Goodbye to Whakatane

Hi everyone! It's 4:30 pm on Saturday and we've finished up our last full day of module 1 in Whakatane. Tomorrow morning we drive out to Mt. Ruapehu, a volcano, where we'll be staying for five days. PSA they have no wifi. Soooooo, what have I been up to since we were identifying barnacles you ask? I'll pick up where I left off on Tuesday.

We took an evening swim and after dinner we went over NZ geography plus some basics about their political system. Most interesting: there is legislation in the Treaty of Waitangi (New Zealand's founding document) that requires deference to Maori when it comes to environmental concerns. It hasn't been followed throughout history, but recently that law is getting more attention. Aside from that fact, their political system seems to be much more representative than ours and its a multi-party system. (hits home amirite?!)

The next day we went into the bush FOR REAL! We measured biodiversity around a stream in Matata, a nearby town where there had been a lahar, or watery rock-slide, about ten years ago. Frontiers Abroad students have been measuring biodiversity at this location ever since the lahar occurred. The measuring was slow-going because we are not experts on the plants in the area so the identification took a while, but it was fun to be hiking through the water. There were no trails in there, so we mostly waded through the stream for the path of least resistance.

Me and Sarah

Fashion! Bill Cunningham status!

Me, Jack, and Luke (New Friends)

We had an amazing evening seminar about science and indigenous knowledge. This has been SO interesting, since I didn't know much (or really anything) about polynesian culture and history before this trip. We've had a few more seminars since, and they are consistently eye-opening. I could say a lot more about this but not enough time!!!

Yesterday, we weren't quite sure what we'd be doing. Our trip leaders drove up to dam on the river, and when we got out of the vans we met a Maori man named Bill who has been single handedly protecting the eel population for the past 40 years. Our day's activity was then revealed:

baby eels in a bucket, leaving dangerous zone

During the migrating seasons, Bill has a system down where he physically moves eels to protect them from the dam. Eels are culturally significant to the Maori and an important part of the river ecosystem. Bill has been working very hard for a long time for their conservation but recently the hydropower company began to talk to him about engineering a solution so that he doesn't have to do it all himself. (This is very good because Bill is 80 years old. Not the most sustainable system.)

baby eels in a spout, entering safe zone

Calm Behind the Dam

After we helped him complete his daily task, we went to Bill's house where we met his wife and then he gave us a "lecture" of sorts about eels and history of the river and conservation efforts:

BILL IN ACTION!!!!!!

It was a bit too cold to swim yesterday (*tear*) but instead we walked to town and got Thai food. It was great.

Today, we revisited a lot of places we'd already been this past week, but this time our guide was Anthony, a local Maori and kaitaiki (guardian of environment/historical knowledge). He told us Maori stories about the land at each location. It was really different this second time around and more interesting now that we have all of this background knowledge about the earth system in the area and about Maori culture.

Now we are relaxing until dinner, and tomorrow morning we head to location 2. It's going to be much much colder there and it apparently snowed a few days ago :O.  I'll post again when I have wifi!

(update 10pm) I tried "hokey pokey" ice cream tonight, which is a kiwi favorite and includes butterscotch. Approved.


xx Jules

P.S. A couple of nights ago we watched another kiwi movie, "What We Do in the Shadows." I think @dad Roger Widmann and many more of you would enjoy. It was a mockumentary about these kiwi vampires who are pretty bad at being vampires, set in Wellington, NZ today.

P.P.S. SAD FOR AMERICA