We began our journey at 8am that morning from the school grounds, travelling for hours on a massive bus up to Arthur's Pass.

After arriving at the Temple Basin goods lift and dropping off our bags, we started our first sample site.

It was a mountain beech forest, damp, dim, and dense. So much plant life to discover.

Temple Basin 2021 — Image by: Remco Baars

The task was simple, climb into the bush and find the percentage coverage of different plants in a 1m2 quadrat.

We soon found out that this trip might have been a bit different than what we had expected. After a quick stop for lunch, we started our great ascent up the steep mountain.

It was quite clear to see who the more skilled walkers were, with the classes already divided up into groups by speed.

Not much further up the hill, though, was our second sample site.

Here, the ground was incredibly marshy, with lots of tussocks.

Every time we stepped off of a tussock, our feet squelched into the mud.

Here again, we set out our quadrats and reviewed our selection of plants.

This was our last sample site for the day, and after finishing it, we continued up the mountain towards the lodge.

Once everyone had reached the lodge and all bags had been taken to their owner's rooms, we were greeted by the lodge's friendly staff and told the rules and regulations of the area.

After a spot of afternoon tea, we were all ready to head back out again for more learning.

We headed just outside to the gully, where we conducted another experiment to see how plants spread themselves out across different environments.

Once we had finished this activity, we all headed back inside ready for free time, dinner, and then to settle down for the night.

Temple Basin 2021 — Image by: Remco Baars

Day 2, everyone was up bright and early, ready to begin.

We were met with an impressive sight. A layer of cloud had formed just beneath us, spreading out all around the mountains below.

Shortly after we were inside the cloud, ready to start our third sample site.

After being careful not to drop off a cliff, we laid out our quadrats and began to examine.

Up here, it was very cold and we could see droplets of water collecting on the different plants. We then headed back inside to have some tutorials on things like inter-relationships between plants and adaptations before lunch.

After lunch, we got ready for another big climb, this one supposedly even harder than the one up to the lodge.

It was so steep just before our fourth site that a rope was needed to climb any further.

When we arrived at the fourth site we began laying out our quadrats on the side of a steep hill. This angle made it a lot harder than it had been previously to get accurate data.

Up here, there was a lot of tussock, even more than at lower sites.

As we kept going up the mountain, we climbed some quite steep bits before reaching the fifth site with a beautiful view.

Here, it had become a lot more rocky, with plants becoming a lot scarser.

We took our samples, then continued up to our last site.

Temple Basin 2021 — Image by: Remco Baars

In between site 5 and site 6, walking became a lot harder with the introduction of a scree slope.

This is where we first started to see one of the most elusive plants - the Haastia sinclairii. At site 6 there were very few plants, this being one of the only few that could survive so high up with such harsh conditions.

After a few of us had a dip in the cold and stoney tarn of Bill's Basin, we began the descent back to the lodge. It was tiring, but well worth the climb.

Once we had made it back to the lodge, we had dinner and then started the first part of our assessment - kite diagrams.

Once our kite diagrams were finished, everyone was very tired and happy to head to bed.

Temple Basin 2021 — Image by: Remco Baars

Day 3, we were up early to pack up the lodge before we started the second part of our assessment.

This was the part where we had to write about all the information we had collated and answer questions relating to the topic.

As people started to finish, they grabbed their bags and waited outside with anticipation for the climb down.

Once the teachers had confirmed that everyone was ready to go, we started the descent. It took some time, but much less than the climb up.

It wasn't too long before everyone had made it down and the bus was waiting for us.

In less than a few hours, the bus filled with tired students returned back to school, and everyone filed out, glad to be heading home.

Overall, we learnt a lot from the trip, and were happy to have been given the opportunity to get out of the classroom for an assessment such as this.

It was an amazing experience that we won't forget too soon.

Temple Basin 2021 — Image by: Remco Baars

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