Flora and Fauna of New Zealand

[Snufkin]

Poor old me has to go to New Zealand next Feb :rolleyes: (where's the bouncing up and down with excitement smilie when you need it). It's not a bushcraft trip but indulging my other passion of mountainbiking. Also treating it as a bit of a recon trip as I'll be seeing both north and south islands with a view to a bushcrafty/tramping trip in the future.
Back to the point, does anyone know of any good guide books or weblinks to the flora and fauna of New Zealand. Edibility and primitive uses would be good but I just want to be able to ID some of the plants. I think it will really wierd me out to be in a forest and not know any plants.
TIA

[snag68]

My only advice would be to watch out for the 'Mongrel Mob'. Apparently they can be a bit nasty!

Dazz

[zackerty]

Snufkin
here is a starter..

http://www.aatravel.co.nz/tourist/ff.shtml

http://www2.piperpat.co.nz/nz/ag/

http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/F/FloraAndFaunaPreservationOf/FloraAndFaunaPreservationOf/en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand

http://www.enzed.com/wild.html

[zackerty]

some dangerous ones :)

http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/archives/Best/1994/nz.html

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/nzealand/images_ff.html

[zackerty]

biosecurity..wash ALL of your gear, boots tents packs cooking stoves etc OR it will be washed for you, given back to you WET WET WET, and then get charged for it...

http://www.pce.govt.nz/reports/allreports/0_908804_93_8.shtml

[zackerty]

lonely planet..

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/australasia/new_zealand/printable.htm

[zackerty]

CIA ( yes THAT one!!) 2004 fact book for NZ...

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nz.html

[Snufkin]

Thanks for all the info, plenty of reading to keep me going :).

[troy]

I hope a bit of advertising is OK, but there is a chapter in my book Mountain Fever (http://www.mountain-moments.co.uk/html/book.html) that covers a hike around lake sumner and Mt Cook including alot of info on the plants, history and uses (can't reccommend it enough!!!). There is also some photos in the gallery but these are mostly of the hike.

I found that flora can change between valleys and there are alot of fiberous plants, some of a larger version to our native ones and because of the countrys isolation, there are many that are not found any where else.

I did not go as much into the plants they used for food as I did about the ones they used for shelter clothing, etc, but the flax is used alot and in comparison is similar to our nettle. Shells, feathers and bird bone were also used (birds being mostly large ground dwelling - due to no large preditors) especially from the 10 foot tall Moa, when it lived.

Over all the country is unique for its plants and trees - many are just amazing, especially if you see them at the right time. You may have to be careful what you use for bushcraft reason as I found, rightly so, that the ziwis are very protective of this environment and will not allow any thing taken out or brought in (I had pre-packed/mixed all my food for the hiking, as I usually do and it was all taken away)
. Apart from that, there are plenty of isolated places you can go and do your own thing, any map will show hundreds of hut/cabins in various places, but off the beaten track these may be owned/used by hunters. After a bad rainfall rivers are normally safe after two hours - do not try to cross during a storm and as a added bonus, there are a few hot springs out in the hills, just wear trunks to be on the safe side.

There is lots more I could say, but I gareentte that you will get alot more out of the trip by not knowing alot about the area beforehand (I know what I mean if no one else does!!!)