A More Normal Summer

By Brian Megaw | January 19, 2024

A More Normal Summer A more normal summer at River Valley Lodge on the Rangitikei River? I think so. We have been experiencing some beautiful warm and hot days of late, though today we have needed warm rain, replenishing pastures that had started to burn off and, no doubt, topping up the river by tonight. [...]

Against Expectations, Whio!

By Brian Megaw | July 24, 2023

Against Expectations, Whio! Going into this Winter, I did not have great expectations or hopes about the success of the Whio or Blue Duck breeding season. The easterly weather patterns since last Winter had brought regular flooding, and the continuation of these patterns meant that the primary breeding streams in the Ruahine Ranges were experiencing [...]

Unprecedented Summer River Flows mean Great Rafting

By Brian Megaw | January 22, 2023

Unprecedented Summer River Flows mean Great Rafting A typical summer rafting season on an undammed free flowing North Island, New Zealand river such as our home river, the Rangitikei, works something like this. Spring – September to mid-November – plenty of water, but overall, river flows tend to taper off by late November, but even [...]

A Day in the Life of a Trap Checker

By Brian Megaw | October 6, 2022

A Day in the Life of a Trap Checker For millennia, the islands of Aotearoa/New Zealand were separated from other land masses. This isolation led our endemic species (species found here and nowhere else) to evolve to occupy all the available niches in this pre-human landscape. Unfortunately, this evolution and specialisation made them incredibly vulnerable [...]

Reflections on Contrasts

By Brian Megaw | February 15, 2022

Reflections on Contrasts What a difference a few days make! A little over ten days ago, the primary weather concern in our area of the world was an unfolding drought. The landscape was parched, turning from that lovely golden summer brown to the grey-brown of dust. Trees were quickly becoming the only green things to [...]

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