Gorse: NZ's Worst Nightmare

Today's work was quite different from what we have been doing the past few days. Instead of planting treelets around the site office, we geared up, grabbed thick gloves and tools, and headed down the road to another area of site in need of some care. 1 minute drive. A jump over a wooden fence. A careful step over an electric fence. And we were at the site of today's work: gorse removal. Beside a small stream and covering the field we were standing in was plant upon plant of the invasive gorse.

Native to Europe, settlers brought gorse here to New Zealand, never knowing how big of an impact it would have on the country's ecosystem. Originally used as hedging for their gardens to keep out predators, gorse was planted in small proportions, only what was needed. But New Zealand's nutrient rich soil and temperate climate caused the gorse plant to spread like wildfire. Gorse now eats up the country side of the west coast of the south island, displacing other native plants and habitats. That's why we were working today to rid the Punakaiki Coastal Restoration Site of this harmful invasive species.

From afar, the plant looks like a large bush with tiny yellow flowers. However, as one comes closer, you will find a plant covered in enormous thorns. The tiny flowers suddenly become not so appealing anymore. We spent the entire morning clipping and sawing the trunks of these gorse plants. It was the most labor intensive work that we have done thus far, but it was nice to do another different job for CVNZ and the restoration site. What made the day even better was that today there was no rain, just pure sunshine. Perfect for the day I decide to wear the most layers and winter clothing. After shedding layer after layer, and even after taking smoko, by noon we were drained. The enthusiasm level was still pretty high but the energy level was dwindling. Lucky for us, the site crew gave us the rest of the day off with a fantastic afternoon of site-seeing planned for us.

After a fantastic lunch made on the "toastie maker," also known as a sandwich maker for us, Sam loaded us into the CVNZ van and drove us an hour down the coast to visit the fur seal colony. It was breath taking. It was like we were experiencing New Zealand on our first day all over again, since this was the first time we experienced NZ in the sun. After hiking up the trail to see the seals, and "Awww!"ing over the baby ones, the sight of them lounging on the rocks in the sun made us all long for a nap, so we headed home, more than content with the work we accomplished for the restoration site.

The Enthusiastic Agricultural Family

With so much to do and see here, it's hard to make time to sit indoors and write, but I figure that as much as experiencing this is important, so is remembering it years from now.

Success is the only word to describe how well we are doing here. 500 trees the first day. We were all extremely excited to reach the goal, one we thought we would never surpass while being here. I mean, come on, it was our first day, our first time on the site grounds, and the energy level was soaring. That would be our most successful day...or so we thought. That night we slept soundly, knowing that what we had been planning for the past year was finally happening. 8 am rolled around quickly Tuesday morning, just as it had on Monday, but we were just as pumped and ready to go as the day before.


"Everyone in?"
"...Yes!"
"Did everyone remember everything? Gloves, hats, waterproofs, gumboots?"
"Yes!"
"O and did everyone remember to bring their enthusiasm?!"
With heaps of laughs, "YES!"

The enthusiasm question was mine. If there was one thing I realized from the day before, it was how amazing the group I was working with was. Our waterproofs were ripping left and right. We were cold, wet, and drained from flying so much over the weekend, but no one left their enthusiasm at the door. It was right with us wherever we were working and it showed. I find myself lucky to be apart of such a group and Conservation Volunteers New Zealand were appreciative. They kept telling us how exciting it was to have so many hands helping in the beginning stages of the project and how the petrel colony was being nurtured with our help. That right there is reward enough for being here.

Day 2 of volunteer work started and ended with that same enthusiasm. The morning brought more heavy down-pours but we were right out there sorting trees until CVNZ pulled us inside. Seed sorting continued from there and we potted plants as well. Variety. It was nice. With a break in the rain, we ran back outside to continue our planting. Half of us with Sam [CVNZ member who works and stays with the volunteers] to plant and half of us with James [project site coordinator] to gather seeds. After smoko, the two groups switched places and it was now my groups turn to plant. We decided we were ready for the wet plants and sloshed our way through muddy waters to plant. 430 plants by the time it was almost time to go in, but that was 70 less than yesterday. We knew we could do more and told Sam we wanted to stay out a little longer and reach our goal. 510 trees were planted on day 2, 10 more than the day before. These people here with me had just the desire I had to make a difference, and this enthusiasm was what we all took pride in.

After two days of wet, but worth it, planting and gathering, we decided to lay low for the night. Movie night with homemade popcorn sounded perfect. The 8 of us volunteers, Kristina [our project leader], and Sam did just that. Here it was. We were no longer just strangers from around the world. We were one big, happy family having family time together after a hard days works in the fields. It kind of reminded me of a big agricultural family from "back in the day," where everyone chipped in and did their part to make the farm run smoothly. What a family! We care and have fun together! What more could one ask for? Maybe we should make a family band.

Pictures Perhaps?

Taking off from Sydney.

Over Sydney.

NZ.

"Wait, what did you just say?"

I haven't been here too long, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that not every country has its own strange words and sayings. "Wait, what did you just say?" and "What is that?" have come out of my mouth one too many times, so I figured I would share with you what I was responding to!

GUMBOOTS = rainboots

PONG = stinky

SMOKO = a tea break

TAKING THE PISS OUT OF IT = to make fun of

LARRY = happy

SWEET AS = good

I think that's it for now. I am positive there will be more to come.

Day 1 at the Punakaiki Coastal Restoration Site

After a day of heavy exploration and mounds of wet clothing, we have finally come to day 1 of our volunteer work. Jet lag kicked in as we awoke at 7am to eat breakfast and layer on the clothing and waterproof gear for our first day on the restoration site. We were out the door my 8am and on our way to do some heavy restoring of habitats.

Water bottle? Check. Waterproof pants and jacket? Check. Lunch packed? Clearly that's a check. Working gloves? Oops, forgot, better run back in and get them....ok, now check. Energy? Mmmmm, almost...nope definitely check. We got to the site and after getting the grand tour of the project office and pow-wowing in the discussion room to hear the basics about why we were here and what we were doing, we headed to the garage to size up our wellies [rainboots] and head out to take a tour of the site. Slosh. Slosh. Slosh. Hole in my boot. Slosh. Slosh. Wait?! Hole. In. My. Boot. It figures that would happen to me. Not even an hour here and I already had a wet left foot. Oh well, I stuck it out and continued our little tour.

Five minutes in and the fact that my wellie was severely injured didn't mean a whole lot to me. I was peering through a rainforest, marked as a breeding site for a bird in need of help. No one asked us to be there. No one forced us. We received no letters from the black petrel colony saying, "Hey, if you wouldn't mind could you plant some trees to pad my crash landing?" Nothing. We were there because we looked for a way to help a place in need. This petrel colony was it and ISV helped us to find it. We were finally apart of something bigger than our hometowns. This was something bigger than recycling in Texas, like Erica pointed out, or bigger than shutting the lights off in Michigan. This was bigger than talking in an IC ESP class about WANTING to do something. We were finally doing our part and actually being on that site made it real.

Noon rolled around and our goal of planting 5000-6000 trees over the next 10 days didn't seem as far fetched anymore. We already had 300 trees planted by that point and there were only 11 of us working. You wouldn't believe the energy that was there though. We were laughing with each other as some dug holes and the rest of us sat in muddy, watery grounds, digging our bare hands in the slosh to make a home for each treelet. After a spot of tea, some amazing NZ cookies, and lunch in the site kitchen, we went back to work right away to continue getting our hands dirty for a good cause. An hour and a half later and we reached our day goal: 500 trees. That was one day.

[What is really special about our group being here at this time, is that we are the first ones. There have been some spraying and digging out of invasive gorse plants before us, but we were the first to plant the trees. We are the ones starting up this site with Conservation Volunteers New Zealand. It's exciting to be apart of the first stages of a project like this.]

After finishing our planting and getting literally hosed down behind the site house, we went on a tour of another part of the site, down to the beach. Each new breathtaking view here makes my heart jump, and makes me sit and wonder what treasures I have yet to see with each new adventure I take. Again, it started raining, but it didn't matter at that point.

It is currently 9:50 pm on Monday night here, and after a fantastic run in the rain on the beach and along rainforest-lined trails, I sit reflecting on this project, why I am here helping, and what an impact this will have. The rain outside is a soothing sound now [after a few constant days of on and off down-pours] and helps the ponderer to ponder to their fullest. So, that's just what I'll do.

Nāu te whatu Māori, hei konā rā.

Through the eye of the Maori, farewell.

"Kia Ora" from Punakaiki!

With a population of about 100 people, Punakaiki is a small place located on the west coast of New Zealand's south island. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the "town" is no more than a few shops and an information center on the area. It's located on the edge of NZ's Paparoa National Park, most well-known for it's pancake rocks and blowholes. The area is covered in vegetation. Staring out the window right now, there isn't one part of the cliffside I see that is bare. It's beyond gorgeous.

With all the unfortunate things happening to our environment right now, it's a bit of relief to know that there are still places, like Punakaiki, that remain, by their looks anyway, untouched. The New Zealand Department of Conservation owns 85% of the land on the west coast of the south island, most of which is being conserved, like what we are helping with over the next few weeks. But this place isn't without it's problems. If it was, I wouldn't be here right now volunteering.

Our project is coastal habitat restoration. A mere 5 minutes down the road is the breeding site of the Black Petrel, or Procellaria parkinsoni. It is extremely significant because this area on NZ's south island is the only breeding site in the world for this breed of bird, and I get the chance to help it. It's not on the endangered species list, but if it's habitat is not restored, there is no saying whether this species could become apart of that list at some point. It's invigorating to be apart of a project that is protecting the habitat of something so sensitive to the impacts we are having on the environment.

I also found out that the black petrel is extremely sensitive to bright lights, so if the land we are working on was not conserved and used for commercial uses, the pertrel would not even be able to find its nesting site. Their landing on the site is quite interesting, as we are told they kind of "crash-land" as they come in, a reason the NZ brush and dense rainforest is vital to their survival and breeding. Fear not little crazy black bird, ISV is here to help!

The Home Tour