Week 4

Time now for a conclusion to the month of travel that brought us from the pristine hidden beaches of the North Island to the towering glacial mountains of the South Island and everywhere in between. In our last few days, we drove long distances from Westport all the way down through the Franz Joseph Glacier, Mount Aspiring National Park, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Invercargill, and back up to the Catlins, Dunedin, Lake Tekapo and finally Christchurch. Along the way, I climbed five mountains, walked on and under a glacier off the beaten track, traversed two glacially carved rock walls, nearly took out my knees going on several mountainous runs, walked unguided for an hour into an abandoned cave to find a spectacular dome of glow worms, kayaked against the current of a glacial river, saw endemic birds, dolphins and seals up close, watched a part of the Olympic opening ceremonies over breakfast with some heavily bearded kiwi motorcyclists, survived a car accident at 80km/h and learned to appreciate the life of a mechanic. In other words, I made some memories that should last a while.

Anything I would do differently? Give myself a bit more time on the South Island to hike more mountains and explore more caves away from society. Traveling in a group may be cheaper and more fun for the most part, but also forces one to compromise at times. While I love getting lost in the wilderness and fighting the elements, I can also understand the beauty and calm of a warm beach, hot shower and a nice camp site with friends.

Castle Hill

After leaving a howling storm in Punakaiki that kept the three of us awake for most of the night, we decided to escape a growing tempest on the West Coast by cutting inland through Arthur’s Pass for a night. In contrast to the shaky winds, thin mountain roads, toppled trees and avalanche clearing operations that made West Coast driving tumultuous, the mountains of Arthur’s Pass opened onto a beautifully curved, sunny road that brought us to the feet of Castle Rock. A magical place in Maori legends, these formations are large eroded limestone rocks. Formed as sediments on the ocean floor during the Oligocene epoch, tectonic compression lead to buckles in the Earth's crust that left these rocks exposed to the elements. The exposed rock that we see is just a fraction of what used to be here millions of years ago.

Fun fact: the battle scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was shot here.

Brewster Hut

I can’t stress the beauty of Mount Aspiring National Park enough. If you ever make it to New Zealand, be sure to do at least one, if not twenty hut treks in the mountains of Abel Tasman National Park, Mount Aspiring National Park and the Fjordlands. Unlike the Tongariro crossing, these hut treks are more secluded and forested, allowing you to feel more connected to the land. At the top of most hikes, huts can be found, intended to host a number of people every night. There, at the top of a secluded mountain, you have the opportunity to meet outdoorsy people from around the world that share your wanderlust. In our case, we got to know two Canadians, a Swede and a Frenchman all living together at a hostel in Wanaka, as well as an adventurous German photographer.

Moke Lake

Not far from Queenstown, we spent a night at a DOC camp site on Moke Lake. Among one of the more pricey DOC camp sites we stayed at, Moke lake is absolutely beautiful and sits beside a lake at the start of a few hiking trails. I took the opportunity to go for a quick workout, running up one of the mountains in the background of the third photo and doing a 5k loop around the lake. I inadvertently herded some sheep around half of the lake as I ran along the trail.

Milford Sound

Milford sound is a remote fjord at the North end of the Fjordlands and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in New Zealand. In Maori legends, this large fjord is thought of as the home of Piopiotahi, a thrush that fled the goddess of death and cowered in the mountains after death came to his companion. Milford Sound is in the rainiest area of New Zealand and after a good rain, the mountains weep thousands of waterfalls. This makes for a spectacle, but also leads to a really interesting phenomenon called deep water emergence, where a thin layer of warm, dark (stained by plants and dirt as it runs off the mountain) water blocks sunlight from the salt water and tricks deep water corals to grow at much shallower depths than would be considered normal. 

There are so many other cool things to know about the Fjordlands, like its discovery by Welsh seal hunters, the treacherous decade-long project of building the road to Milford Sound, the multitudes of endemic and endangered seal and bird species, and anything else you can imagine, but at some point the rambling has to end.

The Moeraki Boulders

On the beaches of Moeraki, not far north of Dunedin, we found the almost perfectly spherical Moeraki boulders. Formed over a period of around five million years as cemented mud, silt and clay, these boulders were catalyzed by crystal formations in the muddy water and grew through calcium diffusions that form dense calcite matrices in the rock. These rocks would then be uncovered far into the future through coastal erosion, just so Joe over here can take a photo with a rock that looks like a dragon egg half buried in the sand. In sum, appreciate your surroundings, but also keep in mind, I know very little geology and likely got at least some portion of this last bit wrong. Hopefully you get the idea. If you want to know more, there's a fair amount of interesting literature on septarian concretions, that can be found in a number of places around the world and not only in New Zealand.  

Glow worms (Arachnocampa flava)

What happens when you're trying to capture an amazing bioluminescence phenomenon, but you have no tripod? You spend 20 minutes lying on your stomach over damp moss with your camera perched on a rock stabilized by your hand, just to get that one photo that (sort of) turns out. 

I got somewhat interested in these little worms while in New Zealand and did a brief (very glossed over) literature review since I had some time on my hands.

To start, these worms modulate their light emissions to glow brightest at night and conserve energy during the day. Interestingly, when in constant darkness (ex. deep in a cave), they maintain some form of circadian modulation of luminescence that parallels that of their sunlit brothers. The predominant theory is that these worms emit light at night to attract mosquitos and other bugs into their low-hanging web of sticky strands. Once a fly is snagged in the web, the glow worm pulls up individual strands of its web and enjoys a good meal. Thus, unlike the blinking fireflies we have in Canada, the Luciferin/Luciferase reaction (general terms for the substrate and enzyme used in any bioluminescence reaction) happening in the worms' Malpighian tubules (sort of like insect kidneys) needs to be continuously emitting light over the night. In fact, during the non-emitting periods of the glow worms' lives, the growing larvae use neural networks to restrict biogenic amines from reaching their light-emitting destination, making modulation more a matter of repressing the reaction than activating it. Also, based on what I heard from a tour guide in Waitomo, the energy fuelling this reaction is a component of the worms' waste, consistent with the bioluminescent Malpighian tubules playing a double role in their secretory system. 

~ Jargon over. ~

In sum, their poo glows to attract mosquitos and we like it for how it looks.

Until next time New Zealand.