Mayor Island Field Trip - 16 October 2010

By Hayden Foulds

Mayor Island - where's that? you ask of the latest IPPS field trip to an offshore island of New Zealand. For the geographically challenged, it is 35km off the coast of Tauranga, parallel to the Coromandel Peninsula. Like White Island to the east, it is volcanic in origins although the last eruption was estimated to have occurred over 6000 years ago, so there was little chance of anything happening during our visit!

It was an early start for those 20 members going over, probably a little too early for some but at least the Bay of Plenty turned on a fantastic day for the trip - just about perfect as some would say.

Our transport out was provided by Neil Dalton and a couple of his mates, who very kindly made us feel at home on the 1¾ hour ride out to the island and back. Dropping us off also meant they could get a few hours fishing and diving for crayfish in with some success, which was later consumed at the end of day BBQ.

Getting ashore also presented a few challenges, since there was no jetty present on the island. So this meant we were rowed ashore, two at a time and despite a few interesting moves getting in and out of the boat, no - one got seriously wet.

We had about five hours to explore the island; unfortunately our DOC guide who was meant to meet us in Tauranga was a no show so we were on our own.

Several had maps of the island so we set off, unsure exactly where we would end up, through the forest which is dominated at lower levels by Pohutakawa - the largest forest of its kind in New Zealand. There were some massive trees, unfortunately some had succumbed to the recent wild weather and had fallen across the track in places, hence a bit of bush bashing was in order to get around them.

Consulting our maps soon realised we probably couldn't get all the way around the island in time, so the decision was made to head to the crater rim and hopefully some good views of the rest of the island.

By this time, some were also struggling so they made the decision to stay down on the lower reaches and meet up later, which proved to be a good one as many of us certainly stretched the body on the way up. The reward however, was great views over the crater and also back towards Tauranga.
There was also plenty of interesting plant life to see including Rewarewa (Knightia excelsa) in flower, plenty of native orchids just starting to flower and also Pomaderris ericifolia flowering as well.

Once the obligatory group photo was taken to prove we made it up, it was then back down to the beach the quick way for a well earned rest and lunch while waiting for the boats to show and take us back. Some enjoyed a spot of fishing, others more rest and relaxation on the journey back. Once back on dry land, it was off to the Te Puna Park Quarry for a look around before a BBQ tea and drinks to round off a great day. Special thanks goes to Ian Duncalf and Scott Bromwich (Daltons) for organising the day, and a very big thank you to Neil Dalton for arranging the transport to and from Mayor Island for the group.

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Mayor Island Field Trip - 16 October 2010

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