Hear ye #Christchurch #Otautahi people
Mt Pleasant Pottery Club Christmas market & Student Exhibition
7th December 2025 10am - 2pm
Te Papa Kura Park, Main Road, Redcliffs
I spent yesterday at Travis Wetland, Ōruapaeroa, which is a large wetland restoration site in eastern Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. One of my MSc students, Tommy, is embarking on an invertebrate survey of the wetland, and we spent the day setting up Malaise traps (to catching flying insects) and pitfall traps (to catch invertebrates on the ground).
Tommy is repeating a survey done back in 1995–1996, when the wetland (then mostly wet farmland) was being purchased from a housing developer by the City Council.
We expect a lot to have changed (hopefully mostly for the better) as the vegetation of the wetland is much more diverse and native than it was.
Stay tuned over the summer for insect discoveries.
#entomology #wetland #restoration #InsectSurvey #insects #nz #LincolnUniversityNZ #research
A photo of Lincoln University summer scholar Max going the extra muddy mile helping set up an invertebrate monitoring project at Travis Wetland. The mud is up to his waste, and he's smiling.
My full-res photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54945126155/
A photo of Tommy, smiling, as he wades through the wetland towards one of our sampling sites, where we set up a variety of invertebrate traps.
My full-res photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54943934457/
Tommy (left) is doing his Lincoln University Masters research this summer repeating a 1995–1996 invertebrate survey of Travis Wetland, to see how the invertebrate community has changed. Here Tommy and Max are putting in one of a series of Malaise traps to sample flying invertebrates. Malaise traps look like open sided tents. Insects fly in, hit the middle barrier mesh, then fly up to get caught in a cup at the top.
My full-res photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54945126160
A photo of Tommy (left) and Max (right) digging in one of a series of pitfall traps to sample ground dwelling invertebrates. Tommy is doing his Lincoln University Masters research this summer repeating a 1995–1996 invertebrate survey of Travis Wetland, to see how the invertebrate community has changed.
My full-res photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54943934477/
One of the sites at Travis Wetland where we set up our invertebrate sampling yesterday was in the new southern woods.
I helped with a planting day for this back in 2014, when it was still a wet field. Now, it feels like a real forest, with a canopy well above my head and lots of wild seedlings scattered about underneath. It's amazing how quickly trees grow when the ground is always wet.
Here are two photos of the same part of the wetland in September 2014, when trees were being planted, and now. It's like magic!
Many of the trees planted here were sourced from Pūtaringamotu, Riccarton Bush, the old growth fragment of kahikatea swamp forest in central Christchurch. Pūtaringamotu is a much drier site than it was when the city was founded so it's fantastic to see a new swamp forest emerging.
(Now we just need to rein in our carbon emissions to stop the impending sea level rise that will otherwise submerge all these sites in a few centuries.)
#UrbanEcology #ForestRestoration #wetland #nz #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #nature
A photo of the same site yesterday (24 November 2025), which now feels like a real forest. The canopy is 4–5 metres above my head and there is a lot of wild undergrowth happening.
My full-resolution version of this is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54945075549/
A photo I took in September 2014 of a community planting day at Travis Wetland. There are lots of people with spades digging holes and planting baby trees.
My full-res photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/15374259456/
Eliot B
boosted
It's opening night! I would love to see some friends in the audience.
This is the most technically ambitious production I've been in, and the most demanding for me personally. It's looking and sounding amazing and I can't wait to share it with our first audience.
https://www.repertory.nz/show/the-hound-of-the-baskervilles/
Eliot B
boosted
Ōtautahi put on a fine norwester light show this evening. Here are some panoramas I just stitched together from my sunset photos.
If you want to get lost in the full-resolution versions, go to Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54931804109/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54931793954/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54930688507/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54930688692/
A photo of an orange bank of cloud in the sunset. The cloud at the bottom looks like it's dripping out of the cloud bank.
My full-resolution photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54930688692/
A panorama photo of an orange sunset from our house.
My full-resolution photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54931804109/
A photo of the last sliver of orange cloud about the horizon at the end of the sunset.
My full-resolution photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54931793954/
A photo of a roof of yellow clouds as the sunset begins.
My full-resolution photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54930688507/
It's opening night! I would love to see some friends in the audience.
This is the most technically ambitious production I've been in, and the most demanding for me personally. It's looking and sounding amazing and I can't wait to share it with our first audience.
https://www.repertory.nz/show/the-hound-of-the-baskervilles/
Ōtautahi put on a fine norwester light show this evening. Here are some panoramas I just stitched together from my sunset photos.
If you want to get lost in the full-resolution versions, go to Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54931804109/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54931793954/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54930688507/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54930688692/
A photo of an orange bank of cloud in the sunset. The cloud at the bottom looks like it's dripping out of the cloud bank.
My full-resolution photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54930688692/
A panorama photo of an orange sunset from our house.
My full-resolution photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54931804109/
A photo of the last sliver of orange cloud about the horizon at the end of the sunset.
My full-resolution photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54931793954/
A photo of a roof of yellow clouds as the sunset begins.
My full-resolution photo is on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54930688507/
Isaac Freeman
and 1 other
boosted
Native plant gardeners of Ōtautahi Christchurch and Selwyn area! Can I please harvest harakeke seed pods from your garden? Looking for places that have a high number of large, established harakeke plants so I don't take too many from each plant. Or if you know of wild locations that people wouldn't mind my foraging in!
#foraging #Ōtautahi #ŌtautahiChristchurch #Canterbury #harakeke
Native plant gardeners of Ōtautahi Christchurch and Selwyn area! Can I please harvest harakeke seed pods from your garden? Looking for places that have a high number of large, established harakeke plants so I don't take too many from each plant. Or if you know of wild locations that people wouldn't mind my foraging in!
#foraging #Ōtautahi #ŌtautahiChristchurch #Canterbury #harakeke
Angela Antunovic
boosted
I was running down off the hills this afternoon as part of my monthly biodiversity survey of this Port Hills route. I was carrying cameras and a monocular and a wind-shielded microphone plugged into my phone.
A couple of young guys biked up the hill on their mountain bikes.
"Capturing the birds?" one of them asked, curiously.
"Yeah!" I replied.
"Premium," he nodded.
There wasn't time to explain that I was capturing more than bird observations. Still, here are two of my afternoon's "premium" bird observations.
😄
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/314079214
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/314079214
#nz#ChristchurchPortHills#Ōtautahi#Christchurch #birds #nature#BiodiversitySurvey #wildcounts #iNaturalistNZ
My photo from today of a South Island fantail, backlit by the late afternoon western skyline. NZ fantails are small insect-catching birds with long fan-shaped tails.
My photo from today of a kererū (NZ woodpigeon) resting on a branch of a tree lucerne. Kererū are large blue-green birds with a white breast and a read eye and beak. This looks like a younger one.
I was running down off the hills this afternoon as part of my monthly biodiversity survey of this Port Hills route. I was carrying cameras and a monocular and a wind-shielded microphone plugged into my phone.
A couple of young guys biked up the hill on their mountain bikes.
"Capturing the birds?" one of them asked, curiously.
"Yeah!" I replied.
"Premium," he nodded.
There wasn't time to explain that I was capturing more than bird observations. Still, here are two of my afternoon's "premium" bird observations.
😄
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/314079214
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/314079214
#nz#ChristchurchPortHills#Ōtautahi#Christchurch #birds #nature#BiodiversitySurvey #wildcounts #iNaturalistNZ
My photo from today of a South Island fantail, backlit by the late afternoon western skyline. NZ fantails are small insect-catching birds with long fan-shaped tails.
My photo from today of a kererū (NZ woodpigeon) resting on a branch of a tree lucerne. Kererū are large blue-green birds with a white breast and a read eye and beak. This looks like a younger one.
Eliot B
and 4 others
boosted
If you're in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, and are keen to make some noise about the climate crisis on Friday, note that the young team of #SchoolStrikeforClimate have a protest march planned. They're starting at the Bridge of Remembrance at 1 PM.
My daughter is one of the organisers and she's worried that the turnout will be low this year as recently Meta locked them out of their Instagram account (they don't know why but expect it's because they expressed support for Palestinians). They started another Instagram account but don't have many followers.
(I've tried to convince them of the general excellence of Mastodon, but without any success, so far.)
Anyway, if you're a local, a boost would be appreciated, as would support from all ages on Friday. Thanks!
If you're in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, and are keen to make some noise about the climate crisis on Friday, note that the young team of #SchoolStrikeforClimate have a protest march planned. They're starting at the Bridge of Remembrance at 1 PM.
My daughter is one of the organisers and she's worried that the turnout will be low this year as recently Meta locked them out of their Instagram account (they don't know why but expect it's because they expressed support for Palestinians). They started another Instagram account but don't have many followers.
(I've tried to convince them of the general excellence of Mastodon, but without any success, so far.)
Anyway, if you're a local, a boost would be appreciated, as would support from all ages on Friday. Thanks!
Eliot B
boosted
I spent this afternoon touring the "Red Zone" of Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, with two friends. One of them works for Corrections and with his "clients" they've so far planted more than 90,000(!) native trees in this area of the city. Many more are to come. They're still baby trees now but a whole forest is on it's way!
For non-locals, the Red Zone was created after the disastrous Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 wrecked the housing in this eastern area of the city. Most of it was reclaimed wetland and the ground didn't hold up to a serious quake. The city decided not to re-house it.
The houses have since been removed although many of the home garden trees were retained. The area is now being re-landscaped for nature, recreation, and floodwater retention.
A photo of a grassy field filled with many hundreds of sticks. At the base of each one is a planted young native tree.
A photo of a grassy field filled with many hundreds of sticks. At the base of each one is a planted young native tree.
In this area the ground was so compacted by housing that it had to be ploughed before planting. It's now a field of "combi guards" (cardboard sheaths) each protecting a planted young native tree.
A photo of a grassy field filled with many hundreds of sticks. At the base of each one is a planted young native tree.
I spent this afternoon touring the "Red Zone" of Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, with two friends. One of them works for Corrections and with his "clients" they've so far planted more than 90,000(!) native trees in this area of the city. Many more are to come. They're still baby trees now but a whole forest is on it's way!
For non-locals, the Red Zone was created after the disastrous Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 wrecked the housing in this eastern area of the city. Most of it was reclaimed wetland and the ground didn't hold up to a serious quake. The city decided not to re-house it.
The houses have since been removed although many of the home garden trees were retained. The area is now being re-landscaped for nature, recreation, and floodwater retention.
A photo of a grassy field filled with many hundreds of sticks. At the base of each one is a planted young native tree.
A photo of a grassy field filled with many hundreds of sticks. At the base of each one is a planted young native tree.
In this area the ground was so compacted by housing that it had to be ploughed before planting. It's now a field of "combi guards" (cardboard sheaths) each protecting a planted young native tree.
A photo of a grassy field filled with many hundreds of sticks. At the base of each one is a planted young native tree.
Okay, do I know anyone in #Ōtautahi #Christchurch with a ute or trailer or similar who would be able to take a load of trash bags to the tip tomorrow (Sunday)? I will pay for the tip, your petrol, and your time.
And if after that you can help transport a fridge and washing machine, even better!