Welcome to the EcoQuest Field Studies Centre!

The EcoQuest Field Studies Centre is located an hour's drive south of Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand and Polynesia. We are on the coast of the Hauraki Gulf (New Zealand's largest shallow embayment) and at the epicentre of a range of ecological, commercial, recreational and cultural landscapes and activities. This area is a natural laboratory and classroom for studying the terrestrial-marine ecotone in an area of intensifying human activity. Within three hours travel you can experience: varied coastal and marine environments, a protected off-shore island sanctuary, extensive agricultural landscapes, substantial wetland and riparian ecosystems, forested mountain ranges and volcanoes, as well as cities and their associated infrastructures that support in excess of one million people.

The EcoQuest Campus

Our campus is situated on three acres of seaside property on the shore of Tikapa Moana (the Firth of Thames), three kilometres north of Kaiaua, and in the village of Whakatiwai. The Centre is the home base from which you will be making a number of extended field excursions to study New Zealand's ecology, natural history, and environmental impacts firsthand. While away from our home base, EcoQuest students stay at a variety of overnight facilities (lodges, camps, marae). The in-country travel is mainly in the EcoQuest vans, although we use some public transport such as ferries and certified boats. All in-country travel related costs, lodging and meals, are included in the program fees.

Student accommodation is in cabins and bunkrooms with a central bathroom and laundry facility. Field leaders and visiting faculty are also accommodated on site. A large classroom/dining room is situated to make the most of the open space and sun with outdoor living on the deck. In addition, the site has a separate laboratory for processing field samples and identifying and cataloguing specimens. A main building houses the administrative offices, computer room, and a library. EcoQuest students have limited access to internet and phone facilities. Up to date reference materials and audio-visual materials appropriate to course content are available on site.

We have plenty of space to work and play. Our front yard is the beach -a great place for walking, kayaking, or to watch sun (or moon!) rises. Access to Waharau Park and the forested Hunua Range is 1400 metres up the road.




Sustainability at the EcoQuest Campus

Our campus is a microcosm of planning and resource management. Students share responsibilities such as tending the chickens, growing vegetables and fruit, and gardening tasks - composting, weeding, and planting. Many EcoQuest students have been active in this area and hold an interest in developing steps toward sustainability, both for the EcoQuest campus and in their own lives.

While building on the enthusiasm of students from previous programmes, new organic gardens were established by a team of enthusiastic EcoQuesters at the newly purchased EcoQuest site during the fall 2003 semester.

Each new student team contributes to the garden effort. The spring 2004 team made a move toward minimizing waste and packaging by planning for EcoQuest to grow all herbs and for both the kitchen and for teas. Planting fruit trees and ornamentals is part of each programme. The tamarillos and citrus trees survived the chilly winter of 2004 and there will be home grown fruit in 2005. The fall 2004 team has enjoyed vegetables and salad greens compliments of the spring of 2004. In return, they have added to the raised vegetable gardens and have established containers in which tomatoes and zucchini are underway.

There are larger landscape and ecological issues to be worked on as well. We share the stream with the local marae (the Wharekawa marae is just 500 metres up the road from our campus) and several private landowners. Stream care is an important consideration and our students have carried out research on water quality and weed control issues pertaining to the stream. Plans are being developed to restore the riparian margin with native vegetation.

The advantage of having a home base, such that EcoQuest offers, is the added dimension of involvement with local initiatives and the opportunities for students to actively be part of , and contribute to, a long term vision.

Surrounding the EcoQuest Field Studies Centre

The Firth of Thames, which is the southern part of the Hauraki Gulf, is New Zealand's largest shallow marine embayment. The Maori name for the Hauraki Gulf (including the Firth of Thames) is Tikapa Moana. Tikapa Moana is a taonga (treasure) for the local Maori, not only because its wealth of kaimoana (seafood) has played a vital role in sustaining the Hauraki iwi (tribes), but also because the very life force of Tikapa Moana and the local iwi are tightly intertwined. In addition to commercial fishing and marine farming, Tikapa Moana provides opportunities for recreation and tourism.

The southern shores of the Firth of Thames support one of the largest areas of mangroves (Avicenna marina) in New Zealand. The Miranda-Kaiaua Coast (western shoreline of the Firth of Thames) is characterized by sequentially deposited shell banks, which have formed an extensive Chenier Plain - a landform that is unique in the world and attracts international attention. The extensive inter-tidal mud flats and associated salt marsh communities along the south-western shore of the Firth of Thames are important feeding grounds for large numbers of native, endemic and migratory shore birds and waders (including some rare and threatened species). In 1990, the vast intertidal area (8500ha) was designated a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention (1971). The site is an integral part of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, and is significant for the conservation of international migratory waders. The area is a natural laboratory and classroom for study of the terrestrial-marine ecotone in an area of intensifying human activity.

The Hunua Range, our 'backyard', encompasses over 10,000 hectares of protected natural area, most of it within the catchment area that feeds the four earthen dams that provide nearly two-thirds of Auckland's water supply. The forest of the Hunua Range contains remnant mixed podocarp stands, southern beech (Nothofagus spp.) and tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa) stands, and it provides habitat for rare endemic species such as the Hochstetter's frog (Leiopelma hochstetteri), and -recently re-introduced- kokako (Callaeas cinerea).

Across the Firth from EcoQuest, the Coromandel Range rises steeply off the eastern coast of Tikapa Moana. This Range forms the central axis of the Coromandel Peninsula. The peninsula is a discrete ecological unit, with a range of ecosystems and bio-climatic zones. By the late 19th century, logging of native forest (predominantly kauri [Agathis australis]) and gold mining were significant extractive industries, resulting in the large-scale alteration of unique ecosystems. Resource management issues on the Coromandel Peninsula in recent years include: increased residential and recreational developments in the coastal zone; plantation forestry and its impact on estuarine environments; development and expansion of marine farming off the west coast of the peninsula; development of protected areas for kiwi (Apteryx spp.); control of introduced pests and predators throughout the forests of the peninsula, and eco-tourism.

In 2005, students and staff built a climbing wall at EcoQuest, which makes for great recreational opportunities.