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If you ever go to the South Island of New Zealand...

tyrophagus

Member
Joined
1 Apr 2010
Messages
244
Location
Swindon
I highly recommend a detour to a place I think few ever venture despite it being accessible (I took a hire car down the track).

It will appeal to anyone in this hobby as there were huge numbers of aquatic plants growing wild but I have no idea what they were as I was to busy trying to be creative with my camera. I'll post some of the photos and maybe you'll spot something you can identify.

I came upon the ponds by chance and only had 30 minutes or so because we were on a tight schedule. I think the place is called Pattersons Ponds or Pattersons Pools. It exists because Lake Tekapo that used to feed the Tekapo River was dammed and diverted along a canal so very little water spills down the original riverbed.

I was traveling along the canal that that drains Lake Tekapo into Lake Pukaki. These are 2 massive turquoise blue glacial lakes and together they provide half NZ's hydro electricity. Pukaki is much lower than Tekapo and there is a quiet road along the entire length of the 26km canal between the two lakes (be sure to visit the salmon farm in the canal along the way).

220px-Tekapo-Pukaki_canal.jpg


Just outside of Tekapo there is a turnoff. See the map below.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?oe...d=104743006773913533585.00048494450da65b4cc1a

These ponds were developed as a wetland for wading birds and the ground around them is marshy, your feet slowly sink into the ground. The ponds are all shallow. I was not particularly interested in what plants were around at the time and if I ever go back I plan to spend a long time there. I could kick myself now for not taking more close ups of different plants but back then I had no interest in planted aquascapes at the time. The ponds have some large brown trout so I believe not that I saw any.

This is the view from the canal towards the ponds in the trees
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2007-05-15_monty5188.jpg


2007-05-14__DSC5093.jpg
 
Fantastic shots. Im looking forward to my trip to China later in November :)
 
New Zealand is definitely on my list of places to visit...looks amazing!

Becca
 
Hi,
No idea about plant ID, but love the variety of colors and textures. Well done, thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
 
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