Become a Paparoa National Park

It’s a great way to get to know this special place …

KIWI RANGER!™

To become a Paparoa KIWI RANGER

If you are aged 6 and under do three activities.

If you are aged 7 to 9 do five activities.

If you are aged 10 to 100 do seven activities.

But you don’t have to stop there – why not do them all!

My Name

Where I live

Other parks and sanctuaries I’ve visited

KIWI RANGERS are people who…• Care about Paparoa National Park• Care about native plants, animals and conservation• Think this place is special and want to know more

Let’s get started!

Welcome!Welcome to Paparoa National Park. There are many great places to explore and amazing plants, birds, and insects to discover. Try out the different activities and find out for yourself why this is such an amazing National Park!

When you are finished, take your KIWI RANGER booklet to the Paparoa National Park Visitor Centre in Punakaiki (03 731 1895), where a ranger will check it

and award your badge. Or post it to us - see the inside back page for more details.

™

™

™

To become a Paparoa KIWI RANGER

If you are aged 6 and under do three activities.

If you are aged 7 to 9 do five activities.

If you are aged 10 to 100 do seven activities.

But you don’t have to stop there – why not do them all!

KIWI RANGERS are people who…• Care about Paparoa National Park• Care about native plants, animals and conservation• Think this place is special and want to know more

Short walks Dolomite Point Truman Track Pororari to Punakaiki River Track

Walks that need a little more experience Cave Creek / Kotihotiho Track Fox River Caves Ballroom Overhang Sections of the Inland Pack Track

Ask at the Visitor Centre for more information...

Which track did you walk?

What birds and insects did you see or hear along the way?

What did you most enjoy about your walk?

Go for a walk on one of Paparoa National Park’s many tracks

Activity 1: Getting Out There

What other tracks have you also walked in Paparoa National Park?

2. Along river valleys

3. In the limestone cliff and cave areas

Paparoa National Park has some spectacular places to enjoy, but

along with its beauty and adventure come hazards. It’s so important

to stay safe in the outdoors. In each of the following environments,

think of two hazards to be aware of and ways you can prevent them.

Activity 2: Stay safe in the outdoors

1. On coastline

HINT: Look out for helpful signs around the park to help you identify these

EXTRA! What is a grike?

HAZARD

HAZARD

HAZARD

WAY TO PREVENT IT

WAY TO PREVENT IT

WAY TO PREVENT IT

eg. Cliffs eg don’t climb over any barriers

Activity 3: Nature’s Rhythm

HINT… High tide is the best time to do this activity

If these rhythms are nature’s music – what are its instruments? Draw or write the different parts of nature that work together to make the sounds you’ve heard...

During your walk around Dolomite Point stop at Putai Blowhole. Listen carefully for at least two minutes and take in all the sounds you can hear. You can even move your arms as if you were conducting nature’s music! Mark with lines, circles, crosses etc the pattern or rhythm you hear on the chart below. Also use made-up words (like wooooshhhh etc) to describe the different types of sounds you hear.

90 secs 120 secs60 secs

loud

& h

eavy

not

esso

ft &

hig

h no

tes

30 secsstart

Take a torch and follow this sensory trail through the Punakaiki Cavern (be sure to ask for advice on conditions at the Visitor Centre).

Activity 4: Deep in the cavern

Find an interesting piece of wall. With the torch off reach out and touch the wall. What does it feel like?

Elsewhere in the cavern again turn off your torch. What can you smell?

Go to another part of the cavern. Turn off your torch and describe what you hear.

Once back outside draw a map of the cave. Draw an arrow to connect each of your answers to the parts of the cave you explored with your different senses.

TREAD CAREFULLY and leave nothing behind that could disturb this fragile ecosystem!To find out more… about caves and caverns check out the DOC website at the Visitor Centre.

Stop inside the entrance – can you feel a change in the air? Turn off your torch – what can you see now?

MY MAP!

Along the Truman Track you will see a very big and old podocarp tree called a MATAI. Some say it’s more than 800 years old! LOOK UP AND UP AND UP…

Activity 5: Giants Of The Forest

[one way to work this out is to ask one per-son to stand at the tree’s base, then stand further back along the track and imagine how many people would need to stand on top of each other to reach the top!]

[Which one do you think might grow up to become the next giant tree here?]

How tall do you think this tree is?

Draw a matai leaf from one found on the ground

or from the panel ...

Can you find and count all of the small baby matai grow-ing around this giant?

Look closer – this giant tree is actually two! Northern rātā starts life as a vine - what do you call a plant that lives off another?

Now look closely at these two giant trees. How many other types or species of

plants can you see living on them.

DID YOU KNOW?…there are many more forest giants in Paparoa National Park, like rimu, red beech and kahikatea. Look out for

them on your other walks!

Ask the Visitor Centre staff to play ‘Te Paparoa O Tuterakiwhanoa’. It shows how water created this special environment.

Activity 6 Water - The Life Force Of Paparoa

Remember to label your drawings/diagrams as much as you can…

What is the most sacred type of water to Māori ?

DID YOU KNOW…Rain water mixed up with rotting trees and plants makes a brown acidic ‘tea’ that speeds up the way water erodes the limestone.

During your walks in the park can you find two ways water has shaped the limestone landscape? Make drawings or diagrams of what you have seen that show these forces of water at work.

Pick one tree in a nikau grove and count its rings. Draw the rings on this picture

Paparoa National Park is one of the easiest places to see nikau – our only native palm tree.

Activity 7 Growing Up – Nikau-Style

It is very slow-growing – it takes 50 years before the trunk is even formed! As it grows, the palm sheds its outer fronds, and this leaves a ring on the trunk. About two rings are formed each year.

How old do you think your tree is?

Thatch houses

Make storage

containers and pots

Make necklaces or eaten when

green

Weave into hats, mats,

baskets and leggings

Nikau were an important plant to Māori and were used in many ways. Can you match these ways the nikau was used to the labelled parts of the nikau?

PALM BERRIES

LEAF STRIPS

FRONDS

TRUNK

Take a walk around Dolomite Point and use the information panels to help fill the words from the ‘ingredients list’ into these sentences.

Activity 8 Nature’s Secret Pancake Recipe!

Starting35millionyearsago,fragmentsofshellandskeleton sunktotheseafloor.

Immense‘p’ressureplusmudandsandcreatedalternatinglayersof

mudst’o’neandlimestone.

U’P’LIFTofthelimestonefromtheSE’A’BEDstartedabout

5millionYEARSago.

Forthelast100,000yearsE’R’OSIONhascontinuedtoshapethebuttresses.

TheadditionofW’A’VES,windandR’A’INareveryimportantingredientsinmakingexcellent

PANCAKErocks!

WHEN YOU GET HOME TRY OUT THIS PANCAKE RECIPE!

2 cups of flour (try out different flours like wholemeal, rice, buckwheat etc)

1 tsp baking soda1 tbsp sugar

3 eggs2 cups of yoghurt or soured milk

(sour milk for 5 minutes with a tbsp of lemon or vinegar)1tbsp melted butter/oil

Whisk eggs well, mix in soured milk/yogurt and add baking soda and sugar. Sift in flours and mix carefully, then add

melted butter/oil.

Add berries in the batter or on top - yum! Cook on hot pan until bubbles just break before flipping…then stack ‘em up!

erosionlimestonemudstonepancakepressure

rain

sandseabed

skeletonupliftwavesyears

‘INGREDIENTSLIST’

Now put the letters with stars above them in the spaces below...

And Unscramble them to CRACK THE CODE!

!

DID YOU KNOW? Taiko rarely utter a sound when flying, but once on the ground they are a noisy bunch! They’re terrific pilots. Without landing lights or GPS, taiko fly into their bush colony at night, always landing within a few metres of their burrow! Find out more at www.doc.govt.nz and search for the Westland Petrel Taiko fact sheet.

According to Māori legend, why do Taiko breed on land and not the sea?

How does the Department of Conservation help to protect Taiko?

Activity 9: Taiko

Taiko only nest in one place – where is Taiko-Town?

Name two birds you know of that are a similar size.

What are two things about Taiko that allow it to survive despite the threats from predators like stoats and possums?

Taiko spend their lives at sea, only visiting land to breed. Taiko only come ashore under the cover of darkness, walking the forest floor to their burrow and hungry chick. Check out the display of the Taiko or Westland Petrel in the Visitor Centre.

Activity 10: Scavenger Hunt Of Experiences

Here in Paparoa National Park you can have some pretty unique experiences! Try and get three or four in a row, but why not do them all! Also . . . make a drawing or write something about each experience in the box…

Watch a sunset See a glow wormBe checked out

by a curious weka

Make a beach sculpture Describe your own Sit in an ocean cave

Taste salt on the ocean wind Smell the musky forest floor Hear sea-birds calling

Feel the spray of a blowholeWalk through a

grove of nikau palms Pick up some litter

Activity 11: Leaf Graveyard

Go for a forest walk and find a nice shady spot. Look down at the forest floor – you will see an amazing collection of leaves in various states of decay.

CAN YOU FIND AND DRAW . . .

What do you think causes leaves to change?

a half-eaten leaf

a skeleton leaf

a green, glossy leaf

Put the leaf litter back when you are done. These mighty midgets are the hardest workers in the leaf graveyard. They break down the leaves and turn them into soil.

What other interesting things did you find?

WANT TO LEARN MORE? Check out the Visitor Centre or panels along the tracks to find out more about Paparoa National

Park’s trees and plants.

The forest floor may be where leaves go to die, but it’s actually full of life! Find an area of leaf litter the same size as the grid below. Carefully clear the litter away square by square and count how many insects and fungi you see in each square – you might have to work quickly as some move pretty fast!

Paparoa National Park is known for its dramatic and inspiring coastline. Great places for inspiration include Dolomite Point, Truman Beach and Irimahuwhero Lookout. Sketch or describe your favourite stretch of coast in the park below.

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE? Check out http://www.doc.govt.nz and search for Paparoa National Park to discover the many ways people are working to protect the special and endangered things in the National Park.

Why do you think we should protect places like Paparoa National Park?

Activity 12 Journal

Rangers have many jobs – from community conservation education, trapping pests, radio-tracking and rescuing rare birds, weed-busting, track maintenance, helping coordinate the efforts of volunteers, ensuring people’s safety around cliffs, waters and caves, and answering everyone’s questions.

What questions do you have about what rangers do? Write them down, and if they have time, ask a ranger for their answers.

DID YOU KNOW? Punakaiki – where the pancake rocks are found – translates to English as Spring (Puna), to lie on a heap (kaiki) in reference to the blowholes amidst heaps of rock. Early travellers also knew it as a spring (Puna) of food (kai) where they could be sure of finding an abundance of food to sustain them on their journey.

Activity 13 Ranger Interview

Q1

Q2

A1

A2

PUNAKAIKI - puna (spring) and kai (food) was an impor-tant resting place on an ancient Māori trail that stretched the rugged length of the South Island’s western coast.

What I’ll do

It’s now time to return to the Visitor Centre to get your certificate signed and be given your KIWI RANGER badge.

Just before doing this we’d like you to think about something you’ll do when you get home that’s good for nature and the environment.

THANKS!™

KIWI RANGER™ has been jointly developed by Mick Abbott and Carli Richter. Thanks to Penny McIntosh, Prue Grant, Robin Reid, Marina Ryan, Bob Dickson and everyone at Paparoa National Park for the great ideas and enthusiasm. Thanks also to Gillian McCarthy and Joel Bretherton for the wonderful design work.... to the University of Otago and the Otago Institute of Design for supporting the development of the programme.

Becoming a KIWI RANGER™

© 2015 Department of Conservation

™

To receive your badge take your finished booklet to the Paparoa National Park i-SITE Visitor Centre in Punakaiki (03 7311895), where a ranger will check it and award your badge.

You can also post your completed booklet to Paparoa Kiwi Ranger, Paparoa National Park i-SITE Visitor Centre, 4294 Coast Road Punakaiki, RD1 Runanga 7873, and we’ll check your booklet and post out your badges.

Tiritiri MatangiWhakatane Footsteps of Toi

Te Urewera Ahuriri Estuary

Te Āpiti Manawatū GorgeRimutaka Forest Park

TotaranuiNelson Lakes National Park

DennistonPaparoa National Park

Franz JosefŌtamahua Quail Island

Arthur’s Pass National Park Aoraki Mount Cook National Park

Mount Aspiring National ParkOrokonui Ecosanctuary

and more on the way . . .

Aotearoa New ZealandExplore

with

kiwiranger.org.nZ+ tell us about your Kiwi Ranger experience

+ prize draws+ download posters and activities

+ find out more about each location+ nominate your favourite place for Kiwi Ranger

+ sign up for our monthly newsletter

visit

Congratulations!This is to certify that

is now a Paparoa National Park KIWI RANGER

™

Signature Date