Kia ora
Christchurch earthquakes
I wrote the bulk of this Newsletter before 22 February when the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch. The earthquake was a brutal reminder that New Zealand lies along the boundary of two major plates – the Australian and Pacific. We see the Southern Alps as massive (which they are) and stable (which they are not). They are one of the world’s fastest-rising mountain chains. The dramatic landscapes of the South Island are evidence that we live in a very restless part of the earth’s crust, the product of uplift by tectonic forces and wearing down by water and ice.
I have just returned from a Tourism Workshop run by the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) where we focussed on action that is needed to counter the perception that Christchurch and Canterbury are broken. They are not. The airport is, and has always been, open and fully functioning. There is plenty of accommodation available and most activities in Canterbury are still operating. If you drove around much of Christchurch you could well wonder “what earthquake?” The city has certainly been severely damaged, there has been a shocking loss of life (181 people) and the recovery and re-building of the city will take a long time. But it is still a great place to visit – right now and in the future. We hope you will do just that.
Tussock & Beech News
We aren’t stopping (yet)
It is common knowledge that you cannot always believe that which you see in written word. In our last Newsletter (May of 2010) I stated that Next summer would be the last season that we run our 7 and 8-day programmes. Wrong! I could say that it was a typo and the word not was omitted and it should have read ….would not be the last season ….. . Or I could tell the truth and say that we have had a change of heart. As I write this Newsletter I have to say that Marita and I have greatly enjoyed the longer programmes we have run this season. We have also been encouraged by the number of our friends/guests who have encouraged us to keep going. The 7 & 8-day programmes that we will offer for the 2011 - 2012 season are: Alpine Flowers (25 November – 2 December & 11 – 18 January); Southern Alps Splendour (28 January – 3 February), Akaroa Idyll (13-20 March). We have pencilled in a second week in late February for Southern Alps Splendour if numbers demand (as happened this year). Information about each programme is on our website (www.nature.net.nz) and will be on Odyssey Travel’s website soon (www.odysseytravel.com.au). We will not be running Lost World of Erewhon.
Staffing
This season the Lost World of Erewhon programme had two guides. Our friend Alan Dent worked as driver and guide for the week. I was not able to drive the van because of an operation to my left shoulder that repaired a torn rotator cuff injury I sustained when I slipped on the ice at the end of the last day of our curling season. Alan and Marita shared the driving duties for the December Alpine Flowers programme. They both enjoyed it and I appreciated having someone else to help during the week. It also gave Marita the opportunity of visiting Aoraki Mt Cook and Arthur’s Pass National Parks and a rest from her cooking duties.
New Zealand Geographic magazine
We were joined for a day on the December Alpine Flowers programme by a staff writer for NZ Geographic. He was researching for an article he was working on of rare and endangered native plants. We are looking out keenly for future issues of NZ Geographic to see what he made of us.
A few of the past season’s highlights
Orchids – on our Lost World of Erewhon and Alpine Flowers programmes we found numerous species of orchids: Hymenochilus tanypodus, Thelymitra longifolia, T. colensoi, T. hatchii, Stegostyla lyallii, Aporostylis bifolia, Pterostylis oliveri, P. banksii, Chiloglottis cornuta, Corybas macranthus, Waireia stenopetala.
Craspedia “heroni” – We have now found three specimens of this rare and as yet un-named woolleyhead in fairly close proximity on the Cameron Fan.
Black stilt/kaki - We saw three kaki on our January Alpine Flowers programme at Glentanner on the Tasman River delta. A single Kaki was seen by the April Southern Alps Splendour group at Lake Heron.
Mohua / yellowhead – Thrilled to see a pair of mohua near the Hawdon shelter in Arthur’s Pass NP during our Southern Alps Splendour programme. We also spent some time looking for whio /blue duck in both the Bealey and Otira Rivers in Arthur’s Pass without success.
Nature Notes
Tui - Possibly our most surprising and thrilling natural history event was to see tui in a kahikatea tree beside the path from our lodge to Ross Cottage. First sighting of tui at Staveley for many (perhaps 100) years. Fantail/piwakawaka, silver eye/tahou, grey warbler/miromiro, bellbird/kaikomako are commonly seen and heard on our property but still another year with no rifleman/titipounamu sightings. But we live in hope that they will again return to our bush remnant.
Lichens - A guest from Atlanta shared with me all that he knew about lichens. He said that he had learnt it at university in Boston. The things we remember! Alice Alga and Freddy Fungus lived together in synbiosis (sic), and were lichen it ….but their marriage was on the rocks!!
Pollination is good
Living at Staveley we have always been aware of honeybees. John Syme and James Callaghan and their staff who manage the bees continue a tradition that was started by John’s father. We enjoy the beautiful honeydew honey that they make (or should I say the bees make). I enjoy telling our guests the story of mountain beech and the honeydew scale insect (Ultracoelostoma assimile). It is made even more relevant when they can see honeybees collecting the honeydew from the trees in spring - before being displaced by the common wasp in the summer. But the honeybee is under threat worldwide - habitat destruction, pesticides, disease and parasites and other causes are seen to be behind this. In New Zealand the impact of the varroa mite is a very serious threat to our bee industry. We should all be concerned as without the honey bee food production in the world would be in dire straits. One-third of global food production is to some extent dependent on animal pollination, with the domesticated honeybee accounting for 80-90 per cent.
I read recently (The Press, Saturday 5 February) of some research being carried out at Auckland and Canterbury Universities that gives an insight to what happens when pollination does not occur. Researchers have been studying the shrub New Zealand gloxinia (Rhabdothamnus solandri) which grows only in the North Island. It has been declining in the upper North Island because the specialist native birds that pollinate it have largely disappeared. The two birds are the stichbird /hihi and the bellbird / korimako which disappeared from Northland around 1870 when mammalian predators arrived. No pollination, no viable seeds, no new plants and gradually the shrub disappears. The researchers have found that even where there are bellbirds present the shrub is gradually declining. A possible reason for this is that the birds are seen to be mainly feeding in the forest canopy, perhaps to keep away from the predators. Lower growing shrub species such as the New Zealand gloxinia are not then visited by the bellbird and consequently pollination does not occur.
One of the greatest losses in New Zealand of a native plant was the red mistletoe Trilepedia adamsii that was last seen in 1954. It only grew in the North Island and it is thought that forest destruction, collecting and of course the possum contributed to the plants decline and eventual disappearance. However I also have heard recently that the loss of pollinating birds was a factor and possibly the most important one for the loss of this plant. Our surviving mistletoes would face a similar doubtful future if native birds such as the bellbird were to decline in numbers.
Protection of our native birds is therefore important – not just for the birds themselves but for the plants which rely on them for pollination. How surprising it is then to see that at a time when our unique natural ecosystems are under increasing pressures that our government has chosen to reduce the funding of the department which is charged with protecting them.
From Marita’s kitchen
Banbury Square
This is one of my favourite recipes – a buttery shortcake with a spicy fruit and nut filling. It comes from a 50-year old Southland church cookbook, hence the non-metric measurement for the ingredients.
Line a 23 x 32 cm sponge roll tin with baking paper.
Pre-heat the oven 180°C.
Shortcake Filling
8 oz butter 4 oz butter
1 ½ c sugar 1 lb sultanas
2 eggs 6 dsp sugar
3 c flour 2 dsp golden syrup
2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp ginger, mixed spice, cinnamon
1/4 c walnuts (optional)
orange zest from 1 orange (optional)
3 T whisky (optional)
Filling
Melt butter and add sultanas, sugar, syrup, spices, walnuts, zest and whisky (if using).
Shortcake
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. Fold in sifted dry ingredients. Spread half mixture in prepared tin and cover with filling. Roll out remaining shortcake mixture on floured surface to the size of the tin. Because it is soft, cut it into 8 and lift each piece with a spatula to cover filling (the joins meet with cooking). Cook for 35 minutes. Half the recipe in a smaller tin takes about 30 minutes.
Cut into fingers or squares when cold and dust with icing sugar.
Check out the Recipes page on our website for more of Marita's favourite recipes.
Marita & Warren Jowett
ecotour@nature.net.nz
www.nature.net.nz
