Trip to Lake Ianthe

 This week we went to Lake Ianthe to collect some kuta and kiekie. Kuta is a type of reed-like aquatic plant that grows in lakes across Aotearoa. When collecting the kuta we pull it up from the base of the stem to get the whole reed. The kuta is collected in this way to make it easier while weaving. After the kuta has been collected it is dried in the sun then it will be ready to weave into mats. While collecting the kuta we had to get into the water and other people in the class decided to go for a bit of a swim. When we first arrived we started off with a karakia before we started collecting any plants. The water was very cold and everyone had goosebumps as they stepped into the water even Sa pati who had been walking around in a short and singlet prior to the kuta collecting . While we were collecting the kuta afew people were a little nervous that an eel would bite them because we had seen one under the nearby jeti when we first arrived.

We also collected a kind of vine-like plant called kie kie. Kiekie can be easily recognised by its glossy flax-like leaves. The proper way to collect the kie kie is by snapping one of its branches and then peeling away all the leaves. Morgan was chosen to go into the bush and snap off a branch for us to pull the leaves off of. Once the leaves were removed we were told of two white lines that ran parallel down the length of the leaf. We separated the rest of the leaf from the white lines and placed the leftover pieces of the leaves under the kiekie so they would return to papatuanuku. Now that we only had the white pieces matua Joe was going to boil them then dry them in the sun. The kiekie pieces are then plated with toitoi.