Together with her close botanical friend, Lucy Moore (1909-87) who also became a famous botanist, the “two Lucys” carried out pioneering fieldwork in remote areas of New Zealand during the 1930s, collecting plant specimens and publishing their exciting discoveries.
Mountain tops visited by them included ten trips to Te Moehau (Coromandel Range), Mt Maungapohatu (Urewera), Mt Hikurangi, Taranaki, and Mt Pirongia. March 1930 was the two Lucys’ first great expedition to the summit of the remote Mt Maungapohatu from the newly opened road to Lake Waikaremoana.
“We set off at 3am in a truck back to the Papatotara Saddle and from there trudged the deep-worn horse track across three steep ridges to Rua’s [Rua Kenana, Maori prophet] Pa at the base of our mountain [Maungapohatu] … an almost vertical (image right) surveyor’s route took us to the flattish summit just as the sun was setting. When dawn came the mountain plants were covered with a delicate layer of frost… reluctantly we left at 11.30, loaded down with specimens, to meet the 4 o’clock deadline at Papatotara. From our six hours of observations on this botanically undocumented mountain we wrote our first paper, with all the confidence of youth.” (Lucy Moore 1986).
Image (right): The “two Lucys” climbing Mt Maungapohatu, as part of their North Island mountain-top survey, in their brothers’ shorts (no women’s field clothes available), Jan 1932. (Lucy Cranwell on right). Auckland Museum collection.
When Lucy Cranwell was excluded from the “male only” (image below) Museum organised Three Kings Islands field trip, she organised her own women’s scientific trips to Taranga (Hen and Chicken Islands) (first image above on page) and they published their findings in the Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum (1935).
This was followed by similar work and publications on the Poor Knights Islands, including the intertidal algal communities, giving the first real insight into zoning of our marine shores. Over 4200 of Lucy’s herbarium specimens collected on such trips are available online: http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/collections.