Opoutere and Wharekawa Harbour..

It's been quite an eventful past couple of days. As I mentioned before, we went to Opoutere and stayed at the YHA. There were no other guests which was nice and the set up was really cool. We still had group dinners every night and the majority of the girls stayed in one big room with bunks and a fire place. The first day the weather was beautiful and we did a lot of the introductory things such as the wet exit test. I was actually pretty nervous about this because I'm slightly retarded and can't really swim under water without holding my nose (I know I know), but it ended up being all right! It was sunny out but cold in the morning and I just wore my bathing suit with some polypro tops and bottoms on. The water was SOOO cold and I had to pull on my release strap twice before it came off, but I re-entered just fine and all was good in the world. It's amazing how warm the polypropylene can keep you even when it's wet. We then played a game that was a mix of soccer/football in our kayaks and my team won! It was so much fun.

After the kayak training we took our packed lunches and hiked to the top of the Pa site (former Maori hill site used for defense), a short but very steep hike that took us to the top of one of the two high cliffs that rose over 150 meters out of the estuary. The surrounding area had a very dramatic landscape. We were located on the other side of the Coromandel Mountains (the ones you can see from the beach at EcoQuest) and on the drive through the ridge was actually quite depressing. There is a great deal of plantation forestry here, and the lots are grown on 25 year cycles. We just so happened to arrive a few weeks after much of the clear cutting was done and there was active logging happening across the estuary, in plain view of the YHA. It's really depressing because I kind of expected more out of New Zealanders. Like really, clear cutting on slopes that steep? And then you wonder why sedimentation is causing the estuaries to die? Hmm. Just opened my eyes and showed me that even New Zealand has it's share of problems and not everything is peachy keen. On a more positive note, the view from the top of the Pa Site was wonderful and after some light showers on the hike up, the sky cleared as we reached the top and we had a breathtaking view of the harbour and the ocean. I found a clearing of grass, ate my lunch, and just lied back absorbing the sun for the first time in a long time.

Later we took a walk with Wendy, our field leader known as the bird expert, down the estuary at low tide and down to the beach. We brought our binoculars and looked at different types of birds, notably the dotterel, which is endemic to NZ and endangered as well. We found one which had a specific band on his leg and Wendy recognized him as the same bird she tagged 17 years ago when she started research here!! Insane that they live that long. He is affectionately called Patchy because he has unique spots on his chest. After walking down the mud flats we took a seat on top of the sand dune and listened to her talk for a while. "By the way, this is your class room." We then had some time to wander down the beach and made it back to the YHA for dinner.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning at 7:00am sharp we did our shellfish surveying, which is a continuation of monitoring that has been going on in Wharekawa Harbour for the past few years. There were approximately 150 sites in total that we had to survey which involved digging a 50x50x10 cm hole in the ground, sifting it through, picking out the dead shells, and then sorting, counting, and measuring each of the shells while one person recorded. This was actually pretty fun and interesting, but on Thursday morning we had terrible weather. Because we walk through streams and mud flats, we would just wear sandals. It was probably 45 degrees out with bitter winds and horizontal rain. Needless to say, it was pretty miserable. Sam and I only were able to go through 4 sites in an hour and a half, and with our luck, all the cockles and wedges decided to surface and we had over 200 shells to count and measure at each site. Thankfully we were relieved after that we ran back to warm up, dry off, and eat the best bowl of oatmeal of my life. As fun as not sitting in a class room is, it shouldn't be underestimated how difficult field work can be at times. When the weather is great I would have no problem working for hours, but we don't have the luxury of choosing the weather, so we work no matter what.

On Wednesday Kayak Group 1 (my group) got to go out after 2nd breakfast and do some land transects, which ended up taking a while as we waited for the tide to go out. That was fine with be, because we just got to tool around on the kayaks as we waited for the water to get lower :) As a bonus, we completed 10 more shell fish survey sites which ended up saving us some time on Friday. Even though it was really crappy all day Thursday (and the winds were so bad that the second kayak group couldn't even go out), it cleared up just before dinner so I went on a walk with a few people to the beach. It was even cooler than a few days before because the surf was huge and the light in the sky was different. We even met some local fishermen who told us about the snapper they were catching and gave us some insight into the Coromandel region was was really cool. It amazes me how friendly Kiwi are.

Highlights from Opoutere: spontaneous Bohemian Rhapsody singalong before the oral presentations, listening to "business time" during kitchen crew, story time with Denny, Apples to Apples, naps in the living room by the fire, the tree swing, and probably more.

We got out of Opoutere pretty quickly on Friday so that we could work on our group project presentations there. The weather was forecasted to be very fierce (thunder, lightning, and gale force winds upwards of 100km/h) and we didn't want to get stranded on the east coast. As promised, the weather turned out to be AWFUL (after an absolutely beautiful morning when everyone broke out the shorts) and during dinner the power went out! It was actually so much fun. All the field leaders were gone other than Dale (which isn't much help hahah) so Papa Paul (as we so affectionately call him) took charge. We broke out the headlamps and the beer and started over to Grannie's a little earlier than originally planned. I'm actually so glad that the power went out because it just made everything so much fun. Tons of games, Kaka vs. Wood pigeon flip cup, shoulder massage trains, tickle fights, late night walk to the beach. Couldn't ask for a better night :). Ecoquesters know how to throw down.

Woke up surprisingly early today and caught a ride to Thames with Ria and some other people to buy some toothpaste, dark chocolate, and candy (you know, the essentials). We walked through some farmers markets and got my yummy free samples from bakeries. I got home, went on my first solo run. The wind was still incredible which made me want to cry haha. I ran to the hills for the first time and got chanced by a cow (scary). After I got back, got showered up, watched a cheesy horror movie, some people started a game of touch football so I joined in. So much fun!! We played for 2 hours and now I'm just sitting in the Wharekai waiting for dinner to be cooked, but the oven just ran out of propane so we've got a little bit of a problem.

Tomorrow we're taking a ferry to an off shore island for a day. It's a restoration island that has been eradicated of all mammals and is being replanted with only native and endemic flora. So we'll be volunteering our time for the day (in the spirit of Conservation Week here in NZ). Goodbye!