Opoutere aka class outside

This week at EcoQuest we spent four days at Opoutere which is a town on the east side of the Coromandel peninsula.  We stayed in a hostel right next to Wharekawa harbor which is a large estuary to learn about estuarine systems and to do some shellfish monitoring.

Wharekawa harbor

The shellfish monitoring was to collect baseline data for the regional council. The estuary supports a population of dotterels which are birds like plovers, but there are only 1500 left in the world!  This is why shellfish monitoring is necessary to ensure the estuary is staying healthy for the birds. However, the problem in the estuary is that there is plantation forestry happening all around it. Plantation forestry is one of New Zealands primary exports, mainly pine trees which they cut down in one fell swoop - clear cutting. This is only a problem when it rains because when the trees are cut down sediment is free to run down mountains with the rain. This sediment then runs into the estuary filling it with sediments which is bad for the system on a whole, the shellfish, and in turn - the birds.

Dotterel (not my picture)

Clear cutting flowing right into the estuary

To monitor the shellfish we sieved through sand to count how many shellfish we could find in a meter square on a spaced out grid from the high tide line to the low tide line. We monitored for three days, rain or shine. And when I say rain, I mean RAIN. Sideways, cold, wind-swept rain. Thank goodness the majority of the time we spent in Opoutere we had great weather. 

Shellfish monitoring in action modeled by Bella and Sam

When we weren't sifting through sand and counting cockles and wedge shells we went KAYAKING!!!! Loved it. The first day we had to get our safety lesson which included rolling our kayak over while we were in them meaning we had to willingly get into freezing cold water with all our clothes on. As cold as it was I guess it was a good lesson to learn as I now know how to safely get out of a kayak and then back in as well as help someone else get back in. 

Kayak group 1 out for our safety lesson!

We also went on a hike up to a Pa site, a place where Maori used to reside. From this site Maori watched for attacks coming from all around, they could also see the weather and sea conditions. The hike was great as in it was a gorgeous view but getting to the top was a struggle. Our field leader Lynnette basically runs up mountains it's actually kind of amazing. All in all it was a really great week the hostel we stayed in was fantastic complete with full kitchen, beautiful views and fireplaces. One of our field leaders, Wendy, actually got married there.

View of the estuary from the Pa site

After leaving Opoutere on a beautiful morning we got back to campus and found rain and gail force winds waiting for us. Supposedly we have had the rainiest semester of EcoQuest thus far - wonderful. Supposedly from this storm the west coast had 20 foot waves which would have been really great to see. The storm actually blew our power out so we obviously had a pretty interesting Friday night with a nice head lamp party. Today was a pretty relaxing and normal Saturday, a couple of us went to Thames to do some shopping for a bit. Picked up some avocados, more long underwear, and a $2.50 rugby shirt at the Salvation Army then came home watched a movie and made lots of delicious pizza for everybody. Tomorrow we leave bright and early for Motutapu - an island that is under restoration. We will be hiking and doing some restoration work. Sounds like it will be another great day in class!

Class with Wendy!