kiwisforthesummer2016: Restoration, Birthdays & Honeydew

We started the morning off with a quick pit-stop at Darfield Bakery for hot drinks all around. Which was mush appreciated with the chilly weather this morning.

Then we made our way towards the Alp foothills to meet with Trevor and Heather Taege to learn about conservation efforts on farmed land near the foothills.

Southern Alps

Trevor gives a talk about the property

The couple have a 152-acre property that is part of the Kowai Bush in Canterbury and sits on the Waimakariri River. When they purchased the land in 1981, the property was scattered with beech trees which are very susceptible to high winds and snow damage. About 5 years ago they decided use their property to create another green dot to be added as a stepping stone for native birds to travel from mountain to sea and vice versa. They had an ecological survey conducted and it turns out that there are 52 species of native trees on the property! Because they decided to fence the restored areas themselves, they had more grant money available to be used towards purchasing native plants. When they planted the natives, they chose to spread out the plants—about 1 per square meter—to allow regeneration to occur. In total, 6,000 trees have been planted on the property since adopting the project and around 7 acres have been fenced and restored. However, planting them is one thing but maintaining them is another. They use weed mats to keep in moisture and protect from weeds and hares. And twice a year MCPA is sprayed, which controls against stinging nettle, deadly nightshade, and thistles.

Our task for today was to prune the dead branches off of the plants as well as chop a fallen tree.

Hard at work

The fallen tree

We had our lunch in full sun on the patio and afterwards headed down to the bank to skip some stones.

Lunch break

Skipping stones

Juggling rocks

The couple also operate a farm on which they have 500 sheep and around 100 cattle. We were lucky enough to have Trevor give us a farm tour in which we witnessed Jack round up a group of sheep and Trevor sheer a sheep—both jobs requiring a lot of skill and precision. One sheep’s worth of wool goes for NZD$2.20, and a skilled professional can sheer around 200 a day. The wool is separated into 4 different piles depending on what part of the body it was sheered from and only the highest quality gets placed into a press. The wool sorter must be done sorting the wool by the time the sheerer is done in order to work efficiently. The wool of a Merino Sheep is used for garments as it is very soft, and the oils in the wool can be used for many cosmetics.

Jack

Belly rubs for a job well done

Trevor sheering a sheep

Wool press

After the tour we were invited inside to a surprise celebration of Maris’s 19^th birthday! Heather had made a delicious array of baked goods and fresh orange juice.

Birthday feast

After we bid our farewells, we made one last stop at Lords Bush Scenic Reserve to try out honeydew—a sugary liquid that is secreted by scale insects as they digest plant sap. We learned that bees collect the honeydew off of Beech trees to make Honeydew honey.