New Zealand Learning Adventures
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Geography Studies
 

This Mining & Milling Zone  is torn by the main intercontinental tectonic plate boundary.  It has been smothered by vast ice fields and is now deluged with rain because it lies between the violent pounding Tasman Sea and the towering Southern Alps.  The exploitation of gold coal and timber caused change to the unique vegetation and generations of soils.  Here you see the direct effects of the immense tectonic forces uplifting the land and explore the causes, processes and and outcomes of these spectacular natural encounters.
Tectonics	Tectonics The Mining & Milling Zone is uplifting from the continuing tectonic impact between the Pacific and Indo- Australian continental plates.
	Wild Coasts Violent storms and lashing waves sculpture the shoreline and litter the beaches.  Numerous rivers discharge vast amounts of  bed-load material that constantly changes the coasts. Developing formations viewed in the zone include, bays, headlands, stacks, wave caves, wave planes, stolybedding, blow holes, arches, swirl pools, estuaries, sand bars and more.  We explore the the problems that the changing coasts caused for settlements  and learn about the controls built for various situations,
Glaciation	Glaciation We can explore the forests that now hide the vast areas of smashed mountain material left by the vast ice sheets of the terminating ice age glaciers.  This activity is still happening in the polar regions of the planet today. At that time glaciers made tremendous changes to the land its shape and effects for the later gold mining.
Limestone	Limestone We find large limestone areas in this zone. Interested groups explore the various features and causes that created the giant stalactites, stalagmites, and other features, We learn to find cave creatures including (harmless) glow-worms, trap-door spiders and cave wetas.
Limestone Cavern	Limestone Cave We can visit and learn about the processes involves with limestone caves from their beginning, through formation, growth and creation of their stalactites and stalagmites  See also:- Guided cave adventures
Rivers	Rivers In this zone we witness fast flowing rivers that sweep huge quantities of water and bed-load material from the mountains during frequent flood events every year.  There excellent examples of control systems in place in a attempt to protect mines, farms, communities and roads.  more>
Vegetation	Vegetation Destroyed dinosaur rainforests dramatically demonstrate the consequences land mis-management.  Today laws are encouraging a lot of the the forests to regenerate and if left alone these will take a millennium to achieve. more>
	Geology In the shadow of the huge mountains we pass over billions of tonnes of mountain conglomerates deposited by slow moving ice sheets.  Below these deposits are the heavy gold bearing coast deposits spread along beaches then uplifted. We follow the processes and examine the properties gold, and how it arrived here.  We practice identifying, describing and categorising the basic minerals. We can visit gold mining areas and examine the processes involved with gold extraction.
Wild weather	Wild weather This zone has a high rainfall as the alps extract moisture from the prevailing westerly winds.  Temperatures are more even and humidity. is higher.  Storms bringing deluges are common as of the times of warm calm sunny days.
	See also:  Buller Gorge Conservation See also How to Obtain Best Value for Curriculum Learning

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