P-a-L R: New Zealand Forests: Beech, Moss & Fern

The immense micro-worlds of bryophytes, pterophytes, and the Gondwana-relic Nothofagus. Can't get enough!

The Southern Alps

Only 5 million years old, more or less, the "Southern Alps" is the mountain chain that runs longways nearly the entire length of the South Island of New Zealand. In the south, it spreads into an entire glacier-carved region lovingly called FIORDLAND. The Southern Alps run along the Alpine Fault between 2 tectonic plates, and nearly the entirety of the mountain chain is contained within several national parks. The most notably beautiful regions in the range can be found at Arthur's Pass in the north (pic 1), Mt. Cook/Aoraki in the central S.I. (pic 2), and Mt. Aspiring National Park (pic 3), just above the fiordland. For the geologic youth of the range, a evolutionarily ASTONISHING number of specially adapted alpine species roam the tussock grass above treeline on these mountains, including over 20 species of Alpine Cicada, alpine geckos, and the Kea (pic 4), the world's only alpine parrot. Also, there is the Upland moa (extinct, discovered in 1990s), a species of GIANT flightless bird, kind of like an Ostrich with "Cankles," which was hunted to extinction by the immigration of humans to the New Zealand islands from Polynesia.
A M A Z I N G

Yours,
E.M. Keen, lame-duck Prefect