concessions.
Before we ever left the ship the first time by zodiac, we were given an informational brochure covering DOC’s “minimum impact code” for the Sub Antarctic Islands. There were general rules covering such information as the fact that there are no toilet facilities on any of these islands, that you cannot collect any specimens of any kind, and that you cannot leave anything behind when you leave. Then there were the regulations covering animal viewing: all animals have the right of way, no approaches to animals closer than 5 meters, no following a retreating animal, staying quiet, and crouching when animals are near. We were then reminded that we had two really big personal responsibilities as privileged visitors: following all DOC rules and obeying our DOC representative.
Such precautions are logical and necessary given that the primary emphasis in DOC’s restoration program lies in the program for eradicating all exotic (alien) species from reserve areas. Some islands are so different from their neighbors that the same plants and animals may not have been endemic to them. Therefore, since the major thrust of the program is restoration, the scientists do not want species which were not originally on a particular island to get there again even if the species is native to New Zealand itself and could thrive on that little piece of land. For instance, one island we visited hosted no tree ferns despite the fact that tree ferns are native to New Zealandinmany other places. Care is takenthat none take root there today.
Most of the preserves we visited were on islands, but some are being created on the main two islands as well as Stewart Island. These are “islands” within islands in the present environment. Hectares are purchased either privately or by DOC in order to create a city reserve in order to bring native songbirds and kiwis back into the municipal areas. Usually these reserves are also cleared of non-native plants as well so that the birds and insects can live in pristine conditions.
It can be easily imagined how expensive and difficult these efforts at restoring paradise can be. With introduced species all around including mammalian predators, it is very hard to keep the preserves rat and cat free; but it is even more tricky to keep the introduced Australian brushtail possum from penetrating the boundaries of the reserves. Unlike our Virginia opossums that are reputed to be pretty stupid, these Aussie emigres are the intellectual equal of dogs. Thus they are the most difficult of the exotics to control and/or exterminate.
A little more information on the Aussie brushtails will make it clear why they are impossible to eradicate completely. They are nocturnal and arboreal and therefore very difficult to find. They sleep in tree cavities thus depriving native birds of their usual nesting places. Though they are herbivores in Australia, they have developed a taste for meat in New Zealand so nest robbing for eggs and chicks is now a normal behavior for them. But even if they were not predating birds, they would still be quite destructive as herbivores because the native New Zealand plants did not evolve strategies to avoid or survive mammalian “diners.” Birds, reptiles, and insects in New Zealand often do feed on native plants, but these plants are adapted to the methods of consumption practiced by native creatures.
As if devastation of the natural environment were not enough to indict these transplants, they are also vectors of bovine tuberculosis. So not only do conservationists and ecologists rue the presence of these unwelcome immigrants, the dairy farmers are also very sorry they were ever brought over to New Zealand from their own native home.
Actually, DOC has many exotics to deal with, thanks to the wholesale importing of mammals that the European settlers accomplished in very short order. A list of animals DOC is currently dealing with include the following: Argentine ants, deer, feral goats, various fish species, feral horses, wallabies, possums, rainbow lorikeets, rats, stoats, ferrets and weasels, tahr and wasps! Of course, the list of exotics is incomplete because we have not even mentioned all the non-native plant types which are out-competing New
Zealand’s own species. Needless to add, DOC has a huge and never-ending mission.
The major weapon DOC workers employ to try to control the brushtail numbers is a natural plant toxin called 1080; actually it is sodium monofluoroacetate. It has the advantage of being water soluble and biodegradable. But its use is not without controversy since native birds, fish, insects and reptiles do succumb when they ingest it. Many studies have been conducted to make the poison less attractive to any of the native creatures. At present the poison is embedded in a cereal host which has proven to be alluring to the brushtails but relatively uninteresting to birds and other native species. There is a “by-catch” aspect to the strategy, but it is small enough that the scientists believe that this poison is their most effective culling agent. 1080 has the added value of being very effective with the 4 species of rats that haveestablishedthemselves onthetwo mainislands.
The Sub Antarctic islands have been rendered rat-free due to the use of 1080 as have some other of the islands belonging to New Zealand and now functioning as preserves. The poison is dropped from the air and then the kills are monitored by DOC workers on the ground—both the intended and unintended deaths are counted and recorded so that improvements in delivery systems can be researched.
Just for fun, it is good to mention a couple of very ironic discoveries we made. In 1870 the then Governor of New Zealand imported 4 species of wallabies from Australia to create a zoo on a small islet off the North Island. The zoo never had any cages because it was believed that the wallabies would never swim across open water and that supposition did turn out to be true.
However, the wallabies found the little island very much to their liking and found everything they needed for survival and reproduction. Soon they had eaten all the native species of plants (they are herbivores) and it became necessary to feed them and keep their numbers down to something
manageable. These creatures are living well on the largess of the New Zealanders who support the island zoo.
The irony is that two of those species are nearly extinct in Australia and DOC is cooperating with Australian biologists in a breeding and relocation program to return the endangered wallabies to their own homeland!
In a park on the North Island are herds of feral horses which are also very destructive of native habitats, especially the native plants. The herds are controlled and kept in a reserve area, but every time the DOC must cull the numbers, a great protest goes up from the New Zealand humans who do not wish to see these horses destroyed. Sounds like home with our wild mustangs and burros, doesn’t it?
So, just as our Department of the Interior has attempted, DOC periodically offers the excess horses for adoption. And just as it is here at home, never are enough of the animals adopted to keep the herds at the optimum levels. Incidentally, these feral horses are really domestic horses who were allowed to run free in years past again, just like our mustangs Another amazingly ironic disconnect: while New Zealand is being overrun with brushtail possums, there is still an odd import business which thrives fairly well frozen brushtail possum meat is imported into NZ from Australia for human consumption!
Why don’t New Zealanders who like this meat hunt the creatures in their own country where they are such an enormous pest?
Seems like some enterprising hunter types could create a little business of their ownsellingthe creatures to their fellow countrymen.
Whata greatwayto support the activities of DOC, right?
Next, we will move on to a discussion of the various sites where DOC has been active and achieved such splendid success. These success stories greatly contribute to the support that DOC consistently wins from the New Zealand humans. Even the rarely visited Sub Antarctic Islands achievement stories are communicated regularly to the populace so that folks can understand the greatstridesbeingmade in those remote places as well.
Now let’s see how this wonderful agency works in the places we visited on this fascinating Zegrahm trip to wonderful New Zealand!
Chapter 4. Wellington
Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and it sits at the southern end of the North Island. It is a pretty city, arranged around a beautiful and calm harbor. In that it reminds one of Sydney, except that it is not so large nor the architecture so grand. It also calls for comparisons with San Francisco, built as it is on hills stepping down to the sea. But again,
Wellington has much more modest demeanor, though it does have its wonderful Beehive Building for Parliament to sit in and the new and modern Ta Papa National Cultural Museum! However, it was not those sights that
impressed us, or indeed that had brought us here to begin our expedition to pristine New Zealand.
The most seminal aspect of our visit to Wellington was the opportunity of touring Karori Wildlife Sanctuary an island of restoration within the city limits. The most amazing fact about Karori is its creation through the efforts of private citizens.
After having been used as farmland, gold and quartz mining venues, and a reservoir created by the construction of two different dams, the Sanctuary Valley as the site has been called for 100+ years was determined to be a perfect setting for a city side wildlife preserve. A group of citizens petitioned the local government and the national government for the rights to purchase the 1 square mile of property and won acceptance from both.
A survey of Wellington’s local citizenry in 1990 revealed 90% support for the preserve. The Trust formed to purchase the land raised the necessary money and the land was transferred to the Trust in 1995. The Trust opened to visitors during that year so that people could visit and understand what was being proposed. There is an ambitious 500-year vision that guides the Sanctuary’s development and management that vision started in 1995 and states that it will require 500 years of regrowth to bring the land back to its condition prior to the arrival of Europeans.
Of course the new life envisioned for the area requires that all non-native plants and creatures be removed permanently from the area. Original species of birds, animals and plants which have been lost to the area after 700 years of human intrusion must be reintroduced and nurtured to self- sustaining populations.
The first and most expensive endeavor, after the land acquisition, was the building of the predator proof fence around the entire valley a 5.5-mile long structure completed in l998. At that time, the Trust scientists declared the area predator-free except for mice. Much research was required in the design of the fence. It had to be able to repel cats, dogs, ferrets, possums, rats, and
all other mammalian predators completely! This meant scientists and observers needed to determine how high a cat could climb, how deep a dog or ferret could dig, how small a space a rat could enter. All this work was done and the fence designed appropriately. Since the original fence construction even mice have been eradicated. Now the fence must be regularly maintained to insure that it is intact. Ongoing monitoring must be conducted to detect any penetration of the fence by any of the said predators.
Constant vigilance is the price of successful restoration! In addition to creating a predator-free environment, the Trust was committed to the reintroduction of native birds, plants and the famous “living fossil” from the Age of Dinosaurs, the tuatara. Several bird species missing from the Wellington environs for many years have been successfully returned to this habitat: the stitchbird, the saddleback, the bellbird, and the tui. Native trees and shrubs have been planted while young stands of native hardwoods are encouraged through eradication of competing non-native species.
One of the signs of the early achievements of this valuable Sanctuary is the success of many of the returned bird species. Not only are these birds easily seen and counted within the reserve, many have begun flying into the Wellington neighborhoods to visit bird feeders and back lawns, delighting the city dwellers who have so strongly supported this effort. Research has confirmed that the numbers of these birds are rising as they are no longer predated by creatures for which evolution provided no defense.
The living fossil, the iguana-like reptile, the tuatara, has also been reintroduced to Sanctuary Valley and is also thriving here. The creature has been present on New Zealand since the Age of the Dinosaurs but human destruction of its habitat, hunting, predation by mammals with loss of eggs and young had long ago put the creature on the endangered animal list. Its success here is somewhat qualified if the definition of true return to a former lifestyle means a freedom of movement such as the birds enjoy, for the tuatara lives in the protected area and is not allowed to leave the confines of the fence. However, as the numbers of surviving tuataras increases, the reptile is being relocated to other predator free islands and sanctuaries.
We enjoyed this look at what conservation can achieve and were pleased to see so many of the endangered birds and the wonderful tuatara. New Zealand’s birds are often colorful and always interesting in their behaviors. Their songs are frequently melodious andstrange.
We also were astounded at our first look at the tree weta, an enormous flightless New Zealand insect that can measure up to 4 inches and weigh almost an ounce. They look rather like a cross between a beetle and a katydid.
Karori Wildlife Sanctuary provided us with our first look at an “island” of restoration, conservation and protection—although it is a city sanctuary.
What a wonderful introduction to a New Zealand whose conservation vision works on a 500-year optimistic plan! It is important to report that the private sanctuary also operates under the auspices, with the support, and in compliance with DOC.
Chapter 5. Marlborough Sounds Maritime Park
Part of the waters dividing the North and South Islands, the Marlborough Sounds are drowned valley systems resulting from subsidence in the earth’s crust probably in conjunction with earthquakes and other plate tectonic movements. The coast is deeply indented by long sea corridors so frequently that this area accounts for 15% of total New Zealand coastline. Interspersed between the open water and the mainland are many small islands that have become the last bastions for so many of the beleagueredNZ bird species.
These bits of land and some of the more pristine of the mainland native forest stands are managed and monitored by DOC. Many of the birds were surviving only in such small areas after having gone extinct on the mainland. Now these preserves are the nursery for these birds who nest here but whose offspring are often moved to other safe places once DOC as rendered them predator-free. Some of the islands can be visited under strict guidelines; others are restricted and only DOC scientists and workers may visit them. Some of the mainland forests are handled the same way.
Jacob’sBay
We were privileged to visit three sites in this Park. We took a long and very wet walk just above the coast at Jacob’s Bay. This area is not pristine nor is it predator-free. However, DOC is working in the area to protect the native trees and plants with the hope that birds and insects will return as their native habitat regenerates. Efforts are also being directed towards controlling the predators. The brushtail possum is the most destructive pest here. There is no real promise of a completely pest-free environment in this place since the
area is much too expansive to use fencing such as that employed in Karori. So the focus here is the plants, but even some of themcan be harmed or killed by exotic insects and mammals.
The walk was quite lovely as we wandered through the green-tinted air awed by the enormity of huge trees and the beauty of the tree ferns. The softly falling rain added to the magic of this “lost in the mists of time” setting and we were not even surprised at first by the absence of birdsong. Very few birds live at Jacob’s bay right now and of course even the few that are usually there were quiet on such a damp day.
The most interesting plant we saw, though not the most beautiful, is the incredible lancewood tree. We were to see it in other settings we visited too but this was the most impressive since it wasour first experience of it. When it is asapling, it is very slender and its leaves look likeverywide needles pointing downwardoff thestems. They can reach 3 ft. inlength, are deeply serrated on the edges, and speckled. As the young sapling searches for light it continues to grow taller but it continues in its spindly appearance. When a place opens in the canopy where the tree canreach upward, perhaps caused by another tree’s fall, thelancewoodshoots up amazingly rapidly until it can join the treetops of all the other taller ones that have surrounded it. The trunk thickens out remarkably and the leaves transform themselves completely. They are now more oblong than linear and are only about 9 inches long and are much wider than the juvenile form. The tree can reach 40 ft. in height and the trunk is usually about 1 foot in diameter. This condition of having two or more distinct kinds of leaves in juvenile and adult forms is called “heteroblasty” and it is not at all uncommon in New Zealand plants. But the lancewood was our only encounter with the phenomenon.
Motuara Island
Now that our raingear had been thoroughly tested, the sun came out and we were able to visit one of DOC’s predatorfree islands—
Motuara Island in this same area. It was quite different from Jacob’s Bay. There were no tree ferns on this speck of land but many birds the air was constantly vibrating to their calls. The forest was much more open than the one at Jacob’s Bay whichwasthickwith underbrush aswellas alofty and dense canopy. The island is very hilly and the trail up was slippery with mud because of the rain that had fallen earlier. But the slipping and sliding were well worth the effortbecauseof the wonderful birds were saw so closely and clearly.
The most enchanting was the South Island Robin. He is a tiny round fellow who stands very tall on long sticklike legs. He is a slate grey color with a creamy breast cover, unless we are looking at his mate who wears a lighter grey costume with a smaller light patch on her breast. Both sexes are amazingly tame and curious. Their typical foraging method is picking and kicking among the leaf litter on the forest floor.
Evolutionary biologists believe that they evolved to follow much larger birds like the moas, catching the insects and invertebrates stirred up by the bigfooted birds. That behavior may explain their fearless behavior around us giant two legs. They almost swirled between our legs and we had to be watchful to avoid stepping on them.
The island also revealed the colorful and beautiful-voiced bellbirds hitherto we had only heard their bell-like song but had not actually seen their colors olive greens, yellow, and some red.
We saw baby fairy penguin chicks nestled in boxes provided by DOC personnel. There were brown creepers who behave rather like sapsuckers here and the colorful New Zealand parakeets, olive green with red decorations on their heads.
After our rainy day in the Sounds, we were so delighted with the bright blue skies overhead! The weather was cool and dry, except for the mud under our boots. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were the only 18 people on the island at a time and that we were being allowed to be here for an hour and a half’s concert of bird song and art show of beautifullyfeatheredandpatternedbirds.
WaimaruGannetColony&Duffer’sReef
Exploring another part of this Maritime Park, we went by Zodiac to a natural reserve that has not required the intervention of concerned human beings yet though it is under DOC administration. This was the Australasian gannet colonythatoccupies steepandcraggysmallislandsinthis Bay.
The granite rocks rise from the dark indigo waters and almost pierce the clouds riding high in the blue sky. The birds are about the size of gulls and very busy all the time fishing, drying their wings after dives, nudging and elbowing others for space on the precious ledges, feeding their fuzzy gray chicks in their precariously placed nests. Other species of birds also struggle for purchase among the gannets oystercatchers, King Shags, Pied Shags, and silver gulls.
The scene was beautiful and rugged and a spectacular sunset just added to the beauty as we watched the birds begin to flock in for the night, dark patterns against the sky’s brilliant tropical colors. As we zoomed about in Zodiacs under the amazing sunset, we also passed the roosting place of the rare and endemic King Shag.
Chapter 6. Ship’s Cove
This site connected with Captain James Cook’s expeditions to New Zealand is an example of DOC’s administration of NZ cultural and historical heritage. Ship’s Cove is a sheltered bay where Captain Cook found everything he needed to refurbish his men and his ship and its stores. The site included excellent sources of freshwater, lots of sturdytrees fortimber, plentiful greens to prevent scurvy among the sailors, good anchorage for his ships and comfortable terrain for the men to pitch tents and rest from the rolling sea and constant motion of the good ship Endeavor. He visited and revisited this area from 1770 to 1773 and spent a total of 168 days there.
For good or ill, Captain Cook is a seminal figure in NZ history because he was the first European to have close contacts with the Maori, some friendly and some not. But after Capt. Cook came the European invasion and then the country was never the same.
We hikers approached the site from the other side of the land spit and walked through a lovely forest over some medium hills to reach Ship’s Cove from the land side rather than seaside as the good captain did. We enjoyed the well-maintained trail and admired the lovely views towards the cove from the heights we reached. Our hike took about 2 hours to complete.
There is a wonderful DOC pier that reaches far out into the Cove and that’s where the Zodiacs unloaded the passengers who did not wish to hike with us that morning.
There is a monument honoring Capt. Cook that had been placed in 1913. There is a small green lawn area running down to the sea and we saw several wekas foraging like chickens in the grass and among the pebbles closer to the water.
DOC also maintains a trail that takes about 45 minutes roundtrip up to the doublewaterfall thatisthe sourceof the water Capt. Cook was so pleased to find. The falls and their setting are really quite beautiful.
Ship’s Cove is maintained now by DOC and it is doing an excellent job considering this is a very much visited site.
Chapter 7. Kaikoura
The town is backed against a snow-covered range of low mountains that provide drama to the scene.
Beneath the water is an even more astounding wilderness, the Abyssal Plain that begins dropping away just feet from the harbor. The Plain drops even further into the Hikurangi Trench and thence into the Kermadec Trench, at least 1000 ft. below the sea surface. There, the Pacific and Australian plates collide and create volcanic eruptions and mudslides and enormous surges in the sea bottom. Because the sea is warm in the deep area and it mixes with the colder waters higher in the column, there is a constant upwelling of plankton and deep sea creatures such as squid and tiny invertebrates that create great banquets for the whales and other sea mammals.
Even the professional birders among our naturalists enjoyed the wonderful experience of seeing several species of albatross, giant petrels, and other birds so close behind our birdwatching boat. These birds were so close that it was difficult to use binoculars to focus on them.
The Captain’s mate threw out a frozen bait mixture of ground fish parts inside a netball. It didn’t have to float long on the water’s surface before huge albatross began closing in on their long, elegant wings: we had Northern and Southern Royal Albatross, Shy Albatross, Salvin’s Albatross, Gray-headed Albatross, Wandering Albatross, with both Pintado and Giant petrels in the melee around the bait ball. It was incredible to be so close to these enormous birds and see their interactions when quarrelling among themselves and with others species over the food. Albatross can be aggressive and they have loud braying calls as well as sharp staccato bill clicking when agitated. So we had it all visual and audio looks at these magnificent birds. It was a banquet for the camera-bearers for sure. We were also lucky enough see Dusky Dolphins and the smallest of all Dolphins, the Hector’s, unique to New Zealand, and the lovely and exceedingly rare blue shark.
Because commercial whaling ended here in the mid-20 century, the whales have made a comeback and return to this area of great upwellings all during the year. The folks who chose to go whale watching were rewarded with good views of three sperm whales during their boating adventure along with many of the birds and mammals we on the bird boat saw. Though somewhat contrived, our wildlife experience in Kaikourawas splendid and exhilarating.
While hiking along the headland of the Kaikoura Peninsula, we saw many birds, native and non, as well as red-billed gulls, and a fur seal haul out. The headland was quite beautiful with wonderful sea views, waving (nonnative) grasses, with blue cloud tossed skies overhead.
But the wonderful thing we learned about here was another DOC program to rescue the Hutton’s Shearwater, a native seabird whose numbers are declining rapidly, probably through loss or degradation of their usual habitat forbreeding.
The only place in New Zealand where these birds breed and nest is in the alpine valleys above Kaikoura. The researchers with DOC decided about three years ago that this area was no longer hospitable to the birds and made plans to relocate their breeding grounds. Because the birds always return to the same place, the ornithologists decided it would be fairly simple to accomplish this purpose.
After the adult birds have finished their feeding of the chicks, they abandon them in their nest burrows. It takes about a week or two for the chicks to realize mom and dad are not coming back to feed them. They will then emerge from the burrows and begin life on their own. The DOC researchers use this time frame between parental desertion and fledging to visit the nest burrows at night and remove the chicks. Each is placed in a darkened box
and taken down on the low hillsides above where we were walking on the Peninsula. There each individual is placed in an already prepared nest box. Next, when hunger forces a chick out of the comfy nest-box in the dark of night, he or she will imprint on the star patterns and the skies above his new home. The researchers believe that when it is time for these chicks to return as adults in 5-6 years for breeding, they will come to this hillside since it will be “home” to them.
So far the program is working well, but it cannot be called a total success quite yet since none of the relocated chicks has become old enough to breed. It will be another 2-3 years before the first of the “changelings” returns to Kaikoura.
This is just another of the interesting and innovative projects that DOC has initiated for the restoration, preservation, and conservation of New Zealand’s nativespecies. No wonder the conservation world comesto New Zealand!
Chapter 8. Christchurch
In lovely, hyper-English Christchurch, we were to experience two different kinds of wildlife conservation. This beautiful coastal city calls itself “more English than England” and it certainly does strive to earn that appellation. With its River Avon and the beautiful Anglican Cathedral in the center of town, its English architectural styles, and its English manners and customs, Christchurch is a wonderfully comfortable city to visit.
Its other claim to importance is the existence of its peculiar “cottage industry”: the staging arena for Antarctic Explorations from the 19 century right up to today. The Antarctic Museum contains many artifacts from the Scott and other expeditions, including diaries and journals, clothing, foodstuffs in tins, sledges, lanterns, and other necessary equipment.
Today, there is another place to learn about Antarctica: the International Antarctic Center. It is a share-facility among the New Zealanders, the US, and the Italians.
Among other things, the Center has a wonderful experience to share with visitors—a sojourn in the Antarctic Storm Room.
Upon entering this large space and after having donned your loaned thick overcoat, you see that you are walking on real snow and that it feels pretty chilly. However, the announcer soon tells you to prepare for a simulated Ross Sea Base blizzard where the wind will howl deafeningly and the temperature will drop precipitately.
Sure enough, it doesn’t take long before you cannot hear anyone standing right next to you at your ear and you can watch the Mercury drop in the large thermometer over the escape door. Wind speed is also calculated for you so that you know that though the temperature drops on to 15 below, with wind chill, the actual feeling of cold approaches 35 below.
Just as you are beginning to wonder if theyhave forgotten that folks are in this area, the wind begins to slow, the sound lowers, and the temperature rises back to a merely chilly 32 degrees. It feels really good to leave that experience behindbut you gain greater respect for themen and women who have braved Antarctic explorations and who work on the continent today.
In a rather ghoulish aside, the announcer told us that if we ventured outside at the Russian Vostok base in winter wearing only regular clothing, we would be dead in less than a minute because our lungs wouldfreeze and our blood turn to jelly. Brrrr!
This rather Disneyesque Center also had a wildlife experience for us. Under the auspices of DOC, the Center provides a home for disabled fairy (blue) penguins who could not be released into the wild after their recovery from either injury or disease. Here they have a climate controlled environment with snow and ice and a largeswimming pool that allows visitors to watch their underwater “flying.”
These penguins are the smallest in the world.
They stand less than 16 inches high and weighing 2.2 lbs. compared to the Emperors who are 3 ft. 7 inches tall and weigh about 75 lbs.
But these little guys are really dominant in the charm department. So awkward and waddly on land, so balletic and graceful in the water.
There is some controversy among penguin biologists about the total number of different penguin species, but the number usually agreed upon is 17. Of those, seven live in New Zealand - the most in any one country.
An interesting factoid about the name of this bird: It is most often accepted that “penguin” is a Welsh word meaning “white-headed.” Interesting since not all penguins have white feathers on their heads!
Why the Welsh had the honor of naming the bird is also unknown. Actually, there are other theories about the word’s origin.
Some linguists say that the extinct Great Auk of the Arctic was called Pen Gwyn, pronounced as Pin-wing, since that bird also had rudimentary wings like modern penguins.
Still others believe that the word came from the Latin, pingius, meaning “fat.” There is not much evidence supporting a Latin origin. No definitive answer is accepted.
The 12 “blues” on display while we visited are thriving, so much so that they are successfully reproducing. This is a good thing, since they are an endangered species, but this fecundity is also producing a problem for the Center and DOC what to do with the chicks when they mature since they will be normal and healthy birds? Can they be relocated to a safe and secure location? Will they be accepted by a colony already established? Will they know how to feed themselves and survive the threats in their environment such as predatory seals and orcas?
That question is still being pondered by the scientists at DOC and other penguin experts being consulted around the world. In the meantime, the captive birds continue nesting and fledging their chicks! What to do?
Willowbank Kiwi Breeding Program
Another wildlife adventure awaited us in Christchurch: a visit to a zoo which includes a DOC- supported kiwi breeding facility - the Willowbank Wildlife Park. The facility also exhibited both native creatures (keas (native parrot), pukekos (like our purple gallinules) rakariri (New Zealand parakeet), white faced-herons, enormous eels and blue ducks. The zoo section also included non-native animals like ostriches, monkeys, and other typical zoo denizens aroundthe world.
However, the special part of the facility is the kiwi breeding building. We saw brown kiwis the day we visited but they house other species as well. The building contains a room made dark during the day so that visitors can see the kiwis foraging in the leaf litter and carrying on their usual nocturnal activities.Thatwasveryneatto observe.
The size of the kiwi egg is the largest in proportionate to the body size of any birds in the world. The beleaguered kiwi female must deliver an egg that makes up one-quarter of her total body weight. This egg is truly enormous in relation to the bird’s size. We could hardly help wondering why Mother Nature was so cruel to mother Kiwibirds.
The kiwi nostril isat the tip of the beak and they poke and prod the ground with that appendage rather like an old gentleman planting his walking stick ahead of him. With their hairy looking feathers and rounded body on skinny legs, kiwi are cute birds. It is easy to see why New Zealand adopted this fellow as their national symbol. The breeding program works like this: nests of wild kiwi are monitored and the huge eggs removed and brought to facilities like Willowbank for incubation, hatching and fledging. When the birds are large enough, they are then moved to one of the DOC predator free islands for at least one year. There they can grow and mature without dangers from mammalian predators. After they are deemed to be adult, they aretakenback to the areas where their original nest was located.
This practice has turned a 98% chick loss to a 98% success in reaching adulthood and breeding potential. There are several of these facilities sanctioned by and working with DOC to increase kiwi survival rates around the whole country. Those pest-free islands loom larger and larger in importancetotheoverall restorationproject.
On our visit to Willowbank, we learned that 2008 was their most successful breeding season ever. Over 20 Okarito (a species of kiwi) chicks were released on Motuara and 20 Haast were resettled on Centre Island. Many other kiwis were successfully hatched, reared, and relocated including North Island Browns and Great Spotted. In addition a number of wild chicks were brought to the center for care and later release.
We were surprised to find that this center is also involved in a Tuatara breeding program. Two of their resident females laid eggs this season, one producing 13 eggs and the other 9 eggs. 17 of those eggs are currently being incubated, the other 5 collapsed indicating they were infertile. There were other animals to observe and exhibits to ponder begging the questions, “Just how big was that bird? and How did he get in there?”
A visit to a lovely garden for lunch topped off our visit to Christchurch.
Chapter 9. Dunedin
Of course our visit to a very English city was bound to be balanced by a visit to a very Scottish one: Christchurch to Dunedin accomplished that feat. The statue to Bobby Burns at the very center of town was a clear testimonial to the Scottish allegiance in Dunedin. Instead of an impressive Anglican church, we now saw the First Presbyterian Church take a dominant position over the rest of the city. The Settler’s Museum cleared any skepticism regarding the Scottish influence here. There were portraits of the first arrivals in the area all Scotsmen. Journals and diaries covering the terrible voyages necessary to reach this new world were displayed prominently. The history of the Scottish Church was well explained. And if all that had not been enough, as we were leaving Dunedin, we were serenaded by a wonderful Bagpipe Band. Other instruments were combined and it was actually an entertaining experience. There were drums naturally as well as a saxophone and an accordion. Scotland the Brave rang out loud and brassily as we cleared the harbor.
Taiarora Head
However, our real reason for visiting Dunedin was not to savor the Scots flavor of the city. Our purpose to visit another preserve for native birds: Taiarora Head. This clifftop headland is managed for the protection and propagation of the Royal Albatross, though other birds do fly through and use the land for resting. But only the Royals nest there.
On the way, we were treated to beautiful scenery and a visit to a faux Scottish castle, Larnach, builtintheearly20 century byaveryrichScot.
Again, DOC has declared limited access to the enclosed viewing platform at the edge of the cliff. We were first ushered into the Visitors Center where we viewed an interesting film about the albatross life cycle and the purposes of this Preserve. We were also educated about the need for silence even in the
viewing platform and certainly on the steep pathway up to that place. Only 18 visitors at a time allowed there and only 18 on the steep pathway. Furthermore, each visitor hasonly 15 minutes to gazeout at thealbatross and other birds. A fence keeps predators off the cliff- face and prevents humans from walking over into the area. Further, there is a caretaker 24 hours a day to prevent vandalism or other intrusions.
Because the wind had picked up while we were visiting Larnach, we were sure that we would see some really marvelous flying feats while out at the Head. And, as we struggled up the steep hill, burdened by our extra weight gained by eating the most delicious scones and clotted cream together with wonderful cream tea, we were inspired by the acrobatic aviation of the enormous albatross. Several were returning from the sea to relieve their partner who had been sitting on the eggs without any food for several days. They rode the air gusts gracefully and then came to shuddering landings near the nest. Other birds like cormorants and gulls also glided through the busy sky above the Head.
When we reached the viewing platform, we could look down over the cliffside and see the nesting birds and the exchange of partners. The now freed bird would run awkwardly for several steps with those lengthy wings outstretched and then just step off into the air as the gusts lifted them safely into the sky. Itwas magnificent to see, even for so short a time.
Taiaroa is one of only three breeding places in New Zealand for the Royal Albatross so it is easy to see why DOC is so careful of it and manages it so closely. Once again, we were so pleased to visit such a special wildlife preserve.
Now – Sail to the south to explore New Zealand’s storied southern islands.
NEXT: CHECK OUT VOLUME 2
