An Estuary Bus Inspection Tour

Early April we joined a bus tour. This was for interested people and to bring them up to date on what was happening, conservation wise, around the Waimea Inlet. It was an all day trip with regular stops and different speakers, either on the bus or we met them at different locations. There are a number of different groups and individuals working away either in trapping pests or in plant restoration projects around the inlet and this was a way to get together, hear of what others are doing, their problems and such like.

The estuary is about 3455 hectares, has ten islands and an internal coastline of around 65 kilometres. They say there are 22 streams that flow into it, so all in all it’s not surprising that 50 bird species and 41 species of fish are found here. Unfortunately, a lot of damage has been done by humans over the years but hopefully the work going on now, and mostly by volunteers, will help restore things to be something like nature intended.

The last ‘port of call’ was at a primary school project at Mapua. They are helping restore an area of marshland and some of the children even escorted us around describing what they had been doing. Their knowledge was quite impressive and I hope they will keep this interest going later in life too.

When in Doubt – Turn Left

Nurses Home

Some days later we headed off in the campervan with the intention of going deeper south but changed our minds when the weather turned from nice clear days to drizzle and it was reported that there was heavier rain to come. So instead of a deeper jaunt, we turned left and headed for Hanmer Springs. Wandering about the alpine village, we walked around the old hospital buildings. It looked as if some attempt is being made to preserve these old historic buildings but it was sad to see the neglect. The Soldiers’ Block (1916), the Queen Mary Hospital (1916 – 2003), The Chisholm Ward (a women’s hospital 1926) and the Nurses Hostel (1928).

The Lockup

The next morning it was still drizzling so we drove south a bit then turned north heading for Rotherham and then onto Waiau. Both small settlements but no doubt quite important in the early days. Waiau even had a lockup jail!  The town boasted a courthouse, police station and a lockup around 1866, but like the modern day, all were closed and moved elsewhere by 1892. The locals have restored the small lockup. Interestingly the courthouses main activities in the 1870-1880’s were the prosecutions against runholders with scabby sheep. This parasitic insect was finally eliminated after 20,000 sheep were slaughtered in 1884. I don’t think stocks were ever in use in New Zealand although perhaps they could be put to good use today?

Marlborough Frog

We carried on along State Highway 70, the Inland Route to Kaikoura they say, through rolling hilly country in drizzly, cloudy weather so not much in the way of sight seeing. Somewhere along the way, we watched a Harrier Hawk resting on a fence post stretching its self. We stayed a night at South Bay, near Kaikoura and the next morning drove down to the peninsular carpark to have our breakfast and watched some of the resting seals nearby. The seals come right across the carpark and are even likely to set them selves up in the toilets nearby much to the consternation of visitors. To overcome this, the toilet has steel gates and barriers around it looking something like a cowshed yard but at

Kaikoura Toilets

least one can now sit in peace even if there happens to be a fishy smell outside. Coming back home via Blenheim, we were surprised to see a large frog on the side of a hill. Upon closer inspection, we saw that it was made of stones laid out to represent a frog. Nothing like the white horse in England but not a bad effort all the same. I guess the PC brigade in the State Highway ministry will try to take it down just in case someone is distracted while driving.

Up The Gully

The Scullery: Will’s Gully

Grandson Reece has given me a hand in planting, cutting vines and some track work during the school holidays, which was a good help. Friend David Bone has given me about 130 native plants with more to come and it was these that we were working on. It’s quite an effort just carting all the plants to the various places in readiness for digging a hole and planting them. It was good to see a weka checking us out while working away. Not good at all to find the body of a dead weka though. It was too far gone to tell what killed it but as it wasn’t eaten at all, I’d say it would have been someones pet dog. Killed for the sake of it. It’s the owner to blame, not the dog.

The Weka Inspecting the Home Garden.

It was good to see a weka in our back yard though. It disappeared then came back the next week, then a week later it appeared again. Two weeks have now gone with more no sightings but I guess it was lucky to survive that long with all the cats and dogs around. With all the work by many volunteers, trapping, clearing weed pests and replanting natives, in all the valleys that run down towards Richmond for at least 15 years, it is a pretty good feeling to see a weka in our back yard though.

Rainfall at our place for April was 203mm, which is well above our monthly April average of 121mm although rainfall for the month of April over the years has varied quite a lot. This has ranged from 18mm to 297mm over a period of 15 years. The first fall of snow this winter came late in the month but it had all gone by early May.