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Archives For 30/11/1999

Ghost town comes alive with Kiwi Ranger

Sarah Mankelow —  07/12/2011
Denniston Kiwi Ranger badge.

Denniston Kiwi Ranger badge

Does becoming a history detective, having sword fights with icicles or exploring rusty relics in a ghost town sound like fun to you?

You can do all this and more, by becoming a Kiwi Ranger at Denniston Historic Reserve this summer. Kiwi Ranger is a fun, interactive programme for kids of all ages – from 3 to 103!

Kiwi Ranger is currently “live” at six sites; Orokonui Ecosanctuary in Dunedin and five national parks; Westland, Nelson Lakes, Mt Aspiring, Arthur’s Pass and Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park. Each site has its own booklet full of fun activities and walks to do. Completing the activities earns you a badge – unique to each location – and the title of Kiwi Ranger.

It’s a great way for families to explore new places together and learn something as well as having heaps of fun!

Q Wagons at Denniston; photographer Peter Robertson.

Q Wagons at Denniston

Denniston near Westport is the newest Kiwi Ranger site. Once NZ’s largest producing coal mining site and home to around 1500 people, these days it’s a ghost town. But like all good ghost towns there are lots of cool relics and historic remains, stories of human hardship and inspiration.

Denniston’s Kiwi Ranger booklet provides an enjoyable and interactive way to explore the site and get people thinking about what it was like to live and work here.

A scavenger hunt activity gets you looking for ‘Q’ wagons, a banjo shovel or the Banbury Arches. You can become a history detective and find out what life was like her 125 years ago when the place as buzzing. Or you could figure out what kids used to do for fun here before TV, before lego and playstation.

The Denniston Kiwi Ranger booklet can be picked up from the Buller DOC office in Russell Street, Westport. Return your completed booklet to claim your badge!

Check out the Kiwi Ranger website to find out about other Kiwi Ranger locations, where to pick up your booklets and to print out some other activities at www.kiwiranger.org.nz

Blank Kiwi Ranger badge.

Blank Kiwi Ranger badge

Design a badge competition

Where would you like to see Kiwi Ranger go next? Design a badge for your favourite place and be in to win a fabulous books and brochures prize pack! Entries close 1 February 2012 – the winner will be announced on the DOC website.

Worksheets available online at www.doc.govt.nz/kiwiranger

In Historic, Old Conservation Week posts, Recreation, West Coast
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Conservation in the kitchen

 —  11/11/2011

Back in September for Conservation Week, we celebrated by playing with our food and teaming it with a DOC/NewZealand/nature theme.

Ranger Tassie

If you’re after some fun recipes this weekend, why not try out one of these?

Monarch butterfly cupcakes

These pretty cupcakes are fun to make, and the recipe teaches you how to make wings—an essential skill to have for creating native New Zealand delicacies. Don’t be afraid to mix up the colours and design your own. Who’s up for the kakapo cupcake challenge?

Check out the monarch butterfly cupcake recipe with step-by-step photos.

I've tried these, they're delicious!


Mainland Egmont cheese scones

These delicious scones will make a great addition to anyone’s morning or afternoon tea table, or as an energising snack when visiting Egmont National Park… (cheesy joke, I know).

Check out the Mainland Egmont cheese scone recipe for step-by-step instructions on how to bake ’em!  

Cheesy mountains of goodness


Chocolate kiwi popsicles

These tasty treats not only look fantastic but are easy to make and a great twist on a couple of kiwi classics—summery popsicles and our iconic kiwifruit! Speaking of which, did you know that a serving of kiwifruit also contains the same amount of fibre as a bowl of bran cereal, contains the same amount of potassium as a banana and provides the recommended dietary allowance of Vitamin C? So get dipping with these tasty chocolate kiwi popsicle delights!

Fun and tasty!


DOC biscuits

Ranger Doreen

Another one to have a bit of fun with—gingerbread men (and women), DOC style. There are heaps of neat cookie cutters around these days, including awesome kiwi themed shapes! Why not make your own sweet as New Zealand treats, and have a go at designing your own DOC rangers. Creating the stylish ‘DOC pants green’ can be a bit tricky, so use a small amount of icing to practise with first!

Here’s a good gingerbread men recipe.

How New Zealand was formed

 
Earthworm dessert

Forget mud pies, earthworm dessert is where it’s at! This decadent dessert will take you back to the days of finding new friends in the garden—fun for any age! DOC’s Kiersten McKinley trialled this with her family and it went down a treat, with the kids creating their own masterpieces!

Ingredients:

  • 1 packet of chocolate mousse (or you can make your own from scratch)
  • Biscuits (such as Oreos)
  • Gummy worms

Method:

  • Make up the chocolate mousse and spoon into see-through glasses or suitable containers.
  • Crush the biscuits into small pieces, either in a food processor or with a pestle and mortar.
  • Stick the worms in the ‘earth’. You can use the gum snakes or the sour worms that are available in confectionery packets instead.
  • Enjoy!

    Yuuummm

In Old Conservation Week posts , , ,
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Love New Zealand

Department of Conservation —  13/09/2011

There's lots to love about New Zealand!

Why do you love New Zealand? 

What Now and DOC put this question to kids around the country, with the chance to be a mini DOC ranger up for grabs.

10 days later, over 500 kids had sent in their answers in, and the results indicate that the next generation of DOC rangers have the same appreciation and love for our favourite places and wildlife that we do.

What the kids had to say…

Hayden, 11, from West Harbour says:

Hayden Mills and his little brother on a family walk through their local Waitakere Ranges

“I love New Zealand because it is beautiful, natural and full of awesome things to see and do. My favourite native New Zealand bird is the pukeko, I wish I could have them at my house to look after them.

“The photo is of me and my little brother on a family walk through our local Waitakere Ranges on 2nd Jan 2011. Me and my family love going on bush walks and looking at all the beauty our Ranges have to show us.”

A strong message from Manakau’s Molly:

Molly loves New Zealand's natural beauty

“I love New Zealand because of its natural beauty and we can all keep it that way by recycling and NOT littering. GO RECYCLING!!!”

A future DOC sustainability champion perhaps?

Jayden from Taupo reckons New Zealand’s pretty cool:

“I love New Zealand because it is fun, small, green, clean and you don’t need to fly everywhere in the country.

Jayden enjoys fishing and hunting

“I want to learn more about New Zealand bushes and about Auckland. If you look at my pic you can see I like fishing. I also enjoy hunting.”

The winner:

But DOC and the What Now team decided there was one stand out entry — Louis from Christchurch, who’d put an enormous effort into his video (the only video entry).

Louis has wanted to be a DOC ranger his whole life, so we’re sure he’ll love the experience he has won!

Check out Louis’ winning entry:

Louis’ prize involves a trip to Auckland’s pest-free islands (Rangitoto and Motutapu), checking for any sneaky stoats or rascal rats, tracking takahē, and staying the night to fall asleep to native bird sounds. Louis called it his “ultimate DOC experience”.

Get involved in Conservation Week

‘Love New Zealand’ is the theme for Conservation Week 2011, which began on 11 September and runs until 18 September.

There are heaps of ways you can get involved. Find out about events happening in your area by visiting the Conservation Week website and encourage your friends and family to get along and show their support too!

What Now Conservation Week special

If you were up in time and tuned in to TV2 on Sunday morning, you would have seen our special conservation-themed episode of What Now. If you missed it there’s still time to catch it online on the TVNZ website.

Tell us why you love New Zealand

If you didn’t/couldn’t enter the What Now competition, now’s your chance to tell us why you Love New Zealand. Leave a reply to this post and tell us. We’ll blog the best replies next week.

In Old Conservation Week posts , , , , ,
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Words on a Wing’s kākāpō steals the show!

 —  21/10/2010

Auckland’s giant kākāpō – named Kiri te Kākāpō by Verran Primary School – has become a star attraction at the 10th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which began in Japan this week.

 

Kiri te Kākāpō sporting her lovely plumage.

Auckland's giant kākāpō 'Kiri te Kākāpō' sporting her lovely plumage of conservation messages

 

Our man in Nagoya Andrew Bignell (DOC’s International Relations manager and head of the NZ government delegation at the Japanese meeting), reports that even while the team was unpacking the bird people were stopping to talk and take photographs!

“Having the kākāpō here has been a wonderful start and has given a morale boost to the delegation to see a bit of home displayed in such a prominent position.”

 

Curious onlookers stop to check out Kiri te Kākāpō in Japan.

Curious onlookers stop to check out Kiri te Kākāpō at DOC's display at the 10th meeting of the CBD in Japan

 

Kiri and her plumage of messages is the heart of DOC’s display at the CBD’s fair showing the best examples from around the world of International Year of Biodiversity education and awareness activities.

On Thursday, the bird will take centre stage at a special ceremony in which the CBD’s executive secretary Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf will accept a selection of the more the 20,000 messages New Zealanders have composed.

Andrew will present Dr Djoghlaf with a beautiful kākāpō poster made for the Words on a Wing action by year 3 and 4 pupils from Auckland’s Albany Primary School.

How did a flightless parrot make it all the way to Japan?

Happily the wonderful team at Air NZ came to the rescue. They organised for Kiri to arrive in Nagoya in good time and in excellent nick. They’ll also fly her home again when the meeting finishes on the 29th.

 

The team at Air New Zealand pose with Kiri te Kākāpō.

The team at Air New Zealand form a scrum with Kiri te Kākāpō as a farewell before she sets off on her big OE

 

 

Kiri te Kākāpō is all wrapped up and loaded into the cargo hold for her flight to Japan.

Kiri te Kākāpō is all wrapped up and loaded into the cargo hold for her flight to Japan

 

While you’re still thinking about biodiversity, check out the song Verran Primary School wrote for Kiri.

Te Papa’s naming competition for the Wellington kākāpō

And the winner is…  “Mātārere” which means forerunner/harbinger. The winning entry came from a kākāpo fan in Norway who faxed her entry to Te Papa. Thanks to our brainy bird experts at ZEALANDIA, Te Papa, and DOC for serving as judges.

The winner of the competition was initially going to win an annual family pass to ZEALANDIA, but because she lives a little too far away to get to enjoy that prize she’ll receive a bag of goodies from Te Papa instead.

Find out more

Words on a Wing and the giant kākāpō project

Te Papa’s naming competition

In International, Native animals, Old Conservation Week posts ,
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Log-on to our history

Katrina Knill —  24/09/2010
 

An historic bush camp re-enactment will be one of the features of Log Fest on 9 October

Saturday October 9th promises to be a special day for anyone visiting the Karangahake Gorge, as the Victoria Battery gold mining site is transformed into Log Fest, a family event celebrating the timber heritage of New Zealand.

 It is 100 years since the Kauri Timber Company’s first shipment of kauri logs from Waikino to Auckland. These logs were brought down the Waitawheta Tramline, an engineering marvel of its day, which is now part of the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest Park near Tauranga.
 
Events and promotions such as Log Fest are part of the day-to-day work for DOC’s Community Relations staff. Community Relations is the part of DOC responsible for local relationships and community involvement. DOC Area Offices around New Zealand have Community Relations teams that work with the local issues and people, so helping to inform and connect their local communities to the work of DOC.
 
Our Community Relations Ranger here in Tauranga is Pete Huggins, and he has been organising Log Fest as a celebration of the 100-year anniversary.
 
Pete has also been working with local media to try and encourage people to attend, saying: “We’d like to invite people from nearby towns and cities to come and explore this exciting piece of historic conservation land. DOC is working with local groups to put on a really special day. We have an historic bush camp where kids of all ages can try using traditional saws, cooking on an open fire, and trying woodturning. There will also be train and horse rides, both of which hark back to the grand old days of rail and horsepower. We also have some excellent talks and guided walks for those who want a bit more detail, and to discover the mining history and relics. It will make a great day out for the last weekend of the school holidays”.
 
Event details are below – come along and be a part of it!
 
Entry to the event is free, and extra parking will be available at the Waikino Station, SH2, Karangahake Gorge.
 
A special train service is running from Waihi on the day. For train times and bookings go to www.waihirail.co.nz.
 
Games and activities run throughout the day, but the following set times apply:
 
10.00am – opening of Log Fest
11.00am – unveiling of new tracks and displays
12.00pm – presentation on bush tramways by DOC expert Paul Mahoney
2.00pm – presentation on gold mining by DOC expert Paul Mahoney
4.00pm – close
 
For event details, visit www.doc.govt.nz and search “Log Fest”
 
For information about logging history in the Waitawheta Valley go to: http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/historic/by-region/bay-of-plenty/waitawheta-bush-tramway/
For information about the history and significance of the Victoria Battery go to:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/conservation/historic/by-region/victoria-battery-site.pdf
In Bay of Plenty, Historic, Old Conservation Week posts, Volunteers
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