The Tuia Mātauranga Pōkai Whenua GeoTour follows the footsteps of early explorers of Aotearoa New Zealand taking you to places where leaders of the past searched for food, resources and ways to adapt and survive in this new land.
Use the Pōkai Whenua GeoTour as your classroom to explore the stories of the past, in the present, to preserve what is unique in Aotearoa New Zealand for the future.
Collect the codewords to get the Geocoin puzzle pieces
To be able to complete this GeoTour and receive your special Geocoin collectable, remember to take a note of the codeword placed in the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded here.
63 of the 150 Pōkai Whenua GeoTour caches will contain a randomly placed special FTF token (a replica of the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour commemorative coin). This is yours to keep! If you find more than one, you might consider leaving it for the next person who finds the cache.
THE GODWIT:
The godwits (kūaka) fly to the Motueka sandspit each year from Alaska. It is the longest, nonstop migratory flight of any bird. They are part of Motueka's unique ecological and cultural heritage, arriving in spring, shortly before the flock of tourists. Motueka sandspit is a unique ecological and internationally recognised site. It is at risk of damage if we do not take steps to protect it and the unique shorebirds that make their homes in the sand.
THE JOURNEY:
Unlike seabirds, they cannot rest on water or feed at sea, so this 11,000-kilometre journey is the longest non-stop flight undertaken by any bird.
Scientists have only a patchy idea of how high the birds fly, but it could be about 2000-3000m. A dead female godwit was once found on Mt Ruapehu, at 2200m.
It's thought that the birds, which are believed to fly in small groups, fly at such an altitude to keep themselves cool.
One school of thought is that the ability to burn precious body fat to carry them across immense distances might not function at warmer, lower, altitudes.
Scientists also think the birds are able to shrink the size of their gut before they leave so they don't have to carry extra weight on their long flight.
The only water they get along the way is the by-product of converting their body fat to fuel.
When the migrants arrive in New Zealand, they are bone-thin, tired, hungry and bedraggled, just feathers and bones.
Despite this, the birds have little time for a break. They have to devote their energy intake to preparing themselves for the long journey back to Alaska.
Between October and December, they have to moult to replace their worn feathers. Between January and March, they eat and eat and eat, piling on the 30 to 40 percent fat reserves they need for their long flight back to the Northern Hemisphere to breed. They also change their plumage (but not their flight feathers) to the rusty brown colour seen before migration.
The return flight to Alaska includes a stopover in the Yellow Sea so they arrive in good condition to breed in May.
THE MIRACLE OF MIGRATION
The godwits symbolise the act of migration. According to Māori, the first explorer to reach New Zealand was Kupe. Using the stars and ocean currents as navigational guides, he ventured across the Pacific on his waka hourua (voyaging canoe) from his ancestral Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki.
In 1642 Abel Tasman chartered NZ for the Dutch East India Company, and he was followed by Captain James Cook and other European explorers which brought a second wave of migration from the Northern Hemisphere to this small land in the Pacific Ocean, named Aotearoa (the land of the long white cloud) by Kuramārōtini who arrived with Kupe.
We are all here because of a journey. Whether made by our ancestors, or ourselves.
The godwits remind us that migration, departures, and arrivals are a natural part of life. We should rejoice in these events, and remember not the sadness of farewell, but the happiness of return.
Motueka comes together each year to bless this miracle of migration. A miracle that repeats itself year after year, whether we are here to see it or not. This migration connects us with each other and with those on foreign shores whose hearts and minds the birds touch on their special journey. We are joined with those in other parts of NZ who gather to farewell the godwits, those in Australia who witness their comings and goings as we do.
By the godwit's flight, we are also joined with those in Korea where the godwits feed on their journey north, those communities where the godwits will land, and in Alaska where they build their nests and lay their eggs before their return to us.
The godwits remind us of this miracle of friendship, of our connection with others, of our need to connect with ourselves and the environment. We bless the godwits because they bless us with their presence.