[ad_1]
Brook Sabin / Stuff
Love or hate lupins, Lake Tekapo is known for its pretty grass.
OPINION: It’s one of New Zealand’s most iconic shots – Lake Tekapo, the mountains, and a brilliant purple glow. You probably know what purple I’m talking about. Yes, the “L” word – “lupins”.
Mackenzie Country is known around the world for its lupins; Before Covid-19, Lake Tekapo often had traffic jams around lupine hot spots.
The problem is, when some strike that perfect Instagram pose, little do they know that they are actually frolicking in the undergrowth.
Lupinus polyphyllus (which to be fair, sounds like the plant equivalent of an STI) is commonly referred to as the russel lupine, or just “that violet flower from Instagram”. It is the grass equivalent to 1080; opinions are bitterly divided.
READ MORE:
* New stop areas as part of Mackenzie state road improvement
* Should a Tekapo money shot of lupins have won an international contest?
* Department of Conservation says lupins should be controlled, not cultivated
The Department of Conservation says the weed has spread to river beds, where it poses a risk to native ecosystems. And DOC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on pest control.
On the other hand, it is cheap advertising. There are literally hundreds of thousands of images on Instagram that have provided, over the years, countless dollars in advertising. The lupine season in Tekapo (before the borders were closed) is very profitable.
Brook Sabin / Stuff
The purple lupins no longer exist.
All of this brings me to my visit to Tekapo last week. My mouth literally fell open as I passed the “purple peninsula” that juts out into Lake Tekapo. A year ago, almost to this day, I was here among hundreds, eagerly filling their camera scrolls with purple brush. But today, he was naked. There is not a lupine or a tourist in sight.
By the time I got to my hotel in the evening, the rumors from Instagram-loving tourists had already started. One told me emphatically that the DOC had sprayed them. So I emailed the DOC: no. They hadn’t been touched, try the advice, they told me.
And here, Sherlock, we have our first clue.
Brook Sabin / Stuff
This is the scene that normally greets tourists.
Chris Clarke (Communications Advisor) from the Mackenzie Council told me “ECAN [Environment Canterbury) is the primary agency responsible for their control, and we are aware that NZTA [New Zealand Transport Agency] it has carried out some eradication work along its road corridors. “
Two tracks. So, we go to ECan I trot (in the internet world, that’s as easy as opening your website) and, bang, the evidence becomes more compelling. I find a press release that says “war is declared” on lupins. It surely bombarded our little purple friend or foe (depending on which side of the argument you sit on).
Brook Sabin / Stuff
Lupins are big business for tourism.
Graham Sullivan, Environment Canterbury’s Regional Biosafety Leader (in other words, the Chief Admiral of ECan’s War on Lupins) gave me an emphatic answer: “Environment Canterbury’s Regional Pest Management Strategy requires that landowners in rural areas do not plant russell lupins within specified waterway distances (200m braided rivers, 50m unbraided rivers, and 10m property boundaries) to avoid their establishment in order to protect biodiversity values and the environment usually “.
However, drumroll, the statement added: “We have not conducted any lupine control at Tekapo.” So ECAN hates them, but hasn’t touched the purple crown that Princess Tekapo has worn for years.
Brook Sabin / Stuff
This walkway is usually full of people looking at the lupins.
That leaves me with the New Zealand Waka Kotahi Transport Agency (NZTA). They must have planted the weeds to stop the queues of traffic blocking State Highway 8, which runs along the Tekapo boardwalk.
But it turned out that theory sounded plausible, but it wasn’t true.
Slightly exasperated that ten years of journalism failed to get an answer on a weed, I emailed a high-resolution photo of the lupine graveyard to the council’s communications advisor. Since they are such an iconic attraction, surely someone must know why there is no longer a Chernobyl grade purple glow on the lake side.
Brook Sabin / Stuff
Many of the lakefront lupine sites have been destroyed by the lake’s high levels.
The response took several hours. Oh, it turns out it was an act of God. Rumors among tourists of a mass slaughter were not true. The council’s communications advisor told me that lupins in several lakefront locations were underwater at a crucial stage in their development and did not bloom this year.
The council spokesperson added, “depending on the level of the lake next year, they may reappear, the seeds will still be in the ground.”
So lupine lovers, there is still hope. And the lupine haters – this might be the chance to prove that the Tekapo boardwalk is better without the purple.
