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WildFoods festival in Hokitika

GregBrave — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:30:48 +0000

On March 14, Hokitika will host its famous WildFoods festival. This year (2009) is festival’s twentieth anniversary!

Every year the mysterious aromas of exotic food attract thousands of people to this festival. Visitors are going to watch an exotic food fans swallow crickets, chew on huhu grubs, struggle with sheep eyes and eat bull penis sausages. All these are cooked from fresh produce and are actually healthy food. And if exotic food is not enough for you then there will be a big party afterwards, which will last till morning.

History of the WildFood festival
Claire Bryant, local woman, instigated the very first celebration of local wild food which is coincided with the 125th anniversary of Hokitika foundation in March 1990. Since then the Wildfoods Festival has become a famous event in New Zealand.
While the first festival attracted a crowd of 1800 people, the number of visitors grew rapidly to peak on 2003 at 22,500 !

WildFood festival features
New wild foods are introduced every year. This year’s innovations include wasp larvae ice cream, cucumber fish, wok fried clams, sheep milk cheeses and much more.

Of course wild food is not the only attraction on the festival. Roving entertainment and continuous stage performances by bands, solo artists, mime, comedy, and much more will keep everyone excited and entertained all through the day and night.

About Hokitika
Hokitika is a township on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, 40 kilometers south of Greymouth. The resident population of the Hokitika is about 3,000 people.

Hokitika was founded on gold mining in 1864, being the center of the West Coast gold rush. By late 1866 it was one of New Zealand’s most populous centers. After gold rush faded the population of Hokitika greatly declined but now it is rising again thanks to “lifestlye inhabitants”.

For more information about the WildFood festival visit wildfoods.co.nz

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Maori Haka dance is now Legally Protected

GregBrave — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:51:02 +0000

The world-famous Maori traditional dance Haka has been formalized by Maori tribes in order to avoid copyright infringement. In particular, New Zealand’s Government has stated that Maori will legally own the rights to the most famous type of Haka – the «Ka Mate».

It was officially recognized that Ka Mate was composed by Maori leader Te Rauparaha in order to celebrate the rescue of a soldier from death in battle, which took place in 1820.

Obtaining the copyrights by Maori in many ways is merely symbolic, but it is very important for Maori leaders. Members of the tribe will not be able to claim any cash for violations of their copyrights, but from now on improper use of Haka for commercial purposes is prohibited.

The main purpose of this copyright is to prevent theft and «wrong» performance of Haka, as it happened, for example, in 2006.

Back then Fiat automotive company had issued a series of commercials in which Haka was performed by Italian wemen. While, according to Maori, this type of Haka dance is performed only by men.
Another scandal about the use of Haka took place in 2007. During the ceremony in which awards for the best bakery were given, Haka was performed by men, dressed in gingerbread comic outfits.

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111 years old father

GregBrave — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:24:53 +0000

My last article started with an ancient petrified jaw of tuatara, which was found lately, and in this article I will tell some really great news about currently living tuatara.

Henry – the world’s oldest pangolin, a relic of the times of dinosaurs, who recently celebrated his 111th birthday – for the first time in his life became a father.

Henry is a tuatara – reptile endemic to New Zealand. The typical lifespan of tuatara is between 50 to 100 years, reaching maturity in 20 years. However, from the observation of New Zealand’s Southland Museum staff, Henry showed no interest in females for about forty years. The reason for this was partly because he had a genital cancer.

After successful operation in which the tumor was removed, another attempt was made to “reunite” Henry with the opposite sex, and this time successfully!

Mother of Henry’s children is the 70-year-old tuatara Mildred, who in July last year layed twelve eggs. Finally, in January 2009, nine little tuataras hatched. According to the museum’s curator they feel good, but Henry is not yet aware of their birth, because as curator said «if newborn pangolins come close to Henry, they may become his dinner».

According to DoC, to date there are about 100,000 tuataras who live in the wild, and are contained in the reserves. Henry’s habitat is the Museum of Southland, which is located in Invercargill (on South Island of New Zealand), which is likely to soon become popular among tourists.

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Tuataras proved unsinkability of New Zealand

GregBrave — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:00:45 +0000

Researchers found ancient tuatara remains in New Zealand, which forced them to revise history of the country. Having studied petrified ancient tuatara’s jaw, the scientists concluded that islands of New Zealand have never fully went under water (which was until now the most common theory).

You can read more about Tuataras in my article titled Tuatara – The surviving Dinosaur

Current Theory

According to current theory, about 500 million years ago New Zealand was part of a giant continent Gondwana. Approximately 167 million years ago Gondwana started cracking, forming a smaller continents. New Zealand, Antarctica and Australia have long been connected to each other. It is believed that New Zealand has begun its separate life at about 130-85 million years ago. According to one theory, some 25-22 million years ago, it fully plunged under water, but later resurfaced. Such a conclusion was made due to the fact that in New Zealand haven’t been found fossils belonging to that period.

New Exciting Foundings

The discovery of this petrified ancient tuatara’s jaw by scientists who worked under the leadership of Marc Jones from University College London forces to revise this theory. Location of the teeth traces found in the remains of the jaw points to only one group of reptiles – tuataras. Age of discovery dates back to the period when New Zealand supposedly was under water.

The owner of discovered jaw must have got to the island after its resurfacing. Animals would have swam to New Zealand through the ocean. It is unlikely that tuataras could survive such a journey. In addition, in Australia, which is the only possible location from which these animals could arrive, remnants of tuataras have never been found.

The Alternative

The researches of UCL put forward an alternative version New Zealand’s past. In their view, it wasn’t completely plunged under water. Animals and plants survived on the dry parts of the islands. Scientists suggest that dry surface could be a very small part of New Zealand – up to one percent of its current territory. As proof of this assumption scientists point to Stephens Island. It has an area a thousand times less than one-hundredth part of New Zealand (!), but more than a thousand tuataras are living there.

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Te Araroa Advances

GregBrave — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Recently Te Araroa posted their report on year 2008. If you are not familiar with the Te Araroa trust you can read about it in my post titled Te Araroa – The Long Pathway.

The report is very impressive. Duing 2008 Te Araroa trust has opened 14 tracks for the general public access. The total length of these fourteen tracks reaches 134 kilometers (83.26 miles).

While previously Te Araroa trust had to fund even the tracks across lands that are under DoC (Department of Conservation), 2008 was the first full year in which DoC began funding the Te Araroa tracks going through its estate. DoC also signed up 340 kilometers (211.27 miles) of Te Araroa’s route across existing DoC tracks, which is almost half of the 827 kilometers that needs signage! Wow, this is just great.

The report elaborates on Te Araroa’s activity in many regions including Southland, Otago, Canterbury, Marlborough, Wellington, Manawatu, Whanganui, Waikato, Auckland, and Northland.

Ta Araroa’s deadline for the complete walking trail across New Zealand comes on December 2010, and they seem to advace greatly toward this wonderful goal. I wish them all the best and Good Luck!

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3 New Wallpapers For Download

GregBrave — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:51:51 +0000

This is a short announcement.
I posted three new and very beautiful high-resolution photos in the Free Wallpapers Download section. These photos were submitted by Markus Baumann.

Markus is a graphic designer and photographer. He has a stock of many great photos divided into several categories such as Sky, Water, Mountains, Plants, Animals, and much more.

Markus is also a keen tramper and in his blog you can read many interesting tramping-related articles enriched with professional photography.

You can visit his site at Skylark Productions

And here is a preview of the photos that are now available in high resolution for free download:

Click on the images for a larger preview.

Actually Markus submitted more photos, but I didn’t have the time to put them all at once. I will put the rest of the photos in the very near future, so keep checking!

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New Zealand’s Scenic Wallpapers – Now for Free Download!

GregBrave — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:28:05 +0000

Hello Everybody!

I am happy to announce that there is a new section at NZTramping!

I created a special place where I will put beautiful photographs from New Zealand in high resolution, which everyone will be able to download and use as personal wallpaper for free. I will regularly upload new photographs to this place so come visit often to see what is new there.

You can reach this special place by clicking on “Free Wallpapers” in the top navigation menu or by clicking on “Download Wallpapers” link located in the left sidebar. You can also get there by clicking Here

In addition to me placing my high resolution photographs for people to download, I am also giving everyone the opportunity to submit your own photographs, and after a review I will also put them for a free download. It is important to note that any submitted photographs should belong to the submitter and that by submitting them owner gives me the right to offer them for free download, for personal use.

You can submit your photographs Here

Of course I will attribute the submitted photographs to their owners with links to their sites.

The more photos I will receive from you, the bigger this collection of free wallpapers will grow bringing joy to everyone, so don’t hesitate to contact me and submit your photographs !

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Survival of the Weak

GregBrave — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:29:16 +0000

DOC personnel was very surprised when they found twenty eight Okarito brown kiwi eggs at the Okarito kiwi zone this spring. Last year they collected only three!
The reason that DOC are collecting these eggs is that Okarito brown kiwi (rowi), which is by the way rarest kiwi species in the world, is considered to be almost extinct with only three hundred birds left. So DOC personnel is collecting the eggs to hatch in protected area.
But the fact that more eggs were found this year means that kiwis are breeding increasingly themselves, and this is very encouraging. It may havehappened due to a mild winter.
Rowi breeding season started in late July, and will probably run until January-February, which leaves enough time for more eggs and chicks.
DOC staff were monitoring thirty five new birds that were caught during winter and about seventy pairs now have transmitters. Last year there were only 45 pairs.
The transmitters are attached to the birds legs, and they send out a sequence of 15 distinct sets of beeps. Rangers can detect these signals with the help of special receivers. If the received signal shows that kiwi doesn’t move then it is likely that it had laid an egg and now incubating it.
I really hope that rowi will continue breeding and their numbers will increase with years to come.

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Kiwi found in the Opuiaki Forest

GregBrave — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:32:35 +0000

These news are very exciting for all Kiwi fans of New Zealand. For the first time in ten years (!) North Island Brown Kiwi was found in the Opuiaki Forest, which is located near Tauranga. In the DOC they think that the birds are even breeding! DOC ranger Lance Dew and his dog Jet (which was especially trained to track Kiwis) found a pair of brown Kiwis in the Opuiaki’s dense native bush after spending 9 hard nights following their scent. The found kiwis have been tagged with radio transmitters and from now on they will be monitored by the DOC.
These discovered kiwis are one of the signs that animal pest control in the Ouiaki Ecological Area is working, and probably not only kiwi will benefit from it, but also other endangered species of native plants and animals such as kokako kaka and others.

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New Zealand’s popularity goes down

Greg Brave — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:40:36 +0000

New Zealand’s popularity sky-rocketed during and after the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy, but now it is rolling downhill. It means that less tourists are visiting the country, and New Zealand tourism chiefs are worried. A well known consumer PR agency Henry’s House was called to help revive New Zealand’s popularity among tourists. Henry’s House provide support to several world’s famous brands and entertainment properties. They are listed among UK’s top performing PR agencies, highly experienced in media relations, brand building and TV properties. Henry’s House has been appointed initially for a 6-month project after getting picked from sixty agencies. The New Zealand’s account is said to be worth six figures. It is expected from the agency to raise awareness of New Zealand “personality” via traditional and digital media. Henry’s House will be moving New Zealand’s image away from the Lord of the Rings association and the country’s scenery, and would instead emphasize it as “the youngest country”.

I understand that New Zealand’s main stream of income is from tourism, and that they are getting worried when less tourists are visiting the country, but I think that people who want to visit New Zealand would do it even without such an aggressive advertising. In my opinion all this additional publicity will bring to New Zealand is relatively small number of people who doesn’t really care where to go, and since New Zealand was somewhere in the bottom of their list, now they will put it a little closer to the top. But of course that my opinion is biased by my personal passion for New Zealand. Watching Lord of the Rings for me was just a proof of what I always thought and knew about the beauty of this country. Anyway, in my opinion, if you are not sure that you absolutely want to visit New Zealand, then don’t do it!