And we learned together, in the forest

Folks, have you had an ice cream at Pokeno? Probably not. Pokeno has these two nice ice cream parlors where you can get two scoopers for very little money. If you really want, you can get what we named the "dodecascooper," which referred to a ten scoop ice cream cone. (Yes, I realized dodeca- means twelve). Some people said the photo showing the ten-scoop had been manipulated digitally, but I choose to believe in their reality. This photo is of our group, actually on our way to do Forest Ecology together. If you look carefully, you can see our prof Bryan Henson, standing to the left of the post. Looks like he's got a nice mouthful of ice-creamy. (Eileen, did you teach Brett to get ice cream all over his beard?)

Nevertheless, this group of eleven students(all pictured above), professor Henson, and the entire staff of the CCSP South Pacific Spring 2008 semester would need an ice cream stop off like this to prepare them calorically, physically, and mentally for the next 12 days of the highly anticipated Forest Ecology field trip. The following is a tag team recollection of our time spent in the ancient forests of Pureora, within the limits of Tongariro National Park, and upon the sacred whenua (land) of Otukou marae.


Here's our classroom! For much of the time during the trip, students were asked to do some plant identification, some forest tramping, and endure a couple of sprinkles of rain. I was hanging out with Brett, Rachel, and Ben while they took their time working along a rolled out tape measure and flipped through their field guides to identify plants they had never seen before. Most of the plants in New Zealand are found here and nowhere else in the world.

We spent four illuminating days and as many dew filled nights right smack in the center of Pureora forest, a protected and mixed aged forest. At times walking through this forest we would find ourselves surrounded by 800 year old Rimu trees. Other times, we'd be greeted by little cutie whitehead's (lovely birds) in the younger, regenerating portions of this forest. Early each of these mornings, different groups of students made the forest edge their classroom as we listened keenly for the epheral call of the Kokako, a stately forest bird that is extremely rare (most native New Zealanders haven't been lucky enough to hear its call! But we heard it, and saw it in clear sight on our last couple days! Epiphanic moments for students and staff alike! In between lecture and field experience, we managed to invent an invigorating game called "pole ball", managed to wander around the forest at night searching for glow worms, and even had a kitchen dance party lead by the headlamp blinking prowess of our dear director, Mark "body" Pierson.

Oh "Body", you're fantastic.

Although forests are known for their diverse species of both plants and animals, there are always notable individuals amongst the system. The above picture if an enormous Totara we visited, stood around, and admired. I overhead some people saying that the tree was "as old as Jesus," but...seems to be some theological difficulties with that statement. Nevertheless, this is an old tree, over 1500 years old I believe. We also came across a creature known as a velvet worm. Velvet worms are theorized to have remained unchanged throughout evolutionary time for some 65 million years (depending of course, on how old you believe the earth is). Regardless of how long creatures may have remained unchanged, it was quite a thought to consider what stories the trees or the worms could tell us---stories of humanity, stories of the world, ancient stories.

Just as we started to begin comprehension of such stories, we were on the move again. This time, an hour and half drive to the east to the fabled National Park named, "Tongariro". We had only two short days in the little lodge called Whakapapa, but our days within those walls were cozy. Outside of them however; our group became a rugged and ready outfit of searchers, of summit searchers. A highlight of these few days must be the summiting by our entire group of Mt. Ruapehu. Certainly, we were not out to conquer the mountain. No, not by an means. Rather, our group participated in a community hike with more than 100 other keen souls (gathered to celebrate Sir Edmund Hillary) and we spent our best energies' to get to the top of the 2800 meter beast. The icy winds howled upon us, and through us as we tip-toed the ridge line and ended in a cloudy huddle upon the rim of the volcanic crater lake that marks the summit of this legendary mountain. Emma carried her computer bag with her, Bryan cut his jeans into jean shorts, and Sara was ready with the med kit and any extra gear. It was certainly one of our shining moments together this semester, plus we got tea and scones at the base.
This is Christy and Allie walking along the rim of Ruapehu. The third person is a ghost.


As we rested our weary bones from the summiting of one of the world's tallest peaks (not true), we passed good time together in our lodge. There developed a very keen interest in a game called "Murder in the Dark," which had all of us walking around in the dark, running into each other, and trying to avoid being "murdered" by the "killer". Bryan did his fair share of damage as a "killer," I punched Nicole in the face, and Christy decided to take some liberties with what she "accidentally" contacted with her hands while all the lights were turned out. The picture to the right of this writing was a place we stopped at for a nice lunch, some rock jumps, and sunshine.





Above, in a calming black and white you will see the Wharenui (the meeting house) also known to us as the Wharepuni (house of peace, house of rest). This building is part of the Otukou Marae - a sacred area to the Maori people who have been living upon that land and guarding and caring for the mountain area for hundreds of years. Those very people welcomed us for the final part of our trip. After an official powhiri ceremony where honor and thanks were given to our respective ancestors and familial lineages, we were fully accepted into the family, essentially into their lineage where we were given full liberty to live comfortably on the marae. The rain came down in buckets and we never did quite catch a glimpse of the mountain ranges that were dwarfing us due to the clouds.

But those days were meaningful and we were blessed with the presence and history and knowledge of "Guy," Bubs and Daisy (these are the common English names of the people of this marae that took wonderful care of us during our time there. Daisy even gave Kevin and I 3 HUGE Rainbow trout that she was apparently preparing for her dinner that night - she just gave them to us!) Even though the ground was soggy, the mist was heavy, and the mountain hues eluded us during our time there, we were covered with the powerful light of hospitality, love, and learning that were so SO kindly bestowed upon us by our friends at Otukou. We were certainly blessed to be witnesses of that place.

We headed back after all this time to our home here at Knock Na Gree. Students had a few days of rest (or intense work, rather) before our last class began today. God and Nature II. With Bret Stephenson. Bret who tried to swing a hearty swing at a kickball but missed and ate it. Bryan did that too one day playing soccer. Bryan, don't be embarrassed, just own it.