We have been gathering Waipaku information to see the health of Waipaku.
Next we are going to say the Waipaku karakia and sing the Waiata Te Waipaku, that Nikki Crossan from Puketeraki Marae wrote for us.
Please e tu for the karakia and waiata.
E noho.
Waipaku Karakia
E mihi ana ki te whenua o Waikouaiti
E mihi ana ki kā tohu o Waikouaiti
Ki te awa o Waipaku, tēnā koe
Waipaku, tū te ao, tū te pō
Tūturu whakamaua, kia tina, tina!
Haumi e, hui e, tāiki e!
We acknowledge the land of Waikouaiti
We acknowledge the significant landmarks of Waikouaiti
To the river of Waipaku, greetings to you
Waipaku, everlasting
Let this be my commitment to all!
Draw together! Affirm!
Waipaku waiata
Pahatea Ka iwi a weka - Tena Korua
Ka mihi ki te awa o Waipaku
Tae noa ki te ‘Tai o Araiteuru’
Naia matou, te kura o Waikouaiti
Hi, hi, hi, ha!
CHORUS
Te Waipaku
He awa tata
He taoka tenei awa
2x
Tirohia ka mauka kei ruka (kai ruka!)
Ki te wai Maori e rere iho
E tau ana i Waikouaiti…..Naia…..
Te Waipaku (Hi, Hi, Hi, Ha!)
CHORUS x2
Rata Class
Te Waipaku�He ana tata�He toaka tēnei awa
Rimu/Rata students have been scientists investigating the health of the local awa – Waipaku - Post Office Creek.
There are 3 testing sites
At the Racecourse it is bumpy and grassy. The grass makes the students’ legs and eyes very itchy!
At Reid Street there are trees by the awa that block some of the sun
The water temperature was measured by dangling a thermometer in the water.
The temperature of the water was similar at both the Racecourse and Reid street.
To measure how clear the water was the students used clarity tubes.
These are long tubes filled with water. There are two magnets that are dragged through the water.
The water wasn’t very clear at the Racecourse but it was better at Reid street
The students used syringes to collect water samples for the eDNA tests.
They had to suck up the water 20 times and wear gloves so their fingers didn’t touch the filters.
There were little creatures living in the awa called macroinvertebrates. The students found snails, worms, water boatmen and water fleas at the racecourse.
At Reid Street they also found stick caddis, damselflies and beetles. They thought they found the shedding skin of a damselfly too.
There were also big creatures living in the awa – eels and fish!!!
Lots of slimy, wet, and squishy eels were found at the Racecourse. They were slippery and kept on squirming out of their hands.
The eels really just wanted to be back in their natural home in the water.
At Reid Street there were fish called bullies in the awa but no eels.
This is probably because there is nowhere for the eels to hide at this site.
Trakka tunnels and chew cards were set out to see what creatures were on the land near the awa.
Footprints from mice and hedgehogs were found and maybe a skink!
Only a mouse seemed to like the chew cards.
So what does all of this tell us about te Waipaku?
There is sediment in the water at all sites.
At the racecourse the waterway is slow flowing
There are less people and animals at Reid Street
The type of macroinvertebrates told us how healthy and clean the awa was.
There are no trees at Glasgow Street and it is also slow flowing.
The macroinvertebrates, eels, and fish want somewhere to hide.
The students thought it would be good for Te Waipaku if the water was clearer.
They also want to see more insects, eels and fish living and hiding in the awa
It would also be good to have more plants because that would shade the awa, provide places for the creatures to hide.
The plants will also stop the land slipping into the awa.
So ……
How can they make this happen?
The students decided that they could plant native trees by the awa such as manuka, kanuka, harakeke, ti kouka, kowhai, or grasses.
They could ask
the local councils to keep the tunnels clear so nothing blocks the water from flowing.
They could put up signs saying please take your rubbish with you and have a rubbish bin near the awa.
Everyone needs to make sure they look after all of the nature by the awa.
Thank you to all of the people and groups that helped the students to learn about Te Waipaku
Predator Monitoring �at Te Waipaku
Equipment
Trakka Tunnels
Skinks and Hedgehogs
Stoats and Ferrets
Rimu Class
.
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Tena koutou katoa,Rimu class, have been working with the East Otago Catchment Group and Puketeraki Marae, on the Waipaku/ Post Office Creek project for nine months. We have been gathering data on temperature and clarity,plus living things inside Waipaku/Post office creek - which is underneath the mountains of Pahatea / Mt Baldy and Ka iwi a weka/ Mt Durden.
Introduction
We have been working on it to see the health of
Waipaku. We have visited Three sites, eight times over the nine Months.Jennie, Nikki, Jack, Sarah,Steph and the teachers have been helping us do the testing for our project for a while.
We have been using graphs to figure out the clarity and temperature from the three different sites.
Nikki Crossan from puketeraki marae was helping with the Waipaku’s health, as well as the Edna and chemical testing.
Rimu class have created a mural of our Waipaku and what we would like it to look like in the future.
We have been putting in lots of New Zealand native animals and plants.
Now the temperature group will show their presentation on Waipaku.
Temperature
Why do we measure temperature?
We measure the temperature to find out the health of the Waipaku / Post Office creek and all the environment around it. We also measure temperature to find out if it is cold enough for the river animals to live there.
How we do it?
First, we dip the thermometer string inside the water, then we leave it in there for about 2 minutes, when we take it out, the out temperature is the real one, after that we record on the sheet. We recorded at Glasgow St. Reid St. and the racecourse.
About what we did
What we did with the data
We recorded and then graphed the data we collected so we can read where the lines are higher, the temperature is warmer. We know that that the cooler the temperature is, the better. If the temperature is under 15 degrees it is considered excellent. We have a display of the different results from the different sites.
Why is temperature important
Warm water also contains less oxygen fish and all living things in the river need oxygen to survive. Some fish like eels and native fish need cold water to survive if the water gets warm they can get sick and die.
Why are we doing this?
We are doing this so we know the temperature of our lovely Waipaku and find out ways to help it.
Introducing the clarity group
Now the clarity group will come up and show you waipaku clarity.
Waipaku
Clarity
By Jade, Jayden, Saloka, Zachary, Ezra and Ollie
What does clarity do and mean?
What clarity does is see how far fish can see in the water so we can record it to see how clean it is and write it down on a piece of paper.1
How do we test the clarity?
We have a testing tube that we put water in and after we put in a magnet which you move down the tube to see how far you get until there’s no more visibility. After you collect measurements you write it down and it becomes data.
Why do we do water testing?
We test the water because we want to know what's inside of the waipaku, to get data to see if we can fix it and if you can help that would be great.
Why are we testing clarity?
We are testing clarity because when we get the data we can see if the water is clear or has a lot of sediment in it. As we will show, there is a lot of sediment in the race course all year round.
What is sediment ?
Sediment is solid material, often broken down from rocks and minerals, that is transported and deposited by water, wind or ice. It can also include organic matter and precipitates from water.
Why is sediment bad?
Sediment is bad because it makes the water clarity muddy and dusty, which is bad for the eels or anything that lives in the water and at Racecourse you can see there was a lot of sediment.
What do we use to take the data?
Every time we we would use a clarity tube that would help with being able to see how far we can see and if the clarity is under thirty centimeters then it is bad. If it is thirty to seventy it is okay, if it is over seventy it's amazing.
When did we start monitoring the Waipaku river
We started monitoring Waikapu from July 2024 to February this year, at all the sites - Reid Street, Racecourse and Glasgow Street.
How can we help Te waipaku
We could help by planting more plants around Waipaku so there is not as much sediment.
What we think
We think that the racecourse clarity is not doing that well, Glasgow street is doing pretty well then Reid street is doing quite good. But it could be better.
Summary
We hope you have learnt something interesting and new from our clarity inquiry. Now we will pass it on to the eDNA.
What is eDNA
eDna is used to sample water and see what is inside it like insects,plants,fish,mammals,algae,fungi,birds and other animals. The E in eDNA stands for environmental.
It will get most of the DNA a few kilometers upstream but the craziest thing is that the eDNA picked up pineapple!!!! Probably because someone chucked there piece from the road out into the water.
How we get the eDNA
To get the eDNA we suck up about a litre of water from Waipaku and push the water throw the special eDNA filter.
Once we have pushed as much water as possible through the filter we squirt some preservative into it and then send the filter to wilderlab.
Why we wear gloves
We have to wear gloves so we don't get our DNA into the filter which goes into samples which then goes to Wilderlabs to analyze what is living inside Waipaku.
Were we get the eDNA from
We collected the eDNA from three sites, the first site was on the racecourse, the second site is Reid St and the third site is glasgow St.
All of these sites are located in Waipaku/Post Office creek.
This is what it looked like when we get the eDNA
You use a syringe to suck up water from Waipaku.
You squirt the water through a special filter leaving the eDNA in the filter.
You then send the filter to Wilderlabs to analyse.
Here's wilderlabs
Racecourse Reid St
Glasgow St
Animals and insects that live at Waipaku
long fin and shortfin eels,common bully fish, redfin bully fish, inanga, kahwai, pukeko, swallow birds, waxeye birds, cicadas, kokopo, teal ducks, NZ freshwater clam, NZ freshwater snail, NZ Ant, black swan, pigeon, red worm, earthworm, mud snail, black bird, lady bugs, grey field slug, woodlouse slader, red damselfly, yellowhammer bird, and springtail.
Pest’s in waipaku
Now we will pass on to Steph to show the chemical testing
Chemical Testing: Dissolved Phosphorus
Chemical Testing: E Coli
Chemical Testing: Nitrogen
Chemical Testing: Sediment/Turbidity
Now I will pass over to Jacob for the Conclusion
CONCLUSION
This project has been really interesting for our two classes that have been doing it (Rimu/Rata the year 4, 5 and 6).\
Overall the water quality of Waipaku is Okay, but it could be better.
It could be great to take some of the sediment out of the river but not all of it. Also we could take all the sticks out, because some of the sticks have dirty mud and moss on them. Finally we could plant some native trees around Waipaku to shade the river. One of the trees we could plant is a kowhai tree to attract some Bumble Bees,Honey Bees and Tui. Hope you enjoyed the presentations by Rimu class, temperature,clarity, the Edna and chemical testing
Goodbye and thank you for coming to our presentation on Te Waipaku.