Manager It
Resume:
Maina Perrot
Servitude Orohiti, Tahiti
French Polynesia
Dear Sir,
My name is Maina Perrot and I am writing to you in regards to a possible
job opportunity to work for your organisation.
I have completed my Bachelor in Communication Studies with a major in
journalism in October 2008 and have since been working in the magazine
industry as a staff writer and editorial assistant for Wilderness and
alfresco magazines and since January for a new dog magazine called fetch!
respectively.
I would be interested in working with you and contribute to your
organization in any way I can and I am certain you will not regret having
me in your team.
Below I have summarised some details about myself for your information:
> I am passionate about writing articles and telling stories.
> I make it a priority to write accurately. I am curious with an
investigative mind seeking out information to write the truth.
> I am determined yet sensible and take responsibility for my actions.
> I am adaptable and flexible as well as being a fast learner. I enjoy
the process of writing in different styles. I approach tasks with
enthusiasm and am keen to take on new ideas.
> I have very good communication and interviewing skills. I speak, read
and write in English and French fluently.
> I am extremely focused and I like to know what is going on in
the world. I try to
improve my general knowledge whenever possible.
> I am able to work independently and efficiently with good time
management and prioritizing abilities but I also really enjoy being
part of a team. My interest in people and my ability to keep an open
mind enable me to work well in a team.
> I also have an eye for details and a keen interest and great
photography skills.
Please find below my CV and a few of my articles.
Feel free to send me an email at *********@*****.**. I am happy to organise
a phone interview and call you myself as it is free from where I am.
I appreciate your time taken and would be very keen for an opportunity to
discuss an available position with you.
Sincerely yours,
Maina Perrot
Maina Perrot
[pic]
Nationality: French
Date of Birth: 26 June 1987
Current country of Residence: New Zealand
Address: 3A Mons Avenue, Mt Roskill, Auckland
Phone : (09) 303 21 09
Mobile: 027-**-**-***
E-mail: *********@*****.**
Career objective
I have completed a Bachelor of Communication Studies student at Auckland
University of Technology, with a major in journalism. I am also studying a
Wildlife Management course with internationally recognized distance
education qualifications provider ACS Distance Education.
My life ambition is to be a wildlife journalist.
Spoken languages
Native language: French.
English fluently read, spoken and written.
Personal statement
I am a hard-working, very enthusiastic and determined person.
I am passionate about writing news and feature stories, particularly those
that affect the community and inform people on what is going on in places
where they have no access to.
I am curious and I like find out information. I make a priority to write
truthfully and accurately.
I enjoy the process of learning new things, I am a fast learner and I take
responsibility for my actions.
I am also sociable and I have good communication skills. I speak, read and
write in both English and French fluently.
I am extremely focused and try to improve my general knowledge whenever
possible.
I am generally very organised and independent and I can work alone
efficiently but my interest in people and my ability to keep an open mind
mean that I am also able to work in a team.
Internships
August 04, 2008 - August 08, 2008
Internship at the Whakatane Beacon
Involved writing hard and soft news stories, fillers, working with
photographers, production team, sub-editor and editor. 6 articles
published.
Skills learned: Writing, interviewing, working in a team and independently,
working for a deadline.
Referee: Mark Dawson, editor. Pphone: 07 308 8129
.
June 23, 2008 - July 04, 2008
Internship at the Central Leader Newspaper
Involved writing hard and soft news stories, fillers and briefs, working
with a photographer. 12 articles published.
Skills learned: Writing, interviewing, working in a team, working for a
deadline, working with the sub-editor and editor, photography skills
improvement.
Referee: Katherine Forbes,
editor. Phone: (09) 623 9696.
Job experiences
Most relevant:
November 2008 - October 2009
Journalist for Lifestyle Publishing Ltd (New Zealand): Wilderness Magazine
and Alfresco Magazine
Involved writing articles for the two magazines (a monthly and a bi-
monthly), interviewing, researching and working with two different teams as
well as independently to different deadlines.
Skills learned: Adapt to new situations and be flexible in my writing and
interviewing styles. Writing hard and soft news stories and features,
interviewing, photography and working on their website.
Have also worked for Wilderness in freelance throughout the year 2008.
Still working there.
Referee: David Hall, Panmure. Phone: (09) 570 2658.
February 2008 - July 2008
Journalist at AUT
Involved writing articles for the Debate (student magazine) and Te Waha Nui
(student newspaper) each week during the semester. 9 articles published.
Skills learned: Basics of hard and soft news writing, interviewing,
photography, working independently with a specific deadline.
Referee: Gregory Tredwell, AUT. Phone: (09) 921 9999.
November 2007 - February 2008
Receptionist at the Rendez Vous hotel (Front desk)
Involved welcoming guests, checks in and checks out, handling the cashier,
bookings, professional gatherings and event management.
Learned skills: effective communication, patience, cash handling, crisis
management Referee: Sandra Leupa, duty manager.
Phone: (09) 366 3000.
July 2004 - July 2005
Vet office and Surgery
Secretarial work during the holidays. Involved cleaning cages after closing
hours, feeding, checking on sick animals and taking care of sick and
injured animals during the days.
Skills learned: Working with injured animals, conservation issues in the
South Pacific.
Referee: Olivier Gioud, Punaauia, Tahiti (French Polynesia). Phone: (00689)
41 02 78.
Others:
October 2006 - March 2007
Baby sitting
Involved taking care of 3 boys aged 4, 2 and newborn, feeding and bathing
the children, preparing them for bed and playing with them.
Skills learned: Patience, being responsible, being organised, having an
open mind.
Referee: Ngaire Smales, Mt Albert, Auckland. Phone (09) 849 6956.
November 2006 - January 2007
Housekeeping
Involved helped cleaning and preparing rooms and bathrooms for guests.
Skills learned: Working under pressure, being tidy and organised, working
with a team.
Referee: City Lodge, 150 Vincent St, Auckland City.
Phone: (09) 379
61 83
July 2006
Investigative research
on kitchen, bathroom and house furniture and translating and writing formal
business letters in English/French.
Skills learned: Working for deadline, doing thorough research, interviews,
working independently.
Referee: Szu Ming Tang, Papeete, Tahiti, (French Polynesia). Phone: (00689)
78 83 37.
Qualifications and academic achievements
Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
Achieved in November 2008
Bachelor in Communication Studies with a major in Journalism
Level 7,8,9
Interpersonal communication
Public relations
Journalism
Advertising
Applied media ethics
Persuasive communication
Digital media
Television
Radio
University of Cambridge; ESOL Examinations
Achieved in January 2006
First Certificate of English (FCA)
Grade B
Writing
Reading
Use of English
Listening
Speaking
Auckland University
Achieved in January 2006
IELTS
Level 7
International English Language Testing System
Writing
Reading
Listening
Speaking
Crown Institute of Studies
July 2005 - December 2005 Course completed
English grammar composition
Advanced level (6-7)
Reading and Comprehension
Conversation
Vocabulary
Coll ge and Lyc e Paul Gauguin Papeete (TAHITI)
July 2002 - July 2005
General Secondary Education Certificate (Baccalaureate) in Literature
and Languages
Grade B+
Literature
Philosophy
History- Geography
French (written and spoken)
English (written and spoken)
Spanish (written and spoken)
Ancient Greek (written)
Sports
Hobbies, sports and interests
I love being into the outdoors and enjoy camping, hiking, swimming, water-
skiing, wake-boarding, scuba-diving, playing tennis and dancing.
I read and write a lot about a variety of topics and I am particularly
interested in nature, wildlife and conservation.
I am fascinated by nature and like to take part in events that help
preserving the wildlife and I want to become a wildlife journalist to
inspire people to care more about our planet and the animals with whom we
share it.
Magazine articles and features
Published
Published in Wilderness Magazine (National Adventure/ Wildlife Magazine)
Let the children play
In an increasingly virtual playground kids are growing up with few real
connections to the outdoors and end up suffering from a uniquely 21st
century problem: 'nature-deficit disorder'. By Maina Perrot
[Text]
As a kid Val Holland would spend hours wandering off in the bush after
school, building huts, playing in mud pools or fishing for eels in the
nearby creek with a wool line and a bent pin for a hook. Only when the sun
was low and her stomach growling furiously would she think about heading
back home.
"It was amazing," she says. "I used to set off in the morning with my lunch
and would tell Mum I would be away all day."
It was that freedom to explore and play in the outdoors that planted in
Holland a passion for the outdoors that has seen her keep up her tramping
well into her 60s. But while she would take her four children, and now her
grandchildren, tramping with her, Holland feels today's kids do not have
the same freedom or keen interest in the outdoors that she enjoyed.
Furthermore, she thinks this is affecting their development.
"Being in the outdoors brings us back to the basics of life without all the
clutter and supposed necessities of modern life," she says. "But today,
kids are not being allowed to be kids to explore and learn about their
surroundings and learning to take risks."
Holland isn't alone in her thinking - a growing number of people think
children today are suffering from a deficit of nature in their lives and
the results can be seen in growing childhood obesity rates, more anxiety
and depression among young people and more instances of Attention Deficit
Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD).
For as long as humans have been, well, humans, we have lived close to the
natural world and felt the need to escape into the wilderness to recuperate
from illnesses, exercise or simply to find peace.
Richard Louv, an American author and journalist who coined the term nature-
deficit disorder in his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children
From Nature-Deficit Disorder, agrees with the biophilia hypothesis - the
assumption that this need to connect with other living things and nature is
intrinsic to all people. But as technology becomes more and more prevalent
in our lives, Louv argues fewer and fewer people are taking as much as a
step out their back door to explore the mysteries of life and natural
wonders of their gardens, let alone more adventurous trips into forest or
national parks. This, he says, is particularly the case with today's
children.
"Children and young adults have lost touch with the natural environment,"
says Louv, who co-founded and now chairs the Children and Nature Network,
an organisation helping to connect today's children to the natural world.
In 10 years of travelling around the USA reporting and speaking to parents
and children, in both rural and urban areas, about their experiences in
nature, Louv has found many young people have come to think of nature as
more of an abstraction than a reality.
"Today's kids are increasingly disconnected from the natural world and
instead of passing summer months hiking, swimming and telling stories
around the campfire, they are more likely to attend computer classes or
weight-loss camps," he says.
Anna Gentry, a former Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Centre instructor
and the founder of NaturePlayNZ, an organisation that provides natural play
products, professional support services for early childhood providers and
designs natural playscapes such as bird nests aimed to help children
connect with nature, agrees with Louv.
"The research is stacking up to support the notion that today children are
expressing greater signs of stress which is evident in the depression and
hyperactivity observed in alarmingly growing amounts," Northland-based
Gentry says. "I do understand that we have an intrinsic bond with all other
living things but 21st century living in our western culture has developed
a model of existence for young children which often places them on
artificial surfaces or in indoor environments for extended periods of
time."
She points to how many children, often as young as three months old, are
often placed in early childhood care five days a week while the older ones
might wander in shopping malls all afternoon.
"Often these environments limit the opportunity for the young child to
engage freely in the natural world. We need to remember how powerful those
childhood adventures into wild places were for all of us adults, even if
it's only over the fence and in a park."
The reasons why young people are spending less time in natural surrounding
are multiple, and complex, says Harriette Carr, a public health medicine
specialist with the Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy team at the
Ministry of Health.
With more and more people moving to cities, children have less access to
the natural environment and are booked into more convenient and safer
organised activities.
"When we were younger, [our free time after school] would have been spent
playing outside with friends, a much cheaper option (which also meant) less
time for children spent commuting in cars," Carr explains. "But the last 20
years has seen a proliferation of preschool classes in everything from
music to gymnastics, tennis, ballet, football and drama. There is now a
societal expectation that skills have to be taught rather than developed
naturally."
And when children do have access to a garden, local bush or parks, many
parents don't let them enjoy them on their own so children have
considerably less freedom to roam and play.
"We are now in a risk-averse culture," Carr explains. "One-off events or
accidents that have attracted media attention provide parents with a
sometimes unrealistic understanding of the true risk associated with
different activities such as walking to school or climbing trees. Often the
benefits outweigh the risks, but then the benefits do not make the news."
Louv agrees. "We have overscheduled our children to keep up with their
overscheduled parents. Relaxation time must be planned and outdoor activity
in the natural environment has taken a back seat," he says.
Val Holland says children shouldn't be so "mollycoddled" in attempts to
protect them from harm. "Children spend less time outside as it can be
easier for parents to monitor their kids inside. But when children have
never been introduced to camping, tramping and other outdoor activities,
they don't realise what they are missing."
One of the consequences of nature deficit disorder outlined by Richard Louv
is obesity, which he says has become a growing problem. "There have been
multiple studies that show children who go outside more often exercise
more," he says.
Yet despite having unrivalled access to parks, forests and other natural
environments, nearly 30 per cent of New Zealand children are classified as
overweight and eight per cent are obese. As of June 2008, 26.5 per cent of
the total population was obese and if current trends continue, the obesity
rate could rise to 29 per cent by 2011.
Medical Officer of Health for the Northland District Health Board Dr
Jonathan Jarman says the days when you would find just one fat kid in class
are long gone. "Now it is estimated around one in ten are obese," he says.
"One of the saddest things about being fat is that the child is unlikely to
ever experience the joys of feeling physically fit, being able to climb a
mountain or go for a tramp for several days in the bush."
The two thirds of children and young people who meet the government's
physical activity guidelines by spending an hour a day practising moderate
to vigorous activity are more likely to be doing this through organised
sports and activities than left alone to play in their backyard, let alone
a nearby park or forest.
"It is convenient for parents to book them into a rugby team as they know
where they are and they know they will be playing with other kids," said
Deb Hurdle, the manager of recreation for SPARC which is currently trying
to get more young people involved in outdoor recreation regularly by
assisting with up-skilling organisations like Scouts that have an ongoing
focus on outdoor recreation.
But studies show that as people grow older, and get busier, they stop
participating in the organised activities they did as youngsters and their
level of fitness and activity decreases with only 15 per cent of 20 to 24
year olds meeting the physical activity guidelines.
David Mangnall is the training manager at Outward Bound, Anakiwa and says
that while young people are still keen to participate in outdoor challenges
and adventures, he has noticed a growing number of people attending courses
who have never been in the outdoors before.
"Some students [that come here] have done a bit tramping, camping and spent
time in a non-urban setting, and some haven't, but 20 years ago, everyone
would have done a bit [of outdoor activities]," he says.
"We are seeing a real difference in what people's outdoor experiences have
been. Because of changing values, family structure and a busy working week,
there is less time to go camping [and get outside]."
He believes access to nature is critical to a child's development. "It's
healthy for people to get out and get connected to nature. Not everyone has
access to pristine wilderness areas but even going to the local bush is
important."
Richard Louv emphasises this importance of the outdoors in addressing other
nature deficit
disorder effects such as ADD or ADHD.
The American Social Security Disability website states ADHD affects about 3-
5 per cent of the world's population under the age of 19.
"In the USA, 500,000 children were diagnosed ADHD in 1985 and between five
and seven million today," American neurologist Dr Fred Baughman says.
"Substantial growth has also been reported in Australia where it is
estimated that at least 50,000 children are now on drugs prescribed for
ADHD."
The US Drug Enforcement Administration has also found a staggering 500 per
cent increase in the number of prescriptions written for stimulant
medication to treat ADHD since 1991.
"Children with ADHD can have difficulties at home, at school, and in
relationships with friends and other children their age and up to 70 per
cent of children diagnosed with ADHD will continue to have symptoms into
adulthood," Dr Baughman adds.
Other outcomes attributed to a disconnection from nature include diminished
health, reduced cognitive, creative and problem-solving capacities, lower
school achievement and lower self esteem, Richard Louv says. "[Studies have
shown that] in schools where children take outdoor education as part of the
curricula and spend unregulated time outside, all those deficits are
addressed."
In children, the 'natural' environment has both an inherently stimulating
and calming effect and more than 100 studies from around the world have
revealed nature can help protect children against stress and depression.
University of Illinois research indicates that while direct exposure to
nature can relieve the symptoms of attention-deficit disorders, activities
indoors, such as watching television, and even activities outdoors in
paved, non-green areas, leave these children functioning worse.
"Children who experience nature play are healthier, test better in school,
are far more likely to invent their own games and play cooperatively and
while those who evolve from leaders in flat, hard-surfaced play areas tend
to be the strongest, children who evolve from play in natural areas tend to
be the smartest," Louv adds.
In nature, children can find the elements that have always united humankind
such as the driving rain, hard wind, warm sun, forests deep and dark, stone
and the awe and amazement that the Earth inspires, especially during a
child's formative years.
"It just doesn't make sense to suppress a child's in-born urge to play and
through that play develop diverse mental and physical skills," says Louv.
"Nature play is obviously not a cure-all, but it is an enormous help."
And it's not just kids that suffer from a nature deficit. Researchers in
England and Sweden have found that joggers who exercise in a natural green
setting with trees, foliage, and landscape views, feel more restored and
less anxious, angry and depressed than people who burn the same amount of
calories in gyms or other built-up settings.
Nature is our greatest teacher, Anna Gentry says. She quotes Thomas Berry,
author of The Dream of the Earth, who wrote that "teaching children about
the natural world should be seen as one of the most important parts of
their life".
"As a child I explored wide, I fell, I got up, I laughed, I cried. I felt
pain and fear but I saw beauty, too," she says. "Climbing mountain trails,
sitting on a kayak or running through fields of wild flowers or riding a
bike through forest tracks are more than physical activities, they get the
child out of their head and into their body."
Louv has also noticed another worrying side-effect: fewer people with an
understanding and love of nature means fewer future activists to help save
nature from adverse development and pollution.
"Children now have limited respect to their immediate natural
surroundings," Louv says. "The rapid disengagement between children and
direct experiences in nature over the last few years has profound
implications, not only for the health of future generations but for the
health of the earth itself."
And as long as nature experiences are considered an extracurricular
activity, nothing will change. But a new movement is slowly emerging around
the world. In the USA, 23 cities have launched regional campaigns to get
kids reconnected to the outdoors, others have created nature preschools. In
New Zealand, Human, an interactive outdoor school, and Nature Play NZ aim
to reintroduce people of all ages to a more natural way of life while
tramping clubs, such as Val Holland's Waikato Tramping Club, are taking
their children and young children along on tramps.
"We encourage parents to bring their kids and come out tramping with us,"
club president Holland says. "The children pitch their own tents and keep
them tidy, take turns to cook the meals, manage lighting the gas and
controlling the heat, make a campfire and toast marshmallows and make
dampers. Their parents never put restrictions on our activities."
This is the key, says the Ministry of Health's Harriett Carr: "It is
parents' responsibility to maximise the opportunities and make being active
in nature fun for children."
What next?
Studying a certificate or diploma in outdoor recreation at a Polytechnic
has many advantages. It is also a shortcut. But is it truly enough to
appeal to outdoor recreation providers? Maina Perrot takes a look at what
the industry really wants.
[Text]
Being in a position to manage an outdoor recreation business at the age of
26 certainly is an achievement. But to Jessica Marriott, the manager of
Queenstown Climbing, the dream is the result of the experience she has
gained and skills she has learned during her time studying her diploma in
outdoor leadership and management at Otago polytechnic sports institute.
"I've learnt so many key skills that have enabled me to work as a rock
climbing instructor and guide," she says. "I have taken away a solid
grounding in skills involving bush, mountaineering, white water kayaking
and sea kayaking which I am now able to build upon as my outdoor experience
grows."
Here at Otago Polytechnic, 80 to 90 per cent of their graduates will go
into work for the industry they trained for, says outdoor education
programme manager Andy Thompson."This often will be part time and work can
be ether seasonal-based or they may want to move to work with another
company to gain more varied experience."
He says most people join outdoor programmes because they have either been
involved in the outdoors through their families, or they have studied
outdoor education at school and want to make a career out of it.
"They come to us wanting to expand or consolidate the skills they have. Our
programme [for example] aims to enable students to achieve knowledge,
skills and attributes required for leadership and management roles within
the New Zealand Outdoor Industry.
"It is envisaged that this programme will act as an accelerator of
education and experience to enable students to develop the ability to lead
others as professionals."
In short, studying an outdoor course is a shortcut. Anita Sword, who
graduated with Bachelor of Sport and Recreation (BSR) majoring in Outdoor
Education from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) last year and is now
working as a full time outdoor instructor for Adventure Specialties Trust
agrees and says having a degree shows that you can "knuckle down" and work
hard.
"Polytechnics offer a great stepping stone to get you into the industry,
providing you with experience, teaching you the 'ropes' and the theories
behind the practice, " she says.
But while she thinks having higher education certainly helps in getting a
job, it is the practical hands-on experience and training the national
standards of the outdoor industry students get that renders the programme
most valuable.
In fact, according to a research on graduates of New Zealand Outdoor
Recreation and Leadership programmes conducted by Postgraduate Diploma in
Outdoor Education student Anna Hughes in 2007, graduates expressed the need
to spend more time instructing real clients with work placements leading to
employment and to sit more qualifications and certificates to take away.
"Field trips were the top priority in training methods and that half the
training time should be devoted to such experiential learning," she writes.
"There is no better way to develop the attributes of safety, judgment,
group management, problem solving, instructional and technical skills than
to actually participate in the activities in the field."
Whitireia Outdoor Adventure programme leader Nick Chater says this comes
down to getting work experience and that polytechnic courses offer plenty
of it.
"As a tutor you have to make these courses as realistic to the actual work
place as possible, make sure that things like work ethics and industry
standards are used in the day to day running of programs, that students
understand that a piece of paper is not the only thing that makes a great
guide and that being really good at a specific outdoor skills does not mean
you will be a successful when dealing with clients when guiding them," he
says. "I think this is why work experience is such an important part of
these courses."
Sword agrees. "We did a lot of practical work in a wide range of outdoor
pursuits and also did a lot of industry-based placements where we would
learn firsthand how things actually work in the 'real world," she recalls.
And when getting contract work, graduates have their own value. At Kaikoura
Kayaks, director Matt Foy has been taking on two graduates every couple
of years at the end of their first season and employed quite a few of them
full time over the years.
"New Graduates often have a lot of energy and enthusiasm which is great for
half day adventures. They also work with a lot of mixed abilities in a
short period of time which is a quick way to sort some sound guiding
techniques with less exposure to risk."
In New Zealand, all of outdoor education and adventure recreation providers
are graduating approximately 2000 students a year and in her research, Anna
Hughes wrote that the industry can provide employment for between 3200 and
4500 full-time, part-time and casual staff, increasing to 6500 in the peak
season and dropping to 3000 in the off season, so there is no shortage of
job opportunities in the industry.
She found the majority of graduates (59%) gained employment in the outdoor
education and technical outdoor instruction or adventure tourism sectors.
Thirty seven per cent of graduates found outdoor education jobs in schools,
outdoor centres and tertiary institutions or became instructors in national
centres such as the Outward Bound School and the Sir Edmund Hilary Outdoor
Pursuits Centre.
To Ian Logie, the outdoor programme leader at Aoraki Polytechnic, outdoor
education needs outdoor recreation and outdoor education graduates without
a doubt.
"In good outdoor education, the programmes are aiming at students gaining
learning and development well above simple technical skills," he says.
"People with good training and industry qualifications, risk management and
teaching skills, crisis management skills and role model technical skills
are important. I think that there are perhaps too many outdoor recreation
businesses that could do with some good outdoor recreation graduates."
An approximate 21 per cent, or 400 graduates based on the estimated total
of 2000 graduates from outdoor courses in New Zealand, ended up in the
adventure tourism and hospitality industry.
Logie says students are given more and more responsibility as they progress
through the course. "We find that the more real we keep things the better
they perform. Our third year students leave here being ready to hit the
ground running.
"There is always a bit of an adjustment to be made in their first job and
often that is dealing with tiredness and attempting to find room for the
other parts of their lives when they are doing week after week of big days
in the field."
In most polytechnic programmes, students have the opportunity, and in some
cases are required to sit NZOIA awards. Between 2001 and 2005, 50 per cent
of graduates gained an industry award during or after completion of their
outdoor course. Of these, 25 per cent gained two or more awards, the most
popular of which were in the areas of rock climbing, kayaking and tramping
respectively. These are the "meal tickets" in the industry, and reflect the
students' skills based on a national standard, Logie says.
As such, the probability of graduates getting jobs tends to be very high,
Marriot says, provided they go out and get the right qualifications they
need for the job. "The best time to get them would be straight after
polytech as you have all the mentors and guidance of the tutors and you are
given lots of instructional hours. It's the perfect opportunity."
However, those awards are often sufficient enough for employers who may not
necessarily need or care about what qualifications their candidates have
gained through Polytechnic courses. In her research for example, Hughes
found that both outdoor graduates and outdoor employers put
'qualifications' down the list of importance for work in the industry. In
fact, for employers, qualifications was rated as the 5th down the list of
what they were looking for in an employee, after (1) local terrain
knowledge and experience, (2) passion, (3) international experience and (4)
personality.
"We're looking for life experience 101, a sense of humour, the ability to
tell a story and an ability to project a passion for their interests,"
guiding company Adventure South director Geoff Gabites says. "If you have
the above skills, we can teach the hard skills we need. However it's always
nice to see outdoor experience that hasn't simply been logged as part of
their Polytech course."
Stewart Barclay, from Adrift Outdoors, also says he would rather have
older, more experienced people than a fresh young person who has just
qualified from a polytechnic. "The qualifications are great but being able
to read people, the weather, the terrain and hazards is the key ingredient
to a successful trip and this is only gained through experience and most
young fresh graduates do not have this."
In some cases, businesses are even running their own training and
qualification programmes. "Outdoor Recreations graduates can still add
value to these businesses but some of these businesses will still simply
employ the right person - irrespective of qualifications - and train them
up themselves," says Ian Logie from Aoraki Polytechnic. "This can make
sense because often Adventure Tourism activities are well structured and
simply require good in-house training rather than the judgement skills that
come from a good education."
In other places like camps, YMCA and some companies such as Raftabout, the
focus is on younger people. "Every company is different but here we
normally take on at least one polytech student a year," Raftabout crew
member Nick Thompson says. "On the first day we just get them along on the
trip and normally by then you can tell if they have what it takes. Most
polytechs do a good job of preparing students for training in the industry
as most of the training is on the job."
Yet even after gaining a qualification and finding a job, many graduates
find it takes them a good two years before becoming a valued member of
their company, says Jon Lasenby, the Outdoor Adventure programme manager at
Whitireia polytechnic, and some have trouble finding work.
"The more challenging the experience [at the polytechnic] was, the more
chances they have to be favoured by employers in the industry which is why
we run a five week work experience placement at the end of the programme,"
he says. "Most come back with a job [after this]."
Another reason why employers are reluctant to employ young graduates is the
short amount of time they stay with them. In a 2005 survey of 645 outdoor
recreation workplaces which generated a 50 per cent response rate, SFRITO
(Sport Fitness and Recreation Industry Training Organisation) found that
"many young people stay only a short time in the industry or never work in
the industry due to insufficient 'obvious' entry points as a result of a
lack of experience, personality and passion".
Geoff Gabites, who is invited as a guest speaker at polytechnics each year,
confirms a decline in interest and enthusiasm in students he has talked to
over the last 10 years, and suggests polytechs do a better selection
criterion of students.
"New Zealand needs more students who have a passion for their interests and
aren't just doing a course because they can't think of what else to do."
While this may be true, the seasonal nature of work in a New Zealand
setting and young people wanting to gain experience overseas also make it
harder for graduates to find permanent positions, says Lasenby.
"It's hard to prepare people for work but my sense is that graduates need
to work on a seasonal model on the short term before getting a one or two
years contract. They need to start from the bottom of the pyramid and climb
up and show they want to stay in the industry.
"Like any job if you are keen honest and mature then employers will help
you fill in any deficiencies in your skills or knowledge."
A few may decide to travel abroad to get more experience. "That too is not
easy, pay isn't great but it's a good way of cutting around your teeth and
getting more experience," he adds. In other cases, some people will move on
after three, four or five years in the industry, it won't be everybody's
cup of tea.
Indeed, senior lecturer in outdoor recreation and leadership from Auckland
University of Technology (AUT) Mark Jones says the polytechnic courses are
about much more than qualifications.
"There's a whole human development and maturing that takes place through
the inherent challenges and experiences of the programmes, and graduates
leave with lifelong friends. Graduating only gets them a couple of rungs up
on a pretty long ladder in terms of skills, experience and qualifications.
"But they have to be prepared to start investing more in themselves if they
want better than what they've got and all those who really want to end up
in the industry.
"If you're in it for the long haul those opportunities come around. Being a
good net-worker and being proactive helps create the opportunities."
Changes in the backcountry
The wilderness is around us 24/7. Environmental issues are now mainstream
and green-at-heart New Zealanders are speaking out for their country. But
is that enough to preserve the wild face of New Zealand from mining,
climate change, energy demands, river pollution and increased wilderness
access? Maina Perrot investigates how these issues will affect New Zealand
over the next 10 years.
Mining
On May 2, an estimated 40,000 New Zealanders took to the streets to protest
against the Government's plan to open National Parks and highly valued
conservation areas to mining.
While there always has been some mining going on, with 82 mines already
operating on conservation land, the industry's impacts have so far been
limited to an area of 4000ha, or less than 0.02 per cent of New Zealand's
total land area.
In 1997, the National Government created Schedule 4, a section under the
Crown Mineral Act, to protect more than 30,000km of Department of
Conservation-managed land (that is 13 per cent of the land area of New
Zealand) from any mining activity.
But now the current National Government has proposed to peel away the skin
of the apple it helped grow and remove 7058ha of that same Schedule 4
conservation land purely for mining purposes.
Federated Mountain Club (FMC) mining spokesperson Richard Davies described
the move as "disheartening".
"I think a lot of people are disappointed that after over 30 years of
progress for conservation and setting land aside for recreation, the new
government is having those big ideas to dig holes in it," he says.
Targeted areas include 700ha of Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf
Marine Park, 2896ha of the Coromandel Peninsula for gold mining and opening
up Paparoa National Park on the South Island's West Coast coal, gold and
gemstone mining.
Gary Taylor, the chairman of the Environmental Defence Society (EDS), says
it is important that these remote areas remain unspoiled and uncompromised
by human activities.
"Such wilderness areas give us the ability to be alone and to experience
nature," he says. "Mining brings a large-scale industrial activity into
these special places. It requires roads, may lead to open cast pits, or
treatment facilities including toxic tailings dams."
The Government says only surgical mining which has a low impact on the
environment will be allowed, but Davies suspects open cast mining is
cheaper and easier in a New Zealand context.
"I went camping in the Victoria Ranges and there's a huge open cast mine
there," he says. "We were several valleys [further down] but we could see
it from 10km away. If more land is approved for mining, open cast mines
will cover the country."
Forest and Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell agrees and says such mines
like the Stockton Mine in the Papahaua Ranges have a much greater impact
than underground mines.
"In New Zealand, you get an average 3g of gold for every 1400kg of rock
that's dug up," he points out. "A mining company is not going to drill
small, unobtrusive holes to process huge quantities of rock."
In Paparoa National Park in particular, open-cast mining [on river
terraces] is "the only way to get at any coal or gold there".
Underground mines also have an impact. The Tui mine in the Waikato was
closed in 1973 but underground mine workings left behind have been
discharging metals into the local streams for years.
Hackwell insists mines only provide short term economic benefits, are
destructive to the environment and to the tourism industry. "Our brand is
100% Pure New Zealand. We need to be smarter in our use of conservation
land."
But the Government is now talking about surveying an additional 500,000ha
of other Schedule 4 areas for mining potential. Those areas include the
valued Kahurangi National Park, Mt Aspiring National Park, Stewart Island's
Rakiura National Park and nearly all the conservation land in the
Coromandel Peninsula.
EDS's Gary Taylor says mining simply cannot take place on highly sensitive
landscapes and is confident the Government will back off its original plan.
"I think there is an unwritten covenant between the New Zealand public that
National Parks and other areas of high value are off-limit from
development."
While he agrees with Taylor, FMC Richard Davies fears pristine conservation
land and National Parks may still be at risk if National decides to take
some of the power to grant or refuse access to conservation land for mining
interests off the Conservation Minister and shares it with the Energy
Minister. He says that would be a "disaster".
"The idea is that if you care about your national parks and pristine
wilderness areas and offshore islands, you shouldn't have to worry that
someone is going to want to apply to mine them."
All agree there is likely to be more mining in New Zealand over the next 10
years, but where it will occur is what will shape the country's landscape
as much as its outdoors enthusiasts' hearts.
Climate Change
Last summer was a treat for campers who enjoyed warmer-than-average
temperatures in most parts of the country. But the higher degrees also
brought with them drought in the North Island and melted glaciers
throughout the length of the Southern Alps. And while the warmer weather
had been predicted, more and more evidence suggests New Zealand has too
entered the golden, yet cursed, age of climate change.
Andy Reisinger, a Senior Researcher from Victoria University who
represented the New Zealand government on the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) from 2000 to 2006, says there is no doubt the earth
is warming.
"Over the past 10 years it has become increasingly certain that emissions
of greenhouse gases are causing global average temperatures to increase and
the climate to change," he says.
A new study conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) in the USA that studied marine temperature data
gathered over the past two decades confirms the that the oceans around the
world are warming as well as the atmosphere, quickly and significantly.
Shaun Barnett, an outdoors writer and experienced tramper, has seen some of
the changes happening in New Zealand first hand over his years of
exploration of the great outdoors. Hooker Hut in the Mt Cook area, for
instance, has been cut off for at least a decade partly because of glacier
recession.
"As the glacier retreats, the hut has been left stranded on an old ledge,
with erosion cutting two guts on either side into deep inaccessible
trenches. It's unstable, steep and dangerous."
Another, more recent example is Ball Hut, which he visited just before it
was closed in April 2008 and he says has become closer and closer to the
moraine wall edge of the Tasman Glacier as the glacier has "down-wasted and
retreated".
Dr Brian Anderson from the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria says there
aren't many solid projections of how these glaciers will respond to climate
change.
"[But] we know that the steep tongue of Franz Josef Glacier will disappear
by 2100, leaving a much smaller alpine glacier. Tasman and the other lake-
calving glaciers will end up in a similar situation after the lakes melt
their debris-covered valley tongues."
Nonetheless, the melting of these glaciers, which is already leading to the
formation of alpine lakes at the foot of the mountains, is changing the
wilderness scene as we know it, independent Scientist from Alpine and Polar
Processes Dr Trevor Chinn says.
"Glaciers around New Zealand are smaller than they have ever been, with
ice melting and sometimes disappearing totally," Dr Chinn relates. On the
West Coast the Ivory research Glacier has totally disappeared, the Godley
Glacier has collapsed into two big lakes and the Tasman Glacier lake is
growing the fastest of all. These lakes are destroying glaciers and making
access to mountains more difficult but [also] creating kayaking
opportunities and the whole scene is changing."
Others include the Mueller and Hooker pro-glacial lakes at Aoraki/Mt Cook,
both of which which are visited by thousands of tourists every year, the
nearby Murchison Glacier Lake, the Lyell and Ramsay glacial lakes of the
Rakaia and over on the West Coast, the big La Perouse and Balfour valley
glaciers.
Climate change also means the snowline will rise while permanent ice will
be reduced, making some mountaineering routes more and more difficult,
Reisinger predicts. Fire will become an increasing risk in dry eastern
regions.
"Over the next 10 years, these long-term trends will be overshadowed by
natural climate variability," he says. "We will have some cold and some
warm, some dry and some wet years. But further into the future, the
systematic changes will become ever more prominent."
In the 2030s, what is currently an unusually hot year will have become the
norm, whereas an unusually hot year in the 2030s will be hotter than almost
anything scientists have witnessed to date.
While it is already too late to prevent climate change from altering the
wilderness landscape, Reisinger says people can still limit the
consequences.
"It's not so much the visible effects of climate change that should grab
our attention in the immediate future, but what we do to reduce our
greenhouse gas emissions," he says. "Our actions - or inactions - in this
department over the next 10 years will have a major impact on the sort of
climate and ecosystems in which our children and grandchildren will go
tramping in the 2050s and beyond."
Shaun Barnett says awareness about the issue is high, but is concerned many
in the outdoors community might not take it seriously enough.
"I don't think many New Zealanders appreciate what impacts climate
change could have, and most think change is too far away to worry about or
think that it's all too hard to do anything about anyway. "In the next 10
years there will probably be subtle changes, but unless we address the
issue properly, change will accelerate and worsen."
Energy Demand
Another mixed wind is blowing through the backcountry as various ways to
deal with the ever increasing need for energy are being explored. The New
Zealand Energy Strategy has set an inspirational target of achieving 90 per
cent renewable electricity generation by 2025 and rivers are at the top of
the list, but controversially so.
The latest dam to be granted resource consent attracted nationwide
criticism and created a temporary rift between outdoor groups and locals in
need of a secure and reliable source of power.
The original plan for a 80m dam to be built on the Mokihinui River on the
West Coast and would have created a 14km-long lake, flooding 200ha of
conservation land and destroying the river's unique recreational
opportunities.
As Wilderness published the article, Meridian Energy had formally withdrawn
its applications for the DoC concession to operate on conservation land and
was expected to come back with a new proposal.
Dave Ritchie, the programme coordinator for the Outdoor Leadership and
Guiding programme at Tai Poutini Polytechnic, says he would have been
disappointed if [the original plan] had gone ahead.
"Years ago, mining and timber operations on the West Coast were stopped
because the forests were too valuable to loose and I believe we are in the
same situation now; the West Coast rivers are too valuable to lose."
While such a dam would greatly reduce white water opportunities, it would
still enable other activities such as flat water kayaking and Canadian
canoes or flat water racing kayaking and provide a better access to family
recreations around the lake.
But while water is renewable, rivers are not, Ritchie remarks, so hydro
dams are not the solution, nor are they eternal.
"The lake behind them fills up with silt, debris and stones over time and
renders the dam useless, and in some cases that takes 20 to 30 years."
Nevertheless, Dave Ritchie says there are a few examples where smaller
schemes work both for the outdoor recreation sector and energy producers.
The Arnold River HydoScheme on the West Coast for instance proposes to
build a world class artificial river that will enable white water rafting
and kayaking activities to continue.
"It's a ground breaking deal; a new mitigation package on the West Coast,"
Ritchie says. "Recreationalists are not blind to the country's energy
demand."
And alongside other, smaller dams including the Amethyst Creek, the Dobson
and Stockton Plateau dam, the Arnold Scheme would generate enough power to
fulfil the coast's current energy needs.
But what will we do after the last river is dammed?, Fish and Game New
Zealand communication manager Ric Cullinane asks. " We'll think of
something! OK, well then why not do that now and save our rivers for future
generations?"
Current power growth rates are up to two per cent, which "would mean
damming a wild river every six months", the Forest and Bird website states,
which is unsustainable in the long term so other energy sources must be
explored and developed.
According to Chris Turver, Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association's
executive officer, harnessing the power of the sea could, in the long term,
generate up to 80 percent of New Zealand's total energy requirements.
Currently there are five wave or tidal energy developments underway in New
Zealand, two using wave generators and three using underwater marine
turbines.
Another obvious alternative is wind energy, and the country's prevailing
westerly winds are already powering 11 of them, including the Hau Nui wind
farm south east of Martinborough, the Brooklyn Wind Turbine in Wellington,
the Apiti wind farm on the Ruahine Ranges and the Tararua wind farm on the
Tararua Ranges behind Palmerston North.
"Wind energy's positive contribution to New Zealand is growing," says New
Zealand Wind Energy Association chief executive Fraser Clark. "National
growth in wind generation will help reduce reliance on hydro generation."
While some argue that the wind farms are noisy and are visual pollution,
others such as Jan Stewart, the owner of a five star lodge in Palmerston
North don't mind them at all.
"Our lodge looks out to windmills surrounding the Manawatu Gorge," she
says. "They are about 8km away so we don't hear anything."
A Nielsen poll, conducted on behalf of the Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Authority between January and June 2008 found that 88 per cent
of respondents expressed support for wind farms, with 71per cent expressing
support for a wind farm that could be seen from their home.
Stewart, along with 77 per cent of respondents of a Shape NZ survey
conducted in February and March 2008, preferred wind as the best energy
source in the next decade.
River Pollution
With its 425,000km of wild rivers and streams, New Zealand offers plenty of
swimming, white water kayaking, canoeing and fishing opportunities, but
over the last 10 to15 years, the clear water of most of these previously
pristine rivers has turned disturbingly brown and murky.
Green Party MP Russel Norman, who has been kayaking rivers across the
country for the last few months as part of his 'Dirty Rivers Rafting Tour'
to raise awareness about the polluted state of most of New Zealand rivers,
says increased dairy activity is the main culprit as fertiliser run-off
leads to increased nitrogen levels, weed and algal growth, more sediment
and higher water temperatures.
"As dairying has intensified, it has encroached into areas previously
farmed for dry stock (beef and sheep)," he says. Canterbury is a prime
example: "Rampant dairy expansion has driven river pollution, algal blooms,
water shortages and demand for irrigation, [which] all threaten our wild
rivers."
E.Coli contamination also affects the health of downstream users such as
swimmers and kayakers and point source pollution, where discharges occur to
a body of water at a single location, is an issue in some areas.
"I kayaked the Manawatu River in the Ruahine Ranges and witnessed a council
sewerage discharge and a chemical discharge from a pharmaceutical plant,"
says Norman.
The Waihou in Waikato, despite being fed by the pristine Blue Springs at
Putaruru, quickly becomes dirty as it passes though farmland around Te
Aroha. The Mohaka, a wild river in Hawke's Bay popular with white water
kayakers and rafters as well as anglers, is "beautiful and healthy in its
headwaters, but below the Taharua, where 9000 dairy cows are farmed on
pumice soils, it is murky with noticeable algae and fewer fish and
insects," reports Norman.
And on the Hauraki Plains, nutrients from dairy farming are threatening to
unleash a major algal bloom on to the Firth of Thames, the Miranda bird
coast and aquaculture areas.
A 2008/09 Freshwater Recreational Water Quality report from the Ministry
for the Environment found that only 58 per cent of freshwater swimming
spots had water quality that met contact recreation guidelines.
"On most of the Southern Alps tramps I feel comfortable enough to just
drink from mountain rivers and streams," North Canterbury Fish and Game
officer Emily Arthur says. "But when you end up on and around farmlands,
the problem just gets worse the further down river you go."
While most wild rivers are on public conservation land and are surrounded
by intact forests or tussocklands with high water quality, they are not
safe from unsustainable industries. In fact, only 16 rivers in the country
(less than 10 per cent) are protected through the mechanisms of a Water
Conservation Order (WCO). WCOs provide valuable protection to a river
equivalent to that of a National park. But unlike National Parks, WCOs can
be altered or overturned within two years of them being granted.
"The government has recently taken water management a step backwards by
weakening Water Conservation Orders (WCOs) in Canterbury," says Arthur.
"They have rushed through special legislation that makes it much harder to
obtain a WCO as decision makers must put more weight on the potential
economic use of the water when considering applications. There is also no
right to appeal to the Environment Court except on points of law.
"Sadly, it does not look like we can look to the Government for direction
on water management."
Russel Norman agrees: "In his opening address to Parliament this year, John
Key said that 'the Government will also take action this year to remove
particular regulatory roadblocks to water storage and irrigation in
Canterbury'. Less than 2 months later, the Government sacked Environment
Canterbury councillors, appointed hand-picked Commissioners to oversee
water management in Canterbury, and weakened Water Conservation Orders in
the region.
"So, if this can happen in Canterbury, then nowhere is safe."
Norman says he has "little faith" the Government will take the urgent
action that is necessary, in which case New Zealanders can expect to see
water quality in their rivers continue to decline, and more of the wildest
ones to be sacrificed to feed thirsty dairy expansion.
The continual degradation of waterways threatens New Zealanders' ability to
enjoy their country's rivers, Arthur warns.
"If we cannot do something about water pollution and abstraction in New
Zealand in the next 10 years, I believe we will see massive conflict
between user groups. We may see a steady decline in the fishery and the
ability of New Zealanders to safely swim and fish in our rivers and lakes.
"
Frontcountry vs backcountry development
Every year, countless New Zealanders make their way to their favourite
camping spots, tracks and wilderness areas and access to them is
continuously improving.
Since it was created in 1987, the Department of Conservation's goal has
been to manage conservation land and ensure outdoors enthusiasts' access to
it. DoC has been prioritising forefront country wilderness experiences over
backcountry experiences to enable urban communities to enjoy better access
to day trips and easy overnight walks.
"This does not mean exclusively developing one area for recreation and
other areas for biodiversity protecting," says Gavin Walker, from DoC's
Research and Development Group. "Rather it is a case of managing recreation
and natural values to meet the needs of the community."
In its 2003/04 review of high country assets, DoC decided to let some
remote huts deteriorate. While this could be a bad decision, says former
DoC high country worker and keen tramper Andrew Buglass, it might well
encourage backcountry users to repair the huts themselves and "take
ownership of their huts".
"This situation kicked a lot of us into action to try and preserve or
maintain what DoC couldn't or wouldn't," he says.
While there will be some reduction in the maintenance in medium use areas,
DoC will continue to focus on great walks and tracks largely used by
overseas visitors.
Access for kayakers to valuable island sanctuaries such as the inner
Hauraki Gulf islands like Motuihe and Motutapu which feature campsites will
also be enhanced.
"If people appreciate particular places because of their kayaking interest,
we will endeavour to facilitate that access while being aware of the needs
of other users," Walker says.
And DoC is prioritising work at Pureora Forest on the old logging roads, on
The Mountains to Sea bike trail from Ohakune to Whanganui and on the St
James bike trail near Lewis Pass to allow for more mountain biking
opportunities. In Abel Tasman National Park, a 23km Mountain Bike track at
Gibbs Hill is being trialed while a 13km bike trail from Wainui to
Totaranui has been developed.
"These opportunities provide for a wider spectrum of the community to get
out into the natural environment," Walker adds.
Nepalese adventure
In March, Mark Inglis led a group of Kiwis on a 25-day scenic trip through
Nepal's Everest Himal region, an expedition that helped him raise money for
his Limbs4All charity and further conveyed his love and respect for the
mountains. In September he returned - but this time he won't be going
alone.
[Text]
Mark Inglis loves the mountains, and for good reasons. The 51-year old grew
up in Geraldine, on the southern edge of the Canterbury Plains, right under
Four Peaks and Mount Peel and from an early age got a most enticing taste
of the 'adventure au grand air' from two of his teachers at the time, both
of whom were keen mountaineers.
"The challenge of climbing, being in the mountain environment and the sense
of achievement rather than just competition is what sold me on the culture
and sport of mountaineering," the former Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park SAR
mountaineer enthuses.
Inglis' climbing experience includes reaching the top of Cho Oyu (8201m),
the sixth highest mountain in the world, in 2004 and Everest (8850m) in
2006. He has recently paired with adventure travel company World
Expeditions and led a group of New Zealanders through Nepal's Everest Himal
backcountry, an experience he treasured.
"I took 16 Kiwis on an adventure and a challenge in the Himalaya [in
March]," he recalls. "I got the chance to introduce them to my Sherpa
friends, giving them a perspective that they would have been unlikely to
get any other way. [On my part], I get to combine so many things,
essentially interpreting the mountains and culture of a country and people
that I love and respect."
Under guidance of the sturdy adventurer and his tuneful accounts of the
mountains' history, the group avoided the busy traffic due to the high
number of expeditions on their way to Everest at this time of year and
turned past Namche Bazaar (the last town before Everest), following the
Dudh Kosi River to Gokyo lakes at 4750m.
"We then scaled Gokyo Ri, a 5483m peak that is renowned for its spectacular
view of four of the 8000m peaks (Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse and Makalu). It's
so rare to see this many unless you are standing on one of the other 8000m
peaks."
Even with a team of Sherpa guides, cooks and porters making "stunning
food", erecting the tents and serving up cups of Sherpa tea at the tent
door with the wake up call, everyone was challenged in some way. "Five
thousand metres is a long way up - only half the oxygen at sea level - but
by the end of the trip the comments were fantastic," Inglis muses "The
nights in tents are a real highlight of the trip."
The premier successful journey raised $7500 for his Limbs4All charity, a
fully registered charitable trust based in New Zealand but doing work in
Cambodia and Nepal where he and his wife, Anne, started helping the locals.
"My motivational speaking offers a great vehicle for me to share with many
the world over the work that we do; removing disability and creating
opportunity for some of the 400 million who are currently disabled world
wide. Just helping even one person can change a life for the better."
In November, and from then on, a lucky three times a year, he will be
heading back with more Kiwis on World Expeditions trips in the area. The
man's love for his home country which he says gave him the "freedom to
dream, to change your life, to think and then achieve [it]", is most
transparent when he guides fellow climbers whom he leaves with a piece of
that passionate Kiwi heart.
"With any trip the landscapes are great but what defines the place is the
interaction with the tangata whenua, and that is the portal that I can open
on these trips with World Expeditions."
To join him on his future expedition, see www.worldexpeditions.co.nz
- Maina Perrot
Where are the Kiwi climbers?
Mountaineering is in decline while sport climbing is becoming increasingly
popular - what does this mean for the future of traditional New Zealand
alpinism? Maina Perrot investigates.
[Text]
When she climbed Aoraki/Mt Cook late last year, supposedly the busiest time
of the year, Pat Deavoll, a climber with 35 years experience, was puzzled
at the absence of other New Zealanders in the mountains.
"I was in Plateau Hut for a week from December 27 until January 3," she
recalls. "My climbing partner and I were the only independent Kiwi climbers
there the whole time. There were lots of other nationalities - French,
Brazilian, Italian, Australian, British, Irish - but no other New
Zealanders! Traditionally this is the time Kiwis do a lot of climbing."
The perception that independent climbers are becoming a rarer sight on the
long-standing alpine routes of New Zealand was reflected at the New Zealand
Alpine Club (NZAC) annual meeting in October last year, where members held
a debate on the ominous-sounding topic: 'Alpinism is dead. Sport climbing
and bouldering are flourishing; what next?'.
"We thought a debate would generate potential discussions," NZAC chief
executive Ollie Clifton says. "But it soon became apparent that no one was
ready to argue against it. So we refocused it around the future; bouldering
is going up so what does the future for mountaineering look like?"
In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Mt Everest and for the next 55 years
inspired plenty of other New Zealanders, including his son Peter into the
mountains. But Guy Cotter, director of Wanaka-based guiding company
Adventure Consultants and an NZAC member, suggests it has become easier to
point the finger at someone else's achievements than doing it ourselves.
"I personally enjoy being in wild places and the mental challenge that
mountaineering presents," Cotter says. "[But] as time goes on, we do get
softer, and climbers [today] are not doing anything much harder from a
physical perspective from what they were doing 20-30 years ago. People now
expect a certain level of comfort with their adventures."
A foremost factor indicating a decline in alpine climbing is the falling
numbers of mountaineers using the New Zealand Alpine Club's mountain huts,
which are often full of guided parties and tourists but devoid of
independent climbers.
"Where are all the Kiwi climbers?" Ollie Clifton asks. "I think they have
all gone soft. If we are going to have Sir Eds of the future, we need to
take urgent action."
Contrary to mountaineering which involves the usual hardships including
difficult access and uncomfortable conditions, rock climbing and bouldering
sites are easier to access and require less equipment and commitment.
Sefton Priestley, the organiser of the NZAC National Indoor Bouldering
Series which started in late May and runs through to the end of July, says
there has been a dramatic increase in bouldering since the 1990s. "In New
Zealand we are luckily enough to have Castle Hill and Flock Hill - two of
the world's greatest bouldering areas - all to ourselves," he enthuses.
"It's cheap and very social."
Andrew Powell, the marketing manager for Bivouac Outdoor in Christchurch
and a part-time climbing instructor, agrees and has witnessed a dramatic
growth in sport climbing over the last decade.
"Some are already climbing at an exceptional level," he says. "The demand
for climbing courses - technique and lead climbing - has definitely risen
significantly in the last 10 years."
Priestley also says that New Zealand climbers can start out bouldering or
rock climbing and carry on with alpine, ice or sport climbing as they
develop their skills.
"Climbers here have the opportunity to experience all these aspects, and
bouldering is a great way to get into it," says Priestley.
So if bouldering is on the up, why is alpine climbing on the decline? Pat
Deavoll says part of the problem is not that New Zealand is short of keen
and talented independent alpinists, but there is a lack of cheap,
accessible and quality mountaineering courses which leads potential
mountaineers to try cheaper alternatives such as rock climbing or
bouldering.
"In 1977 I did three instruction courses with Alpine Guides Mt Cook,"
Deavoll recalls. "I was a school leaver so had little money, but I could
afford what they had to offer. Now instruction courses are far too
expensive for the average New Zealander."
Last summer, she organised an alpine skills course which didn't involve
helicopter access or the use of huts and at $650 was cheaper than the
courses guiding companies were offering.
"We had 64 people apply to do the course and managed to cater for 32.
Obviously there are lots of people who want to become mountaineers but it
seems the guiding companies aren't offering suitable instruction for New
Zealanders."
She also believes the guiding profession is draining elite climbers of the
future as "once [qualified climbers] start guiding they don't have the time
or motivation to continue with their personal climbing careers".
In A history of New Zealand guiding by climbing guide Dave Crowe writes
that the climbing community recognised a rise in the commercialisation of
leisure activities, and the need to cater for those from the early 1890s.
"Climbing is generally gaining in popularity and many fine climbs are being
done, the steep faces becoming the new challenge," Jenkinson noted. "There
is a place, and a demand, and a need, for professionalism in New Zealand.
If we are to achieve a high standard we must recognise the qualification
and training necessary to this."
But commercial operators are now the biggest users of high mountain huts,
Geoff Gabites, a former NZAC president and owner/operator of tour company
Adventure South, points out.
"Commercial expeditions to major mountains are a growing trend that is just
the extension of this," he says. "Far more people climb Everest as a guided
climb than do so as a private expedition, for example, and fewer climbers
are undertaking new routes throughout New Zealand."
Pat Deavoll agrees but says New Zealand is mostly a great place to get a
good grounding in mountaineering. To build on this, climbers need to gain
more experience through climbing bigger mountain overseas, though not many
make that jump because it requires time and big money.
Don Bogie, who started alpine climbing 13 yeas ago and has worked for the
alpine rescue team in Aoraki/Mt Cook for nine years, argues New Zealand
mountains, though not taller, are often harder to climb than others around
the world.
"The South Island is very good for mountaineering," he says. "It's easily
accessible, you live in the city and in a matter of hours can be into the
mountains, we have such variety and choice and our mountains are not tall
but they are harder to climb than a lot of other mountains around the
world. I think the only issue in New Zealand is the weather as it does
affect things."
Another reason climbing in New Zealand may be faltering is because besides
Hillary, few New Zealand climbers have achieved any degree of recognition
in their climbing careers.
"Mountaineering is flourishing in Europe, the UK, the USA, Japan and
Korea," Deavoll says. "These countries have sponsored climbers performing
at the highest level who inspire others to follow in their footsteps. We
have none of these role models, no elite athletes to speak of."
Paul Hersey, with 20 years alpine climbing experience under his belt, says
a lot of New Zealand climbers' best achievements have gone under the radar,
but that "it is the way the sport has always been".
As the manager of a outdoor shop in Dunedin, Hersey has noticed people do
not go into the mountains as much as they used to. "[In the past], climbers
might have planned to go on a 10 day trip whereas now they tend to go for
quick trips."
Bogie says people today don't have nearly as much time up their sleeve.
"They want to experience the same things in a shorter time. It's not common
anymore to go to the Mt Cook area for two to three weeks; instead people
are going for three days."
Back in the 1970s, the New Zealand mountains presented world class
problems, with full-time alpinists performing on a par with the rest of the
world. To 24-year-old Graham Zimmerman, a New Zealander working for the
Yosemite Search and Rescue Team in California and also a member of the NZAC
and the American Alpine Club, a last great problem, an ultimate objective,
is the missing ingredient in New Zealand alpinism.
"We need someone to declare what New Zealand's last problem shall be,"
Zimmerman wrote in an opinion piece for the NZAC's The Climber magazine.
"Possibilities have been mooted: the South Face of Marian Peak in winter,
the West Face of Mt Tutoko in Fiordland, the east face of Popes Nose into
the west face of Mt Aspiring in winter link-up. We should go and try to
climb new objectives, or climb other things in order to train for them.
"We should give the [next] generation objectives to strive for, and modern
ascents which can serve as examples for how they can get it done."
He believes it is up to younger individuals to pick up the torch. But
whether young climbers can find that torch in a world of ever-growing
outdoor adventure possibilities is another question. At the Massey
University Alpine Club for instance, mountaineering is one of the least
popular sports, with tramping, kayaking, bouldering and rock climbing
proving more popular.
"[Mountaineering] is not as easy to do as other sports, especially in the
North Island, and it's quite intensive," says the club's hut officer Hayden
Short. "Rock climbing is much more popular because you don't need as much
gear and it's more easily accessible."
Mike Atkinson, a senior lecturer in Outdoor Programmes at Christchurch
Institute of Technology also says fewer students are taking mountaineering
as an elective: "Then I see fewer people going deeper into the wilderness -
they do shorter trips, closer to home, trips such as Mt Somers, now hugely
popular."
It seems the time when seeing a mountain in the distance would be enough to
capture an emerging or hardened climber's imagination and challenge them to
get to the top of it has passed. Indeed now, with society becoming
increasingly risk-adverse, current NZAC president Peter Cammell says it has
become difficult to simply get out there and do your own thing, in
particular mountaineering which involves a higher level of danger than
other outdoor activities.
"There is too much emphasis on 'risk' and not enough on 'enjoyment' and
'life skills' and commercial interests are hijacking our Kiwi can-do
abilities," he says. "Climbers need to be able to evaluate risk and make
considered decisions themselves."
Cammell hopes to help climbers with this by putting in place a series of
high alpine instruction courses that can be done through the NZAC. "We have
courses planned for high alpine skills, winter ice climbing, ski-
mountaineering, youth climbing, rock-climbing and women's climbing. At
present we are working closely with New Zealand Mountain Guides to deliver
these courses.
"We will have full high alpine huts again!"
However, Cammell believes the primary reason why people climb is to achieve
a state of flow, where enjoyment and pleasure is achieved from a
challenging activity that requires skills, action, commitment, instant
feedback, tasks and intense concentration. And climbers can get this from
any form of climbing, be it alpinism or bouldering, he says.
To John Palmer, an amateur film-maker and freelance photographer who is
passionate about rock climbing, the shift away from alpine climbing is a
natural one and should be embraced by New Zealanders.
"I think the decrease in mountaineering and the flourishing of rock
climbing and mountaineering is evolution," the 36-year-old stated at the
October NZAC debate. "Mountaineering is no longer as popular as it used to
be and it's the design and distribution of the outdoors that over time made
everything more compact, closer to the ground."
Don Bogie doesn't see a relationship between the decline in mountaineering
and rise in rock climbing and bouldering. He says there will always be a
smaller group of people doing hard, challenging alpine climbing. And Guy
Cotter doesn't think alpine climbing is dead just yet: "It does seem to be
in the doldrums and there are very few climbers around with the commitment
to raise standards, but sometime in the future there will be some shining
examples of capable and committed alpinists again.
"We perform well and have a number of great climbers here."
Ultimately, as Palmer puts it, if you want to do any sport, be it
mountaineering or bouldering, "you simply have to get out there and do it
yourself".
Lending a free hand
Diaries of volunteers to Raoul Island are being used to promote the remote
Kermadecs as an adventurous OE away from the trappings of modern society,
writes Maina Perrot
[Text]
On a March day in 2006, the earth shook on a remote volcanic island 1000km
north of New Zealand as a 40-second-long volcanic eruption spewed ash, mud
and boulders into the air. Department of Conservation (DoC) staffer Mark
Kearney was measuring water temperature at one of Raoul Island's craters at
the time and was tragically killed.
DoC immediately pulled all staff and volunteers from the island for their
safety and it wasn't until two months later in May, that anyone was allowed
back. The incident was a particularly dark moment in the history of the
island and particularly traumatic for those who were on the island working
alongside Kearney.
But Margie Grant-Caplan, who did volunteer work on the island for six
months from November 2007, felt the page could be turned on the dark
chapter by collating diary entries from DoC staff and volunteers. Such
entries, she surmised, could present the island in a more positive light
and become a unique record of life on the most isolated conservation area
managed by DoC.
"The idea was to let people know we're here and what we're doing," Grant-
Caplan says. "A team member volunteers to write the piece once a month and
they're encouraged to write about their experiences [on the island].
'I just love the diaries, people write different things and have different
writing styles."
With more than 20 entries posted on the DoC website, Grant-Caplan says they
have been "incredibly successful".
Current and past volunteers and DoC staff have been enticed to join the
Raoul Island restoration project after reading the diary entries.
Cantabrian Chauncy Ardell was one of them.
"I think [inspiring people] is one of the main reasons for writing them,"
says the 33-year-old, who wrote his own entry in April 2009. "For me
personally, I did a bit of research regarding the history of the island. It
was fun and informative and I also enjoyed recounting tales of everyday
adventures during my work on the island."
Raoul is a subtropical island and the largest of the Kermadec Islands, a
chain of islands stretching over 250km along the western ridge of the
Kermadec Trench and the most remote conservation area managed by DoC. The
30km island is home to 113 species of plants, 23 of which are endemic,
along with mosses (52 native species), lichens and fungi (89 native
species) mostly derived from New Zealand or the tropical Pacific.
More than 35 bird species also inhabit the islands, and four of those -
white naped petrel, Kermadec little shearwater, Kermadec storm petrel and
the New Zealand sooty tern - are found nowhere else in the world. While
Raoul is the only forested island in the Kermadc group, surrounding islands
and rocks such as Macauley Island, Curtis Island, the Meyer Islands and
L'Esperance Rock, are also home to a number of these bird species. The
Meyer Islands have one of the last populations of the Kermadec petrel while
Curtis and Macauley islands hold the world's largest populations of
Kermadec allied shearwater and black-winged petrel. Common species found on
Raoul are tui, red crowned parakeet and pukeko. Their populations are
thriving, but this wasn't always the case.
"If DoC staff and volunteers hadn't eradicated goats, cats and rats there
would be no seabirds nesting on Raoul and nearby islands and very little
chance of their recovery," says Karen Baird, who was the restoration
programme manager for Raoul Island until November last year.
Introduced goats were removed from Raoul and Macauley islands in 1970,
while cats and rats, which had wiped out three endemic bird species and
driven many seabirds away, were eradicated after a major poison drop was
conducted in 2002. Biosecurity checks have so far helped ensure no pests
are brought to the island but invasive plants remain a threat to the native
vegetation.
Each year, 10 volunteers are recruited for a period of four to six months
to assist with the control and removal of alien plants, grid searching and
endangered plant monitoring. Other duties also include wildlife monitoring,
weather and seismological recordings and general maintenance of facilities.
Their main job involves learning about the ecology of the island and to
weed out the invasive plants that could take over the forest. It's hard
work as volunteers have to maintain years of effort and find and destroy
seedlings to ensure the pest plants don't grow back.
A Department of Conservation report on the eradication of alien plants on
Raoul shows there is a huge boost to the eradication programme each year
when volunteers contribute labour. "The programme basically couldn't
function without them," Baird says. "At the moment there are only four
staff on the island; almost one full-time equivalent is required for the
MetService programme and there is also one mechanic. So that only leaves
two full timers for the biodiversity work.
"Consequently, the bulk of the weeding work gets done by volunteers!"
But each job has its rewards, and Raoul is no exception. "How many people
get to live on a subtropical island in the middle of nowhere?," Neil Brown,
who had never done volunteer work before applying to spend his six months
on the remote isle, asks.
It wasn't a midlife crisis that brought the 55-year-old former teacher to
Raoul, rather a determination to enjoy yet another adventure on an isolated
island tied with a deeper sense of "duty to protect what is special in this
beautiful place".
He agrees volunteering involves strenuous work but it is worthwhile, as he
highlighted in his June 2009 diary: 'It is clear that many of Raoul's past
residents were people who are passionate about birds, plants, sea life - or
all three. As a volunteer, my principle interest is in the 'island
experience', but I must confess that I have been caught up in the
enthusiasm of my fellow workers for their various conservation interests.'
Weeding on the island involves grid-searching predetermined plots for
introduced plants like black passionfruit, Brazilian buttercup and peach.
Brown's team spent time on the sides of the volcano and also inside the
caldera.
"The ground was very steep and it was not uncommon to find yourself bluffed
out and facing a retreat to safety," he says. "Trees were our best friends,
particularly the Kermadec pohutukawa because they provided a secure
handhold and you knew you could trust them."
Because seeds can survive for 20 or 30 years, maintaining intensive
monitoring on even the most inaccessible parts of the island is essential.
Some tramping or abseiling experience helps and means you are more likely
to be chosen as a volunteer.
"We have mixed skills we look for and New Zealand tramping experience is
right up there," Baird says. "We need people that are capable in the bush
and if they've got climbing experience, all the better."
And for the fit and outdoorsy profile, the island offers plenty of
recreational opportunities with four well-stocked huts and many secluded
spots to visit or wildlife to watch. Brown brought his whitewater kayak
with him to use in the surf and spent countless hours at the end of each
day and during the weekends either snorkeling alongside the friendly
groupers in the warm waters of the marine reserve, gardening or watching
local pukeko assert their place in the bird hierarchy. "Raoul is a unique
place," he says. "It's never been inhabited for any great length of time
and, now that it is pest-free, it's a perfect place to allow biodiversity
to flourish and watch how birds can thrive when they are given the chance."
Polynesian seafarers and Maori, who first called the island Rangitahua
(fire in the sky), were the first to land on Raoul and actively sought it
for it's supply of birds, vegetables, fruits and freshwater spring. But the
continuous earthquakes and occasional eruptions drove these early explorers
away.
In March 1793, French explorer Admiral D'Entrecasteaux named it Raoul after
one of his quartermasters. Three years later, Captain Raven on board the
British ship Brittania renamed it Sunday Island in remembrance of the day
of sighting, unaware that it had already been named. The New Zealand
Government changed it back to Raoul when it annexed the island in 1887.
Thomas Bell and his young family managed to successfully settle the island
in 1878. The diaries the family wrote were put together for the popular
novel Crusoes of Sunday Island, written by Elsie K. Morton. "Thomas had a
marked influence on Raoul in the time he was there, planting an amazing
variety of vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, and even tobacco," Peter
Spinetto, a retired radio technician and amateur historian who joined a
1957 expedition to Raoul Island, says. "Almost all signs of his stay have
now disappeared."
The combination of the island's historical and ecological assets led the
New Zealand Government to declare the Kermadec Islands a nature reserve in
1937 and their surrounding waters a large no-take 750,000ha (the maximum
allowed under New Zealand law) marine reserve in 1990.
If the volunteer system on Raoul Island has played an important part in the
recovery of the islands' flora and fauna and a triumphant example of how
individuals can take an active stand in conservation through volunteering,
it is not the only one. Auckland Regional Council (ARC), for instance, runs
a large volunteering programme which began 15 years ago when people started
helping at Whakanewha Regional Park, assisting the resident ranger develop
tracks, control weeds, work in the nursery and enhance dotterel protection.
Today, about 3000 volunteers, ranging from entire classes of year one
schoolchildren to retired people, carry out a wide range of tasks in the
ARC's regional parks, including tree planting, weeding, guided walks, pest
control as well as fundraising and administration. Last year, in the
northern parks alone, volunteers planted 50,000 trees, ARC senior ranger
partnerships Sue Hill says.
"Volunteers are an invaluable part of running the regional parks network as
rangers definitely do not have time to do that along with everything else
they do," she says. "As well as the sort of work and the hours volunteers
freely give us, they assist with essential monitoring in our open
sanctuaries and other ecologically significant areas."
Hill says a 2008 conference on volunteering seemed to indicate countries
around the world were experiencing a decrease in volunteers, but New
Zealand doesn't reflect this trend. "Certainly our numbers have remained
reasonably constant over the last decade or so. From July 2008 to June
2009, more than 67,000 hours were worked by volunteers across the regional
parks network."
For the last four years, the ARC has been working with Conservation
Volunteers New Zealand, a conservation-focused volunteer organisation,
while groups like the Tawharanui Open Sanctuary Society, Shakespear Open
Sanctuary Society, Ark in the Park and the Kokako Recovery Programme all
contribute valuable volunteer time. "Our volunteers are all passionate
about our parks and the environment and it is wonderful to be able to
harness this enthusiasm," Hill adds.
There are countless opportunities for all sorts of people to actively
contribute to conservation in each area throughout New Zealand. David
Mules, DoC Coastal Otago area programme manager appreciates the efforts
from his community. There are two major projects in the Otago region: the
Pilots Beach Blue Penguin Volunteers and Sandfly Bay Yellow-eyed Penguin
Volunteers, both of which formed after research showed the welfare and
successful breeding of penguins at these easily accessible sites close to
the city was being compromised by inappropriate visitor behaviour.
A few years on and DoC has found both groups making significant
improvements to the breeding and general well-being of these two penguin
populations and were adding considerable value to the experience of
visitors to Dunedin.
"Many visitors are greatly impressed by this generous spirit of
volunteering, which seems to be a rare experience for a number of visitors
from overseas," Mules says. "There is a lot of pleasure gained in the
interaction with visitors, and in the knowledge that the wildlife is
benefiting from this work."
For some who have spent a few months or even a year on Raoul Island,
volunteering has stirred such a passion for the work they were doing that
they ended up going back as a paid project leader, or working for DoC in
another capacity.
Chauncy Ardell, along with Frank Veronika and Gareth Rapley, two other
diary writers and former volunteers, came back as a programme leader. As
for Margie Grant-Caplan and her partner Tim Bacon who has volunteered on
Raoul four times, are now both rangers on Stephens Island in the
Marlborough Sounds.
Neil Brown would also love to go back but his age may count against him.
"[The selection process] is a very serious process," says Baird. "You need
to think critically about yourself in terms of what your capabilities are."
Being responsible is crucial, she adds, because getting somebody off the
island quickly in an emergency is unlikely. During his year employment,
Ardell had to administer medicine for 24 hours to a volunteer who had
suffered an accident. Eventually a rescue helicopter arrived and evacuated
the injured person to New Zealand.
And being able to do the job technically is one thing, but actually living
on the island is quite another. "Because it's so remote, people don't have
much contact with family and you can't really have people up there for more
than a year away from their normal lives," Baird says.
But like pioneering Thomas Bell, each member of the DoC-run team setting
foot on Raoul has a diary entry which they use to share their experiences
with the wider world and hopefully inspire others to join them.
Birds thrive on island sanctuaries
The reforestation and thriving bird life on Tiritiri Matangi, north of
Auckland, and other island and mainland sanctuaries is receiving
international acclaim, reports staff writer Maina Perrot
[text]
As the boat progresses towards the wharf of the small haven of Tiritiri
Matangi Island, just 30km off the Auckland Coast, I feel more alive than I
have in a long time.
Its name means 'tossed by the wind' in M?ori, and sure enough, the chilly
wind, which seems to hold my excitement and fill me with a quiet, inner
joy, is fiercely welcoming as we step out and walk to join our guide
alongside other enthralled passengers.
In the young, yet already dense bush nearby, birds are fly close and call
to out, oblivious to the intrusion of up to 150 daily 150 visitors. This is
their home and paradise - but that wasn't always the case.
When looking at the countless birds and the luxurious pohutukawa, thick
grass and shrubs on the way up to the lighthouse, it is hard to imagine
that centuries of Maori occupation and 120 years of farming had stripped
the 220ha island of 94 per cent of its vegetation just three decades ago.
In fact, by 1970, almost all the original coastal broadleaf forest had been
destroyed except for only 13ha of trampled forest in the valleys. Sheep and
goats had been grazing on native plants and the only introduced predatory
mammal, the Pacific rat, was affecting bird populations.
In 1979, Auckland University staff, headed by John Craig and later in
conjunction with Neil Mitchel, had the revolutionary idea to re-vegetate
the island. The initiative, although new at the time, quickly took shape. A
replanting programme began in 1984 and was completed in 1994 thanks to
overwhelming public support.
Ray Walter had been on Tiri from 1980, first as the lighthouse keeper and
then as a DoC ranger, and was responsible for a great deal of the
initiative and work done on the project. He was joined by Barbara, who
became his wife, in 1985 and together they managed the island and all the
volunteers. "Tiritiri was the first island to be done like this, it was
quite radical," he says. "It was good to see how the public reacted at the
time."
Ray and Barbara retired in 2006, but have continued to visit the island
regularly as volunteers.
Since rats were removed in 1993, many endangered and some not endangered
species of birds including the little spotted kiwi, kokako, takahe,
stitchbird, tui, saddleback, North Island robin, brown teal, bellbird and
fantail, and some lizard species such as the tuatara, are thriving in the
now predator-free sanctuary.
Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi chairman, Peter Lee, says volunteers from
the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi, one of the largest conservation groups
in New Zealand with more than 1600 members, and DoC staff have built
nursery facilities and planted nearly 300,000 trees over the last 30 years.
"Their work has transformed the island, which is now recognised as one of
the premier sites to view many species of rare native birds," he says.
Today, 60 per cent of the island is reforested while 40 per cent has been
left as grassland for species like the takahe. Volunteers still assist the
island rangers with track maintenance, beach cleanups, tour guiding and
general maintenance and Tiritiri Matangi is acclaimed as offering one of
the best opportunities to encounter native birds in their natural habitat
in New Zealand.
But this restoration success story is one of many in New Zealand. The
project, alongside seven others, has just been listed as one of the top 25
ecological restoration projects in Australasia by a trans-Tasman panel. The
panel, set up by the journal of the Ecological Society of Australia,
Ecological Management and Restoration, and the Society for Ecological
Restoration International, was comprised of two ecology professors, two
conservation officers, a consulting ecologist and the journal's editor.
"This is a huge accolade for the many volunteers and other community groups
who raised funds, planted trees, built nest-boxes, guided visitors and
undertook innumerable other tasks," chairman Lee says.
Four of these projects, Fiordland Islands Restoration, Mana Island
scientific reserve, Te Urewera Mainland Island Restoration and Rotoiti
Nature Recovery Project, are managed by DoC. The three others,
Maungatautari Ecological Island in the Waikato, Bushy Park Sanctuary in
Wanganui and Wellington's Zealandia: The Karori Sanctuary Experience, are
community-led projects.
Professor Bruce Clarkson, a restoration ecologist and the director of the
Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research at the University of Waikato,
and New Zealand's representative on the selection panel, says the results
are impressive given the relatively small size of the country.
"The awards show that New Zealand had made world-class advances in
ecological restoration, particularly pest control and predator-proof
fences," he says.
To conservation analyst Dr Colin Miskelly, from DoC's Wellington
Conservancy, we are lucky in New Zealand as we have a lot of islands, which
are the key to successful ecological restoration. On one hand, birds,
having faced no threats before, end up flightless and are easy prey to
introduced predators. Island ecosystems, due to their small size, are also
very vulnerable to human disturbance and loss of habitat.
But on the other hand, it is easier to restore an island's ecology as
isolation allows native species to evolve freely.
"On islands you can remove the most serious threats such as mammals and
there is a low risk of reinvasion," Dr Miskelly says. "[Islands] can be
used to hold natural populations of species that would otherwise be unable
to survive in the wild."
Applying these principles, restoration on islands in Fiordland and on Mana
Island has been very successful. With an area of 1.26 million hectares,
Fiordland National Park covers 15 per cent of public conservation land in
New Zealand. Work restoring some Fiordland islands began in 1988 with the
eradication of stoats and deer, which enabled threatened species on the
mainland such as takahe, saddlebacks and robins to establish large and
healthy populations there, says DoC's Fiordland Islands ranger Kerri-Anne
Edge.
"Thirteen islands in Fiordland are now free of all introduced animals or
are in the process of having pests eradicated, thanks to the commitment of
people who want to return Fiordland to how it once was," she says.
On Mana Island, a 217ha scientific reserve off the south-west coast of the
North Island, farming from 1832 until 1986 had resulted in an almost total
loss of woody vegetation. But active restoration and a high level of
community involvement led to a swift and efficient recovery of the native
flora and fauna.
Mice were eliminated in 1990, the wharf was removed and strict quarantine
rules now apply. The initial planting was carried out by Forest and Bird
volunteers in the first 10 years of the 20-year restoration plan, followed
by DoC staff and the Friends of Mana Island volunteers who planted about
50,000 trees, completely restoring forests and introducing species
including the Cook Strait giant weta, fairy prion and Wellington green
gecko. The translocation of whiteheads, bellbirds and skinks is underway.
"The panel was particularly impressed with the pioneering efforts made to
restore seabirds to the island, which included volunteers hand-feeding
sardine or krill 'smoothies' to 704 fluffy chicks over a 10-year period,"
Dr Miskelly says.
Water is usually a natural obstacle to re-invasion of islands by predators,
but on the mainland man-made fences are essential to ensuring the long-term
preservation of the area restored.
DoC's Nelson Lakes' area manager Alison Rothschild says the department's
mainland islands are ecological restoration projects with scientific
research and learning as a main focus. The aim is to use what has been
learnt on off-shore islands and to develop these in a mainland setting.
Celebrated examples of projects that involved building and maintaining such
fences are Zealandia: The Karori Sanctuary Experience, Maungatautari
Ecological Island and Bushy Park Sanctuary, all of which were also chosen
in the Top 25.
"These are eradication projects and are surrounded by predator proof
fences," Rothschild says. "Others, such as the Rotoiti Nature Recovery
Project and Te Urewera Mainland Island, are reduction projects using on-
going pest control and natural barriers like water bodies and landforms to
reduce the level of predation to levels that key native species can
sustain."
The Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project began in 1997 as one of six 'mainland
islands' established by DoC. It was launched over an initial 825ha area and
involved extensive pest control in order to restore honeydew beech forest
and wildlife beside Lake Rotoiti.
DoC staff and volunteers have spent the last decade determining the level
of pest control needed to repopulate the area with kaka and great spotted
kiwi without risk to the on-going survival of the species.
"The programme has become an important site for assessing options for
application elsewhere," Rothschild says.
In 2001, the project was extended to 5000ha. In that same year, the Friends
of Rotoiti, a conservation volunteer group, was established and helps
control pests in the area.
"Community support for management of this site is extremely high and has
inspired similar conservation projects elsewhere," adds Rothschild.
The sights and sounds of birds are today evidence of the success of the
pest control measures. Kaka chicks, which were becoming increasingly rare
on the mainland, have survived within the area.
Zealandia: The Karori Sanctuary Experience, a 225ha reserve in the heart of
Wellington, is fully enclosed by an 8.6km fence designed to exclude 14
species of non-native land mammals ranging from possums to mice.
Raewyn Empson from the Karori Sanctuary Trust, which manages Zealandia, has
helped plan and coordinate the eradication and restoration programmes for
this new mainland island.
"This was the first experiment of its kind anywhere in the world," she
says. "Our achievements in urban ecological restoration; the eradication of
invasive species; and the recovery of endangered native wildlife exceeded
all expectations in its first 10 years."
Fifteen species of fauna and nearly 100 plant species have been transferred
into the valley, birds are free to come and go while introduced predators
can't get in and a plant nursery has been established for the propagation
of endemic plant species.
"We are recognised as the pioneer of a technology that has provided a major
breakthrough in feasible options for the recovery of native wildlife and
ecosystems on the New Zealand mainland."
Fourteen fenced sanctuaries, including 3400ha Maungatautari Ecological
Island, have been established using that same technology.
In 2006, a 47km multi-species pest proof fence was built on Maungatautari
Mainland Island to restore, and protect, indigenous plants and animals to
the forest.
Before restoration began, there were 15 introduced mammalian pest
species on the mountain (possums, weasels, ferrets, stoats, and hedgehogs,
red deer, fallow deer, Norway rats, ship rats, cats, pigs, mice, rabbits
and hares). By 2005, all had been eliminated from two enclosures. The
Maungatautari Trust began reintroducing native species into the pest free
enclosures in June 2006, starting with four kiwi. A pair of critically
endangered takahe along with kaka, 79 hihi and 60 whiteheads followed.
More than 400 volunteers have helped on this community-led project.
"The community support and attention to detail in the construction of the
pest-proof fence and pest eradication has ensured that many of our
seriously endangered species are able to thrive in a safe environment," Jim
Mylchreest, the trust's chief executive, says.
Eventually, Maungatautari is likely to contain more than 40
threatened fauna and flora species.
In the Bay of Plenty, DoC's acting Opotiki area manager, Andy Bassett, says
the size of the Te Urewera Mainland Island and the variety of native
species being protected makes it a distinctive ecological restoration
project.
"The successful techniques we have developed have attracted New Zealand and
overseas ecologists who have come to see how we protect large forest
tracts," says Bassett.
At 50,00ha, it is the largest mainland island in New Zealand. "The size of
the project is important," says project ranger Greg Moorcroft. "Protecting
large areas with high biodiversity values allows the forest ecosystem to
function more naturally by allowing birds such as whio and kiwi to disperse
within the protected areas."
One of the key aspects being investigated within the island is the
feasibility of ground-based animal pest control over a large, rugged area.
"All of our pest control is done on the ground, the vast majority using
kill traps," Moorcroft adds. "We do not use any 1080 or anticoagulants but
we do use some fast-acting toxins in tandem with our trapping operations."
There have been some notable successes, particularly in recovering
threatened species. Kokako numbers at Otamatuna, an area of intensive pest
control, have increased from eight pairs in 1994 to an estimated 112 pairs
in 2006. Overall, there are approximately 170 pairs of kokako - about 23
per cent of the national total - under protection in the Mainland Island.
But here again, the contribution from volunteers reveals why New Zealanders
have been so successful at restoration. "Te Urewera Mainland Island has
been supported by people from far and wide and Ngai Tuhoe is fundamental to
any activity in Te Urewera and have been involved in the project
throughout," says Bassett.
A smaller yet no less excellent project is the Bushy Park Sanctuary in
Wanganui which, despite its small size has also been distinguished by the
panel as a top ecological restoration project. The Bushy Park Trust,
established in 1994, has worked hard to preserve the 92ha forest and its
native bird life by ridding it of all predators and building a 4.8km fence
around the protected area to keep them out once and for all.
Eradication of pests is not always successful; it is expensive, takes time
and presents some risks as the methods used, whether poison or traps must
be carefully chosen so as to only affect the targeted species. Once pests
are removed, forests usually grow back to their previous state and native
species repopulate the area. Sometimes, however, this is not sufficient and
building introduced predator-proof fences or actively replanting trees and
reintroducing species is indispensable. And DoC's Dr Miskelly believes that
is exactly why New Zealand stands out in ecological restoration.
"Community involvement is a huge part," he says. "[Volunteers] are
complementing DoC's work to recreate what was before."
Today, people passionate about nature, trampers, ornithologists, retired
couples, university students and schools are all helping restore the
ecology of damaged areas throughout the country.
New Zealand has a long history of saving native species through
translocation. In 1894, the curator and caretaker of Resolution Island in
Fiordland, Richard Henry, was the first man to take things into his own
hands. Introduced pests were already spreading through the South Island so
he and an assistant caught hundreds of kiwi and kakapo and moved them to
Resolution Island. Unfortunately, stoats were able to swim to the new
island and his efforts failed.
One of most successful restoration stories is that of Campbell Island,
700km south of New Zealand, which became infested with rats in the 1800s.
Two hundred years later, the pests had almost destroyed the entire
population of Campbell Island teal and Campbell Island snipe that bred only
on the island's coast.
The remoteness of the island, its size, the harsh weather and the density
of rats, the highest anywhere in the world at the time, made eradication
difficult. From 2001, poison was dropped during the winter to minimize
disturbance to nesting seabirds. In 2003, trackers with dogs couldn't find
any rats. Soon after, the island was cleared captive-bred teals were
returned and snipe that self-reintroduced to the island have begun
breeding.
While not all restoration projects succeed, decades of research and active
planning and management has allowed New Zealand to make world-first
advances. And the list of successful projects keeps growing. But
restoration is a continuous process and cannot be taken for granted.
"The idea [of the list] was to spread the word about some of the very high-
quality work going on here," Bruce Clarkson says of all the projects listed
in the top 25. "But there is still much to do if we are to reverse the
decline in our unique indigenous biodiversity."
"We have a long way to go yet," Empson from the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary
agrees. "Our goal is to restore the area as closely as possible to the way
it was before humans arrived. In order to fulfil this vision, we need to
get the next 25 generations on board."
But Jim Mylchreest is optimistic New Zealanders' 'can do' attitude means
"we are not willing to sit back and see our wildlife go extinct".
"You can be assured that conservation work here will be a huge and ongoing
success," he says. "We live in this beautiful country and want to hand it
on to future generations in great condition. It is important to provide
places where people can see that wildlife up close."
After a day on idyllic Tiritiri, I find it hard to turn my back on the
natural beauties the island holds and go back to the boat and city life.
But hope hangs in the wind this time. I know the birds I met on the way
will live a long and peaceful life, thanks to the passionate work and
caring nature of the many volunteers that have helped create such a
retreat.
- Maina Perrot
Our summer of fire
A hot and dry summer left fire fighters scrambling to control blazes on
conservation land throughout the country, reports Maina Perrot
[text]
As Australia suffered its most devastating fire season on record, hot and
dry conditions in New Zealand kept rural fire fighters on this side of the
Tasman busier than they have been in a long time.
On January 16, fire fighters from Mangonui, Karikari and
Kaitaia fought flames that burned 500m of Department of Conservation land
including regenerating native bush at Knucklepoint Scenic Reserve on the
Karikari Peninsula. Kaitaia Fire Brigade deputy chief fire officer John
Whitlow said the fire was centred at a camp site and may have been lit
intentionally.
A fire also took hold in Mahia in early February and burned through 140ha
destroying boats, a holiday house and five chalets in a youth camp.
Unusually high temperatures and strong winds caused the fire to spread
wildly through dry vegetation. Although the fire was on private land and no
public access was affected it was the biggest fire the East Coast region
had seen for some years, DoC's spokeswoman Jill Hudson says. Four other
fires were then deliberately lit in Northland, just days after the Far
North District Council had declared a prohibited fire season.
If the fires here were rather small compared to the blazes that raced
across Victoria, they were persistent. By the end of the month, a fire
restriction was in force for all land north of Awanui and fire bans were
declared in most of the North Island as dry and windy conditions posed the
risks of feeding intense fires.
Sioux Campbell, a senior public awareness officer for DoC, says Northland
is currently running a major campaign to try and reduce the occurrence of
wildfires in the region.
"We are running a community education and advocacy programme in target
Northland areas and are about to start a social research project, in
conjunction with Scion (New Zealand's only provider of fire research
expertise in rural and forest landscapes) to find out more about the
motivations for arson and thinking behind carelessness," Campbell says.
Southland is also trying to raise awareness of the dangers of wildfires
after a fire started by someone burning scrubs destroyed about 270ha of the
ecologically significant Awarua wetlands including parts of the Waituna
wetlands. The damage resulting from the blaze has reduced the range of
recreational opportunities available such as duck hunting, bird watching,
fishing and tramping. That same month, a plane ignited 55ha of tinder-dry
land on Kaitorete Spit and the Acheron Road through Molesworth Station in
Marlborough was closed because of the high fire danger in the area.
Scion reports on average a total of 3033 wildfires burn about 5860ha in New
Zealand each year. The South Island accounts for just 34 per cent of
wildfires but 75 per cent of the total area burned. Northland and the
eastern North Island account for the remaining 56 per cent of wildfires.
Generally speaking, the biggest fires in New Zealand are in remote areas in
the South Island, Grant says. "That's because we have vast areas of
grassland and it doesn't take very much down there to get a fire that's
1000ha."
A Scion report titled Analysis in Wildlfire Records in New Zealand: 1991 -
2007 states that the number of wildfires has increased from around 1000 in
the early 1990s to over 4000 fires between 2006 and 2007 and that this
national increase was mirrored in most regions.
Stuart Anderson, Scion's Rural Fire Research Group project leader, says the
four-fold increase in the annual number of fires is probably due to more
people reporting fires.
Grant agrees: "Over the last few years, there has been an increase in
Southland, in line with the national fire campaign that says if you see
smoke, dial 111. We receive a lot of cell phone calls about fires.
"We record all fires and the number of those where we take no action is
actually increasing because more people report minor fires."
According to Kerry Hilliard, DoC's national fire coordinator, people cause
the vast majority of fires with land clearing burns causing 23 per cent of
fires, recreationists starting 12 per cent, power lines and railway
activity causing four per cent. The remaining fires are caused by other
ignition sources such as motor vehicles and machinery or are lit
intentionally. In January 2006, a spark from a chainsaw started a fire at
Mt Cook Station that burnt through 700ha of forest and tussock land.
And it's easy to see how fires are caused by people when fire bans are
ignored. DoC Motueka area manager Martin Rodd says they had instances of
people lighting fires illegally in the Abel Tasman National Park over the
summer.
"We've had a person who lit up a camp fire and the rangers put the fire
out," he recalls. "As they went back to their duty, they saw that the fire
had been relit."
Fortunately few people die and little property is destroyed in New Zealand
bushfires, but that is not to say the damage caused is not severe.
Ecosystems can take years to recover. "The consequences of bushfires on
ecosystems depend upon the fire intensity, location and the time of year,"
Hilliard says. "A major problem is invasion into the burnt area of pest
weeds and animals that affect the recovery of the flora and fauna." The
loss of surface vegetation also exposes the topsoil to erosion by wind and
water and it can take up to 100 years for a natural environment to create
2.5cm layer of topsoil.
Murray Dudfield, the national rural fire officer for the National Rural
Fire Authority (NRFA), says New Zealand has always experienced infrequent
wildfires as a result of natural causes, such as lightning and volcanic
activity. Evidence from carbon records shows evidence of occasional fires
in New Zealand from as early as 40,000 years ago. Maori used fire as a land
management tool and early settlers also caused countless accidental blazes.
Despite such early occurrences of fire, New Zealand's native ecosystems
consist mainly of species that are not specifically adapted to fire, unlike
Australia. "Australia is a fire-prone and fire-dependant country and fire
is very much part of the landscape, but not in New Zealand," Dudfield says.
Yet, while New Zealand's fire climate is not as severe as other parts of
the world due to its maritime position, periods of high and extreme fire
danger do occur in many parts of the country each year. The 1945-1946 fire
season was the worst on record, with fires in Taupo burning about 13,000ha
of planted forest and a further 17,000ha of native forest.
Fires are more likely to occur during the fire season which runs from
October/November to March/April. There are also several factors that
combine to create ideal fire conditions. Flammable material such as trees,
leaf litter, rubbish and structures like houses will provide fuel, while
dry and windy weather conditions can prime the fuel for ignition. The
National Rural Fire Authority and DoC fire staff have weather stations
around the country which monitor the weather patterns on a daily basis and
help predict the likelihood of a fire. Climate change may also be a factor
in the production of increasingly more extreme weather conditions, Stuart
Anderson from Scion says. "But it cannot account for the increase in
bushfires yet. We would need to monitor the increases and decreases of
fires for a few more years to identify if there's a clear trend or not."
Another factor is the landscape. Fires spread faster uphill as the
scorching air is pushed in front of the fire, drying and pre-warming fuel
for ignition. When a fire goes downhill and hits the flat at the bottom,
the height of the flames can quadruple and, when reaching the opposite
hill, quadruple again as they race upwards, turning a fire that started out
with one-metre-high flames into an inferno 16m tall.
"An innocent looking small bushfire can quickly become a life threatening
blaze," Mitchell adds. And tampers, campers, bikers and mountain climbers
are generally most at risk because of their likelihood to be recreating in
remote areas.
"The thing to remember when you are in the backcountry is that you're
really on your own," Mitchell says. "You can't just pick up your phone and
dial 111 and have a fire truck turn up in front of your hut or your tent."
He urges people not to leave anything burning when going to sleep.
"Many people have died of asphyxiation rather than being burned because the
smoke doesn't wake them up."
He recalls two Japanese men who died in a hut in Te Urewera National Park
on Boxing Day in 2007. The hut didn't have a smoke alarm and the men died
after a fire was started by either a gas bottle or a candle.
Murray Dudfield says people can try to put out small fires with water but
should generally avoid tackling a fire themselves. Methods to extinguish
fires vary from fire fighters and water trucks to bulldozers and excavators
which are used to establish a fire base where all fuel is destroyed so that
the fire has nothing to burn and dies out.
Water-carrying aircraft are also used to break the fire triangle, which is
made up of heat, fuel and air/oxygen. "If you use water, it breaks the
triangle and reduces the heat," says Dudfield.
Rachael Thorp, a volunteer fire fighter who has fought blazes in the United
States and helped fight the recent bushfires in Australia, says New Zealand
is lucky to have such ready access to water.
"In the States, they parachute people in to remote areas to fight wildfires
and in Australia they had to use hand tools like shovels and cut down trees
but here we have a lot of water so we mainly use hoses and trucks."
Sometimes, flying fire fighters by helicopters is the only way they can
efficiently attend to fires such as the one on Kapiti Island in June 2007,
where a ranger's cottage had caught fire, she adds.
The key is to act quickly. "If you see a fire, let someone know as soon as
possible because it takes a long time to respond to remote areas," says
Thorp who is also DoC Wellington's technical support officer for fires.
"We had some fires in the Orongorongo Valley, only 10-minutes flying time
from Wellington but when you've got to get the helicopter out of the shed
and get people down there it can be 40-minutes to get people on the scene."
As the main rural fire authority in the country, DoC is responsible for
preventing and controlling fires on public conservation land, all
unoccupied crown land and within one kilometre of these lands. The
department spends $9-10 million to deal with an average of 160 fires that
destroy around 2000ha of public conservation land each year, of which
nearly $1 million is spent on fire suppression alone.
The department has 1000 fire fighting staff and volunteers as well as six
central fire depots nationally. Anyone who is physically fit, has knowledge
of the outdoors and is keen to learn and work as a team member can become a
volunteer fire fighter, DoC's national fire coordinator Kerry Hilliard
says. "But fire fighting is arduous work, the environment is generally hot
and smoky and you can work in potentially dangerous situations."
If recruited, fire training with DoC involves operating fire pumps, using
fire hose and hand tools, fire safety, command and control at
emergencies. Qualifications are gained along the way.
Many of the fires attended to could have been avoided by more responsible
behaviour, DoC's Sioux Campbell says.
"Each fire is investigated and people who have started a wildfire will be
found." Lighting up toilet paper, holding an illegal burn-off or illegal
campfires have cost from $5000 to $200,000 in the past. A year-round
restricted fire season applies to conservation land and during a prohibited
fire season no fires can be lit in the open air and all fire permits are
cancelled.
Arson is fairly rare, but fires that are not put out properly are common,
Trevor Mitchell from DoC's Hawke's Bay conservancy says.
"Trampers and campers generally don't light malicious fires but they will
leave it without putting it out. Sometimes, days or hours later, the fire
will spread because the ashes stay hot and the wind blows them into
surrounding dry grass." This happened recently in the Tongariro National
Park when trampers staying at Mangaehuehu Hut carelessly discarded hot
ashes in nearby tussock. The resulting fire nearly destroyed the hut.
While the size of the latest fires in New Zealand are nowhere near that of
those that burned across Australia, they can still be very dangerous. "You
don't need a really big fire to cause damage," Mitchell says.
Fire fighters around the country are battling blazes every day to protect
New Zealand's native flora and fauna and an alert public can help by
reporting smoke when they see it. But never approach a fire, he says. "It's
a very frightening thing to have a fire burning towards you. The natural
instinct is to run away but if you are in the smoke, you're in trouble."
- Maina Perrot
Pathways to the past
You don't have to race through the jungle like Indiana Jones to experience
New Zealand's archaeological gems, but a good pair of boots and a sense of
adventure helps, writes Maina Perrot
[text]
In the ranges behind the tiny West Coast settlement of Blackball, the
astute and energetic tramper can find intriguing relics of gold-mining
days, and more. Walk along the Croesus Track which stretches 18km across
the Paparoa Range between Blackball in the Grey Valley and Barrytown on the
coast, and you will retrace the path of miners in pursuit of golden dreams.
Set foot in Blackball and not only have you arrived at an historic boom
town, but you've also entered the birthplace of the Labour Party, which was
formed after miners went on strike over their short lunch breaks.
It was around noon on February 27, 1908 when seven workers refused to go
back to work after their 15 minute lunch break. For years the Arbitration
Court had refused to lengthen the miners' lunch break to half an hour, so
when the seven miners were fired more workers joined in the strike - which
became known as the three-month-long Crib Time strike.
Eventually the miners were granted their half-an-hour break after appearing
in court where the judge, ironically, adjourned the session for an 80-
minute lunch. The success of the strike demonstrated to New Zealand workers
the benefits of collective action and from this success evolved the
Federation of Labour and the New Zealand Labour Party.
Blackball's population reached its peak of 1200 in 1928, but declined in
the early 1930s as mining opportunities became rarer. The town was expected
to gradually disappear, but it struggled on and today around 400 people
call the small town home.
But Blackball is not the only town with a fascinating story to tell. I
remember, as a young girl, the blood rushing to my cheeks in excitement as
I held a little glass bottle in the sun and peered at the tiny flecks of
gold dust at the bottom. Only seven years old and I was already on the Ross
Historical Goldfields Walkway with my parents, tired and agitated after a
two hour walk through the old town of Ross - the one where the 'Roddy'
nugget, New Zealand's biggest gold nugget, was found in Jones Creek in
1909. My gold flakes were not the size of a man's fist but they were a
treasure I had uncovered myself while gold panning in the river.
Ross, about 20km from Hokitika, would have been rather unimpressive if not
for its gold mining history. And here I was, in the footsteps of pioneers
who occupied the site of one of the deepest mining operations in the
Southern Hemisphere. Even today the rush is still on - the Westland
District Council says the town is currently under threat from gold mining
companies who want to dig it up to get to the more than $600 million of
gold that reportedly lies under it.
Gold mining sites are not the only riches hidden in the backcountry. New
Zealand has an extraordinarily wide variety of archaeological sites,
ranging from simple Maori middens or rubbish dumps, pastoral and whaling
sites to more solid earthworks such as pa sites, miners' huts or mission
houses, bridges and early churches.
Matthew Schmidt, the president of the New Zealand Archaeological
Association and regional archaeologist for the New Zealand Archaeological
Trust based in Dunedin, says New Zealand's history is very rich for such a
young country.
"New Zealand is the last landmass to have been colonised in about 1300AD
and about 60,000 archaeological sites have been recorded so far," he says.
"This is the biggest record of archaeological sites in the world." But he
says many more are yet to be discovered.
Most of these sites are on private land but some 12,000 are on public
conservation land and the most significant ones, about 665 of them, are
actively managed and monitored by the Department of Conservation. They are
generally accessible to the public and can be reached in a couple of hours
walk but some are in more remote locations.
Access to some sites can be restricted so rangers and other technical
experts can maintain and restore them by applying timber or metal
preservative treatments and trimming back vegetation that shades or
threatens the site.
European colonisers were first interested in the agricultural and
horticultural aspects of the land but soon started to look for gold and
coal. From the 1860s, gold rushes drove men to the Coromandel, the West
Coast and Otago.
"Otago also has the highest number of recorded European gold mining sites,"
Schmidt points out. "The earliest recorded gold mining is 1858, and
historic mining continued until the 1930s.
"We have some very early contact sites down there and we were the world
leaders in gold mining from the 1860s to 1920 so we have a big
archaeological record."
One of the best preserved archaeological sites in New Zealand is Macetown,
a historic reserve reached along a 12km track dotted with interpretation
panels telling the town's story and starting in Arrowtown. In the shadow of
1749m Advance Peak and 1752m Mt Soho, Macetown was the highest gold mine in
Australasia. Numerous derelict huts, batteries and mine sites still remain.
Several fords of the Arrow River are required to reach the town, but many
of the derelict huts are actually in good condition and provide an insight
into what life must have been like for those early pioneers. High-grade
gold was extracted from the rocks and when that started to run dry, mining
operations turned to extracting quartz. Chinese settlers also came to work
over the claims.
As well as gold mines, New Zealand has a rich legacy of about 1400
backcountry huts. Some are on private land but most of them are managed by
DoC and many have historical values. Beech Hut, which was built in 1913
beside the Mataura River and Dog Box Bivouac 17km up Eyre Creek from the
road end, were part of a network of mustering huts across the Eyre
Mountains. Both huts can be reached on pleasant valley walks and provide a
unique historical experience.
Clark Hut, built in 1941 by deer cullers Archie Clark and Allan Cookson, is
the last remaining split beech log hut in the country and one of two
remaining deer culler's huts in Fiordland National Park. Clark was the
first deer culler to work in the area and his hut can be reached on a 20km
tramp starting at the end of Lake Monowai Road, passing the stunningly
located Lake Green Hut along the way.
While little is known about pre-European life in New Zealand because Maori
had no written records, there are numerous Maori remains and pre-European
archaeological sites around the country.
One important site, although not on the mainland, is Urupukapuka Island,
the largest island of the Bay of Islands group. Two centuries before the
Endeavour became the first European ship to enter the Bay of Islands, a
small Maori community thrived here. Originally occupied by Ngare Raumati,
the island was taken over by Ngapuhi in the early 19th century and the
island's rich archaeological landscape, including 66 sites, tells both
tribes' stories. Here, Maori developed an intimate relationship to the sea
and middens show seafood was their main diet. Each day at low tide, women
would gather pipi and kina while the men went fishing. Kumara gardening was
also an important activity and weapons, fishhooks, necklaces and earrings
were made from wood or bone.
Miscommunication between Maori and European settlers was fairly common in
the early days of European colonisation. On one occasion, a whaling captain
named Brind claimed to have bought 50ha on Urupukapuka from the Ngapuhi
chief Rewa in 1839 for one mare valued at 45. The claim was cancelled when
Rewa said that the mare represented only a deposit, and not full payment.
Senior Archaeologist for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) Dr
Rick McGovern-Wilson, says pre-European archaeological sites including
Maori pa and stone structures tend to be concentrated in the Bay of Plenty,
Waikato, Auckland and Northland - areas where horticulture and gardening
was generally successful. In the South Island, however, most Maori sites
are around the coast.
New Zealand's relatively short and recent history provides archaeologists
with a unique opportunity to study the ever-reoccurring global cultural
themes of discovery, settlement and community development across the entire
history of human settlement of a landmass.
"Such opportunities are rarely available elsewhere in the world due to the
incompleteness of the archaeological record found in those other
landmasses," says Jonathan Welch, historic technical specialist at DoC's
Wanganui Conservancy.
The raw landscapes and the relics that linger in them are witness to a
short but full history. Almost everywhere the presence of early Maori
tribes, their interaction with European settlers and the paths old pioneers
took on their way to gold fields can be seen and felt. Yet records of sites
suppose the concentration of sites is less in the far south, Racheal
Egerton, DoC's historic technical specialist in Southland, says.
"The number of prehistoric archaeological sites increases the further north
one goes," Welch confirms. "Coastal sites tend to dominate regional site
distribution but this pattern is due to the nature of settlement and
associated economic activities of Maori."
The Historic Places Trust website states archaeology is "the discovery,
recovery and interpretation of the surviving evidence of past human
activity in its context in or above the ground". Archaeological sites as
such reflect human occupation and provide clues on the distribution of
resources and habitable landscapes at the time.
To Schmidt, this is important because our past is "part of our
identity". "They are the closest things to a time machine we have," he
says. "The only way to see your past in a visual way is through
archaeology. It tells people about themselves." That people are able to go
for a walk or a ride and visit archaeological sites is a good thing, he
adds. "More and more people are visiting the sites and talking about them."
But many sites are inevitably degrading and while this may be a result of
time or natural elements, in some cases it is caused by human activity. The
Historic Places Act 1993 defines an archaeological site as a place
associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence
relating to the history of New Zealand. Under Section 99 of the Act, people
can be fined up to $40,000 for damaging and up to $100,000 for destroying a
site without an authority from NZHPT.
Major human-induced threats include development like subdivisions, damage
from stock and stock control activities such as fencing. Trail bikes, 4WDs
and visitors' failure to keep off the fragile features of archaeological
sites are causing a great deal of damage. Fossicking for artefacts or
digging in sites also remains a problem, although it is less common than it
has been in the past.
"It's very hard to catch people," Schmidt says. "And the amount of damage
caused by four-wheel drives in the last 60 years has rocketed in Otago.
It's illegal to knowingly damage a site and 4WDs do a lot of damage.
"It's unfair on trampers and walkers because while they walk to see a site,
someone else has driven on it. It takes the historical experience away from
them."
DoC's Egerton adds: "We get occasional informal reports of people uplifting
artefacts and taking them home, instead of handing them in." Any artefact
found on public conservation land is crown property, and taonga tuturu
(Maori artefacts) found anywhere are the property of the Crown under the
Protected Objects Act.
"One weird and annoying thing that people do at some of our sites is gather
up artefacts like bottles and metal objects, and put them together in a
display or collection on a hut veranda or seat. We then have to re-
distribute things back around the site, to discourage the ongoing
accumulation."
Other illegal activities include the dumping of rubbish and cultivating
marijuana. For rubbish, if the person who dumped it can be identified, DoC
will prosecute, Welch says. Marijuana growing is dealt with by the police.
"Both activities are culturally offensive and can result in damage to
fragile archaeological features. They also present health and safety issues
for visitors."
Schmidt adds that while those who use the sites for recreational purposes
sometimes do not seem to care about preserving a site's historical value,
thieves know what they are looking for.
"A rare bottle appeared at an auction and was sold for $12,000 and other
bottles have also sold for thousands of dollars. Most illegal fossicking is
for historic bottles and this is a national problem."
But sometimes, people simply don't know what an archaeological site looks
like.
"Gold mining sites are pretty obvious and are made up of tailings, water
races and have stone or sod huts around. In urban centres, archaeological
sites can be seen by deposits of bottles and ceramics in the ground often
found during earthworks on a property.
"Maori sites often look like ruins of stones or a shallow hole in the
earth."
While several archaeological tracks can be walked on without damaging them,
some have access denied to mountain bikers and even walkers.
"Mountain bikes have the potential to cause a lot of damage to sites,"
Yolanda Vogel, an archaeologist for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust's
National Heritage Policy Team, says. "Just look at any mountain bike track
then imagine that going through an archaeological site. As with walking
tracks, [bike tracks] should be designed with the archaeology in mind, so
as to avoid damage to the sites."
"But there is a lot of mountain biking that goes through, to or around
sites without damaging them," Egerton points out. "As long as bikers keep
to tracks and don't start creating their own tracks." DoC is currently
exploring opportunities for increased mountain bike activity near historic
sites so long as little or no damage to the sites' archaeological features
will be caused.
For Egerton, being able to visit archaeological sites enables people to
understand their heritage better.
"People's lives and their understanding of New Zealand history and identity
can be greatly enriched by such visitation," she insists. "It's amazing to
see and experience a place or an object that was used by someone many years
ago, especially if you can attach a personal narrative to it. Visiting
historic or archaeological sites can bring written history to life, and add
a new dimension to how we understand that history."
-Maina Perrot
Storm brewing over concessions
DoC's granting of concessions has been thrust into the spotlight. By Maina
Perrot
[Text]
When one morning, Hahei residents and tourists heading down to the pristine
Cathedral Cove Marine Reserve suddenly found themselves face to face with a
two square metre kiosk selling drinks, sandwiches and hiring snorkelling
gear, they had what one local said was a 'mixed reaction'. But what started
as a little community's indignation at the idea of commercial activity
taking place at one of New Zealand's iconic beaches, threw the entire
Department of Conservation (DoC) concessions-granting process into the
spotlight.
With more than 120,000 visitors - more than three times the traffic on the
ever popular Routeburn Track - doing the 30 minute walk to Cathedral Cove
each year, it's perhaps no surprise that someone came up with the idea of
setting up shop on the beach. That a caf caravan already does that at the
car park at the start of the track didn't matter. In exchange for cleaning
up the beach every day before leaving and eight per cent of his business
profit, Shanan Laird was given permission to set up his business on the
beach for a seven week trial period.
"By hiring snorkelling gear and providing sunscreen, water and snacks from
a discretely located tent, Mr Laird's concession provides visitors with
opportunities to better engage with and enjoy the recreation values of
Cathedral Cove," says DoC's communications advice manager Rory Newsam.
There are already 15 other concessionaires operating in the 47ha marine
reserve, ranging from stock grazing grassed areas, guided walks, boat
landings, sea kayaking and a coffee vendor at the car park and start of the
track, so what harm can one more business do?
Well, for one, Hahei residents argue that there is no need for it, says Ian
Carter, the stepson of Vaughan Harsant who gifted the land adjacent to
Cathedral Cove to the Crown in 1972.
"A lot of people who walk [to Cathedral Cove] do not come prepared and they
imagine it's going to be a walk on a straight line," he says. "DoC should
focus on letting the public know what to expect, before even considering
putting a stand on the beach."
What's more, locals might have been more open to Laird's operation and the
benefits he brings, such as removing litter from the beach at the end of
the day, were it not for the fact that they felt totally left out of the
concession-granting process.
"DoC has no right to do it without consulting anyone," says artist Jill
Cameron who has lived in Hahei since 1946. "The council, the iwi, the
Marine Reserve Committee - no one was consulted."
According to DoC, a notified consent process is only legally required for
concessions that have potentially high impacts on the community or
environment. Out of the 761 concession applications made nationwide between
2008 and 2009, only 13 per cent had to be publicised.
The remaining 86 per cent were of a relatively "minor" nature or involved
areas of lower environmental sensitivity.
"In keeping with the short term, low-impact nature of the discrete tent set
back from the beach, Shanan Laird's application was treated as a non-
notified concession," says Newsam.
Cath Wallace, a senior lecturer in Economic and Public Policies
specialising in environmental policies at Victoria University and the co-
chair of the Environmental Conservation Organisation (ECO), says the
interpretation of "minor effect businesses" needs redefining.
"Even quite big housing developments are still called minor, so I think we
need to say this is public estate and it shouldn't be used for private
purposes, except for recreation," she says. "I think the public needs to be
consulted on public matters. It's clear the public are concerned about
commercialisation on the DoC estate."
There are currently 4,675 concessions across the country covering
commercial activity on public conservation land and waters. A concession
refers to a permit, lease or license that allows commercial activities,
organised non-profit activities, occupation of land, building of structures
and research.
These range from permits allowing ski fields to operate in National Parks,
bee keeping, film making to stock grazing or involve small eco-tours in the
Catlins, river rafting on the West Coast and kauri walks in Northland
forests.
Some are well known, including the annual Coast to Coast endurance race
across the Southern Alps, the Ruapehu ski fields in Tongariro National Park
and whale watching off the Kaikoura Coast.
Retail concessions, such as Laird's at Cathedral Cove, cover activities
ranging from equipment hire in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park and the
operation of a popular caf at the start of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track,
to coffee carts in Haast and ice cream vendors in Northland campgrounds.
Says Newsam: "Basically, anyone making a living which uses public
conservation land to support their business requires a concession to do
so."
Generally, applications are considered and granted 'on merit'. This means
that reserves may be considered too sensitive for certain types of
commercial activity but that may not necessarily exclude other types of
concessions.
On the nature reserve at Codfish Island where the intensive kakapo breeding
programme is run, for example, a guiding concession would not be allowed
but a film permit may be granted to promote the kakapo breeding programme.
"It comes down to the natural and recreational values on site and the
impact a particular activity may have on those values," explains Newsam.
By using this concession system, DoC can ensure the concessioned activities
taking place are not damaging the environment or conflicting with the
department's primary aim of protecting the land and wildlife while still
providing enjoyment to visitors.
Far from putting the environment at risk, appropriate commercial activity
on public conservation land actually helps encourage more people to
preserve the place, argued DoC's director-general Al Morrison in January
when he commented on the benefits of having someone like Shanan Laird, who
cleans up the beach everyday, in Cathedral Cove.
In fact, most operators on DoC land participate directly or indirectly in
conservation, some of which include luxury accommodation provider
Wilderness Lodge, situated at Arthur's Pass, which controls possums and
fences areas that contain endangered plants. "I have this very strong
belief that it's not just about being sustainable and green within the four
walls of your business, it's about having a broader impact through
conservation, education, advocacy and putting something back through
practical conservation work," operator Gerry McSweeney says.
The White Heron Sanctuary, a company that offers guided tours through South
Westland's Waitangi Roto Nature Reserve to see a major white heron colony,
also does predator control, weed control, and monitors the nesting birds as
well as general maintenance of the facilities, manager Kenneth Bruce Arnold
says.
Jeroen Jongejans from Dive! Tutukaka agrees concessionaires should
participate in conservation. "Doing business in a marine reserve is more
than conservation in action; it's a tool for appreciation and
understanding, converting cynics into ardent supporters of our
environment," Jongejans says. "Appropriate access to our conservation
assets is the best advertising for smart and sustainable futures."
As for Ultimate Hikes Queenstown, a private company which provides guided
walks in Fiordland National Park, the company has had a long association
with the Department Of Conservation and did not wish to comment but
director Jaquie Davies says they "greatly respect the nature of our
landlord-tenant relationship with the department."
Wilsons Abel Tasman has a DoC concession to operate guided walks, sea
kayaking trips and to land boats in Abel Tasman National Park.
"Guides help to educate visitors about environmental responsibility and
ensure visitors follow DoC guidelines," director Darryl Wilson
says. "Allowing well-managed businesses to operate in our national parks
should not have a negative impact on national park usage.
"This is a partnership between commercial operators, the community and the
Department of Conservation with the aim of protecting and enhancing
biodiversity and improving the visitor experience in the park."
This concession partnership is seen as an example of best practice around
the world, Kauahi Ngapora, chief operating officer for Whale Watch
Kaikoura, says.
The company operates under a marine mammal watching permit which is drafted
and issued by DoC, and is regulated under the Marine Mammal Protection Act
1978.
"We pay an annual fee to DoC for our permit and that fee is [put] towards
research and administration," Ngapora explains. "It also covers DoC sending
undercover people on our boats, as a regular check up."
DoC is right now undertaking a three-year research project on the effects
on whale watching in Kaikoura as part of a review of Whale Watch Kaikoura's
concession.
Kaikoura is an important migration route for many whales and a breeding
area for dolphins. Developing a mammal sanctuary is one of the local's top
priorities.
"This is something we would like to see in the future to reduce the
potential of negative impacts on this area, it's too sensitive," says
Ngapora. "Although development is good, and is needed, you still want to
protect those special areas."
If commercial operators can sometimes enhance people's experience of the
place, in particular that of tourists, it can also have a negative impact
on others and lead to 'displacements' of people, Federated Mountain Club
(FMC) spokesperson Richard Davies says.
"We've seen it already in places like the Routeburn Track which has a
guided luxury accommodation option as well as the DoC hut system," he says.
"That's fairly expensive, fairly crowded and fairly commercial. So a lot of
people switch to the Rees-Dart Track. And those who would have done the
Dart Track find that that's too crowded and so they move on to the next
valley.
"People are getting dumped out of one valley and forced into another one
and a lot of them will be wondering where they're going to take their
holidays, where can they go to get away from it all. Eventually we will see
[concessionaires taking] people into those very wild places which I think
will be very sad."
DoC's 2009/2010 budget is $419 million, $13.5 million less than it had
requested from the Government. It recently announced plans to set up a new
business unit destined to make the concession application process easier
for businesses.
Instead of having to apply to all the conservancies in the area where a
business wants to operate, there would be national guidelines which would
add consistency to the system.
"The deal [with businesses] is we will work better with you and give you a
better deal and you need to be engaged in conservation work ... If you want
to do something to get commercial gain, you need to not just be covering
off your footprint but doing things for conservation," said director-
general Al Morrison at the time. "What's driving us is that we get more
conservation work done - not just the work that we do."
Mike Britton from Forest and Bird thinks the idea of DoC setting up a new
business unit is not, in itself, a bad one.
"Over the years, an issue for DoC has been inconsistency and it's often
described as 13 paddocks but not a farm," he says. "A major issue for
concessionaires has been the lack of consistency in DoC's response and also
how applications and issues were dealt with."
But the Prime Minister's statement on the Government's priorities which
revealed the business unit under a chapter on the environment titled
unblocking resources, suggests that more land and resources were to be open
to and used by businesses, Member of Parliament and Green Party member
Kevin Hague says.
"This suggests a set of values totally at odds with the idea behind
conservation, where the natural world is valued for its own sake," he says.
"Of course there are significant short-term profits to be made from
'unblocking the resources' in the conservation estate. However, by doing so
we would risk the enormous value of an intact conservation estate to not
only tourism, but everything we try to sell in the world. It would also
mean it would no longer be there for future generations."
What worries members of the FMC, Richard Davies says, is that the formation
of the business unit shows DoC's intention is to attract more businesses to
operate on public land. Davies also fears the plans to change the
concession process may be a precursor to the Government changing the
Conservation Act, which, if it happens, would be a "disaster step for
trampers, climbers and conservationists" as it will open the floodgates to
businesses wanting to operate on conservation land.
"Rather than putting money into saving species and maintaining huts and
tracks, [DoC is] putting money into chasing more opportunities. We don't
think that is DoC's job and that's really what we're not happy about."
But Rory Newsam says DoC has always worked with private business and is now
trying to be more efficient to reduce paperwork and spend more time on
actual conservation work.
"We will still use the criteria that we [currently] use to assess whether a
business is appropriate for an area," he says. "A proposal has to be
appropriate, fit the management plan of the area and contribute to
conservation. Every concession is looked at against the conservation
impacts it will have on the environment and conservation, that's the
priority."
Hahei resident Ian Carter says there has to be a balance between providing
a service and creating economic benefits. "It's a fine line between that
and exploitation," he says. "To me, [the situation at Cathedral Cove] jumps
the line to exploitation. You try and treat the place like a sacred site
and [then] realise it's not so. Selling and providing to the public is OK
but you want to do that in certain places only."
The decision on whether the kiosk at Cathedral Cove will return next summer
will be made in the coming month. How that impacts on the viability of
other potential concessionaires is yet to be seen, but by all accounts, it
won't be the last controversial concession DoC approves.
- Maina Perrot
It's a woman's world, too
Girls can do anything and when it comes to the outdoors, they can do it
better, writes Maina Perrot
[Text]
With the expansion of outdoor career options, the development of the
polytech system which provides practical experience and the ever-growing
range of degrees in the outdoors now available at universities, the outdoor
industry has never been so accessible to women.
The perception that 'out there' is a man's world is as outdated as shorts
worn over long-johns and figures show more young females are making their
way to the top of the industry. What's more, the industry itself is
reaching out for them. From guides to professional leaders and instructors,
there are simply not enough women working in the industry.
And women, like 30-year-old Jo Parsons, are stepping up and making their
way to top positions. Parsons developed a passion for extreme outdoor
activities from a young age and slowly but surely built a career. She
became one of the few women in New Zealand to gain a Kayak II qualification
and is now teaching at Tai Poutini Polytechnic on the West Coast.
Dave Ritchie, Parsons' boss at Tai Poutini, observes her performing almost
on a daily basis and says women tend to listen more and like to practise in
a less complex environment so they can gain confidence before moving
forward, while men go at it much harder and don't mind "taking big knocks".
"[Men] can overcome with strength what women need to master with technique,
but women often underestimate their progress and ability," Ritchie adds.
Says Parsons: "I think [women] bring very different attributes at times. A
guy who is teaching and can 'just do it' may not be able to relate so well
to other people who can't and who need to be shown and supported in the
process. I guess I have more empathy for that style of learning and I think
I present a more realistic or attainable role model for the girls."
Ritchie says females in the outdoor industry are like gold and they are
important role models. "They are great educators and make great guides
because they are often more diligent and pay attention to the details," he
says. "These may sound like generalisations, and of course they are, but
this is what we see."
Ritchie often sees females join courses who are talented at picking up the
technical skills but often lack confidence. "I'm not really sure why that
is, but our [female] role models help us connect with those young women,
make them feel better about themselves and get them involved in the
industry."
He has noticed a rise in the number of women joining courses and getting
into the industry as well as in the quality of their ability. Yet there
still aren't enough of them out there.
In most universities and polytechnics, female students or teachers in the
outdoor education sector generally make up about one third of the students
and men the other two thirds.
"At the moment, we've got 10 women out of 30 in our first year," Ritchie
says. "It's about average, [though] we have no idea why it's so male
dominated. It's bizarre, because there are so few barriers to women in this
industry."
New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association chief executive Matthew Cant
says that just seems to be intrinsic to the nature of the business. "It is
a male-dominated industry out there," he says.
Ritchie speculates that the technical skills such as paddling and climbing
and that involve strength and bravery might deter women because they may
feel they can't compete in those areas with men. "While it's true that
strength and bravery are required, these qualities are not the exclusive
domain of men," he says.
Natalie Mathews, who did a Diploma in Outdoor Recreation Leadership at
Auckland University of Technology says one reason women don't get into the
industry could be because it is "incredibly time consuming and often
requires you to spend time away from your partner and family".
But the comparatively small number of women coming out of polytechs means
there is less competition for them to find work.
"Being a woman in the industry is fantastic because everyone wants to have
a female and male role model, so it's really easy to get work," Parsons
says.
It's common for an outdoor operator to want to have a fifty-fifty split of
male and female staff. Southern Wilderness New Zealand makes a point of
partnering up a male and female guide on each trip so that guests feel
comfortable approaching either of the guides with any problems they may
have. This method also creates a balanced viewpoint and better management
of unforeseen situations that might arise.
The trend for employing females is not only evident in New Zealand. "We
know of one paddling school in the US right now - one of the most highly
regarded in the world - that cannot get enough female instructors for its
programmes," says Ritchie.
But Parsons admits that getting the job just because "you're a woman" has a
downside because inevitably better qualified candidates may be overlooked
in favour of less-capable females and may fuel the perception of the "token
women" instructor.
"That's contributing to the perception of the women instructors not being
as good and that's a downside," she says.
But when AUT canvassed its outdoor ed students and graduates it found that
women were faring as well as men, with the top students often being a woman
and the top jobs being offered to both males and females.
"I think there may be a perception among budding instructors that to be a
good instructor you need to be a 'legend' kayaker or rock climber," says
Rictchie. "Obviously it's great if you are, but they are certainly not the
most important qualities when it comes to leading others in the outdoors."
The ability to teach and pass on skills and knowledge is the greater
attribute and one that New Zealand's female guides and instructors seem to
have in spades.
- Maina Perrot
Mountain falls: near scrapes or certain death
A spate of falls in the mountains this winter prompted Maina Perrot to find
out what causes people to fall and how to survive if find yourself in an
unstoppable plummet
[Text]
It's hard to imagine what tumbling 180m down the hard face of a frozen
South Island mountain feels like.
But Steffen Poepjes remembers it all, from the moment he lost his footing
in the mushy snow to falling backwards and rolling down the cliff over the
first then second bluff, right up to the moment he came to a merciful stop
and waited for two hours for a rescue team to fly in and take him to
Christchurch Hospital.
"I didn't get knocked unconscious," the now 22-year-old Adventure
Specialties Trust instructor recounts of his 2008 fall. "I just went
through the rocks and the tussock and I remember free-falling through the
air, waiting for the impact.
"I didn't feel the pain at the time and I remember being really relaxed and
not being able to do anything. I thought 'if this is it then this is it'.
Then I came to a stop and wondered 'has this really happened
He tried to sit up and felt blood streaming down his face and realized:
"Oh, yeah it happened."
The Aucklander and his friend Cameron Walker were on holiday in the South
Island when they decided to climb Mt Philistine (1967m). Walker had climbed
the mountain, which is not considered overly technical, on three previous
occasions.
But as they descended the tricky Warnocks Bluff section, Poepjes' dug his
crampons into the snow. They didn't hold and he fell.
Two people have died in the same area in 2001 and 2002, but Poepjes escaped
with only a broken rib and extensive bruising to his body and kidneys.
"I wiggled my toes and was relieved to find I could still move them," he
says. "I have heard of other people falling there and I'm the only one that
survived. I do wonder why I am so special?"
It was the quick reaction of Walker, who had just completed an outdoor
first-aid course and got Poepjes into a comfortable position by digging a
seat in the snow and making a pillow for his head before making a two-hour
dash for help, that saved Poepjes' life.
Hisashi Nukada, a mountaineering instructor at Aoraki Polytechnic, says
Poepjes is lucky: a fall from a vertical cliff generally means death.
"Either something knocks you off the mountain or you slip off," he says.
"If on ice or snow, self arrest immediately, but there's not much else you
can do."
Poepjes had not done much mountaineering before the trip to Mt Philistine,
but he thinks his fall was due to fatigue rather than inexperience.
"It was just one of those situations where you have a chance of falling and
if you fall there's nothing you can really do," he says. "But I was tired
when it happened and it was when we were coming down."
Federated Mountain Club president Rob Mitchell agrees that tiredness
contributes greatly to accidents in the mountains.
"Climbing requires very intense concentration over a long period of time so
it's important to know when you are getting tired and know how to rest," he
says.
A lack of skills or poor assessment of the physical challenges, carrying
the wrong equipment or not knowing how to use it, and climbing with a
partner who has less experience, are also factors that lead to falls.
"[Climbing] is a dangerous sport but you can minimise the risks by good
training and you should choose climbs that are not dangerous and that you
actually enjoy and that give you confidence in your skills," Mitchell adds.
However in many cases, such as Poepjes', people need to remain constantly
alert and aware of possible hazards in the different environments they find
themselves in, climber and author Paul Hersey believes.
"There's a whole range of things that can make you fall," he says. "With
rock climbing the dangers are usually obvious and manageable, but in an
alpine setting there are many more variables that need consideration.
Hidden crevasses and snow instability are two major factors that can lead
to falls. You need to be focussed and decisive from the moment you first
step foot on the mountain, and stay that way till you're completely off it
again. Unfortunately a fall in the mountains tends to be either minor
scrape or fatal."
Failure to maintain three points of contact with the slope when climbing,
inadequate gear for the conditions, wind or other weather conditions and
lack of confidence also affect your climbing, Pat Barret, who has more than
30 years of tramping experience, says.
"Often falls occur because of a failure to maintain three points of contact
with the slope, inadequate gear for the conditions, and a lack of
confidence," he says. Altitude also adds to the cocktail of potential
dangers by advancing fatigue, loss of concentration and judgement.
And judgement counts. For example, while roping up with a partner is
generally viewed as a good thing, it can sometimes be a mistake.
In January 2007, a Japanese climber whose two companions plunged 500m to
their deaths on to the Upper Linda Glacier on Aoraki/Mt Cook, was saved by
a falling rock that sliced the strap connecting him to the rope. Separated
from his companions, he was able to stop himself from being pulled down the
mountain with them.
Nukada, also a former Outward Bound and Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits
Centre instructor, believes luck has a part to play in why some people
survive while others don't.
In August, two men survived falls on Mt Ruapehu. Colin Lightbody, 41, fell
700m from Dome Summit, fracturing both ankles. Aucklander Andrew Blair, 37,
received minor injuries in a 60m fall down Tahurangi Peak after the strap
on his ice axe broke.
A 26-year-old man also survived a 300m fall in the Mt Somers-Stavely area,
south-west of Christchurch, this September. He was able to contact
emergency services and a police search and rescue mission was launched.
Others simply don't stand a chance. In Poepjes' case, he and Walker were
not roped together and because Walker was uninjured he was able to run for
help. Solo climbers stand less chance of survival in a fall.
Last year, 38-year-old climber Noel Clyde Oien, manager of the Arthur's
Pass Outdoor Education Centre, fell 200m to his death from the same
treacherous bluffs Poepjes fell from.
About 220 people have died on Aoraki/Mt Cook, including two people and
their experienced guide who died while crossing Ball Pass in 2005, a Danish
woman who fell 300m in 2006 and expert climber Anton Wopereis who was
killed in 2008 in a fall on the mountain which he had climbed almost 30
times.
Mt Taranaki also has one of the highest death rates of any mountain in New
Zealand, LandSAR North Island field support officer Peter Zimmer says.
"Reasons for that are that it is easily accessible, the weather can change
very rapidly and it has very steep terrain that is most dangerous during
the times of limited snow cover."
And similar conditions are found on the peaks of Tongariro National Park.
"Some slopes above Turoa leading to Tahurangi summit and Mt Ngauruhoe have
regular incidents in summer and winter," says Zimmer.
But paramedic for the Christchurch Westpac Rescue Helicopter Andy
Frankenschmidt says accidents can occur everywhere in New Zealand, at all
times.
"There is no most dangerous time to climb although alpine hazards do change
with the seasons and have to be considered to reduce the likelihood of an
accident," he says.
What counts is preparation, Nukada says. "Good ice axe and crampon
technique and solid abseil anchors are all essential. Learning and
practising self-arresting is also important but remember, if you have to
use it you've already stuffed up."
Risk-taking will always be appealing to some people as a means of
individual expression and difference, he adds.
"Climbers go climbing for many reasons, ranging from a desire to connect
with the outdoors and enjoy a sense of freedom, to wanting to push the
limits of what they are physically able to do - such is the richness of the
climbing experience."
Poepjes agrees: "It isn't about taking all the risks away, it's about
limiting that risk to more achievable standards," he says.
Surviving his 180m fall didn't put him off climbing, if anything, it made
him stronger. "When you fall off a mountain, you get back on. I wouldn't go
climbing if there was no risk involved."
- Maina Perrot
En route to Nepal
[text]
Head almost anywhere in New Zealand and you will find some amazing wild
rivers on which to improve your kayaking skills. But while our free and
lively country offers the opportunity for everyone to learn, teach and
practise this type of activity, countries such as Nepal have only limited
resources.
Which is why Sophie Hoskins is travelling to Nepal later this year. She and
seven other young women from around New Zealand will head over to the newly
democratic country in November with as much gear and equipment as they can
carry, with the aim of upskilling 10 Nepali women from the Nepali Girls
Kayak Club (set up by their friend Inka Trollsas from Sweden) so they might
find jobs in the tourism industry.
The aim of the project, dubbed 'Nepali girls ripping it up', is to produce
a group of female guides capable of working on white water rivers in Nepal
as safety kayakers, raft guides and instructors. "It will be the perfect
base for [Nepali] women to start training and eventually work and support
themselves as employees or freelance guides within the Nepal white-water
industry," claims Hoskins.
The 23-year-old and the other girls, Hester Hilbink, Malaika Davies, Laura
Clayton, Kelly Blayney, Emi Earle and Hayley Segal have all completed a
Bachelor of Adventure Recreation and Outdoor Education at Christchurch
Polytechnique except Anna White who did a Diploma in Adventure instructing
and guiding.
Hoskins started kayaking in 2003 and finished her degree in 2005. She then
worked as a kayak instructor and running school trips in Waimarino and
Tauranga, where she met Inka Trollsas. She came is second in the 2007
Wairoa Extreme Race.
Hoskins then spent seven weeks kayaking on the Nile River in Uganda with
Hester, Laura and Anna.
"I've been kayaking about 5 years and the thing i love most about kayaking
is not the adrenalin but being with awesome people in beautiful places.
That is what got me hooked on kayaking and teaching others to kayak."
With the help of two paid, professional Nepali instructors, the group of
Kiwi women will run a five-week training programme through November and
December that covers everything from first aid, river rescue, riverside
cooking for large groups, setting up tents and shelters, equipment
maintenance and white water raft-guiding on class III rivers.
"The two Nepali instructors understand how things work in Nepal and because
they live there they are going to be able to help the girls who want to
find a job in the industry," says Hoskins.
"It's going to be pretty exciting and a good chance for the Nepali women
to learn new skills and get some good work from it too," Hoskins adds. "For
our part, it's going to be amazing to experience the Nepali culture. I'm
very excited about that."
It won't be all hard work, admits Hoskins: after the training programme
there will be enough spare time for the Kiwi contingent to compete in the
Peak UK Himalayan White Water Challenge for the first time.
To find our more about the project, head to
www.nepaligirlskayak.blogspot.com.
-Maina Perrot
Meeting the locals
[text]
New Zealand wildlife enthusiast Nicolas Vallance loves nature and loves
people. Through the new TVNZ6 series, Meet the Locals, she can now share
her experiences and passion with thousands of families. Featuring
encounters with all sorts of Kiwis in the most remarkable places, the four-
minute show gives New Zealanders an insight into their country's riches and
natural heritage. The 30-year-old lives at the Mt Cook National Park where
she has fallen in love with New Zealand outdoors. In each episode, she
takes us along on her incredible journeys all around the country and hopes
to encourage people to go out and discover more about their backyards and
other places.
When did you start shooting the series?
TVNZ approached us in April last year. What they wanted was a show that
could go in between the programmes instead of ads that would represent New
Zealand Natural Heritage. I had about five weeks to get ready, to do all
research, to talk to the DoC staff, to write all the stories, to write the
scripts so it was quite overwhelming at the beginning.
Have you done anything like this before?
No. I've been appearing on television for the Department of Conservation
for nearly three years on TVOne Good Morning show answering questions on
their What'up Doc programme. I guess why I found it not too difficult is
because I love New Zealand native wildlife and our beautiful wild places
and meeting all these incredible people.
What was the most exciting story you shot?
We did some amazing things. On our busiest day we travelled from Stewart
Island to Whangarei, so that was literally one end of the country to the
other in one day. I did a story about the Okere falls on the Kaituna River
and they sent me over. I hadn't done any rafting before, I really didn't
want to do it and then at the last minute the guy said who ran the tour
said "Come on you can do it" so I did. I nearly cried but not quite. But it
was cool, I'll definitely do that again.
What did you like most about meeting the locals?
There were remarkable people in every single story that we did. There was a
class in a school in Raglan and they had written a song about Maui
Dolphins. They're only, we think, just over 100 left. These kids had taken
upon themselves to write a song about Maui dolphins and it brought me to
tears so it was pretty special.
Do you support the image that New Zealand is 100 per cent green?
I think it's a really good goal. I don't think we are here yet but
everybody can do their bit to help protect our clean and green image. I
think it's lazy for us to say "of yeah, we're 100 per cent pure" and not
find out more about whether we really are. We wanted to surprise and
inspire New Zealanders. New Zealanders haven't had the chance to see their
natural heritages on television for about 15 years so I think that's
crucial that these programmes were made and that they have such good access
to them. I've got friends who are teachers and have been using them (the
shows) in schools, which is nice.
To learn more and watch the series, visit www.doc.govt.co.nz
-Maina Perrot
Published in Alfresco Magazine (National Magazine -lifestyle/gardens-)
Patch from Scratch
[text]
Starting a family is always a busy time for new mothers but for Sarah
Davies, it was the key that unlocked the door to her a newfound passion,
that of growing her own vegetables, and prompted her to start her business
in the field.
"It's just something that I became really passionate about when I started
my family and thinking about feeding my children," says the mother of two.
"The best part is that it can be run around my family and I can always be
there and also that I'm doing something that I really love doing."
Sarah started her company which she called Patch from Scratch and offers a
very cost-effective and easy way of eating healthy a year ago.
"We provide an all-inclusive service based in Auckland, to create an
organic vegetable patch in your back yard. All our vegetable patches are
raised beds, meaning we do not dig into the ground, but build on top of it.
The beds are 20 cm - 40 cm high and encased in natural timber. We use
simple, organic gardening methods such as crop rotation and companion
planting."
She has lavender and rocket, which are good for companion planting, in her
own garden.
With the increasing costs of food and especially vegetables, the idea of
growing their own vegetables is already popular with both old and young
people.
"I got lost between the generations and now people are definitely going
back to it. The clients, they just really love it because it makes it
easier so it's not that hard and I think a lot of them expected it to be
much more difficult than it actually is.
"I find all my clients are really lovely and they're just so passionate
about it and obviously because they're making a pretty significant
investment, they're pretty into it and want to do it."
At Patch from Scratch, people can choose a consultancy service or a
maintenance pack which includes crop location charts, a month planting
calendar and a companion planting guide with pets and disease control tips.
The two together cost $280 kit sets ranging from $500 to $1800 are also
available. The smallest patch, which is 240cm long by 60cm wide by 30cm
deep, can feed between one and two people. The Quad Pod potager is the
biggest with four beds of 180cm by 90cm each that feed a family of two to
four children.
The company uses seeds from the Koranga Gardens and organic seedlings from
Wellesfield.
Now that her second child is born, Sarah has two passionate gardeners and a
carpenter working for her and she hopes to franchise her company in the
near future.
"It will be on a national level but I have had some interest from Australia
and also the UK as well."
The workers build the beds but she does all the planting and personally
goes back to her clients' homes later on to ensure everything is running
smoothly.
"I go back after three months and do a follow up with them and see how
they're going, if they are having trouble with any pest or anything like
that and I just make sure they're happy and if they're not I'll just work
with them."
Although Sarah spends very little time in her garden, she always grows more
vegetables than she needs, to the benefits of friends and neighbors.
"On average I spend shockingly little time in my garden, probably one day a
month to do a good tidy up and re-planting and not even two hours a week
because I don't have that much time. It won't always be beautiful but
everything will still grow.
"I always grow 20 per cent more than I need to. We've got much more than we
need and it's nice to be able to give away."
The self-taught gardener with background in Public Relations also teaches
mentally affected people and children how to care about plants.
"I do some volunteer teaching at a mental health recovery center. It's just
kind of teaching people how to do it, the skills so they can eventually
have a garden at home. They've all got a garden now. I also go to schools,
which I really enjoy doing."
Sarah has a very supportive husband, Greg, and her eldest daughter, Renee,
already has her very own vegetable patch.
"We eat everything from the garden. But I have a different way of cooking
for the family now. I'll or I'd go into the garden and see what could be
harvested or what I can use and then I google on the internet (eg.
Foodlovers.co.nz) and just put those ingredients I have and then find out
what we're having for dinner."
-Maina Perrot
Willows Reach
It sometimes takes somebody else to make you appreciate your own hard work.
While Jenny Arscott and Geoff Clarke have enjoyed every moment they have
spent working on their idyllic retreat, Willows Reach, a unique hideaway
bed and breakfast farmstay on the outskirts of Kumeu, North West of
Auckland, it is the look of delight and gratitude on their guests' faces
that ultimately melts their hearts.
Driving down the alleyway leading to the fairy-like white house sitting
proudly amongst wildflowers of the richest colour and enthralling willow
trees is like peering through a key hole and discovering a secret world on
the other side.
The wildflower garden at the entranceway makes the perfect introduction to
the country retreat, with its deep cherry poppies and luscious maples
thriving around a small goldfish pond in the centre of which stand a naked
lady fountain.
"When we bought this property there was no garden, there was just this two-
year-old white house in a middle of empty paddocks," Jenny Arscott,
originally from Devon in England, explains. "We had an empty canvas to
paint our dream."
The result is an exquisitely romantic and tranquil setting for their home
and a luxury ensuite that has its own entrance and decks with a jetty on
the edge of a small lake.
An elegant pathway near the entrance leads you through a newly developed
garden area past a charismatic bucolic wooden bench and table and to the
lake and to the bigger fish pond.
Rainwater is used to fill up the lined pond which dries up a bit in summer
and is at its fullest in winter.
The slim trail around the pool features a few artworks amid blossoming
colour roses, camellias such as the Margaret Davis Camelia and native bush.
"The camellias are good for colouring the winter," Jenny says, rubbing the
delicately coloured flower lightly between her fingers. "We also tried to
put bits of garden art in but we tried not to make it look like Disney
Land, so that it looks natural and nice."
The beach end of the lake offers the perfect backdrop for bridal party
photos, small wedding ceremonies or family picnics.
"We put in the olive trees because we wanted something that would hold the
leaves during the winter but with that different blue green colour. Then we
put the figue trees because it gives a really beautiful shade.
"We also wanted to have a nice expend of lawn so that we have a lovely view
from our bedroom overlooking that side of the garden," she adds.
The couple met in 1993 and moved to Kumeu three years later on a mission to
create Willows Reach. Nothing was planned about the way their garden was
going to be done, all was conceived from scratch.
"It's really amazing, Geoff visualised the whole thing and I would plant
around [the buildings]. I say that he makes the hardware and I do the
software."
From any angle, the house, despite its modern make and whiteness merges
well with the rustic panorama heavily influenced by Jenny's English
heritage and Geoff's love for New Zealand natives.
"It all came from nothing but I think that we play on a rustic charm that's
very appealing to people," Jenny muses.
Recycled old timber over 140 years old was used to fence off the land and
join the drystone walls near the orchard and haven retreat.
"This is very very old timber and it's got a nice rustic effect so it
doesn't look too contrived," she adds. "The man who did [the drystone
walls] was a Scottish guy who started his business from here and is now at
Scottish Stone Walls in Matakana. The stones came from Western Puoi so no
one else has those dry stone walls as the quarry closed down after that."
Geoff built the other rustic-looking features around the garden himself.
"He's made the gate raid, he built the wheelbarrow, so he is very talented
at building things. They don't have to be perfect but they look great."
Jenny wanted an ordinary garden shed adjacent to the walls to be a studio
for her but decided on a little cottage instead. On the right hand side of
the cabin, she planted an emblematic English garden as she remembered from
childhood memories and on the left, they made a fernery to represent Geoff
and his New Zealand background.
Their haven however, is not one for people only. The pair had taken their
animals - that is to say one dog, two cats, two mallard ducks, three
donkeys and four llamas - on when they moved in but by planting such a
diversity of plants and trees, they have ended up with a sanctuary that
some 42 species of birds are now calling home.
The country road linking the front entrance with the paddocks ends further
up to the boat shed on the creek where guests can watch the ducks and geese
which are now fed every afternoon, alongside pouter pigeons, ducks and
other native birds.
Three dovecotes around the garden also house nesting pairs, which make up a
lovely if not comical addition to the already poetic surroundings.
While the garden generally benefits from the birds' natural spreading of
seeds, the vegetable and fruit gardens, two recent additions, are fenced
off.
"We are starting to work towards being more eco-friendly and sustainable,"
Jenny says. "We recycle as much as we can, we use biodegradable and non-
toxic cleaning products and toiletries and are offering our guests a towel
and linen change agreement to reduce our water and energy use. We also buy
local produce and use local tradespeople where possible."
Sitting down in the haven retreat, Jenny looks outside contemplatively. "I
can now really get an appreciation for what we've created. Before we've
lived here but we've never really actually appreciated [our gardens]."
The merry couple is now making time to enjoy their bit of paradise as they
have never before.
"[Guests] just come to get away from everything and just relax, now it's
our turn."
- By Maina Perrot
Some newspaper articles
Published in the NZ Herald (National newspaper)
Rescued horses too sick to be kept alive
Friday Apr 04, 2008
Maina Perrot
A mare and her foal were among the horses found at the South Auckland
property.
Twenty-six of 31 starving horses the SPCA found at a South Auckland
property in one of its biggest rescue operations will be put down.
Four of the horses - two mares and two foals - were removed from the
property last Friday because they were in such a bad state they needed
immediate care, said inspector Vicki Border.
The others, aged up to 24 years old, were still at the property.
Staff from the SPCA were feeding and monitoring them daily but their
condition had deteriorated.
"It's a terrible situation because it was an avoidable situation," said Ms
Border.
She praised the public for their support of the ill-treated horses.
Now most of the animals will be put down.
A mare and her foal were among the first to have their agony ended last
night.
Ms Border said the local community had responded to calls for help on the
SPCA website by donating more than $200 and at least 10 big bags of feed.
Despite this, many of the animals had infections and were so unhealthy that
their internal organs have been affected.
Their owner, an elderly man who kept breeding more horses for racing, had
co-operated with the SPCA and signed papers enabling it to care for them
and find homes for them, Ms Border said.
SPCA general manager David Lloyd-Barker said no decision had been made yet
about whether to prosecute the owner.
A conference would be held soon to discuss the issue.
TVOne said last night that the man accused of letting his animals starve is
very old and is terminally ill with cancer.
Most of the horses will have to be put down because they are too wild to be
approached or handled.
The animals were hard to find because few people would have had access to
the property, said Ms Border.
She said that the SPCA had dealt with cases of one or two horses being ill-
treated before.
But this was by far the biggest crisis she had been involved with.
"It has definitely been a very tiring, stressful and emotional situation.
Very emotional."
Ms Border said the conditions the horses were found in were not uncommon
and she had seen cats, dogs and even guinea pigs in similar ones.
Many people were too proud to ask for help when they couldn't take care of
their animals any more, but others didn't even realise what they had done
wrong.
Ms Border said the progress of the horses being spared was encouraging but
it would take many months to ensure they were well enough to go to new
homes.
Recovering horses were usually given to responsible new owners in exchange
for a small donation.
Council's rodeo move condemned
Wednesday Jul 16, 2008
Maina Perrot
The Auckland City Council has banned rodeos. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today
The New Zealand Rodeo Association has condemned a decision to ban rodeos in
Auckland as unfair and undemocratic.
In a New Zealand first, the Auckland City Council has passed an animal
bylaw preventing rodeo events from being organised on its land.
The ban was decided after a submission from Save Animals From Exploitation
(Safe).
Gary Jackson, the New Zealand Rodeo Association's animal welfare spokesman
and former president, said the council had not consulted the association.
"We've never had any say at all. The fact that the council can take the
word of only one group of people involved is totally undemocratic."
He said the ban was "a joke" because the association had not held a rodeo
on Auckland City Council land since 1977.
But he did not want to see other councils following suit and was concerned
that the democratic process had not been followed.
Cathy Casey, one of the three councillors who heard the submission, said
the bylaw and motion were unanimously passed because of animal welfare
concerns. She said Safe presented a strong case and the ban showed the
council was against rodeos.
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"It's a different philosophy," she said. "I disagree we should use animals
as some means of entertainment."
Rodeo events are usually run on private land, when affiliated clubs invite
them to provide entertainment.
Hans Kriek, Safe's campaign director, welcomed the ban, saying the
organisation had been trying to stop rodeos in New Zealand for the past 20
years.
Mr Kriek said there was "little point" in consulting the New Zealand Rodeo
Association on its submission to the council because it had vastly
different views.
He hoped other councils would follow Auckland City Council's example.
Rodeos were "cruel on a lot of different levels" and involved stress to
animals.
"It sends really bad messages to families and children about how we should
treat animals," Mr Kriek said.
Mr Jackson, however, said rodeo animals were ridden only a few times a year
for seconds at a time, and for the rest of the year were left to graze.
Stock inspectors conducted regular visits and rodeos saved hundreds of
animals each year that would otherwise be killed.
In terms of violence to animals, "nothing could be further from the truth",
and it was a popular family activity.
Published in Te Waha Nui (Auckland University of Technology, National
Newspaper)
Ethical animal testing?
By Maina Perrot
Animal testing in New Zealand aims to improve the quality of our
agriculture and pest management.
It benefits our farmers and promotes animal welfare, says science and
technology general manager for AgResearch, Jimmy Suttie.
Animal research is mainly contributing to the pastoral industry as "New
Zealand depends strongly on meat and milk for exports", Dr Suttie says.
Some of the work done involves testing health treatments and vaccines'
efficiency as well as some husbandry procedures.
A New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) animal welfare consultant,
Virginia Williams, says animal testing in the agriculture sector is
essential in a country that is so dependent on agricultural products for
much of its income.
But Hans Kriek, SAFE campaign director, says the tests on animals are done
for "hard commercial purposes".
"In New Zealand we don't test household products or cosmetics but
agriculture is the main reason. They want cows to produce more milk."
National Distribution Union organiser Kali Sandbrook agrees animal research
is profitable for a number of people. "There are financial benefits so they
want to keep doing it...Money is usually the big factor."
Dave Morgan, chairman of the Animal Ethics Advisory Committee in
Christchurch, argues money is a natural reward companies get for developing
safe products.
He also says experiments such as genetic manipulation to increase animal
productivity are recent but necessary as our food stocks become rarer. "We
need to feed the world."
Other research using animals include the development of baits and traps to
improve the management of pests.
Rodents and possums are mostly used in such research. "New Zealand is one
of the best examples in the world of how pests are managed," Dr Morgan
says. "Our research is on animals that are judged as pests.
"I think there is an ethical cost in this type of work...We receive a great
deal of public support because pest animals need to be controlled."
But to activist Kali Sandbrook, the practice of animal testing remains
unjustified and is "cruel".
"I think that's torture, animals feel pain and they feel fear. Thousands of
animals die every year in New Zealand."
The National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee's 2006 annual report shows
nearly 320,000 animals were used compared to 263,214 in 2005.
According to the same report, possums were still being used in the
"severe" and "very severe" grades for the testing of new toxins and trap
designs.
However Dr Morgan says scientists respect animals. "There is a very caring
attitude towards animals...as an accredited reviewer for MAF I was very
impressed by the standards of researchers."
He is also convinced the regulation system in New Zealand is "one of the
best in the world".
An independent vet, an approved animal welfare organisation representative
and a member of the public are normally chosen to witness all experiments
to make sure they are ethically conducted.
But SAFE campaigner Mr Kriek says the details of the actual researches are
"not divulged". "As a society, we should be able to judge and they (the
researchers) don't want to say."
Dr Morgan agrees more transparency is needed. "Probably more could be done
and things are slowly changing."
Animal testing laboratories are usually not open to the public as
individual scientists are intimidated by animal rights activists and are
afraid of personal attacks, he says.
Companies, however, are expected to publish their results in journals and
magazines.
Dr Suttie says AgResearch is "very straightforward" about what it does. "We
are very open...We do research that benefits farmers and promotes animal
welfare."
In 2006, a MAF's national survey found that 68 per cent of New Zealanders
are comfortable with the idea of animal research.
Dr Suttie says AgResearch uses a lot of commercially farmed animals which
still end up at the slaughterhouse.
Ms Williams says many sheep were used in research last year but that most
of them were tested on the farm they were on. They were then left alone
until they had to be butchered. "I think it (animal testing) is more
justified than eating animals," she says.
Universities also use a lot of animals in medical research and for
teaching.
Dr Morgan thinks this is a good thing as it "shows there is a huge amount
of care taken so that the product is safe before being sold".
But Mr Kriek argues animal research is "not a very good" way to come up
with a cure for people. He says arsenic, for instance, is lethal for people
but doesn't kill a sheep.
Ms Sandbrook agrees and some people in the medical profession are starting
to recognise that animal testing is not relevant to humans.
There are alternatives that are much more effectives, she says. "We can
duplicate human cells."
Ms Williams says computer programs and blood cells studies now make it
possible to reduce the number of animals used in research.
Samples of unsubbed articles and features
By Maina Perrot
News stories (NZ Wilderness magazine)
Abel Tasman National Park to allow mountain bikers
Cyclists and outdoors enthusiasts will be able to enjoy the Abel Tasman
National Park from their mountain bikes from May this year.
The decision to allow mountain biking in the park came as the Abel Tasman
Management Plan was being reviewed.
The plan allows individual and groups of up to eight riders to access the
Gibbs Hill Track in the winter visitor season and the Moa Park Track, the
Rameka Track, the Wainui Track and in the Totaranui Campground all year
round.
Mountain biking tracks are also being developed in the Canaan Downs Scenic
Reserve.
Under the General Policy for National Parks 2005, mountain biking can only
occur in national parks on formed and concrete roads where vehicles are
permitted.
New Zealand Conservation Authority manager Catherine Tudhope said the only
national parks with mountain biking access on tracks are the Arthur's Pass
and now the Abel Tasman National Parks.
"This is because they are the only plans to have been reviewed since the
adoption of the general policies in 2005," Tudhope said.
Cyclists have been allowed to ride mountain bikes up the Poulter Valley in
Arthur's Pass National Park since December 2007.
Use of mountain bikes will be monitored during the two year trial period on
Gibbs Hill Track to ensure it doesn't have negative impacts on the
environment and on trampers.
Mountain Biking New Zealand Land Access Committee Chair Guy Wyn-Williams
said the Kahurangi National Park Management Plan is also being reviewed to
provide seasonal access for mountain bikes on the Heaphy and Flora Saddle-
Barron Flat tracks.
"Mountain biking is a backcountry activity enjoyed by many New Zealanders,
"he said. "Mountain bike parks and areas with purpose-built tracks have
tripled since 2001. We estimate there are currently 350,000 mountain bikers
in New Zealand."
New research on Ngauruhoe
New research on Mt Ngauruhoe shows up to 400 trampers on the Tongariro
Alpine Crossing would be blasted by super-heated rock and ash if the
mountain erupted.
Signs of volcano unrest in May 2006 prompted then Bachelor of Science
student Kim Martelli and other scientists to research the possible impacts
of an eruption on the Mangatepopo section of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
Her research focused on the pyroclastic flow - flows of hot ash, rock and
gas that comes out of the volcano's crater as a result of the collapse of
piled rock around the crater edge.
"During the summer there can be more than 400 people walking on this track
daily so a pyroclastic flow-forming eruption will present a serious hazard
to tourists tramping in the area," Martelli explained.
Through her research using a geophysical flow modelling programme called
Titan2D Martelli has also helped produce a pyroclastic flow hazard map for
Mt Ngauruhoe.
This map, currently held at Massey University Palmerston North, shows areas
that are likely to be affected by pyroclastic flows of up to a volume of
50,000m3.
"Hot, probably over 600 C flows, would travel rapidly, reaching the
Mangatepopo track within 90 seconds," Martelli said.
The last eruption of Mt Ngauruhoe occurred in 1975 and no one knows when it
could next erupt.
Last year, however, the volcano returned to a stable level with only a few
earthquakes per week compared to up to 80 in 2006.
"Volcanic risks need to be considered but most of the time it is not an
issue," Harry Keys from the Department of Conservation said. "We're aware
of it and if it gets more active we can warn people."
Though the chance of being caught in an eruption is considered small,
Martelli advised trampers to know how to save themselves.
"If there are any signs of an eruption move as quickly as possible down off
the mountain, stay on ridges, out of valleys and stay in safe areas (such
as the Mangatepopo Hut) until rescue parties arrive."
Beach Clean up
A couple of truckloads of rubbish that could have harmed the marine
wildlife have left Turakirae on Wellington's rugged south coast during a
beach-clean up in early March.
The Department of
Conservation staff removed a large amount of broken glass, tyres and
wheels, a bumper, pieces of metal, shoes, disposable nappies and fishing
line from this dynamic stretch of coastline, one of the world's most
important geological sites because of its sequence of five earthquake
raised beaches.
The clean-up was part of the Seaweek and New Zealand Geographical Society
president Professor Michael Crozier chose this day to explain why Turakirae
Head is one of the best localities in the world to understand how mountain
ranges are formed.
"The area yields two important pieces of
information," he said. "First, that mountains are not built by gradually
rising, as we once thought, but instead by a series of jumps. And we can
now measure the hazard presented by movement on the Wairarapa fault (the
one that caused the Great Wellington Earthquake) as the beaches give a
measure of the size and frequency of earthquakes."
Tourist Jamie Poe, from Chicago,
said she found it disturbing people would litter their own beaches. "It's a
beautiful place," she said. "Having a landfill next to the beach doesn't do
it much good. It surprises me that people don't take better care of these
areas."
New hut
Stretchy tent
Campers won't need to get frustrated when their tent don't get back into
their origibal bags anymore, thanks to an invention developed by a 12-year-
old Matamata school student.
Beth Hampton researched, developed, designed and, after two months, came up
with her own stretchy tent bag.
"I, along with a canoeing guide, family and friends trialled it," Beth
said. "They came back and loved it.
"One mum even wanted to order stretchy tent bags there and then."
Last year, the young camper enthusiast won an award at the Matamata
Intermediate Science and Technology Fair and then at Ingham's East Waikato
Science and Technology Fair.
Then her project was nominated for Realise the Dream and the now 13-year-
has just won the 2008 LIC (Livestock Improvement Corporation) Innovative
Solutions $2000 Award at The Royal Society of New Zealand and Genesis
Energy Realise The Dream Awards.
"Science and technology is fun and exciting and I encourage people to get
involved," Said Beth.
Each year thousands of students from around the country are nominated for
18 different Realise the Dream awards which celebrate and reward top
science and technology school students who represent our researchers of
tomorrow.
Whio booster
Four whio (blue duck) which were on display in Wairarapa earlier this year
will become part of the captive breeding flock to ensure the birds' long-
term survival.
Whio
are an endemic species only found in Urerewa, East Cape and North Island
central catchments and along the west coast of the South Island and are
classified as nationally endangered because of their rarity.
The ducklings hatched from four eggs
transferred from Whanganui to Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre
before Christmas. After time indoors, they were transferred to an enclosure
with rocks and flowing water mimicking the rapids they encounter out in the
wild.
Department of Conservation
(DoC) ranger Raelene Berry is excited about having the species back at
Pukaha Mount Bruce.
"Last summer the
ducklings were only held in the purpose built aviary for the 30 day
quarantine period prior to their release," she said. "This year we're
putting them outdoors at a younger age and it's a delight to watch them as
they develop their diving and swimming skills and grow."
The ducks have unique features
such as a streamlined head and large webbed feet that enable them to feed
in fast flowing water.
They are also good indicators
of river system health as they require clear and rocky, fast-flowing
streams and rivers with high water quality and diverse invertebrate
communities.
Ice breaking story
A massive ice shelf attached to the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula by
a narrow and quickly deteriorating ice bridge could break away soon.
Satellite images show the bridge that connects the Wilkins Ice Shelf to
Charcot and Latady Islands is close to collapsing, Tim Naish, the director
of the Antarctic Center at Victoria University of Wellington, said.
"It's looking really thin right now and cracks are developing in it so it's
likely it could go at any stage."
The Wilkins Ice Shelf, like the rest of Antarctica, was formed by thousands
of years of accumulated and compacted snow and had been stable for most of
the last century before it began retreating in the 1990s.
Originally covering about 13,000 square kilometres, it has lost 14 per cent
of its mass last year alone when large chunks of the ice bridge fell away,
chipping it down to just 900 metres across at its narrowest.
"When [the Wilkins Ice Shelf] goes, we will loose large areas of ice and
they will melt pretty quickly once they get into the Southern ocean," Naish
said.
The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced rapid warming, of about 2.5 degrees
in the last 50 years - an "amazing warming", he added.
"The ice shelves for us are the early warning systems and once the ice
shelves go we know we are in for bigger changes particularly in the ice
sheets and glaciers that are feeding the ice shelves."
When ice shelves break away, the glacier starts to flow faster into the
ocean and that is a concern because that's the ice that causes sea levels
to rise."
Space agencies, geologists and glaciologists, both at NASA and at the
British Antarctic Survey, are monitoring these changes everyday.
"We'll see more and more of this happening," Professor Naish said. "I think
by next summer the Antarctica Peninsula will look drastically different,
particularly once that ice bridge goes."
Profiles / short features (NZ Wilderness magazine)
While dreams are one thing, reality can be quite another, as David Kierser
realised on his first journey to frozen Greenland in the Arctic.
The 26-year-old man and his brother, Daniel, flew to Iceland and onto
Kulusuk in East Greenland in a personal and ambitious mission to study
polar bears and maybe head to the pole.
For six weeks (CHECK), the two men meandered through frozen fiords,
summited peaks and traversed glaciers (NAMES).
"It was just amazing," Kierser says. "We headed North on dog sleds, dropped
off on the pack ice and essentially cross-country skied our way back. We
were living in a tent and carried all supplies for the duration of the trip
- food and chocolate - while the gear was pulled on a pulk."
Kierser, a qualified medical doctor from the University of Otago who is
currently pursuing a career in surgery and his brother, currently working
in Singapour on carbon emission schemes, both share a deep love of the
outdoors nurtured by the years spent in the African bush where they
originally come from.
Instead of walking on burning sand, however, they had to make their way
through snow and melting water in bitter temperatures. "The scenery was
amazing, just so expansive and untouched," says Kierser. "We didn't end up
heading to the pole as planned but we explored the coast, tracked animals
and had visual goals."
They also had to quickly learn to appreciate the hardship of living in such
a place. "Everything was unexpected and every day bad and special things
happen," he adds. "Our food and equipment were stolen from one of our camps
early on in the expedition but we managed to ration and survive.
"We also got caught in two cyclones and had to knuckle down in our tent to
see it out. The temperature fell down to -40 C, winds reached 120kph and
over a metre of snow fell overnight."
The most challenging part for the two adventurers remained the melting sea
ice. "Most concerning was toward the end of the trip when the weather was
warming and we had snow. Now snow/freshwater freezes at 0 C whereas
seawater freezes at -4 C so the snow starts to melt the sea ice and when
you try to traverse it you get stuck in "slush" and which can rapidly take
on the characteristics of quicksand as you start to sink into the ice and
then through into the freezing arctic ocean below."
Adding to frostnip, windburn and a few scratches to that, and you get the
picture of what such an expedition must have been like. But determination
kept them going, and although animal life was sparse, they saw plenty of
Artic foxes and tarmigan and came across a few polar bears on dog sleds.
"We initially tracked polar bears on dogsleds but they were sadly shot by
Inuits, so we decided to limit our dog sledding tracking of polar bears as
we couldn't pay them enough to stop them from hunting," Kierser recounts.
"We opted for tracking the bears on foot instead."
Kierser, who has been working with the Department of Conservation since he
immigrated to New Zealand at the age of 13, has tracked bears in the
Rockies, lived in the outback of Australia, worked as a wildlife vet in
East Africa and worked for the George Adamson foundation on a black rhino
and wilddog relief programme.
Yet having worked in so many fields before didn't lessen the intensity of
his experience in the cold country.
"Inuit hunting is very unemotional," he says. "They seem to shoot anything
possible. It is certainly an emotional experience seeing a killed polar
bear, even more so being dragged along on the hunt of a pregnant female.
From the moment they tracked the bears on foot, the few sights of the
animals were more the result of chance encounter than real tracking. "In
the end all we could conclude is that to study polar bears you need to be
highly mobile and flexible, you need a lot more time than we permitted, to
realise that they are still hunted in East Greenland and understand the
complexity of the human-nature interface.
"It was a brilliant trip," Kierser says. "My brother got to choose this
time and Greenland was his decision so next year, we hope to see jaguars in
the Amazon."
Uni-cycle challenge
[Text]
While some people find it challenging enough to climb up Mt Taranaki, some
like Ben Sarten like to push their limit further still, strapping a
unicycle to their back and riding down the rocky slopes from the very top
for instance.
A young man with stamina, determination and now doing his diploma in
outdoor pursuits at Whitirea Polytechnic to back up his years of experience
with a qualification, Ben Sarten had first climbed Mt Taranaki when he was
13 and this is the second time he has done the 5.46km trip to the North
Rodge track taking a unicycle with him.
"When I was 13 my parents bought a unicycle for all the kids in my family
for Christmas," the 24-year-old says. "A couple of years later I saw a
report on the news about a guy called Kris Holm riding around on huge
mountain bike tracks in Canada and it inspired me to try some slightly more
crazy things, like jumping off the deck and riding off-road."
Sarten and childhood friend Will Skenars made their way up the 2518m
mountain and used their unicycle riding down most of the time though they
also traveled on foot in some parts of the treck for their own safety.
Both riders had a first aid certificate, wore helmet, padding, gloves,
ankle, wrist and knee guards. "We took all the precautions we could ...and
were constantly aware of the elements," Sarten says.
Part of his elation comes from the trill of riding such a unique and simple
machine over all sorts of difficult kinds of terrain and obstacles.
"Well that, and getting to see the looks on peoples faces when they see you
doing something that they thought was impossible," he adds. "Another thing
that makes me do it is the sense of achievement that I get from conquering
mountains on a unicycle that some people struggle to conquer on foot."
Sarten came in second equal in New Zealand for unicycle trials at the New
Zealand unicycle champs 2009 and is currently training to compete in the
unicycling world champs (UNICON) coming to Wellington on the 27th of
December.
His enthusiasm for the outdoors started from a young age, being raised on a
farm in New Plymouth with a father who was a part-time outdoor instructor
and was further concretised after doing an Outward Bound course, working
for the YMCA conservation corps, doing a YMCA adventure tourism course and
now completing his diploma at Whitirea Polytechnic.
Course buddy Nick Ballentyne was also part of the trip and filmed the two
riders' multiple feats along the way.
They hope to release the film as a short DVD to be distributed over the
internet.
"If it inspires people to take up unicycling, or encourages unicyclist to
push their boundaries then that's awesome.
It is an amazing sport and the more people that try it the better."
To Sarten, unicycling is a great way to have fun in a sustainable and
practical way. "The most important thing to me is enjoying myself without
damaging the environment, other people or myself."
When he is not off the beaten track unicycling or studying, Sarten is
planning his next adventure. He and a friend are waiting for the next
summit season to ride down four major peaks in the north island (Ruapehu,
Tongariro, Ngaruahoe and Taranaki) in five days.
For now he hopes to do well in both the downhill race and the trials
competition, two of several competitions he will take part in during the
UNICON. "Competing against the best riders in the world is going to be a
pretty big challenge," Sarten says. "I'll see how I go and hope for the
best."
Features (NZ Wilderness magazine)
Wild crimes
As the leaves start to turn red, the weather gets colder and the sun sets
earlier, New Zealand endemic birds and reptiles are busy preparing shelters
for the coming winter. But wildlife criminals are also getting to work all
around the country. Young Geckos (Naultinus and Hoplodactylus), Tuatara,
Weta and native parrots' eggs are easy targets for collectors and those
involved in the international pet market. Further South on the West Coast,
orchids and ferns are being picked up. In the Central North Island, some of
locals are unlawfully cutting and selling indigenous (rimu) timber and
kwila/merbau, two of the most expensive types of trees on the market. In
the Abel Tasman National Park, the Department of Conservation (DoC) has
discovered unauthorized walking parties and is currently monitoring illegal
activities. But all this may be just a glimpse of what is actually going
on.
New Zealand authorities are concerned by the increasing cross-over between
mainstream criminal activities and wildlife crimes. Globally, wildlife
smuggling is a multi-billion dollar business estimated between US$5 and up
to $10 billion annually and third only to drug and weapons trafficking.
Since 1993, the New Zealand Wildlife Enforcement Group (WEG), a combination
of three agencies (Department of Conservation, Ministry of Agriculture and
NZ Custom Services), has been proactively investigating and fighting
against organised wildlife smuggling groups, both here within New Zealand
and off-shore. Senior Investigator and WEG's Custom Services representative
Colin Hitchcock says: "Globally it's a huge business. We're on the small
end of the scale, obviously, but our geographical location makes us
important for the smuggling routes."
Birds, especially parrots (Psciticine), reptiles as well as plants like our
ferns and orchids are highly priced on the international black market. "We
may only get 20 per cent of what comes and goes and the people who are
responsible for the illegal trade aren't about to tell us how successful
they have or they haven't been," Hitchcock adds.
Through work in Europe and in New Zealand, WEG has helped slow down the
trade a bit. "But I can't ever tell anyone that we'll be able to prevent
it," he says. "There are too many gateways out of New Zealand and there are
many mediums in which reptiles in particular can be exported. You can go
from a traditional smuggler that carries something on their body to luggage
and to the post." Reptiles are cold-blooded creatures able to slow down
their metabolism which means they can survive a trip in your pants or in
tight envelop unless they overheat. But live birds have often died in the
process so smugglers generally tend to wrap the eggs around their body or
hide them in special vests as they start their incubation period. The body
acts as and must remain the incubator until they hatch. But this can be
risky as there is no telling how long this will take. Once, a bird egg
hatched on a plane and the smuggler flushed it through the toilets to avoid
being discovered, Hitchcock recalls. Later, another egg hatched on the
man's chest while he was being interrogated by Customs.
Over the years many people have been charged with smuggling animals and
plants.
In 2000, a 61-year-old British man was jailed for more than two years for
smuggling two Lear's macaws to the UK. The birds then were some of the last
140 on the planet. In 2004 two Czech botanists were arrested after trying
to smuggle more than a hundred orchids they had picked up from a national
park in the South Island. In 2007, South African national Pillipus Fourie,
21, was discovered with forty-four Eclectus parrot eggs hidden in special
compartments in an under-the-clothes vest as he arrived in New Zealand.
That same year, in Australia, Pascal Rene Della Zuana was arrested at the
Customs for attempting to smuggle 23 exotic bird eggs, including macaws,
African grey, parrots and the threatened Moluccan cockatoo. He was fined
$10,000 and sentenced to two years in prison.
Yet, every day customs services are faced with thousands of more parcels
and hundreds of thousands of passengers to keep an eye on and they can't
succeed everywhere, Hitchcock says. Even though the controls are much
tighter when people arrive, x-ray machines are "only here to control what's
in the luggage, not what's on the body".
In New Zealand, all parrots including cockatoos and macaws are listed under
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES), an international agreement between governments ensuring
the international trade in wild animal and plant species does not threaten
their survival. Maximum penalty for CITES species is of three years
imprisonment and $50,000 fine and up to five years imprisonment and
$100,000 fine for the most serious cases. For species which are not
protected by CITES but are protected by our local legislation there's also
a prison term of six months and $100,000 fine. "So the penalties are quite
good," Hitchcock states.
But what cannot be accounted for are the possible biosecurity and public
health issues resulting from the importation of species, MAF's Wildlife
Enforcement Group representative Ann Panoho says. For now, New Zealand is
still regarded as nice, clean and green but this could change if the
Newcastle's disease present in Australian wild bird populations, for
example, reached New Zealand. "The illegal importation of wildlife to New
Zealand runs the considerable risk of introducing pests and diseases to
this country that could affect our primary industries, or our precious
native flora and fauna."
A main reason why New Zealand is so attractive to smugglers is because it
allows the legal export of exotic species, which leads smugglers to use the
country as a laundering machine. "If you can smuggle your species into New
Zealand, one or two breeding seasons down the track, you can put it up for
legal export," Hitchcock explains. "You'll be given a permit and away it
will go. Then you can legally carry on with the trade from here to Europe
and Asia in particular." And the practice is extremely popular with
wildlife traffickers in countries where laws are more flexible, says Marian
Grant, of the Australian Custom Service in a statement.
The United Nation University
has just started putting together data and analysis on wildlife crimes to
put an exact value on the global illegal trade which some estimate could
reach up to $20 billion per annum. But no one knows what wildlife smuggling
in New Zealand is worth exactly. This means it is even harder to know how
big the less obvious, yet no less significant, trade of seeds and plants
is. These are usually placed between sheets of newspapers tightly pressed
together and some orchids have also been discovered in camping pots, with
tissue or toilet paper around it to keep them moist. Maximum penalty for
illegally importing or exporting plants is up to five years imprisonment
and $100,000 fines.
But while wildlife smuggling in New Zealand is mainly done by people coming
from other countries, trees like indigenous (rimu) timber, our famous kauri
and smooth kwila or merbau are still harvested, transported, bought and
sold illicitly by New Zealanders. Regional southland manager for the
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Alan Tinelly, says illegal
logging is fairly common in New Zealand and was addressed first in the
early 1990s. "It's has always been around and is not very common but we
keep close eye on it," he says.
In 2004, West Coast farmer Michael Kevin Milne was convicted of illegally
milling rimu from his land and procuring some to John Richard Groome and
company Kaiapoi Contractors Ltd which was also fined. According to the
Forests Act, you need to get a permit to be able to mill native timber on
privately owned land and all sawmills used for milling native timber must
also be registered with the Indigenous Forestry Unit (IFU). "Harvesting and
milling indigenous timber without the appropriate consent, or beyond the
conditions of a consent, threatens the sustainability of New Zealand's
private indigenous forests," MAFs IFU manager Robert Miller said at the
time.
As well as having considerable environmental impacts, illegal logging can
have dramatic economic consequences. Studies show that total elimination of
illegal logging generally means the price and production of wood products
increases in almost all countries without suspicious harvests. Suppliers of
timber and wood products can play a critical part in helping to address
illegal logging by supplying only those timber and wood products that are
from legally harvested forests. New Zealanders can also make sure they buy
legally produced and sustainable products.
In National Parks too, the community can help tackling another form of
illegal activities. The Department of Conservation try to use parks in a
sustainable way through regulating commercial activities there. DoC Motueka
area manager Martin Rodd says so far this summer they have had about five
instances of illegal commercial activities in the Abel Tasman National
Park. "We're pleased with what we've found so far," he says. "It's a pretty
busy park."
In addition to the rangers patrolling the park at all time the
department is also doing a walkthrough.
"We run a 7 day roster for the park during the summer season where we're
basically putting someone on the track to walk through and talk to people,"
Rodd states. "Authorised guides will have professional ID badges so it's
pretty clear if they're authorised operators. If our investigators are
being guided and the operator doesn't have those IDs then we're taking
their details and follow that up."
Last December, two companies were caught guiding groups without the
required papers and concessions. It is not hard for them to apply for the
one-off permit or longer term concessions required but the number of
concessions is already fully allocated in the newly released Management
Plan. "What that means is overseas companies can, and should, put their
clients with companies that are already guiding in the parks," Rodd says.
But some still don't. Similar activities are recorded throughout the
country and as far as Invercargill, which had "pretty bad non compliancy
for a while but certainly got tightened up on".
Rodd continues: "We are confident the amount of authorised uses in that
park in fully sustainable but if illegal activities operate above that,
then you're starting to push the boundaries and put the park at risk." The
most recent case was that of children being guided through the park as part
of a holiday programme. "The operator was illegally charging for that,"
Rodd says. "This really concerns me when I see people guiding without the
necessary skills. They are putting people at risk." Rangers are also
monitoring for dogs in the park, wildlife disturbance or people fishing in
the Tonga Island Marine Reserve and illegal fires. "We've had a person who
lit up a camp fire and the rangers explained to them that they can't light
fires and put the fire out," Rodd recalls. "Then they went straight back to
their duty and when they came back they saw that the fire has been relit
and this person has lit the same fire again."
Not only rangers but also trampers and local visitors are also helping
stopping such disturbing activities in their parks. "They see people being
guided and they think or they don't have their ID badge so they're taking
details and getting back to us which has been really helpful," says Rodd.
For their part, DoC, CITES and other wildlife and conservation
organisations remain alert all possible illegal activities. "We don't have
instances of wildlife smuggling but it's definitely an issue and it's
something we are aware that can happen," Rodd adds. "We'll keep monitoring
while the people are around and it can goes right into April if we have
fairly good numbers. And so we'll just keep an eye on them." The depth and
density of New Zealand outdoors are no obstacles and illegal activities
still are an ever-present, and probably growing, threat to species of
plants, birds, trees and to the tourism industry.
Features: gardens, landscapes, profiles (alfresco magazine)
Tim Holman
Sculpting is to Tim Holman what seeds are to flowers. It starts with the
pleasure of digging clay from the earth with his own hands, transporting it
to his workplace where he then moulds and transforms it into an artistic
piece, ready to bloom on its own.
Holman uses the art to express his passion and closeness to the natural
world and sometimes lets the environing energies guide him in the process.
A child of the 1970s from South East England, he had always loved drawing
until he discovered he could make three dimensional objects out of stickey
tape, glue and boxes. "I always preferred making toys out of whatever was
around," he says.
The 38-year-old man studied design in England after being told he would
"never make a living as an artist" and ended up travelling to New Zealand
in 2001 where he found that was where he wanted to settle. He shared a
studio with a potter from Driving Creek Railway and Potteries in the
Coromandel for a while and quickly found himself with a bin full of clay
and time to play. "I was a bit rusty but after a half hour lesson brushing
up my techniques I was off." In 2003 he got his own studio in the area and
has been working almost full time as a sculptor since then.
"I was always aware of the beauty of the natural world but when you are in
a different place living a different life, our natural environment is
easily overlooked," he says.
The intuitive artist gets inspiration from his sustainable way of life and
all that surrounds him, including the flowers, seeds, buds fruits and
vegetables growing in his garden. "I think I am nearing the end of my
courgette phase of my work," he adds seriously.
When sculpting, Holman likes to use his own means. "I feel that energy put
into a thing is reflected in it and it's a pleasure to work with my own
clay," he says. "When I dig clay I can see where it comes from, choose to
dig from a certain seam and be careful what goes in it."
He usually starts a piece with the base of a shape he favours, like flower
bulbs. But while he usually has an idea of what he wants to make, as he
coils build and the form grows, it often evolves into something else,
sometimes intentionally or unintentionally.
"If I am really set on making what I originally conceived it can be a trial
to steer the form to my want," he says. "Sometimes it is best to go with
the flow and let it evolve with my assistance."
He recalls a piece he was working on recently and which he didn't like. "I
had lost my way with it and the clay was going to hard. A chance discovery
of a lost tool while I was procrastinating re-enthused me and now it is one
of my favourite pieces."
Even when a work is commissioned, Holman will still let his intuition drive
him. "I listen to hear what people like about my work and if I agree then I
may let it influence my work but otherwise I please myself and hope others
will see the purity of my intention."
One image in a National Geographic magazine article on Tepuis in Venezuela
he read has left him with a fascination for the pitcher plant form that
just keeps coming back. "The flowers, pods, buds I sculpt are about
potential being held safe until it is ready to be released," he says.
"Curves are also far more pleasing than straight lines, to touch and see."
He takes everything that comes with his 'medium' and nothing makes it
imperfect, quite the contrary. "When a stone bubbles out of the clay during
firing and leaves a mark on a sculpture people say 'what a shame that
carbuncle happened'. I say that it's special and unique and it's a little
bit of the environment from which the clay was dug, untamed."
Terracotta is also porous and when placed into the garden, invites things
like moss, ferns and lichen to grow on it. "This environmental decoration
is dynamically arranged on the form by the organisms themselves and is the
most beautiful thing about the sculpture," Holman explains.
To sculpt in the clay, he mainly uses kitchen utensils from op-shops or old
well used home-made native wooden spoons and enjoys adding natural elements
to give life to his sculptures. "Evolutionary engineering is perfect," he
says. "I like to play with my work using light water or smoke to animate
it. A static sculpture can be transformed by the placement of a single
candle."
The inquisitive artist also creates other sustainable sculptures of gates
and braziers out of recycled steel "Reusing units of waste that are already
in existence and making them into interesting useful things with the
minimum of intervention," he says.
So far, his work has won several awards at the Waiheke Ceramics Award,
Waiclay and the Portage Ceramics Awards. At the last Ellerslie Flower Show
to be held in Auckland he's sculptures also featured in two award winning
gardens. He is looking forward to his night time exhibition on May 25 and
featuring in the Great Coromandel Art Tours. "When I sculpt, I feel alive,
connected, a part of the bigger picture," he smiles. "I'm living my dream
as best as I can."
For more details on the night exhibition, see www.timholman.com
Andrew Barrowcliff's seaside resort
An ideal property on an east coast beach is one where the owners can feel
on holiday every day. While constructing it is one thing, transforming an
idle driveway into a relaxed and entertaining useable area is another. But
that was Andrew Barrowcliffe's work.
Tim and Pam's garden surrounded by mature Pohutukawa and head high flax did
not allow for the full enjoyment of their unique waterfront location and of
the daily sun. They wanted a private area, shielding them from the public
walking close by and neighbours without taking away their stunning sea
view.
They also needed place for a portable barbecue, the table and chairs, a
fire pit, and wanted to keep an old, seafarer's theme, including their own
wharf. Their idea was that of a private landscape that merges with the
surrounding costal environment and retains a weathered natural look was
their dearest wish.
Auckland based landscape designer Andrew Barrowcliffe of Earth in Design
Ltd, quickly found the inspiration to redesign the property. "I felt really
comfortable about designing and working on this project as it is a garden I
would love to own too," he says. " I also liked the compact nature of the
site as it required careful management of usable space."
He enjoyed working closely with the owners and together they quickly came
up with various outdoor areas in the form of a boardwalk, multi-levelled
decks wharf, a boathouse fa ade fence and a metal gas fire pit.
Through the years spent living abroad and photographing garden temples and
Japanese gardens, Barrowcliffe has come to deeply understand and respect
the subtle rules in garden landscaping.
"It was hard to achieve the right balance of rustic old charm," he recalls.
"But the most challenging was the layout. Fitting in an entertaining deck,
a fireplace and a wharf took a bit of fiddling around."
But Barrowcliffe says he was enticed by the enthusiasm, knowledge and
willingness of the owners who communicated well with him and helped locate
the right timber for the boathouse fa ade doors and old Totara fence posts.
"This took a bit of hunting to get one with old detail and flaking paint to
really conjure up the nostalgia of fishing trips of yesteryear,"
Barrowcliffe says. "Not to mention getting hold of the 1960's dingy which
has been restored to withstand the prevailing winds that sweep in onto the
beachfront."
Large quarry boulders now replace the previous steps, reducing clutter and
adding an earthly element. Cedar and weathered materials used for fencing
also enhance privacy and subtly introduce the boathouse behind the
entertaining and realistic dock.
Natural lighting flows naturally during the day and at night, artificial
lights seem to make the deck float above the emerald green grass below.
"The classic light above the boathouse doors really gives it that sharp
down light so reminiscent of the boathouses of old," Barrowcliffe says.
The fireplace, with its clear, strong lines, adds a sculptural element to
the area and is very well proportioned to its surroundings.
Tim and Pam, and sometimes Barrowbliffe himself and his wife, can now swing
their legs off the wharf near the fire, a glass of wine in hand and enjoy
the view of the ocean nearby while listening to the waves roll in. "I'm
very happy with the result," he smiles. "Our mantra is 'creating what you
feel, designing what you need' and I feel we hit the nail on the head with
this one."
Karen Weallean's secret garden
An early winter morning, as Karen Wealleans was turning off an ordinary
suburban street on the North Shore to visit her new clients, she felt she
was entering another world.
Ann and Don's unique house in its 1970s style stood alone, surrounded by
mature native bush where birds could be heard singing.
She met the couple who were delighted with their completed house
renovations and the site on which it was built, but whose excitement had
not extended to the existing garden.
"A brown clinker brick barbecue dominated the pool area, the decking was
deteriorating and there was no comfortable place to lounge," Wealleans
says.
The main access deck was a jumble of balustrade and pool fencing with steep
steps leading down to the pool. The lawn was difficult to mow, being
uneven, sloping and shady.
The couple wanted a garden where they could enjoy tranquillity of the
generally sunny outdoor areas as well as grow their own vegetables and
fruits so Wealleans came to the rescue.
"Solutions to these garden challenges became clearer after I had completed
a detailed site survey and thought it through," Wealleans says. "A lot of
ideas went back and forth until we were all happy with the final design."
Ann and Don wanted their natural environment to remain and wanted to keep
it quiet.
This was what Wealleans had in mind from the start and she and the owners
ended up getting on very well.
The pool area was re-designed to allow for more lounging space directly
around the pool. Paved areas, from pebble aggregate concrete, were
increased and a circular seat installed. The steps between deck and pool
now have wider treads and a landing in the middle, making a much more
gentle transition.
The balustrade was also removed, a planter box added and changes to the
pool fencing mean the area looks more open and inviting. Vegetables,
blueberries and citrus have been planted in new raised areas.
"The lawn area behind the pool was removed and replanted with New Zealand
native plants found naturally in the area," Wealleans adds.
The pool fence garden was also planted with native shrubs. "They will in
time break up the lines of the fence completely but they are too fragile to
be used as climbing aids over the fence," Wealleans says.
A flat courtyard and a winding path that maintains access were constructed
instead of the steep driveway. The lawn on the Northern side of the pool
fence was also upgraded and hydro mulched with lawn seed.
"It has created a very lush green lawn which provides a perfect back drop
to the mature bush beyond," Wealleans points out. "I'm really happy with
the way the garden has come up.
"The owners were great, we had the same philosophy and six months on, plant
growth is phenomenal, the pool area is being used and enjoyed, maintenance
is reduced and fresh veges are always on the table."
Coatesville property
When Nannetter and Logan Cadwallader bought a dead block at the top of
Coatesville, they had no idea what they would end up with - but they were
determined and put all their heart into creating a unique family home.
The result is an extra modern yet minimalistic property at the center of
five acres of land with superb 90 degree angle views of Coatesville and its
surroundings.
Both the 410sqm house and the one acre garden have clean lines that create
a subtle division between the landscape, enabling an incredible and natural
indoor-outdoor flow throughout the whole place.
Cora Lawton of Creative Nature Limited, an award winning designer of seven
years, almost immediately knew what sort of garden the Cadwalladers were
looking for and gave life to it.
"After meeting with Nannette for the first time I got an understanding for
the outdoor space she desired," she says. "I kept to the minimalistic theme
with the clean lines.
"To do so, we stuck to a few varieties of plants. All plants were selected
for their tolerance to the conditions and their carefree nature, not
requiring much maintenance."
Grisselinia littoralis, Corokia 'Frosted Chocolate' heges, Butia capitata,
Queen Palms Cycas revolute, Trachelospermum jasminiodes, Phormium 'Surfer'
and Phormium 'Bronze Baby' all embellish the garden and are great for the
entertaining.
All four outdoor areas (the pool, the entertaining space under the pergola,
the fireplace and the children area) are linked together and are virtually
maintenance free.
"Cora did a wonderful job, I really like it," Nannette says. "I was very
impressed with the clean cut outside look.
The house itself has been entirely designed by Nannette and Logan from a
plan some friends had offered them.
"It's such a modern house and the areas flow into each other. It's really
neat and tidy," she adds.
Flowing out from the bifold doors, charcoal coloured concrete that is cut
to resemble the tiles inside is wrapped around the house.
A few pads within the lawn lead you off the concrete and down to the fresh
water pool area that sinks into the ground and is surrounded with a glass
pool fence (supplied by Euro Glass) to capture 90 degree angle views.
"We've got full views from pretty much every room in the house," the mother-
at-home says.
"I cut down about a hundred trees that were on the boundaries of the
property and we actually had no idea what the view was going to be like
when they were cut down."
"For us it was like peeling back a gold wrapping off a candy bar. The real
estate agent who sold us this property was completely shocked," Nannette
laughs.
"It was quite exciting so we really gained something without realizing how
lucky we were and what the view was going to be like."
The children play area encompasses a tramp sunken into the ground which
doesn't impose on the landscape, making it a feature instead of an eyesaw.
This area is parted from the driveway with a railway sleeper retaining wall
and Corokia hedge.
"The whole idea I love about this home is really the indoor-outdoor flow.
On a beautiful day the kids can run from one end of the house to the other,
it's really wonderful."
The pastel beige coloured timber framed house and its fully meshed plaster
system with a float finish is solidly built and well insulated, with a
191sqmetre area of underfloor heating.
"It's a great lifestyle for raising our family," Nannette adds.
"The house is really warm and comfortable in all seasons. I love the
plaster look, it's safe and I know it's not going to leak," she grins.
"It's been a wonderful home and a great piece of land to own," Nannette
recalls. "It's very easy to look after."
"I also love the fact that you've got your own space, no one is imposing on
you and that it is only 15 minutes from Albany shops and facilities."
The rest of the five acres is occupied by six paddocks and an arena where
Nannette rides her two horses, Ben and Zen.
Nannette and Logan both grew up on a farm and are a very sporty couple.
But for now, Nannette is busy playing with her two young children and two
black Labrador dogs all while preparing for her new little girl's smooth
arrival.
After almost three years living there, Nannette and Logan would like to
start over again.
"We've decided to look at doing it again as a project for us, it's pretty
exciting. But we definitely want to stay in the Coatesville area."
A hedgy story
The boundaries of our garden are as important as the garden itself and what
do better the job than hedgerows?
For centuries, natural hedges, constructed of thorns and sharpened branches
have been used by hunt-gatherers and later farmers as a protection from
attack and to keep animals in or out of their boundaries.
Around Roman times, the idea of man-planted and controlled hedgerows
emerged.
In the mid 18th century, the Enclosures Act prompted a great spurt in
hedge planting in Europe and around the English Midlands. During the World
War II, many have been removed to enlarge fields but now many are being
replanted, as their benefits are clearer.
As well as separating the
land and providing stock and crops with shelter from the wind and rain,
hedges prevent erosion and provide food, roosting sites or shelter for many
bird species, insects and other invertebrates which, in turn, help control
insect pests and preserve your flora.
In New Zealand, the temperate climate allows the use of many plants
from the native pittosporum, akeake and corokias to camellias, michelia,
holly and more thorny bushes.
Hedges
are handy, whether you live in a house or an apartment, in urban or rural
areas. Slow-moving, low hedges can be purely aesthetic, others more hardy
and taller plants will enhance privacy or attract the wildlife while thorny
ones will discourage any unwanted visitors.
They do take a long time to grow but are generally
cost-effective compared to fences and wooden walls which are expensive to
build.
And now, nurseries such as Twining Valley Nurseries in
Mangatawhiri are growing and selling them by the metre. Andrew Bowman, who
has come up with an overall system to create the instant hedging product,
and his wife Lisa, says hedges have been around for centuries and fell out
of fashion, but are now making a come back.
"You don't put them in because you don't want to wait three or four years
to get the privacy or look you're after but we offer the solution," he
said. "Now you can enjoy established hedging that looks like you planted it
years ago."
Their hedges are available to your landscaper in a wide range of varieties
and three standard sizes including 250mm high buxus and corokia hedges,
which can be used to embellish gardens or pathways and are the classic
frame for vegetable beds, 900mm high camellia, corokia and griselinia
hedges, useful if you to set reasonable boundaries between you and friendly
neighbour, and 1.8m syzygium, griselinia and michelia hedges, which are
good winbreaks, ideals refuges for birds and effective barriers to unwanted
views.
Depending on the weather, more hardy plants will make better
hedges. Pittosporum and Bay leaves will stand the coastal weather, wind,
sun and are cold hardy. For hedges with a native touch, New Zealand's
totora and matapouri blue are beautiful hedges of unique architectural
shapes.
Some hedges change according to the seasons and will gain a rich chocolate
or chestnut colouration, others intensify in cold weather or, like camelia
and holly, bloom in winter. "The advantage of hedges is that they keep
changing throughout the year, which is what I like," Bowman adds. "They
look quite attractive, can be spectacular boundaries and have amazing
abilities.
"Your garden can be messy but if the hedges are being cared for, it all
seems in order." Fruits on
hedges also catch the eyes and delicious treats for the whole family.
Twining Valley Nurseries has started growing mandarin hedges and plan to
try growing fejioa and other berries in the near future. Most hedges are
low-maintenance, requiring trimming only twice a year. They can be cut in a
square, triangle or round-shaped. For best results however, trim your
hedges slightly more at the top and they will grow faster and be healthier.
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