Another Picturesque Moment...

...with the Hutton's shearwaters! Allie ('13 Eastern University) cares for a chick on a beautiful day on the peninsula this weekend.

Environmental Literature

SoPac:

Week 9: Environmental Lit with Pauline Stevick!  We've spent the week with Thoreau, Dickinson, Hopkins, Emerson, and Dillard trying to understand how literature shapes our understanding of the world around us.  How are our imaginations informed by our language? 

Outside of the classroom we've been busy as well!  Snorkeling and diving for paua, crayfish, kina, and other delicious ocean treats has been extracurricular activity of choice this week. 

Here's Tor (Gordon) with his very first speared fish!

Also, we've had the privilege of helping with the Hutton's Shearwaters, an endangered seabird endemic to Kaikoura.  The Shearwater has been threatened by loss of habitat to farmland and introduced predators.  So a predator-fenced colony has been established on the Kaikoura peninsula, and we've been volunteering to help feed the baby chicks.   Here are some images.

John (property manager) clearing the entrance of the burrow

Sam (kitchen assistant) with the baby Hutton's Shearwater

Marine Ecology

SoPac:

We've just finished our Marine Ecology course with Dr. Laurie Furlong from Northwestern College. The week was jammed packed with marine mammals, limpets, chitons, and even a sea horse!

Kaikoura's tidepools are pretty fun to poke around so we took advantage of our remarkable surroundings by getting out amongst the algae and crabs to see firsthand what we talk about in the classroom.  In fact, the intertidal zone was our classroom!

Seeing what we can see

Caleb (Eastern) learning about a sea star from Dr. Furlong

Imagining what useful adaptations the creatures have taken on to deal with their unique environment. 

To top it all off, we all hopped on a Whale Watch boat and headed out to see some sperm whales just off the coast of Kaikoura.  We went out for the whales, but got to see some dolphins and albatross along the way.  Not too shabby.

Marine is the first portion of our New Zealand Ecosystems course. In the second portion, we study the terrestrial ecosystem.