Conservation Weekend!!

As per my standard way of blogging this is rather out of date:

I went with eight other Australearn students to Papatowei for a weekend to volunteer at a couple of reserves. We stayed with an adorable older couple who were decades-long caretakers of the Te Rere reserve, a privately managed habitat for yellow-eyed penguins. We destroyed a handful of gorse bushes (a species of extremely prickly plants introduced as a way to fence in sheep but spreading to cover entire hillsides), set traps for stoats, and put out poison for possums. Apparently there are over 60 million possums in NZ and they each eat 1 kg of vegetation per day!! During the afternoon, we got up close and personal with flax – uprooting, splitting and then replanting to provide cover for the penguins. Flax is a huge, tough plant and it took the seven of us half an hour to get one out of the ground. We used a grubber to clear the vegetation around the base of the plant. Then we went around with two spades cutting away at the roots and trying to dig it out of the ground. We put a thick rope around the base and five of us pulled while the others continued trying to cut away at the roots. Eventually we got it out with several people pulling directly on the leaves and Sam tackling it from the side. Once it was sufficiently tipped over, we pulled it apart, being careful that each division contained a substantial amount of root. We then had to cut the leaves short so that the plants wouldn’t blow over in the wind with their seriously diminished extent of roots and replanted them.


Flax plant pulled apart with cut leaves strewn everywhere. Non-uprooted flax top right.


Apparently another accepted method for getting flax out of the group is to put explosives at the base and blow it out of the ground (we were shown a photo of this being done :-) ).

It was nearing dusk when we finished, so we gathered our equipment and went out to a point to watch the penguins coming in.



As we walked out of the reserve, you could hear the penguins rustling around in the bush. Earlier in the day, we came across one by accident which had not gone out to the ocean for the day. It let the entire group slowly pass by it before hiding away. We were so close that you could see its yellow eyes and pink feet! Amazing.

That night we went to the neighbor’s (a 93 yr old woman and her cat) to watch the rugby match between the final Tri-Nations game between the All Blacks and Wallabies. They were playing for 2nd and 3rd so it was vital that we win and not get “the wooden spoon.” It was the first rugby match I have been able to watch all the way through made extra great by having people around with a detailed knowledge of the game who were willing to explain what was happening (fouls etc). All Blacks dominated 33 – 6.

It was a perfectly clear night, so after the game I borrowed a stargazing book and stood in the middle of the street. I’m kind of ashamed to admit how long it took to get my bearings. It’s tricky to find the Southern Cross when it isn’t burned into your consciousness, you don’t know which direction is which, and there are incredible numbers of other stars. Eventually I got the book turned the right way….found the Triangulus Australiana (sp?) and looked at the signs of the zodiac upside down. The Milky Way was crazy bright; even after ruining your night vision with a flashlight, you could see it only a few seconds after turning the light off. You can see galaxies (besides the milky way) in the Southern hemisphere!!!

The next day we did some work on an interactive nature trail in the center of town and wandered around on the beach for a few hours. Best weekend ever.




View out of the window from the place we stayed.