Crusty Craig: 8 Fun Facts About NZ
The trip to Milford Sound was an...interesting one.
It seems out bus driver took his job incredibly seriously, so much so, in fact, that he called out the students on the bus who were listening to headphones or falling asleep, regardless of the fact that we were up and out by 6 AM and were now sitting on a bus for 4 hours.
We called him Crusty Craig.
He did have a huge wealth of information about Queenstown, though, so I combined what I learned from him with what I learned from Rees, a shuttle driver I actually respect as a human being.
So here are some interesting facts about New Zealand.
Hundreds of years ago, when the Maori first arrived on the island, they could barely hear each other over the cacophony of bird calls. New Zealand was home to thousands of bird species, many of which are either extinct or endangered now. The only mammal on the island then was also winged, so not much of a change there either.
When humans came over, they brought with them some new species of mammal, which ended up being a major problem. Why?
Because the animals they brought are predators. You know what predators eat? Birds. You know what's allllll over New Zealand? Yeah.
Human beings have a long history of showing up and wrecking everything.
New Zealand wasn't saved from that fate, sadly.
When people brought their pets with them to the island, the creatures ran rampant and bred faster than the local bird populations could keep up with. Dogs, possums, rats, and stoats (ferrets) became nightmarish predators to the birds and contributed to the extinction and endangerment of the species.
Today, you can find small traps all over the forests designed to neutralize pesky rodents without killing off any birds! As for man's best friend, New Zealand requires that dogs must be kept on a tight leash—literally.
You can find many soft products like gloves and coats advertising possum fur woven into it, so you know that you are contributing to helping the environment and giving hunters an incentive to get those possums!
The lake in Queenstown is such a bright, brilliant blue that it looks like an oversaturated travel-guide picture. How?
I was thinking magic.
Turns out its mica.
Boulders in the rivers feeding into the lake rub together and produce "glacial dust" which settles into the water. Here, the river is grey and murky because of the buildup.
As it washes into the lake, it absorbs all colors from the sun's rays except for blue, which it reflects back out. Hence the super blue lake.
We drove past a large enclosure with beautiful green grass and trees when I saw a huge herd of deer. I'm really glad I fought the instinct to point and say, "Oh Deer!" because the next thing Crusty Craig told us was that people actually farm deer in Queenstown, so seeing deer is nothing special at all.
Turns out that back in the day, Teddy Roosevelt gave New Zealand some gifts, and one of those gifts was deer. Deer took to the pine trees that had been introduced to Queenstown like a house on fire. Unfortunately, they also got completely out of control... like... a house... on fire.
The deer were overproducing and eating too much of the local plants, so to curb the issue, Queenstown sent out hunters. But why let all that meat and material go to waste when you can just put it behind a fence and farm it?
Here's where it gets crazy.
They sent up men in helicopters to fly around the mountains and plains, get in really close to a herd of deer, and then these men would jump OUT OF THE HELICOPTER and ONTO A RAMPAGING DEER! They'd wrangle up the animal, toss it back into the helicopter, and fly it back to the farm. For some reason, they call this hardcore farming tactic "bull-dogging".
And there you have it, the history of deer farming and extreme sports in Queenstown all in one unbelievable story.
New Zealand had its own gold rush! According to legend, a sheep farmer contracted out some work from some local men when they stumbled upon huge, sparkling, gold nuggets in the river. He told everyone to keep quiet about it, knowing that the moment word got out, there would be a mad dash for the river and his quiet farm would be overrun with gold diggers.
And they did keep quiet!
...For a few hours.
When the news inevitably broke, people came from all over to search for gold in the south island. Dunedin and Queenstown prospered greatly from the gold rush.
The locals say that the gold they salvaged from the rush is only a fraction of what lies hidden in the gorgeous natural rivers. Maybe El Dorado was in New Zealand all along!
The takahē is a stunning species of bird that went extinct with the early arrival of the Maori and white settlers. It's known for its unusual call and bright blue feathers.
BUT wait!
A hunter was out with his dogs when he saw a flash of blue through the trees. Could it be the extinct takahē?
Unfortunately, he didn't know that, so he shot and ate it.
But he kept the feathers and skin and sent it off to scientists for study and preservation.
That was thought to be the true end to these birds... but they just wouldn't be stopped. A small colony of these birds was rediscovered not long after that in a completely different area and habitat than the previous takahē. They had evolved to thrive in a more isolated environment to survive.
Sadly, this meant that the competition for resources was more fierce, so these birds will lay two eggs and kick one out of the nest to ensure the survival of just one offspring.
When they were rediscovered, preservationists nabbed the discarded eggs and raised them in hopes of introducing the metaphorical Ugly Takahē-ling around mating season.
Another bump in the road to that though... turns out that the homeschooled birds were too socially awkward for the rough-and-tumble public school birds. The lab-raised birds and wild birds didn't want to intermingle and the rejected birds struggled to survive. To be fair, they were fed by blue hand-puppets growing up, so they never really stood a chance if you ask me.
Specialists are still working on a solution to that problem.
Hopefully, they'll figure out how to solve social awkwardness for these birds, and then maybe they'll clue us awkward humans in on that solution, too.
Once upon a time, there was once a race of birds that looked like hideous ostriches on steroids. The Moa, an ancient ancestor of the kiwi, were huge birds the size of giraffes that roamed the island.
Unfortunately, when the Maori people came over, they hunted them like crazy for their meat. What they didn't realize is that the Moa have unusually long gestation periods, so they reproduce very, very slowly.
Before long, they went extinct.
This was a major problem for another species of bird: the gargantuan eagles that fed on Moa. With their food supply now gone, these eagles started hunting the next best thing.
Maori children.
Terrifying, right?
Really gives you a new perspective on the Eagles in The Lord of the Rings, no?
When the Maori first arrived in New Zealand, they lived their lives as they'd always done, hunting, fishing, building, and, unfortunately, burning.
The early Maori would set fires to push back the trees, hardly expecting that the dense foliage would light and spread so easily. The fires rampaged through the landscape, wiping out habitats, bird species, and ancient trees.
A great deal of the greenery you'll find today on the island is fairly young growth, still recovering from that early ravaging. In Queenstown, you'll find a lot of pine trees that took root in the soil from the hooves of Spanish sheep in the absence of the thick native growth.
In some areas of the countryside, you'll also see tragic scars on the landscape from when the government made a deal with Japan to give them a chunk of the forest. Driving through the endless green hills, the sad bald spot in the land sticks out like a sore thumb.
Hopefully, the land will recover in time from gross human error.
As interesting as all of these facts are, Crusty Craig's stories had a depressing underlying theme.
The moral of the story is that man has a knack for screwing over hundreds of years of nature's labors. Fortunately, now that we're aware of the issue, we can do our part to preserve and restore the natural balance.
New Zealand has implemented many environmental programs to help this along. Recycling bins alongside compost bins in every major city, elimination of plastic bags from major grocery stores, and environmental awareness educational programs in tourist locations are just a small part of the Kiwi effort to save the world.
I'm not in a position to create similar programs in my hometown, but I can do little things every day to help the cause.
Little things like bringing my own grocery bags to Walmart, taking my paper and boxes to the local recycling center, carpooling, and picking up litter whenever I come across it can go a long way, especially if I can inspire others to do the same.
So what do you think? Have I inspired you?
Queenstown, New Zealand
It seems out bus driver took his job incredibly seriously, so much so, in fact, that he called out the students on the bus who were listening to headphones or falling asleep, regardless of the fact that we were up and out by 6 AM and were now sitting on a bus for 4 hours.
We called him Crusty Craig.
He did have a huge wealth of information about Queenstown, though, so I combined what I learned from him with what I learned from Rees, a shuttle driver I actually respect as a human being.
So here are some interesting facts about New Zealand.
1. Bats are the only mammals native to New Zealand
When humans came over, they brought with them some new species of mammal, which ended up being a major problem. Why?
Because the animals they brought are predators. You know what predators eat? Birds. You know what's allllll over New Zealand? Yeah.
2. Possums, rodents, and dogs, Oh My!
Human beings have a long history of showing up and wrecking everything.New Zealand wasn't saved from that fate, sadly.
When people brought their pets with them to the island, the creatures ran rampant and bred faster than the local bird populations could keep up with. Dogs, possums, rats, and stoats (ferrets) became nightmarish predators to the birds and contributed to the extinction and endangerment of the species.
Today, you can find small traps all over the forests designed to neutralize pesky rodents without killing off any birds! As for man's best friend, New Zealand requires that dogs must be kept on a tight leash—literally.
You can find many soft products like gloves and coats advertising possum fur woven into it, so you know that you are contributing to helping the environment and giving hunters an incentive to get those possums!
3. The water is bluer than blue
I was thinking magic.
Turns out its mica.
Boulders in the rivers feeding into the lake rub together and produce "glacial dust" which settles into the water. Here, the river is grey and murky because of the buildup.
As it washes into the lake, it absorbs all colors from the sun's rays except for blue, which it reflects back out. Hence the super blue lake.
4. Bull-dogging: extreme deer farming
We drove past a large enclosure with beautiful green grass and trees when I saw a huge herd of deer. I'm really glad I fought the instinct to point and say, "Oh Deer!" because the next thing Crusty Craig told us was that people actually farm deer in Queenstown, so seeing deer is nothing special at all.
Turns out that back in the day, Teddy Roosevelt gave New Zealand some gifts, and one of those gifts was deer. Deer took to the pine trees that had been introduced to Queenstown like a house on fire. Unfortunately, they also got completely out of control... like... a house... on fire.The deer were overproducing and eating too much of the local plants, so to curb the issue, Queenstown sent out hunters. But why let all that meat and material go to waste when you can just put it behind a fence and farm it?
Here's where it gets crazy.
They sent up men in helicopters to fly around the mountains and plains, get in really close to a herd of deer, and then these men would jump OUT OF THE HELICOPTER and ONTO A RAMPAGING DEER! They'd wrangle up the animal, toss it back into the helicopter, and fly it back to the farm. For some reason, they call this hardcore farming tactic "bull-dogging".
And there you have it, the history of deer farming and extreme sports in Queenstown all in one unbelievable story.
5. Gold Rush!
New Zealand had its own gold rush! According to legend, a sheep farmer contracted out some work from some local men when they stumbled upon huge, sparkling, gold nuggets in the river. He told everyone to keep quiet about it, knowing that the moment word got out, there would be a mad dash for the river and his quiet farm would be overrun with gold diggers.
And they did keep quiet!...For a few hours.
When the news inevitably broke, people came from all over to search for gold in the south island. Dunedin and Queenstown prospered greatly from the gold rush.
The locals say that the gold they salvaged from the rush is only a fraction of what lies hidden in the gorgeous natural rivers. Maybe El Dorado was in New Zealand all along!
6. Home of the bird that went extinct 3 times
The takahē is a stunning species of bird that went extinct with the early arrival of the Maori and white settlers. It's known for its unusual call and bright blue feathers.
BUT wait!
A hunter was out with his dogs when he saw a flash of blue through the trees. Could it be the extinct takahē?
Unfortunately, he didn't know that, so he shot and ate it.
But he kept the feathers and skin and sent it off to scientists for study and preservation.
Sadly, this meant that the competition for resources was more fierce, so these birds will lay two eggs and kick one out of the nest to ensure the survival of just one offspring.
When they were rediscovered, preservationists nabbed the discarded eggs and raised them in hopes of introducing the metaphorical Ugly Takahē-ling around mating season.
Another bump in the road to that though... turns out that the homeschooled birds were too socially awkward for the rough-and-tumble public school birds. The lab-raised birds and wild birds didn't want to intermingle and the rejected birds struggled to survive. To be fair, they were fed by blue hand-puppets growing up, so they never really stood a chance if you ask me.
Specialists are still working on a solution to that problem.
Hopefully, they'll figure out how to solve social awkwardness for these birds, and then maybe they'll clue us awkward humans in on that solution, too.
7. Man-eating eagles and winged dinosaurs
It shouldn't surprise you that the only prehistoric animals on New Zealand soil were birds.
Unfortunately, when the Maori people came over, they hunted them like crazy for their meat. What they didn't realize is that the Moa have unusually long gestation periods, so they reproduce very, very slowly.
Before long, they went extinct.
This was a major problem for another species of bird: the gargantuan eagles that fed on Moa. With their food supply now gone, these eagles started hunting the next best thing.
Maori children.
Terrifying, right?
Really gives you a new perspective on the Eagles in The Lord of the Rings, no?
8. FIRE
The early Maori would set fires to push back the trees, hardly expecting that the dense foliage would light and spread so easily. The fires rampaged through the landscape, wiping out habitats, bird species, and ancient trees.
A great deal of the greenery you'll find today on the island is fairly young growth, still recovering from that early ravaging. In Queenstown, you'll find a lot of pine trees that took root in the soil from the hooves of Spanish sheep in the absence of the thick native growth.
In some areas of the countryside, you'll also see tragic scars on the landscape from when the government made a deal with Japan to give them a chunk of the forest. Driving through the endless green hills, the sad bald spot in the land sticks out like a sore thumb.
Hopefully, the land will recover in time from gross human error.
Conclusion
As interesting as all of these facts are, Crusty Craig's stories had a depressing underlying theme.
New Zealand has implemented many environmental programs to help this along. Recycling bins alongside compost bins in every major city, elimination of plastic bags from major grocery stores, and environmental awareness educational programs in tourist locations are just a small part of the Kiwi effort to save the world.
I'm not in a position to create similar programs in my hometown, but I can do little things every day to help the cause.
Little things like bringing my own grocery bags to Walmart, taking my paper and boxes to the local recycling center, carpooling, and picking up litter whenever I come across it can go a long way, especially if I can inspire others to do the same.
So what do you think? Have I inspired you?
Queenstown, New Zealand
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