Diary 1

Kia ora koutou

It was a beautiful autumn morning in Kerikeri. And with all the whānau home for Easter Monday, I can’t say I was too keen to head off for the long journey to Mt Somers.

Kerikeri to Auckland

Your first flight was from the Bay of Islands airport to Auckland. It was only a 30-minute flight, so there was just enough time to eat my freshly caught snapper and salad sandwiches. At least I was able to take a little bit of Northland with me!

In Auckland we had about an hour to wait for the next flight. It would have been less, but the flight was delayed by 30 minutes. So, I took some time to ring my family and tell them how much I missed them already.

Auckland to Christchurch

It was soon time to board the next flight to Christchurch. This was a longer flight on a larger aeroplane which took about an hour and a half. I sat next to a friendly chap and we chatted most of the way there. I enjoy meeting people when I travel. You can learn some new and interesting things from them if you take the time to talk and listen.

We touched down in Christchurch at 3:55pm. I then had to wait for my bag, pick up a rental car, and get some groceries before heading further south to Mt Somers.

Christchurch to Rakaia

There are some very long, straight roads on the way to Mt Somers. Luckily, I had some good tunes to sing to along the way – although Egbert might have a different opinion about whether this was a good thing or not!

Heading along State Highway 1 you crossed over the Rakaia River Bridge. Did you know that this is the longest bridge in New Zealand? It opened in 1939 and is 1.8 kilometres long. As well as salmon and trout, the Rakaia River is one of the world’s best examples of a braided river. As you probably know from reading the background pages, braided rivers provide lots of food (mainly insects) for native birds and fish. Braided rivers are the result of geological processes that took place at the end of the last glacial period 10,000 years ago.

Rakaia to Mt Somers

We turned right next to a giant salmon at Rakaia, and headed west along Thompsons Track, then onto Tramway Road. I saw quite a few irrigation systems along the way and it got me thinking about the use of fresh water for agriculture. Do you know what percentage of fresh water is used for agriculture? Check out the background page Wai Water is Important to find out. A lot of irrigation water in this area is taken from braided rivers. I wonder how much of a threat this places on wildlife living on these rivers?

I hope you are all ready for the field trip. Remember to join us in the LEARNZ Zoom Room for the web conferences starting at 9:15 each morning. If questions come up during the web conference you can post them in the chat pod. These will be answered after the speaking school’s questions have finished. There will also be plenty to see on the videos and to read about in my diaries.

See you in the morning,

Andrew the LEARNZ Field Trip Teacher