CVNZ Week 4 - Monday 12th May - Friday 16th May - Waipoua Forest

We left the vol house for the last time early on Monday morning again, this time heading for Waipoua Forest (about 200km north-west of Auckland, near a small town called Dargeville) with Glenn, our leader for the week. We spent the week at a basic lodge called the McGregor Centre, complete with a freezer full of dead Possums! On arrival it appeared the water pump had been ripped out and stolen, so we had to stay at the park rangers house just down the road. This was our first opportunity to meet the somewhat of a local celebrity Ranger ecologist - Steven King. A real defender of the forest, Steven is quite a character - he patrols the forest wearing nothing on his feet, adding to his hobbit-like looks! He has spent most of his life converting farmland back into native Kauri Forest and eliminating pests such as Possums brought in from abroad.

On Tuesday, our first full day of work, we helped to clear a section of bush of Australian Privet, an annoying weed which takes over native Manuka forest.

On Wednesday we were given the opportunity to visit the famously huge Kauri trees - famous across New Zealand for their size and relationship with the Maori people. Some of these trees are around 15m in diamter and supported a huge logging trade throughout the last century.

Thursday morning was spent weeding a section of native bush again, but in the afternoon we were given a bit of a treat in that we were involved in a documenary on climate change for Maori Television (a station with a reasonable audience here in NZ). The crew were bascially at Waipoua to film Steven preeching about his plans to restore the forest and help the environment, and a few of us volunteers were filmed planting a new Kauri tree!!

Spending a week with the Kauri trees and Steven King made our month working for CVNZ seem thoroughly worthwhile as he was a very inspiring person to work with. To see the work he had carried out in the Waipoua area in the last 30 years made us realise that as individuals we can really make a difference to the environment.