By Katie Brasell, PhD student, Lakes380 Team
The quest to sample our 380 lakes continued last month when the crew headed over the Takaka Hill to Golden Bay. Lakes Rototai, Killarney, Otuhie and two of the Kaihoka lakes were ticked off the list early in the week (read more about these sites in Charlotte’s post below). We like to refresh the field crew to keep energy and momentum going on these lengthy and often remote field trips, so I tagged in for the second half of the trip.
The much-anticipated first heli-sampling day of the project finally arrived, bringing a stunning day of sampling on Lake Lockette in the Kahurangi National Park. Despite the picturesque surrounds, this was no holiday for the sampling team. At approx. 700 m wideand 57 m deep, Lake Lockette proved to be a physical challenge, taking over 5 hours to complete the full suite of sampling
Unfavourable weather the next day meant no heli-action, but the sampling didn’t stop. We headed northwest to the shallow, low-lying Lake Mangarakau. Wind and dark cloud descended over us making for some slow paddling progress. Having two inflatable vessels certainly makes it possible to access a range of remote lakes – but, on days like this you really miss an outboard motor!
The second chopper trip took us back into Kahurangi National Park to the much smaller and shallower Lake Peel – tucked in a mountainous bowl over the ridge from the Cobb Valley. We swooped in and got our sampling done in under three hours, but had to pack up and get out smartly before the cloud, rain and hail set in from the northeast. We better get used to these unpredictable mountain conditions for our Southland campaign, where over half of our lakes will be heli-access only!
Stay tuned for our next adventure before a well deserved christmas break, this time further north in the Auckland region.
