In late 2020, I think a lot of us were feeling it; the urge to get out and move on from the restraints of COVID lockdowns and all the associated concerns.

In the last week of August, a large group of Wellingtonians made the pilgrimage across to the Bay and, along with some locals, let loose their pent-up energy to plant 1,200 trees over two quite different sites.

It was a wild time planting 200 native trees down the exposed spur. We planted: flax, puahou (five finger), akeake, kānuka, kāpuka and kōhūhū. We’ll be monitoring this site with great interest, and any species that survive the challenging conditions of the area – and particularly those that flourish – we’ll be looking to plant more of in future. So, the word is out; start growing now!

Thanks to Bevan and Gera and Chris and Bob from Nelson; Geoff, Maryann, Marilyn, Jeff, Bronnie, Richard, Nicole, Jonathan and the ‘cool hats backpackers’ for their awesome efforts scrambling all over this site.

The next site to be planted was a big area near the connector track, which avoids a bit of road section for the historic track at the top of the project. This sits about 450 m above sea level and faces east. The bulk of the plants went into this site. The planters involved in blitzing this large area included Amy Thornborrow, Phil Castle, Ricky and Corina Ward and Paul Kilgour of Golden Bay; Helen, Jeff, Marilyn, Bronnie, Nicole, Richard, Geoff, Jonathan, Terry, Merryn, Ann-Louise, Evan, Stuart, Rick, Winnie, John and Andrew of Wellington. Here are a few pics of the team in action …

I am now sitting in my lounge, as most others in New Zealand are also in theirs, remembering the wonderful summer I had, which included a quick trip to the Rameka Carbon Forest project. At last, I have a little time to share a few photos of the amazing bird life that exists there. First of all, this is because of the hard work and generosity of so many individuals who came together to buy, build and maintain the project. There are already many great blog posts on these topics, so I’ll just add one brief thank you to all the pest control volunteers, currently Fil, Albie and Paul for providing a safe haven for the birds.

A remarkable thing about Rameka is that the bird species are so different from my home in Wellington. A visit to Golden Bay fills a gap in the bird life I don’t get to see regularly. This includes korimako (bellbird), kea and weka. Also, there are the usual friendly piwakawaka, melodious tui, and cheerful tauhou (silvereye) that we also see regularly at home across the strait in Wellington.

As always, we were greeted by the local weka when we arrived at the Lorax Lair.

As common as they are, the piwakawaka are so delightful to have following you around.

We were lucky to wake up to korimako singing every morning. They were making the most of the rata and flax flowers that were still in bloom towards the end of January.

A group of three keas visited the treetops surrounding the lair a few times during our stay We are so lucky to have one of the rarest and most intelligent species in the world living close to the project. Here’s a link to a video of one having fun with one of our traps. I think we need to set up a parrot playground to keep them entertained.

Stay safe everyone!