We closed our North Island trip with a Haiku session summing up the themes of this excursion. Read on for some insight into the secrets of extremophilic life and other North Island phenomena.

Note that some of the contributions don’t adhere to the traditional 5/7/5 haiku format; after weeks on a bus, this is just one of the formalities that no longer seem to matter.

Catherine:

Cake
Or maybe
Death

Tim:

Not blue-green algae
Cyanobacteria
Our favorite slime

Tessa:

A fake starry night
Numerous silk filaments
Are they blue or green?

Thea:

Geothermal conservation
Corrosive vapor
Dynamic environment
Why should we bother?

Phil:

Ling
The grouse died
The heather survived
A mistake

Tim:

Heather covers the ground
Home for the gentleman’s grouse
A beetle might work

Becca:

Bad are the goldfish
For they eat the little trout
Stop Goldfish stop! Wait. . .

Thea:

Maori resource management

Stewards of the earth
Cling to romantic old ways
Cannibalism

Tim:

Trout in the river
eating the native mayflies
is fishing worth it?

Tim:

Volcanic lahar
Memories of Tangiwai
Mountain left untouched

Christina:

Microbe, where art thou!
I can’t discover thy truth
I will die, so hot

Christina:

The pH is low
Acidic and cloudy white
Let’s go swimming here

Niky (Niky Hughes is an American biologist doing a post-doc here at Victoria University; she joined us for this portion of the trip):

Kiwi blues 7/5/7
I can’t see past my own beak
My egg is a joke
Natural selection sucks

Kaisa and Naima:

Kaisa is a prawn
Crunchy, tasty, and fun fun!
I want to eat her

Kiely:

Sulphuric mud pit
Oh! How you sputter and spit
No, Nels! Don’t fall in!

Britta

Good old Shawn the Prawn
Entertaining seven wives
I would like to eat you

Niky:

Death Flight 7/5/7
Gannet face, gannet beak – fly
Fly towards Oz and die
15% not good odds

Zach:

What’s that eggy smell?
Geothermal Energy
Or Dani’s Chacos?

Logan:

I wish I could meet
A microbe’s mum; strange mother
Wrapped in foreign skin

Dani:

Poor White Island bee
No one wants to conserve thee
You are just a bug

Dani:

Polygamous prawns
Propagate prodigiously
They are hard to catch

Anne:

Hydrogen sulfide
Colored yellow, black and grey
Crater looms, waiting

Emily:

Waitomo glow worms
I could see the big dipper
Luminescent-as

Nels:

“Oh no!” said the whale
He contemplated his plight
Then said, “I’m beached as!”

Nels:

Casting down our threads
We shine into the darkness
A living night sky

Nels:

White Island
We walk on egg shells
Hoping our steps do not disturb
Rotten eggs below

Steve:

It was this big
Give me your hand a head
Invade against invasives
Dare touch God’s finger?

Micah:

So placidly poised
Overshadowed by mountains
Taupo breathes and sighs

Micah:

How to right our wrongs?
Killing for the greater good?
Caged, the hihi sings.

Robyn:

The Exemplification of Feminism by Extreme Life
Tussock in the rain
Windy mist of Alpine Fault
Fight the volcano!!


--Valeurie