Craigieburn, Reefton & Nelson Lakes

After our weekend in Christchurch, we got picked up by our teachers and headed into the mountains. The South Island of New Zealand is essentially split down the middle by a number of different mountain ranges, and we were just on the west side of the divide. We were staying in an Environmental Education Center, which was basically a small cabin in the woods. We were surrounded by Beech forest on all sides at the top of a mountain. When we first arrived we settled in and then did a 1 hour solo in the forest. This was a big time flash back to Island School, but much less intense. It was a little scary walking into the forest because it is filled with an invasive species of wasp. When your standing in the woods you can hear them all hum and it is SO loud. So we walked into the woods and were distributed along a path to do some observing. It took me about 20 minutes to settle my nerves because of the wasps. But it was still such a nice experience to be alone and just observe. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out.


The next day we went into Otira Valley, which is a small valley created between two mountains in the range we were in. To get there we had to go through Arthur's Pass, which is the lowest spot in the range. This town was developed because, in the 1800's, it was the only way to get from the east to the west side of the country. Currently the population is 40 people and consists of an information site, one cafe, and a little chapel. You would never expect it, but the chapel was stunning. It is just a little building, but the top half of the back wall is all windows with a beautiful view of a waterfall. I spent a while sitting in there, just soaking it in...it was a really cool experience. After we left the town, we got to Otira Valley and hiked up about 2/3 of the way with incredible views the whole time.

On the way down we focused on different plant adaptations to the extreme conditions (it was an exposed area above the tree line). It was cool to learn about different strategies because I really don't know that much about plant ecology. After we got back to the camp we relaxed and enjoyed dinner.

Wednesday we went to the Wilderness Lodge at Arthur's Pass which was quite the experience. By the sound of it we expected this cabin in the woods, but it was actually this really fancy lodge run by a famous New Zealand environmentalist. First we listened to him speak about starting the lodge and how he built it. Throughout this entire talk, he was pushing peoples buttons. He made a lot of general statements about the environment that indicated he didn't care, which was a little bizarre. However, he kind of won people over after he finished his talk. We went outside and hiked around his property talking about invasive species, plant adaptations and the effects of pastoral farming. Afterwards we got a tour of his sheep farm which was really cool. He has about 2000 merino sheep and ships his wool all over the world, including Italy to supply Lauro Piana.

Rainbow from our cabin porch after the Wilderness Lodge

Thursday mainly consisted of studying and working on projects, and for the first time having lamb for dinner! For as many sheep as they have in this country I wasn't that impressed, but I'm going to blame that on our makeshift kitchen.

Friday morning a couple of us woke up really early to watch the sunrise over the mountains. It was freezing when we woke up, but definitely worth it.


After we cleaned up our cabin areas we got into the vans and headed to Reefton. This is a city that has developed on the west coast of the South Island purely because there is a mining industry. They have a couple of huge coal mines as well as one decently sized gold mine. While we were there we talked to a representative from the gold mining company. He explained what the mine is doing for the economy of the town and its impacts on the environment. It's interesting to learn about these situations--on one hand they are bringing in so much money for the town, but they are also destroying the land. Do the economic gains outweigh the environmental impact or vice versa? While we were there we got the chance to visit a coal mine which was really interesting to see. It was a HUGE open pit mine that they are slowly starting to fill in with different restoration techniques. When the pit is deemed uneconomical, they are going to fill it in with water and create a lake.


Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to head to Nelson Lakes. This is a national park on the northern part of the South Island. When we arrived we were welcomed by a big jet boat racing competition. EcoQuest has never encountered this in the 10 years they've brought students there, so we were all caught a little off guard. Our plans had to change a little bit because of the absurd noise coming from these boats. We hiked around a trail, learning about restoration sites in New Zealand and how they try to eradicate pests. We ended up having our lectures in the information center because we couldn't talk over the noise outside, which was a bummer. However, we still managed to get some good photos and enjoy the beauty of the lakes.