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.
Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project comprises approximately 5000 hectares of predominantly red, silver and mountain beech ( tawhairanui, tawhai, and tawhairauriki) forest. Māori tradition has it that Māui killed a taniwha, whose blood was splashed on the surrounding beech trees leaving the sap to run red. The project aims to restore this area of beech forest. This is being achieved through an extensive predator trapping programme and the area is managed as a "mainland island".
Situated alongside Lake Rotoiti within Nelson Lakes National Park, the area can be visited at any time of year. In summer, the area bustles with holidaymakers while in winter snow-covered peaks create a spectacular setting.
Take one of the many walks through the project and you'll see and hear the results of this work; a forest alive with the sights and sounds of birds. Bellbirds chime a constant chorus, fantails can be seen flitting from tree to tree and increasingly the screech of the kaka can be heard ringing out. A sound that Banks, on the Endeavour, noted in his journal “This morn I was awakd by the singing of the birds ashore from where we are distant not a quarter of a mile, the numbers of them were certainly very great who seemed to strain their throats with emulation perhaps; their voices were certainly the most melodious wild musick I have ever heard…”
Information panels along the way tell the story of the project and the plants and animals that call it home. The DOC Nelson Lakes Visitor Centre also has interesting and informative displays on the project.
Unique ecosystem
Honeydew beech forests can support large numbers of native birds: the honeydew scale insect provides an energy source for nectar-feeding birds, and the sporadic and intense beech seed production ("masting") provides food for large numbers of seed-eating birds.
Unfortunately this unique ecosystem has been altered dramatically by introduced deer, possums, mice, stoats, and wasps. The goal is to reduce the numbers of these pests so that the ecological processes of this honeydew beech forest can recover.
Bringing back the bird sound
The success of the project's work is evident when walking through the beech forest. There is a resounding chorus of bellbirds (korimako) mistletoe (pirangi) becoming more visible and small groups of kaka can be spotted.
Great spotted kiwi have been reintroduced and are breeding successfully.
History and culture
Early stories tell of Rakaihautu, chief and explorer who came to Aotearoa and travelled with his people to the great mountains. With his kōe (digging stick), Rakaihautu dug enormous holes that filled with water. He filled them with kai (food) for those who followed.
Lake Rotoiti
The surface of the glacial Lake Rotoiti is at 620 metres above sea level, and plunges to depths of 82m. It is fed by the Travers River, and is the source of the mighty Buller River. The cool, clear waters are home to eel, freshwater mussels and waterfowl which were important for Māori travelling the pounamu (greenstone) trails to and from the West Coast. Trout have been introduced and make the lake a popular fishing spot. The eels that live in Lake Rotoiti are fully protected, and many are females aged over 100-years-old.