We’ve had such a warm spell here in Motueka that it seemed like Mt Arthur would lose all the snow that had accumulated on it since the middle of May. But the poor weather at the start of the week saw the return of the snowy coat, and this is what it was looking like on Tuesday morning. Mount Arthur lies in the Kahurangi National Park, New Zealand’s second largest national park. Back in the 1940s, when the Abel Tasman National Park was first established, plans were afoot to add another chunk of land to it. The Evening Post of 6 November 1943 stated that the Abel Tasman National Park Board would recommend that the Minister of Lands add to the Abel Tasman 163,000 acres of mountainous country covering “Mount Arthur and the watersheds of the Cobb, Takaka, Graham, Pearse, and Leslie Rivers”. Obviously this recommendation was not taken up, as it wasn’t until 1996 that Mount Arthur was finally national-parkified when the Kahurangi National Park was established.
Tidal environments are beautiful, transient landscapes, changing at every tide. This is the inlet side of Totara Avenue, near Pakawau, near high tide, and the short, clumpy sea rushes that dominate the inlet are common around the Tasman coast. They’re more likely to occur in what are called low-energy environments, where the incoming tide is weak and sediments can accumulate; there is little or no wave action to wash the sediments away. There are over 50 species of rushes in New Zealand and they are, NIWA says in their field identification guide, “notoriously difficult” for amateurs to tell apart. As I’m firmly in the amateur camp as far as most plants are concerned, I only feel comfortable saying these rushes are probably a Juncus species. I feel a bit more confident saying the plant with the big leaves and the long flower stem on the left-hand side of the photo is flax (Phormium tenax). There are only two flax species in New Zealand and the other species occurs in the mountains, not down on the coast.
The Motueka Aerodrome just west of the town used to host Motueka Air. From 1984 to 1988, Motueka Air flew between Motueka and Wellington. In 1988, Motueka Air moved to Nelson Airport and was renamed Air Nelson. Now, the aerodrome is home to skydiving and microlight flight businesses, along with the Nelson Aviation College. This is one of NAC’s planes, a Cessna 152. Because the aerodrome is on College Street, it would be natural to conclude that College Street got its name from Nelson Aviation College. It actually got its name from the Whakarewa Boys Home, which was known as “the college”.
Early European explorers released goats in New Zealand so they would have something to eat when they came back. Later, once settlement went into full swing, more goats were brought in, for their wool and to control weeds when land was cleared. As with many of New Zealand’s pest species, they like it here and, today, an estimated few hundred thousand feral goats can be across about 15 percent of the country. This mother and kid were at the start of the Cobb Valley track last spring. Yes, they’re in our national parks. Good news: They can be hunted in our national parks, including in the Cobb Valley. DOC actively controls feral goats, especially in areas where rare native species are at risk.
I’ve said before that red-billed gulls and black-backed gulls have this weird, uneasy relationship. The way a single black-backed gull will hang around the smaller gulls as though they’re its minions is creepy and controlling, verging on predatory. Well a couple of days ago, I saw a SciShow video called “Killer Gulls Rip Into Whales and Murder Seal Pups” that casts black-backed gulls in a new and dark(er) light. The black-backed gull is called the kelp gull in other parts of the world, and in Namibia and Argentina, kelp gulls have learned to prey on seals (Namibia) and southern right whales (Argentina). Just let that sink in for a moment: large mammals are falling prey to gulls that we think are annoying because they try to steal our chips. The problem is so intense in Argentina that whales have changed the way they surface so they can avoid gulls landing on their backs and tearing out chunks of flesh. Whale calves are more vulnerable to the gulls, because they haven’t yet learned the gull-avoiding behaviour. Those gulls perched on the streetlights of Motueka: they’re killers with ice running through their veins.
Compared to most of New Zealand’s coastal waters, Golden Bay and Tasman Bay are relatively calm. This makes the region an ideal spot for exploring the coast by kayak. Given the amazing geological formations along the coast, such as yesterday’s Tonga arches and the famous Split Apple Rock, it’s a great way to see some interesting stuff. Then there’s the wildlife, from lazy New Zealand fur seals to apparently unfazed sea birds. Pull your kayak up on remote golden sand beaches and watch the clear waters lap gently on the shore. For visitors to the area, a number of tourism companies hire kayaks with both guided and unguided options on offer.
The Abel Tasman coastline is made of what’s called Separation Point granite. The granite is eroded and the iron in the particles oxidises to form the golden sands the region is known for. These arches at Tonga Bay show the effects of wave action on granite. You can walk through the arches at low tide.
In orchards, apple trees are grafted onto rootstocks rather than grown from seed. There are a lot of advantages to growing apples in this way. One is that the “new” tree gets an established, healthy root system. Also, grafted apple trees tend to stay small, making them easier to manage. One major advantage is that apples grown from seeds can be very different from their parents, which would make trying to mass produce one particularly delicious variety of apple a Sisyphean task. In Motueka, apple picking season runs from February until May each year. Apples must be picked by hand, and overseas workers have been part of the seasonal workforce since the 1960s.
The white heron/kōtuku (Ardea alba modesta) is rare in New Zealand and looks likely to stay that way. The New Zealand Encyclopedia of 1966 states there were about 20 pairs nesting on the West Coast of the South Island, and nzbirdsonline.org.nz says that there are now about 30 pairs nesting each breeding season. That’s an increase of 10 breeding pairs in the last 50 years, so not really a recipe for becoming common throughout the country. The permanent population is about 150-200 birds, so obviously not all birds breed. And they’ve never been found breeding anywhere in New Zealand other than at Okarito. In fact, they’re pretty much breeding in the same place today as they were breeding at in 1865, when the site was first discovered. The site is a nature reserve and predators are trapped to ensure the birds breeding there have the best chance of surviving.
The Cobb Valley in the Kahurangi National Park was formed by a large glacier that left behind a steep-sided valley. The Cobb Power Station has the highest hydraulic head of any hydro station in New Zealand: the dam is nearly 600 metres higher up than the power station. The Cobb River runs through the Tasman Mountains to the dam, filling the Cobb Reservoir. It then flows through a 4-kilometre-long tunnel system to the power station, which sits at the point where the Cobb River flows into the Takaka River. The high hydraulic head means that a lot of power can be generated using only a little water. The Cobb Power Station’s output is 192 GWh each year, only a small fraction of New Zealand’s total hydroelectric power generation, but every little bit counts.
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