Special People

We have met so many remarkable individuals and in the process have come to really appreciate the people of Aotearoa/New Zealand and their cultures.  In many ways our encounter with Ian Wilson is typical of many others, though with Ian we were able to spend more time and learn more about his life and passions. So we will tell Ian’s story at some length, though only a small piece of what we learned from him. Ian’s story stands as a representative of the many others whose stories we have not shared.

We first heard about Ian while chatting with a Department of Conservation staff person at an interpretive centre on the very tip of the South Island. We were talking about NZ trees and she then volunteered that if we were headed to the north of the North Island, we should visit her brother-in-law because “he loves to show people around the ‘bush’ behind his farm.” [Starting off, how many times has a government official you did no know referred you to a family member for an educational tour and family visit? That is NZ for you.]

A month later after a couple of e mail contacts, here we were knocking on the door at Ian and June’s farmhouse. Indeed this was a beautiful farm backing onto a national park with large Kauri trees in it. Within minutes we were into Ian’s ute (pick-up), and heading up the farm track and then over the fence into Puketi National Park. Ian spent three hours showing us about, telling stories, helping us understand the forest ecosystem and all of the plants. He has no formal training in the field, but you could have fooled me. Here’s how he started out though…

                                                                  Learning from Ian

30 years ago as a young dairy farmer, Ian and June had moved to the North because land was cheaper and they wanted a bigger farm. Within weeks of moving in, Ian called the bulldozer contractor and scheduled the guy to come in and cut, and then dose the farm acreage that was still forest. Any NZ dairy farmer (and there are lots of them) knows that everything comes down to how much grass you can grow… more grass means more milk and more income. It happened that while they were waiting for the guy to come, a neighbour came over, and heard about the plan. He was aghast, telling Ian that there were very special plants in there and then took him out to experience the forest. As the result, Ian cancelled the dozer and left the forest standing. The neighbour brought him along to a couple of Forest and Bird meetings (the big grassroots naturalist/conservation organization in NZ), and as they say, the rest is history.

While growing more and more passionate and involved in learning about and protecting the forest as a part of Forest and Bird, he simultaneousl watch the bird life disappear in the area due to invasive mammals (possums, stoats, ferrets, rats, etc.). As a volunteer, he watched the Department of Conservation respond too little, incompetently and/or too late. Ian decided that more had to be done and so he and several others founded the Puketi Forest Trust eight years ago. In the short time since then, they have raised approximately $800,000 for protection of the forest. The Trust convinced the Department of Conservation (DOC) that they could do a better and cheaper job of trapping the invasive mammals than DOC, and they have. They check 2300 rat traps and about 800 stoat and 800 possum traps over 5500 hectares. Along the way they are doing research on how to deploy traps most effectively and with different types of bait. There are 100km of trap lines. They have gotten the monitoring evidence of stoats to zero in the larger area and rats to zero in a smaller core area, but there is the constant re-invasion and need to monitor traps and population numbers. 

                                                               Ian setting a possum trap

The kiwi population has been growing at 15% a year whereas they are dropping in non-trapping areas and increasing at 9% in DOC managed areas. New Zealand Robins have been re-introduced and are growing. Each of the birds is banded and Ian keeps a check on them. We watched as he tapped on a mealy worm container and very soon a couple of robin friends turned up for a feed. As the success builds and they fundraise more, they are looking to bring back some of the other endangered bird species that once thrived in the area.

A threatened North Island Robin gets the worm

Fruiting Kie Kie

Puketi Kauri

As we wandered through the most intact Kauri forest we have seen, Ian pointed out the highlights— the smallest orchid in the world, the kie kie plants that were fruiting, a very unusual occurrence, the specific plant species that only live in association with the Kauri. Ian had brought a local elementary class up to the trails and done the research so that each kid was looking for one medicinal plant the Maori used. They found them all and were so appreciative that they invited him to their presentations back at school and presented the Trust with $700 of hard earned money from bake sales and sausage sizzles. We asked Ian how much he volunteered with the Trust… the answer was “around 40 hours a week”. Several years ago he sold the dairy herd and shifted to beef cattle because there was not enough time for his conservation work given the high time requirements of dairy farming. Everywhere we have gone we have met volunteers like Ian, working for the benefit of the community be it the human community, wildlife community, or both. They have been wonderful people to get to know. 

Special Places

Pictures from Fiordland with just a few associated words...

     Ancient Ents silently standing guard above
     Umbrellas of Fern Trees protect me
     Pitter Patter, the rain falls.

                                                        Sarah Marie... blown away by a waterfall

     Rata blooms red flower nectar
      Tuis flitter up high, gorging and gobbling
      Warbling a wobbly song

Here's a tui. If you want to hear the wobbly Tui song that is a staple in the bush (forest), go to: http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/conservation/native-animals/birds/bird-song/tui-song-42.mp3
Some people say the Tui sounds like a rusty gate opening and shutting.

Balloons over Waikato

So Hamilton has the reputation in Aotearoa as a bit of a backwater (i.e., think Winnipeg in Canada). This is undeserved in our view— here is some evidence…

When we first arrived, as we were eating breakfast several mornings in a row, one or two enormous hot air balloons would float over our house each day. Puzzling but pretty cool. Well it turns out that Hamilton is a mecca for balloonists and it all comes to a height (literally) each year with the international balloon festival hosted here… ‘Balloons over Waikato’ (Waikato is our region, named for the river that runs through it)… very special. 35 enormous balloons in all! 

Notice the SUV size to get a sense of the balloon size!

One of the mornings we went down before dawn and watched some of the balloons inflate on the Commons and then take off into the black skies, using their brilliant flames to shoot up heat into the balloon to warm the air, enabling the balloon to rise into the wind and float across the city. With roughly six balloons in the sky, and beautiful music playing on the Commons, the balloonists (thanks to simultaneous radio transmission) were able to synchronize their flames to go on and off with the music… a pretty spectacular sight. 

Later the shape balloons including everyone’s favourite (a Kiwi… surprise!) launched into the daylight.

                                                That is a very big tree!

The big finale of the balloon festival is the “Night Glow”. In this case twelve mega balloons are inflated silently and simultaneously taking up the while of the enormous University rugby fields. It is pitch dark as you see the balloon shadows grow up to humongous proportions and then straighten up, still tethered to the ground, with digerydoo type music surround sound (the Awakening in Maori ritual) followed by the traditional Haka (the Challenge and Welcome) with the flames blasting forth in synchronicity to the music. 

It was magic. This was followed by 20 minutes of flames shooting up to illuminate the balloons (though the music was a bit fast for the flames). It all ended with the best fireworks I have ever seen… great flowing choreography and spectacles of colours changing over time.

Attendance at the Night Glow… 95,000 people, and only a short walk from our house (thank god we did not have to drive or park). So there you go, check out Hamilton next time you are in NZ!

Canadian Moose... In the Shadowlands?

Fiordland, the southwest corner of the South Island sticks out into the Southern Ocean toward Antarctica. It is a World Heritage Site and one of the most famous and frequently photographed portions of New Zealand. It is a huge tract of land similar to the Canadian Rockies in size. But other than one small town, Te Anau, and a couple of famous fiords and treks, where tourists come and go, there are very few people in this remote part of the world. In particular, in the southwestern part of the area, there are almost no human beings as it is virtually inaccessible unless you want to bushwack and climb through intractable rainforest for more than a week. The only real imposition of humanity are the helicopters which can go anywhere, though there is still little reason to go here as it is off the major scenic flight routes.

Are their Canadian moose out there?

This vast wild area is called the “Shadowlands” because this is a rainforest (Milford Sound gets 7 metres of rain a year) of clouds, mist and rain, with the sun breaking though occasionally. It is here, in 1910, that the New Zealand government released 10 Canadian moose with the idea of creating a herd to hunt, and attracting visitors. At first they grew in numbers, possibly as high as a 100, but then the hunters moved in and killed lots. The last undeniable photograph of several moose comes from 1953, yet many are convinced they still exist, maybe only a few. Are they hiding in the Shadowlands? One man, a wildlife biologist, Ken Tustin, has made it his life’s passion to find a living moose, and he believes they indeed exist. Fur has been identified in 2002 and a couple of years ago tree browse was found that he says by the markings, could only be from a moose, not a deer. He twice yearly sets numbers of movement sensor cameras in remote locales with only helicopter access, hoping that the camera will be triggered by the movement of a moose. So far he has seen lots of deer and a few ambiguous photos that might be moose. Hmmm. There are two movies tackling the mystery, one by Ken, and another that we saw in Fiordland by two young film makers. The verdict… Ginny thinks there are still moose, Alan is not so sure. Here’s some photos of our spectacular trip to the edge of the Shadowlands on the Kepler Track.

Moose??? But the misty Murchinson Mountains in the distance are the last wild 

refuge of the Takahe, a beautiful ground bird on the verge of extinction

                                         Sunlight in the Shadowlands