Ambassador Māia

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Kia ora,

I'm Māia the kea. My name means bold in Māori. Like most kea I love to give things a go and am often curious and a little mischievous. I am the ambassador that travels all over the place with Shelley the LEARNZ field trip teacher.

I love getting out and about on adventures. Even though I'm more at home in the mountains, I am looking forward to heading to Canterbury for the 2019 BioBlitz field trip.

See you at the there,

Māia.

Monday 1 April

Kia ora koutou, 

I have been looking forward to heading into the high country on the BioBlitz field trip. I love being in the mountains! We enjoyed a leisurely journey north from Dunedin to Mt Somers. We stopped at Moeraki and Oamaru and played in the Steampunk playground which has some amazing old models. Pengu checked out the local little blue penguin hangout but they were all out looking for a feed, so no one was home to welcome him.

Tomorrow we are off to see how many different plants and animals we can find in Ō Tū Wharekai.

See you in the morning,

Māia.

Tuesday 2 April

Kia ora,

We had a fantastic day up in the high country of Ō Tū Wharekai today. It was nice to be in the mountains and meet some of the other curious creatures that live here. We saw lots of introduced birds. Hopefully tomorrow we will see more native birds. We also found some invertebrates which looked quite tasty. We set a trap for some of these critters and tomorrow we will find out what we’ve caught.

I helped set up tracking tunnels. One of these tunnels was large enough for a cat but I hope there aren’t too many cats in this area!

We’ll see you back up the valley tomorrow.

Māia.

Wednesday 3 April

Kia ora,

It was a stunning day in Ō Tū Wharekai today and we spent the day finding lots of different plants and animals. My favourite animal was the mountain stone wētā. I bet they are tasty to eat! It was amazing to hear that these invertebrates can survive being frozen. We also found some interesting looking aquatic invertebrates.

Tomorrow we will find out what we can do with all the information we have gathered during our BioBlitz.

See you then,

Māia.

Thursday 4 April

Kia ora,

I can’t believe it is the last day of the field trip. We made the most of our last few hours in Ō Tū Wharekai and found out how to help restore this amazing area. I learned how to eco-source local native seeds to grow more natives. Eco-sourcing seeds means that the plants are well suited to the area. We found a plant that grows nowhere else in the world. I also found out how to control predators using traps. Lots of native birds, including kea are killed by introduced predators so I think it’s a great idea to try and reduce their numbers!

Well it has been a fantastic field trip. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as me and can join me on another trip soon.

Mā te wā,

Māia.