Lamington National Park

Lamington National Park

Sunday morning, we all met at a storage facility in Brisbane.  All the homestay families brought their students to meet there and goodbyes were said.  I heard many of the families telling Nat, our GED leader, that they really enjoyed the students and that they were great people.  Glad to hear that.  We (with LC’s help) rented a storage unit for the students to leave many of their items that they won’t need for the next 5 weeks of camping and travel.  We needed to pack light.  After storing their things the students helped Nat load a U-haul truck with all the supplies we’d need for camping at Lamington.  It’s quite a process, which GED has streamlined very well.  We brought up 14 tents, cots and pads and chairs for all, tables and benches, a kitchen tent and a dining tent.  Also, plates and silverware, research books about the plants and animals in the rainforest, traps, scientific tools for measuring things like humidity, height of a tree, etc.  If you’ve camped before, you know that there are so many items to bring.  Well, that amount intensifies when you’re also doing scientific studies while camping!  After a lunch stop at a small town, Canungra, for a pasty, pastry and a meat pie, we arrived at Lamington National Park, Green Mountain campground.  It’s right next to O’reilly’s Resort.

One very interesting thing about Lamington is that there are pockets of temperate rainforest, right next to eucalypt forests.  We took a bushwalk thru the rainforest and could tell a distinction almost right away.  The border zone/ecotome is only about 10 metres from one type of forest to the other, fascinating.  We learned about so many interesting trees, plants, invertebrates, birds, pademelons and bioluminescent things!

Erik is pointing to the 2 types of forests.  His left hand is pointing towards the rainforest and his right towards the sclerophyll/eucalypt forest.

Strangler figs are a very interesting tree.  This type, Moreton Bay Fig, is endemic to Australia.  This second picture shows one that is about 40 years old, but it still looks like a sapling. It starts with a
tiny seed in the canopy. The roots grow down to the forest floor where they take root and begin to take nutrients from the soil. Gradually the roots wrap around the host tree, widen, and slowly form a lattice work that surrounds the hosts trunk, often killing the host tree, leaving a hollow space inside. Super interesting!

Here you can see 3 types of epiphytes, bird nest, then orchids, then stag horn. The highly poisonous stinging tree is growing in the bird nest epiphyte. Thankfully none of us touched one of these.  Our biologist, Peter, rubbed against one years ago and he didn't recover completely for a year and a half!  

One early morning we had a bird walk with Duncan Fowler, his real name!  Actually, as he put it, it was more of a bird stand.  We could hear and see so many awesome birds right at our campsite that we didn't have to walk far.  We saw 2 quite rare birds: rifle bird (a bird of paradise) and Albert lyre bird. The lyre bird is a mimic, the mother teaches the babies.  They are the largest songbird in the world and scratch and claw at the undergrowth-they help reduce the fireload in a forest by 30%!  We saw and heard many other unique and interesting birds.  The whip bird, brush turkey, bower bird, king parrot, honey eater, rainbow lorakeet, gullahs, fairy wren and cat bird, to name a few.  The bird calls and songs were gorgeous and quite noisy at times.  

This is the remant of a Regent Bowerbird courting den.  This species finds anything blue to decorate the area with in order to attract a female. Some bower birds just turn over 10 leaves and call it good, according to Mr Fowler!

We went on a tree walk and climbed 24 metres above ground for this photo.  Erik went up the next level, 30 metres above ground.  The sunsets at Lamington were spectacular.

One of the highlights for us was the bioluminescence. One night while Group A was setting live traps (to catch Bush Rats, Brush tailed possum and king crickets), Isabelle asked Erik what that light up the hill was.  It turns out it was a tree surrounded by ghost mushrooms.  They were a bright green!  So, so cool!  The rangers said that they only last a few weeks.  Sure enough, 3 days later, Erik and Nat went back with several more people and they were all melted away without a sign of the glowing!  We also went one night on a bushwalk down to a creek to see glowworms.  We weren't sure any would be there because it'd been quite dry, but thankfully they were!  So awesome!  Unbelievable.  We sat peacefully in the dark looking at the glowworms, which looked like the starry night sky.  Then Nat suggested we sing, so we quietly sang "I Love the Mountains", with adding glowworms instead of fireflies.  What fun!

Minjerribah, aka Stradbroke Island

I wonder if you heard about Cyclone Oma, back in the US? We were watching its progress very carefully last month. It was thought at one time to reach Brisbane with high winds and lots of rain. It could affect our trip to Minjerribah too, since we needed to take a ferry to reach the island. Thankfully, (with the help of Marta's strong thoughts) it didn't come as close as feared. Several ferries were cancelled, but ours wasn't. We did have a windy 30 minute ride, but no rain and the weekend was great!

 This picture is of our ferry on the way home on Monday, the ocean was much calmer.  And below is a turtle shell that was in the research station, gorgeous.

Minjerribah is what the Quandamooka people call Stradbroke Island in their language, Nunukul. It means "Island in the Sun." The Quandamooka people have lived there for over 21,000 years and were given Native Title in 2011. The sand mining will finish on the island at the end of this year and the Quandamooka plan to increase the tourist business on the island.


It is the 2nd largest sand island in the world, but you'd be amazed at how many trees and plants grow there. We learned about Aboriginal history and culture and spotted a wild koala on our walk. Sooooo adorable! When we went back later in the afternoon, we spotted a second smaller koala too!

We learned Sand Island Ecology with a Walk to Point Lookout, with a stop at a Gelato cafe! The wind was blowing fiercely and had created lots of foam on top of the waves, it was spectacular.

We were introduced to Australian marine environments by staff from the Moreton Bay Research Station, which is where we were staying. The accommodations and catered food were great! We also examined marine samples and saw many zooplankton and phytoplankton.

We learned botanical ecology of sand islands and about mangroves and geology and hydrology of sand islands. We got to swim in Brown Lake, a perch lake, which was refreshing!

Biologist and filmmaker, Jan Aldenhoven was with us most of the weekend. We really enjoyed watching the documentary that she and her husband made: "Faces in the Mob." It's about a mob of grey kangaroos that they observed over a year plus. Really awesome. I purchased a copy of the DVD and will happily share it with any of you that want to watch it with us!

                                     

Minjerribah is a wonderful location!!!!

More photo albums, if interested

Hi,

Here are links to more google photo albums.  I've added quite a few favorite photos on fb, but here are even more.  Copy and paste the links, I don't think they're live.  Enjoy.

February 2019 - Brisbane and Straddy

https://photos.app.goo.gl/R2R2h5iTi5Y8pJKs7

Students presentations - March 2019  - Contemporary Australia class

https://photos.app.goo.gl/M5zHMypkz7MicXTa7

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Dinah Dodds grant sponsored this trip

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xPBAjAebTreujkXE6

Brisbane, also known as Brissy and Brisvegas

From February 4th until Feb 9th we attended Aboriginal Cultural Camp on K'gari, aka Fraser Island.  We had a wonderful week with amazing Aunties and Uncles on a beautiful sand island-the largest in the world!  I'll be glad to share in person about this special week.

From February 9th until March 10th, we've been based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.  The students are throughout the city, living with homestay families.  Erik and I are in South Bank, near West End at Parkview apartments.  We have a very nice apartment with Air Con and a kitchen and washer and dryer.  It's very close to the GED office and lecture location and we have really enjoyed this part of town.  We've cooked 2-3 meals / day, but often go out for a lunch or dinner. We've tried Malaysian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Mexican and of course seafood! Erik's enjoying spanner car and I'm enjoying Oatmeal Prawns at a Malaysian cafe, in a pic below.  We've enjoyed shopping at op shops, riding the Brisbane Wheel, watching movies, walking along the river and being with friends.  We're grateful for all the church friends we've been able to see.  Our friends from Tiona and the Brisbane congregation have treated us to dinners, picnics, tiki tours (driving around the city), pickle ball and lots of great visiting!

We've had many excellent lectures each morning.  Here are just a few of the titles:  Songlines into Brisbane, The Australian health care system, Australian families, Crime and violence, The Australian electoral and party systems and Australian multiculturalism.  We also went on a few field trips:  The Queensland Museum, Queensland Parliament House, a Rugby Union game, the Gold Coast,

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and Stradbroke Island (more on Straddy later.)  Erik and I hosted the students at our home for lunch.  We had them come over in three different groups, for food and games.  And we celebrated Jackson's birthday here. 

It was very fun to have them here.  They are awesome!    Recently, they all gave presentations on their individual research for their Contemporary Australia class.  Very interesting to hear what they learned.  We head out on Sunday for our last 5 weeks, concentrating on Marine and Terrestrial Biology.   We won't have much wifi so I doubt I'll be able to update this until we get back to Portland.  Speaking of Portland, we're grateful for skype and Snapchat, but we're sure looking forward to seeing our family and friends.

A vacation (within a "vacation") to New Zealand

Erik has wanted to travel to New Zealand for over 30 years!  I was very thrilled to travel with him.  WARNING:  this will be a long post.  I don't expect you to read it all, but it's a great way for me to remember our awesome trip!  

First stop: Auckland.  We left Sydney very early on Australia day.  We were sorry we weren't there to attend the Yabun Festival at the park right across from our accommodations, but another time, maybe.

Our first adventure was getting our rental car and driving to our hotel, about 20 minutes away.  Erik did very well driving on the wrong side of the road, but I think we were both a bit nervous.  We took the bus into the CBD, Central Business District.  Then took a ferry to Devonport where we had a yummy seafood dinner.  Erik loved his green mussels.  

Sunday morning we went to church.  There is only one Community of Christ congregation in New Zealand.  We met the wonderful congregation members and guess what?  We got to help in a working bee!  It really was fun.  We loaded items into a trailer to take to the landfill and we sorted lots of old papers and books and magazines into "keep", "recycle" and "donate".  I saw many familiar church names, even in far away NZ.  One article in one of the magazines (Herald) was written by Mamma Marge Nilsen.  Such a small world in our small church.  We shared in morning tea/lunch and then took the advice of Arran and drove thru the Waitakere Range Regional Park to Piha beach.  Gorgeous.  Erik climbed Te Piha, Lion Rock which is a sacred site to the Te Kawerau a Maki people.  After driving the old rental car up and down and around the mountain road, we decided to trade it in for a car that worked better.  Good idea!

Monday morning we drove south,  our first destination was the famous Waitomo Glowworm caves. On the way, we stopped for lunch and a quick visit of the Pirongia Historic Visitor Centre. The docent was a super sweet lady and we truly enjoyed visiting with her. She told us to stop at the Alexandra Redoubt, which was built in 1872 by the British settlers to protect them from the Maori, who actually never attacked them here.  Aotearoa New Zealand was one of the last places in the world to be colonised by European settlers (or refugees as Aunty Margaret calls them).  

We had seen glowworms 10 years ago at Lamington Plateau in Australia, on a creek wall.  It was so impressive that we wanted to make sure to go to Waitomo.  We took a 30 minute walk thru part of a limestone cave, mostly to get our eyes used to the dark.  At one point we were in a big cavern and our guide asked if anyone wanted to sing a song.  Erik and I sang, "May the Longtime Sun shine on You".  That was memorable!  Then we all climbed aboard large row boats, in the complete dark and silence, with our guide pulling us along using ropes that were attached above us.  It was so magical to see thousands of glowworms on the walls of the caves, it looked like stars in the night sky. We couldn't take photos inside so this is a photo of a post card I bought.  Super awesome experience!

Then we headed to a Bed 'n Breakfast called "Trout Heaven".  Our friends, Ian and Janice, had told us about their friends who run this BnB.  Erik really wanted to fish so it was the perfect place for us.  After an awkward first meeting (we showed up a day earlier than they expected), all went well.  Sorry Wendy!  Erik got to fish 3 times and caught and released 7 Rainbow Trout.  It was a beautiful home near the river and reminded us many times of Montana, except when it reminded us of Middle Earth!!!  And one nice thing: we didn't have to worry about anything dangerous:  no snakes or bear or cougar or poisonous spiders etc.  Such a lovely visit.  Craig and Wendy have been to Montana and loved it.  So we talked about the US quite a bit and invited them to come fishing in OR.  What a superb visit for us!  Thanks Caldwells!

Several of the day trips we took were sure interesting.  One day we went on a huge swinging bridge above a dam and then to Blue Springs.  So many spectacular views!  And then, our favorite:  Hobbiton.  We love the Lord of the Rings movies and it was so fun to see Hobbiton.  It was only 30 minutes away from Trout Heaven.   Sir Peter Jackson, the director, and New Line Cinema flew in a helicopter looking at the different farms to find a perfect location.  The 1250 acre Alexander sheep and cattle farm worked perfectly.  The paddocks were hilly, with a pond and a big tree for the Party Tree.  The NZ army first helped by making a 1.5 km road into Hobbiton in 1999.  Filming for LOTR took 3 months and then in 2009, when preparing for the Hobbit, they took 2 years and made Hobbiton more permanent.  They only filmed there for 12 days in 2011, with 400 people on site.  Seeing the 39 Hobbit holes was so fun.  Even though 600,000 people visit each year, it didn't feel crowded with tourists.  Really Magical!!  We were here on Bryn's birthday and we thought of him often.  He first read LOTR as a 4th grader!

We headed south to Rotorua, stopping first at Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetaukawahiao!  Also known as the Whakarewarewa Thermal Village.  This is a Maori Cultural Center, but what made it even more interesting is that it is the home for 60 people, who live near the hot springs/geysers and mud pots.  They use them for some of their cooking and baths.  We enjoyed our tour guide and the dance/poi/haka!

We went climbing in the Rotorua Redwoods Treewalk, a 700-metre long, eco-tourism walk in the heart of Rotorua’s Redwood Forest. Consisting of a series of 28 suspension bridges, traversing 27 majestic Redwood trees that are more than 117-years-old. The height of the walkway ranges between 9-metres and 20-metres. Redwoods were brought to NZ, hoping they would be a good hardwood to replace the Kauri trees, which were over harvested. However, because of the consistent moist weather, the Redwoods grow much faster and are a soft wood. You can see in the picture with me, that the rings are over an inch wide!

We took a river cruise to Haka Falls, which was impressive! 58,000 gallons of water/second flows over the waterfall, which is 35 feet high.  

We ended our cruise at a dam, where we found out they filmed the scene with the Dwarves and Bilbo, riding in the barrels to escape the Elves!!  Cool.

We ended our week in New Zealand in Wellington.  Weta Workshop created for the Lord of the Rings movies and we got to meet a troll.  Then we saw Gandolf at the Wellington airport.  Awesome!

  We also went to the impressive museum, Te Papa.  One of the exhibits: Gallipoli: The scale of our war combines the world of museums with the world-class creative artistry of Weta Workshop to immerse you in the eight-month Gallipoli campaign.

The ground-breaking exhibition tells the story through the eyes and words of eight ordinary New Zealanders who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances. Each is captured frozen in a moment of time on a monumental scale – 2.4 times human size.


The giant sculptures took a staggering 24,000 hours to create, and countless hours were spent researching their rich histories.


We also got to see eight Terracotta Warriors and two horses. Quite interesting.

Goodbye to a lovely country.  We loved the accent and the friendly people.  It was interesting to discover how different NZ is to Australia.  It was great to have so many signs written in both English and Maori.  Erik's favorite things were fishing, mussels, the Thermal village, the museum and fishing!  I loved Hobbiton, visiting with Craig and Wendy and the church members in Auckland, Licorice cafe and being in the country.