Latest news with #Fiordland
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
Rain, wind and snow to hit parts of the country as temperatures fall
Canterbury high country is set to be hit with a snowfall. Photo: UnSplash/ Aaron Burden MetService is predicting some wintry weather moving into the first week of June, with temperatures set to fall across the country. Meteorologist John Law told Morning Report the weather this week would kick off the winter to come. "The combination of that cold air pushing up the country and that moisture will mean the return of some wintry weather over the tops of the Canterbury high country. "So those are the regions first off that will find that snow weather. "But by the time we head towards Friday and the weekend, I think all of us will find our temperatures are well and truly colder than it has been," he said. Law said the weather in the coming weeks would be a "pretty good taste" of our coming winter. He added the Canterbury region could see snow fall down to 300 metres. Wind watches are already in place for parts of the Tasman. Photo: Supplied/MetService He said rain watches were currently in place for parts of the Tasman, with more watches for the Bay of Plenty region likely. "On Wednesday another weather front moves in from the North... that brings with it some wet and windy weather." Heavy rain watches are in place for Motueka, Marlborough and Nelson in the Tasman region, all with a high chance of being upgraded to a warning. MetService said surface flooding and slips were possible. A heavy rain watch is also in place for Fiordland and Taranaki Maunga. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Myth or mystery: are moose roaming the isolated wilds of New Zealand?
Over 100 years ago, a ship dropped anchor in the frigid fjords of New Zealand's South Island and released 10 nervous moose on to the shore. The crew watched as the animals – the last survivors of a weeks-long voyage from Saskatchewan, Canada – skittered out of their crates and up into the dense, lonely, rainforest. The moose had arrived on a flight of fancy, as part of the then premier's grand vision to turn Fiordland national park into a hunters' paradise. It was the second attempt to release moose into the region – in a country whose only native land-based mammals are bats – after nearly all of an earlier herd died crossing the seas. Red deer and wapiti, or elk, were also released around the same time for game-hunting. Over the next few years, moose sightings were reported and photographs of their hulking frames lying dead next to hunters occasionally graced the pages of local newspapers. The last confirmed sighting was in 1951, after which, they were pronounced extinct. Yet in the decades since, there have been clues that the animals remain in New Zealand. People have found footprints too large to be deer, branches 7 to 8 feet high broken and stripped of their leaves, fur snagged in trees and cast antlers. There have also been numerous unconfirmed sightings of moose. Seventy-five years on from the last confirmed photograph, New Zealanders are still hunting moose – not for their heads, but for answers to an enduring mystery that has captured the public imagination for decades: are the elusive beasts still roaming the vast Fiordland wilds? Or is this just another myth of many projected on to the eerie, isolated terrain? That question came one step closer to being answered in March, when within two weeks of one another two hiking groups from the US and Canada reported seeing moose while tramping along Fiordland's Kepler Track, sparking a new flurry of national interest. Ken Tustin, a biologist, former helicopter pilot and hunter who is more widely known as New Zealand's 'moose man' has been tracking moose for more than 40 years – half his lifetime. In 1995 he captured grainy footage on a trail camera of what he believes is a moose and in 2002, a tuft of fur he found snagged on a tree was confirmed to be moose through DNA testing at a Canadian university. It is tempting to draw comparisons between the moose mystery and the quests for Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness monster but Tustin says moose are in 'quite a different category', given they were introduced. 'The existence [of moose] is so extraordinary, it seems unbelievable. But we ask people, before you dismiss it, please look to the evidence.' Canadian Antoine Beauchamp says there was no mistaking the large animal, which crossed their path 10 metres away during their hike. 'All three of us had the same thought: that this is a moose,' Beauchamp said, adding that his hiking party regularly see moose at home, sometimes in their own back yards. 'The colour was very distinctive, it had a big shoulder bump which is not common for red deer or wapiti … this, combined with the height of the animal, it was clear it was a moose.' Without photographic evidence, the department of conservation is sceptical moose still exist. When the most recent sightings emerged, its Te Anau-based operations manager John Lucas said until there was proof, the department would 'continue to take the view that we are most likely dealing with a deer … or possibly a red/wapiti cross that has been mistaken for a moose.' Moose are larger than red deer and wapiti, and unlike the latter two species, which have tree-like antlers, moose have broad flat antlers that fan out into finger-like edges. Moose are typically dark brown, red deer are reddish-brown in summer and grey in winter, while wapiti are fawn-coloured with a rump patch. Moose are typically solitary, while red deer and wapiti tend to move in herds. 'In some respects, if someone actually gets a photo, that might be quite disappointing – the mystery would be solved,' Lucas says. 'There is a saying that the presence of absence is not necessarily the absence of presence and that will endure until someone actually takes a photograph.' Fiordland is New Zealand's largest national park and forms a major part of a Unesco world heritage site. Its rainforest, ragged mountains, glassy fjords and lakes draw tourists to its famous hikes, while its dramatic and mostly inaccessible terrain is a perfect canvas for mythology and rumour. For over a century, stories abounded of a lost Māori tribe living in Fiordland, while some people believed the moa – a large flightless bird that went extinct hundreds of years ago – stalked the vast valleys into the late 1800s. 'Fiordland is always the locus for this sort of stuff,' says Charlie Mitchell, a senior journalist for The Press who has covered the moose story for years. 'We sort of need Fiordland to be this locus of mystery, because otherwise we have to accept that we've managed to survey everything, we've found everything.' Sometimes, species deemed extinct have reemerged, such as the takahē, another large flightless bird as round and blue as Earth, which was rediscovered in Fiordland in 1948, 50 years after the last sighting. Mitchell says the odds of moose following in the footsteps of takahē are extremely low, but not zero. 'That's what makes it frustrating and compelling at the same time … as long as that [chance] is there, I think there will be people still searching for the moose.' Tustin concedes he may never find a moose but seeing one is almost besides the point. 'I love that moose have taken on an almost spiritual element in Fiordland,' he says. 'When I think of Fiordland … I think rain on the smooth water, diminishing ridges, hanging cloud, ferns bobbing under the rain. It's mood, its mystery, and my goodness, a moose fits in there beautifully.'
RNZ News
20-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Meridian Energy to replace five transformers at Manapōuri Power Station
Manapōuri Power Station. Photo: 123rf Meridian Energy will have to replace five transformers at Manapōuri Power Station due to concerns about elevated gassing. In a stock exchange announcement, Meridian said the Southland power station's transformer fleet is currently made up of six transformers from Australia's Wilson Transformer Company (WTC). It initially received seven from WTC in 2015 and 2018, but two were removed in 2023 due to gassing issues. Another WTC transformer was supplied at the end of last year. Meridian said it received independent advice that the five older WTC transformers would likely have similar problems to the two removed from service. Meridian planned to replace the older WTC transformers over the next two-and-a-half years. "We are moving quickly to replace the five transformers supplied by WTC in 2015 and 2018 and are confident this will result in limited to no impact on generation capacity," its general manager for generation, Tania Palmer said. Manapōuri is the largest hydropower station in the country, located at Lake Manapōuri in Fiordland National Park, and primarily supplies electricity to the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. Meridian said it was "important the company takes swift action". Palmer said the company was "working hard" to ensure there would be no generation impact. The company expects to receive two Indonesian-made transformers early next year. Meridian did not outline any financial impact, but said it was in "discussions with WTC on a resolution". "At the current time a resolution has not been reached," it said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
13-05-2025
- RNZ News
Lobby system for Great Walks booking overcoming glitches
The real test for the system will be when the popular Milford Track opens for bookings on 28 May. Photo: Unsplash / Mac Gaither The Department of Conservation (DOC) is confident the glitches that have plagued the Great Walks booking system have been fixed but says it will not be complacent. The booking system has faced multiple crashes and false starts over the past two years, often surrounding the opening of the Milford Track. In 2023, the website crashed when more than 10,000 people tried to book the Milford Track at the same time, forcing DOC to delay the opening of bookings by a few months. Bookings opened on Tuesday for backcountry huts, cabins, lodges and cottages, while Great Walk bookings have been spaced out for the rest of the month. DOC director of heritage and visitors Cat Wilson said there was now a lobby system and the website had been upgraded to improve people's booking experience. "I'm as confident as I can be that those issues have been resolved and we've had a really smooth morning... where we've seen the queuing system in particular work really well," she said. It meant that anyone arriving before the start time would be held and then released into the queue to prevent the website from becoming overloaded. "Experience definitely tells us that we can't be complacent when we open up the Great Walk bookings. We've done a lot of hard work since last year to do everything we can to make the process as smooth and as fair as possible for customers," Wilson said. About 2750 bookings were made on Tuesday morning, but she said the real test would be when the popular Milford Track opened for bookings on 28 May. That was later than usual, as the Milford Track was often one of the first to open to allow people who missed out to have a chance to book another Great Walk instead. "We have made some quite significant changes to our booking system so we did really want to test those on some of the lower volume walks and huts," Wilson said. She encouraged people to be ready and get there on time if they wanted a spot, but also to check for cancellations if they missed out. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
13-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Protecting a herd of Fiordland Wapiti causes controversy
environment about 1 hour ago Forest and Bird has criticised the move to protect a herd of wapiti deer - or North American elk, in Fiordland National Park but ecologist Cam Speedy says it's the right move.
