Looking for wetlands on Routeburn Track

Towards the  end of my stay in New Zealand I took the opportunity to walk one of the Great Walks, the Routeburn Track, which is location in the Mount Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks, south-west of the South Island. For the whole track over the distance of 32 km which I walked in three days. The track winds through beautiful beech forest, across tussock-covered flats, over the Harris Saddle, passes subalpine shrublands, alpine tarns and bogs.

Most interestingly, even here science follows on the footsteps. I met a couple from Thames, Coromandel. They were dairy farmers and these few days on the track were their only only holidays for the last year. We had a great conversation about sustainable agriculture and manure management. They had apparently even won an industry award for best effluent management and  they collaborated with scientists and an innovative company that developed a solution to reduce the smell of a manure. That was a great example of scientists, entrepreneurs and farmers working together.

In Lake McKenzie hut I experienced another great example of engaging community to science and biodiversity protection. The hut ranger Evan Smith gives every night to the trampers a thorough talk on predator control on Routeburn track. He has been trapping stouts and other predators on the track over 10 years. Thank’s to his passionate and interesting talks, trampers contribute to the project with donations to make more traps and to maintain them. Evans started with 8 traps and now there are hundreds over the 20km. And it is apparent that birds are returning to the area thanks to his work and trampers donations.

I explored also unique alpine wetlands at the Key Summit. Wetland has been formed into small depressions left behind by glaciers thousands of years ago. Over time this oligotrophic wetland built up peat. It is very much similar to the peat bogs in northern hemisphere.



Alpine wetland at Key Summit

 

Predator trap on the track

Wetland by Lake Howden