Lake Wanaka

 This morning we took a 20 minute skiff ride on Lake Wanaka to reach Mou Waho Island. The island is a predator free sanctuary for the Buff Weka, a different species of Weka than the one we saw on Stewart Island.  The Buff Weka is smaller, paler and even less frightened of people. They have been extinct on the mainland of New Zealand for over one hundred years, and it has been a struggle to save them from the stoats that invaded previous sanctuaries.  We saw several weka as we hiked up to a lake, where we were rewarded with tea and biscuits overlooking “an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island”.  After tea we continued up to the summit for amazing views. The complete hike climbed 600 feet in 1.3 km — a little steep! The landscape around Lake Wanaka is quite dramatic and includes mountainsides used in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. 

The island was originally forested and a favorite hunting ground for the Māori, who understood the importance of fruiting trees to sustain the birds that in turn sustained them. The local Māori tribe was eliminated by a tribe from the north, so that Europeans only saw an empty island with great timber potential. When the native trees had all been harvested, pines were planted, which have no nutritional value to the local bird species. The pines were all removed about 25 years ago, and for the past 16 years a local ecotour company (the one that took us this morning) has planted over 8500 native plants and trees, and the island is recovering. 

We learned some interesting plant facts as well. There’s a tree (Lancewood) that is so different when it is young from when it is mature that Capt. Cook named them two different plants. But they are one, and the young one grows such sharp leaves that the Moa wouldn’t eat them. Once the plant gets “taller than a Moa”, the growth habit changes to a pear shaped deciduous tree with rounded leaves. Moa’s went extinct 600 years ago, but the tree doesn’t know that. 

This afternoon we watched Great Crested Grebes in the Wanaka harbor. Grebes make somewhat flimsy nests near the surface of the water that are easily swamped by boat wakes. A local man built nesting platforms for them, and the population has rebounded. We watched pairs of grebes doing a courting dance, others building nests or sitting on eggs, and a few grebes swimming with their tiny pied chicks riding on their backs. 

Pictured: Buff Weka, courting Great Crested Grebes, Grebe with chicks, lake on Mou Waho Island with the summit above