#Te Waipounamu

[amandapalmer]

If you need 6 minutes of four-handed nerve-soothing instrumental piano music played live alongside a bunch of birds singing in the mountains of Aotearoa New Zealand, I got you.

It’s here.

[balthazarslostlibrary]

Acanthoxyla prasina, Spiny stick insect. Te Wai Pounamu, photo credit me.

The entirety of the Acanthoxyla genus is made up of species that are female only and reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis. This means that every member of a species are essentially clones of each other!

This genus most likely came about through hybridisation of two different stick insect species which produced a few individuals that, while could not reproduce sexually, still had the ability to reproduce asexually, creating a genetic separation and entirely new genus!

There are a few different Māori words that refer to stick insects more broadly, such as rō or whē, which are also used for many species of preying mantis, as it was thought that these two types of bugs were related. It makes sense, as they are very similar in looks and body plan, and many stick insects and mantises also have similar habitat requirements to each other.

[mxmollusca]

Te Waipounamu (South Island) and Rakiura (Stewart Island), Aotearoa, February 2024

[sandumilfshou]

some choice photos from my road trip around the south island/te waipounamu in aotearoa new zealand 💛

(pictured: glenorchy, wānaka, gillespies beach, milford sound/piopiotahi, cathedral caves, southernmost point of te waipounamu)

[cheekybrassmonkey]

Hell yeah it happened again! Taken by me, out my laundry door at 4am while I was flinging cat shit into the wilderness cos living rural rocks

[extincto]

Maungatua right now, seem from Dunedin airport

[dec0mposing]

Rock climbers at Long Beach/Warauwerawera, Dunedin/Ōtepoti, New Zealand/Aotearoa, 1925

Image from The Hocken Library

[gothwizardmagic]

225k people spread over an area the size of RI is absolutely not a city. You live in a town with delusions of grandeur

jokes on you anon i made a typo in those tags its only 125k people

[crabussy]

(for clarification, aotearoa is the original māori name for new zealand and is used widely across the country. nz is also often referred to as "aotearoa new zealand" instead of one or the other!!!)

please reblog because I'm kiwi and I need this to get to people who don't follow me directly for less biased results!!!

here's a pronunciation guide for all of you asking [:

EDIT: someone has brought it to my attention that the FULL māori name for new zealand is aotearoa me te waipounamu, which encompasses both north and south island. Some iwi (māori communities/tribes) would rather that aotearoa me te waipounamu become the official name for the country. thank you everyone who is providing opportunities for learning in this post!!

[paleodictyoptera]

You cannot tell me that the Maori stories about what looked like a beaver lodge and dam in a place with no beavers are confused or unreliable, and you especially can't convince me when white settlers saw the same exact things. An actual specimen is needed to describe the species by western standards, but that doesn't erase the effects it's presence had on the ecosystem, including any constructions it made.

If someone finds what looks like an abandoned beaver dam in Fiordland, send me a pic!

New Zealand's lost a lot of wildlife, as colonization of a foreign land is prone to doing. It's particularly rough when a keystone species disappears; the landscape changes, communities disappear and the trophic cascade can be devastating.

This post is about the South Island waitoreke and how it built dams and lodges as reported by both Maori and English settlers

[sapphia]

Aurora Australis/The Southern Lights — Tai Tapu, Te Waipounamu, Aotearoa New Zealand

[chaithetics]

Hīkoi for te Tiriti starts on Monday 11th at Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reigna) and ends in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) on Tuesday 19th.

There will be activations throughout Aotearoa during this time, including Te Waipounamu (South Island). This post has details for Te Waipounamu activations. For more information on the hīkoi through Te Ika-a-Māui (North Island) and the Toitū te Tiriti kaupapa look at this link.

This document has also been created with Accessibility information for the hīkoi here.

Please show up however you can! Participate in the hīkoi, show up to activations, contact MPs, start thinking about submissions for Select Committee, make an effort with te reo, show up for and support your Māori friends. It is such an insult and so discriminatory that our Government have introduced this in the first place. This matters for Māori, Pākehā and tauiwi. If you are Pākehā or tauiwi you have the privilege of living on this whenua and benefiting from colonisation, it is the bare minimum requirement for you to show up.

When you're at activations please make sure to be safe and look after each other! Stay hydrated, keep water with you, have sunscreen, sun hats, sunglasses, rain jackets, masks, snacks if you need them etc.

[hypnotisedfireflies]

ooh, I'll ask - what's your headcanon for Australia, New Zealand, and Polynesia??

Thank you for asking! This was a fun exercise to get down in a doc and out of my head.

I think everyone knows that I’m Australian by now.  So yeah, it’s particularly entertaining for me to imagine how things might be in the TLOUinverse on my side of the pond for a change.

Many Polynesian nations escaped Cordyceps completely – Tonga, Tokelau, Kiribati and the Cook Islands amongst these.  They closed their borders and were essentially remote enough to be able to protect themselves from the first wave.  However, that didn’t mean they had an easy time of it.  Many of these nations rely on imports and with those grinding to a complete halt, they struggled in other ways to survive.  Some of these nations also had unwelcome visitors in the form of refugees from other countries trying to fly or boat in.  Most of these brought in sick people.   Some of the nations formed methods of screening refugees who made it to their shores, others rejected them completely, and some nations fell apart over the ensuing years, unable to support so many people. 

The North Island of New Zealand was completely overrun.  The South Island had a bad few years, but pockets of it were able to resist, and within a few years they were able to rally and take the island back.  They were mostly in control by 2005 – they were not fucking around – and Cordyceps-free by 2008.  The nation officially reverted back to its name in the Maori language, ��Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu (but most just called it Aotearoa).

It was many years before they conquered the North Island, and then there were several years of warfare to fully secure it.  The haka performed before the Battle of Auckland (which was one of their final victories over Cordyceps in 2015) was renowned the world over – the Kiwis documented much of their war on film, and these were distributed to survivors across the globe.  These were often credited as inspiring a new generation of survivors not to endure and survive, but to fight.

Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu maintained contact with Australia throughout the war, but the situations in the two nations were very different.  The densely populated centres of Australia were decimated.  This is essentially all down the east coast from Brisbane, to Sydney, right down to Melbourne in the south.  Darwin, right in the top end, was also destroyed, but this was mainly from refugees fleeing other nations.  But Australia is a big, varied place, and not all was lost.

Many of the islands and remote towns around the country were able to find ways to survive.  And the largest island, Tasmania, proved to be a haven.  While its population centres were initially overrun like the rest of the continent, the army concentrated its efforts on eradicating Cordyceps in Tasmania first.  There were three major offensives before they got the tactics right and were able to declare the state Cordyceps-free.  The Government relocated here, but it was not the only success story.

Perth did okay.  This is probably because the Infected, much like everyone else in Australia, thought it was too expensive and far away to bother with.  Perth was the site of the first Quarantine Zone in Australia.  Australia had a number of these over time but they were very different to the North American QZs.  Australia’s tended to be constructed in remote areas, not large cities (with the exception of Perth).  They each supported some kind of industry to try and keep civilisation humming along.  These were not perfect, but most were successful. 

The one in Port Hedlund said “fuck you cunts,” to the rest of the country and declared itself independent.  The army didn’t much like that and it was dealt with pretty quickly.  Wagga Wagga, with its RAAF and army training bases, was established not long after Perth and continued recruit training at Kapooka and Forest Hill.  But some of the most successful survival stories came not from those within Australian Quarantine Zones.

Many Indigenous Australians, especially those in remote areas towards the centre, returned to country.  Some of their camps and communities were overrun like everywhere else, but a lot survived.  Some communities adapted so well that their lives were almost uninterrupted.

(It's difficult to explain the scale of Australia, and just how remote some Indigenous communities are, and how far they are from anything else. Suffice to say, there are people who know how to live on country in Australia in a way most of us cannot comprehend, and there are families and tribes that really could weather Cordyceps out - especially those towards the centre of Australia, where the conditions are dry and wholly unsuitable for a mushroom-based infection).

But the QZs kept in contact with one another and most importantly, with Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu.  Trade recommenced between Tasmania and the South Island once both these zones were fully secure, and over time, links were reforged with other smaller nations in the region.  The South Pacific Alliance was formed. By 2023, there was a good deal of cooperation – except for Perth, who also decided the rest of us could get fucked, and declared themselves as the Independent Nation of Perth or some crap.  Nobody was really listening, they’re pretty far away and no one wanted to go there anyway so it was like okay good luck bye.

… I don’t really have beef with Perth.  I’m sure it’s lovely. Anyway, thanks for the question! I'm not sure how plausible all of my theories are, but it's fun to consider.

[ongreenergrasses]

15 or 28 Joe/Nile?! ahhhhhh Joe/Nile!!

BIG JOE/NILE FAN RIGHT HERE, thank you for the prompt!! there’s so many that I feel could fit them perfectly, I picked 15!

15. necklace

When she loses her cross necklace, Nile doesn’t cry.

It would’ve happened eventually. That’s what she tells herself. She’s restrung the charm hundreds of times on thin chain after thin chain, over the years, but the charm itself was starting to wear through.

It would’ve happened eventually, but at some point between the time they get on the ferry and the time they dock at Te Waipounamu, her necklace has fallen off her neck and disappeared, onto the deck or into the sea, she doesn’t know.

It would’ve happened eventually.

She locks herself in the bathroom at the port and stares at her reflection in the mirror. All those years, hundreds of years, and her constant has been that necklace. Everything else is different. Everything else has changed. The last thing of her old life, the true last thing, is gone now.

Nile thinks that the others have probably gone through this. They’ve probably tried to keep one thing and lost it, too, but she doesn’t know if she wants comfort right now.

“I lost my necklace,” she says over dinner that night. “On the ferry.”

Quỳnh doesn’t say anything. Just stares at her plate. Nile suddenly realizes how inconsiderate she is.

“I’m sorry, Nile,” Joe says. “It was a beautiful thing.”

“It was,” Nile says around the lump in her throat, and goes back to eating.

She likes Aotearoa. Likes Te Waipounamu, it’s her first time on that island, and she throws herself into the work, into the mission. She tries to pick ones where she feels they’re really doing good. Sometimes that’s killing. Sometimes it’s volunteering at an animal rescue. Sometimes it’s handing out meals. Sometimes it’s abducting human traffickers and making sure nobody ever finds the bodies. It depends.

Slowly their lives settle into a rhythm, the way they always do when they’re in one place long enough.

They stay for six months. Nile almost wishes they could stay for longer, but they’ve done what they came to do.

Nile turns the lights off, takes one last look around their apartment, and moves to close the door before Joe steps back inside the apartment with her and closes the door behind them.

The light flicks on. Nile squints a little bit.

“We should go,” she says, confused.

“This is for you,” Joe says, handing her a box.

Nile opens it and can’t hold back a gasp.

It’s a necklace. Her necklace. Only, she realizes, not quite. Something’s slightly different. The proportions, maybe, or the finish is slightly shinier, and it’s so subtle that she can’t tell, but it’s enough that she knows it’s not her necklace. Not really.

“I didn’t want to make it an exact copy,” Joe says. “Then all you would do is think about what you’ve lost.”

“You made this?”

Joe shrugs. “We had some spare time.”

“Will you put it on me?” Nile blurts out before she can think it through.

She and Joe have been orbiting each other for a while, closer and closer. This is the first move he’s actually made, and it’s such a grand gesture that Nile doesn’t have any idea how she could ever do something that would meet him in the middle.

Maybe he’s trying to sweep her off her feet.

Joe looks at her for a long moment. “Turn around?”

She turns and passes him the necklace over her shoulder, and she feels him carefully put it on her, latch the clasp in one try, and then she feels him gently press a kiss to the space where her neck meets her shoulder.

Nile closes her eyes.

“Let me,” she says finally. “Let me do this right. I’ll do it right, Joe, I’ll treat you right.”

Joe laughs behind her and spins her around. “I look forward to it,” he says, just before he leans in and kisses her.

one word prompts

[drhoz]

The Great ACT-NSW-NZ Trip, 2023-2024 - St. Arnaud

After getting across Cook Strait without being shipwrecked (the weather was actually quite pleasant compared to some of the unholy gales that come through the gap, with the wind merely howling), we started our explorations of Te Waipounamu, the Island of Greenstone Waters. Pounamu is such a beautiful and useful stone that the Māori named the entire island after it.

Europeans called it South Island, or archaically New Munster. It covers 150,437 square kilometres, making it the world's 12th-largest island. We stopped at the Omaka Aviation Museum, which was worth it, but our first night was spent at St. Arnaud, formerly Rotoiti, a tiny alpine village.

It's certainly surrounded by mountains, and shows some really nice alpine geomorphology - hanging valleys left where subsiduary glaciers got cut off by the larger glaciers in the main valley, scree slopes where the greywacke of the mountains is disintigrating, and alpine lakes like Lake Rotoiti itself, formed when the glaciers retreated at the end of the last Ice Age and left behind huge piles of pebbles, gravel, and boulders to dam the meltwater.

On the other hand St. Arnaud has also been built right on top of a considerably larger geological feature - the Alpine Fault. This tectonic boundary between the Australian and Pacific Plates runs for over 600km, and is one of the fastest moving faultlines in the world, moving, on average, almost 40mm a year. Geological formations that originally straddled the fault are now 480km apart. Unfortunately most of that movement happens during huge earthquakes every few hundred years - the last big one on the Alpine Fault happens around 1717, rupturing 400km of the fault at once.

Over the last 12 million years a significant upwards element to the fault movement has been added, creating the Southern Alps. Most of what is now the South Island got pushed 20 kilometers up, whereupon New Zealand's weather promptly ground it 16 kilometers back down again. The assorted rubble forms the plains on the east and southern coast, or got swept north by prevailing currents on the west coast. Exposed basement rock on the South Island is mostly greywacke, or heavily metamorphised rocks such as schist from even deeper. That's where the greenstone originally formed.

Anyway, the next big quake will probably trash St. Arnaud completely, and cut every road across the mountains for months. Happily that didn't happen on this trip - @purrdence had enough problems with a cyclone cutting roads and trainlines last time.

The original forest around St. Arnaud is mostly Antarctic Beech (Nothofagus sp.) and forms the basis of a unique and seriously threatened ecosystem. I'll tell you all about that over the upcoming posts.

Here's some species I've covered before.

[deermouth]

i'm in the mood to talk. have i ever shared on here the time i saw a sea lion almost kill two people?

when i was in middle school, i had an aunt, uncle, and two cousins living in aotearoa, due to my uncle's work (they are usamerican and eventually moved back). when i was in 7th grade, i took time off school and my parents and I went to visit them over the month of december. we stayed with them for some time, but also spent a while touring te waipounamu in a campervan.

at one point we stopped to camp at a national(?) park on the coast. idr where it was. there were sheep there from a nearby piece of farmland, but that wasn't unusual. they kind of go wherever if the farm isn't big on fences (that's a whole other colonial ecology post i'm not qualified to write).

the day after we'd slept over, we went up on some cliffs above the sea. we had a great view of the beach near where we'd parked our camper. that's when we saw the whakahao.

he was coming around the point of the cliffs when we were down lower, looking at the tide pools, but when we'd climbed higher, the tide had risen. we were far above the beach, but noticed him swimming towards it, and then coming out of the water onto it. during our climb, a couple had set up towels and an umbrella toward the back of the beach, close to where it turned to grass, and were sunbathing on their backs, looking up at the sky.

so then. we could only watch, as the sea lion, a huge male and clearly territorial, discovered the sunbathers, and decided to charge. we were so high up, and i remember there was a breeze and the waves were a bit choppy besides. I think i was yelling, but those sounds would have swallowed it even if we were closer.

thankfully, the couple must've heard the charge as it got closer. they sprang up, and ran. as soon as they touched the grass, leaving the sand, the sea lion stopped. i think the beach, and the beach only, must've been his territory.

i don't think we managed to connect with the other beachgoers--they must've left right away. mostly i was left with the certainty that had they not run, i'm sure the sea lion could have bitten, slapped, etc them to death, but I think before all that, he was probably huge enough to just crush them with his bulk.

we didn't see him upon returning to that camper. it's been well over a decade, but i hope he lives forever and patrols that beach for all pakake.