Hawai'i Pacific University
The five weeks I spent in New Zealand for EcoQuest's summer session seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, but my perspectives on the country, its ecology, and even life in general have been forever changed. The EcoQuest experience went above and beyond any lecture course I had taken at my university. Indeed, the North Island of New Zealand and its offshore islands were our classrooms, and we learned by doing. Whether it was observing takahe at Maungatautari, conducting kiwi-call surveys and radio-tracking kiwi, bird-watching and night-hiking, or carrying out vegetation surveys on off-shore islands, each activity we participated in taught us more than a textbook ever could. We gained greater insight into New Zealand’s conservation issues and how they are intertwined with its unique environmental policy.
Coming from school on Oahu, I was particularly interested in comparing New Zealand's native plant restoration efforts and its native Polynesian culture to those of Hawaii. I was not disappointed! Not only did we learn about the restoration of New Zealand's native biota, but we were able to plant hundreds of native trees and shrubs at the field centre and at various sites we visited. We were also able to gain a unique look into Maori culture by learning the basics of the Maori language, being welcomed onto the local marae, and learning about Maori ties to the land and their place in New Zealand’s government and environmental policies.
This experience was priceless to me. I participated in and saw things that the average visitor to New Zealand never gets to experience. I learned about ecology and environmental policy in a manner that far surpasses that of the average university course. More than anything, I felt like we accomplished something. Whether it was restoring native ecosystems or contributing data to real-time ecological studies, we didn’t just learn about the environment, we made a real difference.