Tasman Every Day

This photo taken in 2014 shows the bridge that crosses the Takaka River just below the Cobb Power Station. The road provides access to the Cobb Valley  in the Kahurangi National Park, but it’s not usable at the moment because another bridge further down the Takaka River was washed out in Cyclone Gita in February 2018. Repairs are proving difficult and this way in to the Cobb Valley is closed off until later this year.

Just about ten minutes north of Collingwood, past Ruataniwha Inlet, the road to Farewell Spit runs alongside this little estuary/inlet thing that seems to have no name. Totara Avenue runs down the spit, and houses on one side have a beach outlook, while houses on the other side look out over the inlet towards the hills. This photo was taken on the inlet side of Totara Avenue as the tide was coming in.

This natural arch is found at -40.498591, 172.695851, just east of Wharariki Beach at the top of the South Island. These cliffs are quartz sandstone, and wind and wave action on the cliffs produce the fine quartz sand that comprises the sand dunes of Farewell Spit. Wikipedia says these cliffs are Cretaceous quartz sandstone structures, while GNS’s ‘Geology of the Nelson Area’ QMAP says the Farewell Formation of the Kapuni Group is ‘fluvial quartzofeldspathic sandstone and pebbly conglomerate’ that ‘formed on a braided floodplain or heavily laden meandering river system’. Okay, roughly the same as Wikipedia, except when it comes to the age. GNS puts the timing as occurring ‘throughout the Paleocene and earliest Eocene’, so not what Wikipedia says. It is not known if this discrepancy in dating the cliffs in the photo was of particular concern to the individual driven by the magnificent site to etch the colourful I❤AOT on the lookout railing.

This is the headland at Cape Farewell and the view is out into the Tasman Sea. Past these cliffs, Farewell Spit stretches east for around 30 kilometres, separating Golden Bay from the Tasman Sea. The cliffs are made of quartz sandstones and erosion of them contributes to Farewell Spit’s ongoing growth. But the main contributor to growth of Farewell Spit is sediment swept up the South Island’s West Coast. Cape Farewell is the northernmost bit of the South Island, and apparently its name comes from being the last land Captain Cook and his crew could see as they left New Zealand in 1770.

The mosses growing over this rotting log are typical of South Island beech forests. The leafy bits are the mature moss, called gametophytes. The gametophytes produce the stalky bits on the left-hand side of the photo. At the end of the stalk is a spore capsule, which will germinate to produce the next generation of leafy bits. New Zealand has over 550 moss species, and I have no idea which one this is.

On a hot summer day, the Motueka River has plenty of swimming holes in which to cool down. This photo was taken in January, at the height of summer, and is a nice (or perhaps cruel?) reminder of what’s coming in a few months’ time.

This Nelson Coastguard boat was on exercises just off the Abel Tasman coastal track early in April. Unlike coastguard organisations in many countries, New Zealand’s Coastguard is not a governmental organisation, it is a charitable organisation operated by volunteers. And unlike other coastguards, their role is primarily search and rescue and boating education, rather than enforcement. Coastguard Nelson is one of 63 units that patrol the New Zealand coastline. Nelson Coastguard covers a massive area, from Farewell Spit across Tasman Bay to d’Urville Island in the Marlborough Sounds.

This rock on the Abel Tasman coast has been freshly sealed with the offspring of the New Zealand fur seal/kekeno (Arctocephalus forsteri). Females live as long as 17 years and start having pups at around 4 to 6 years of age. They have one a year until they die. Pups are preyed upon by orca, sharks and New Zealand sea lions. The main threat to the seal population, though, remains humans, despite the fact that hunting stopped in the late 1940s. Seals can be caught up in trawling and long line operations and drown as a result, and rubbish and nets drifting in the sea are also an issue. Then there’s the threat that tourism poses. Although seeing fur seals in the wild can be a great experience, it’s not a good idea to get too close. They can be dangerous to us, but we can also disturb them, leaving them poorly rested or disrupting mothers’ ability to care properly for their pups. Personally, I prefer to see seals at a distance. Yes, they look all cool and sleek, but they smell, which becomes apparent when you’re not even that close to a seal colony.

The deep, dark eyes of the South Island robin (Petroica australis) seem to drink in everything around them. They’re such curious things, always wanting to know what you’re doing in the bush. In summer time, during the breeding season, male and female work cooperatively in looking after the eggs and offspring. The male brings the female food while she’s on the nest, and once the eggs hatch, the male and female take turns feeding the chicks. Once the chicks leave the nest, both parents take responsibility for feeding them for another few weeks, until they’re able to forage for themselves. Despite this cooperation in taking care of the chicks, male and female actively compete for food year round. A male will be aggressive in keeping a female (his mate!) away from food sources, but will bring her food while she’s nesting. Robins cache food, and male and female will steal from each other’s caches. Maybe this curiosity us humans find so endearing is nothing more than deep suspicion, the robin saying, “You’re not here to steal my food are you?”