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Archives For 30/11/1999

Jobs at DOC: Wetlands scientist, Hugh Robertson

Department of Conservation —  14/11/2011

Every Monday Jobs at DOC takes you behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation.

This week we meet wetlands scientist, Hugh Robertson

At work…

Name: Hugh Allister Robertson

Position: Scientific Officer (Wetlands) based in the Freshwater Section of Research & Development, Christchurch

Hugh visiting a peatland restoration site in the Czech Republic

What kind of things do you do in your role?

I coordinate the scientific projects within the Arawai Kākāriki wetland restoration programme, together with a team of scientific, technical and operations staff. This programme aims to protect/restore three of New Zealand’s foremost freshwater/wetland systems—Awarua/Waituna in Southland, Ō Tū Wharekai (Ashburton Lakes/upper Rangitata River) in Canterbury, and the Whangamarino wetland in Waikato.

My work includes researching to understand the resilience of wetlands to changes in water quality and examines the effectiveness of wetland restoration in terms of making conservation gains. I also provide scientific advice to support the Ramsar Convention on wetlands of international importance.

Setting up a vegetation plot at Ashburton basin

What is the best part about your job?

Since coming back to New Zealand at the end of 2008 (following an eight year stint in Australia) it is hard to go past the deep pool of skilled and committed people within DOC, who collectively make it enjoyable to tackle conservation challenges.

With colleagues at Awarua wetlands

What is the hardest part about your job?

The scale of wetland loss and degradation. We still have a way to go in reducing our footprint on these fragile ecosystems and instilling freshwater conservation principles into land management.

Venturing into wetlands in the Te Anau basin - a magical place

What led you to your role in DOC?

I’d initially blame being surrounded by freshwater lakes growing up in Rotorua, and regular family fishing holidays to the mouth of the Motu River, Manukau Harbour and Coromandel. It was all down hill from then, and one way or another led to an opportunity to study shallow lakes at Otago, and floodplain wetland ecology in the drought stricken Murray-Darling Basin in Australia.

What was the highlight of your month just gone?

A recent field trip out on Waituna Lagoon to retrieve and then re-deploy salinity loggers with the Southland Conservancy and Environment Southland. We’re looking at the vulnerability of aquatic plants to changing water quality in this dynamic coastal lagoon. It’s a unique landscape, and also a Ramsar wetland, but is under stress from changes in land use in the catchment upstream.

Investigating the Waituna Lagoon opening site

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. Exploring new places
  2. The company of friends and my partner
  3. The full moon in clear night skies

    Mountain biking at St James

Three pet peeves

  1. Cafés that serve really hot coffee
  2. People who take a while making their point (me included)
  3. Realising there’s a hole in my waders after the point of no return

Three foods

  1. Vintage cheddar
  2. Freshly baked bread
  3. Salted peanuts

 Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. Lake Tarawera
  2. Huia in the Waitakere Ranges
  3. The expansive, near pristine, fens and bogs of the Te Anau Basin

Favourite movie, album, book

  1. Movie: Black Cat, White Cat—you’ve got to watch this if you haven’t seen it before.
  2. Album: It varies daily, but Radiohead’s OK Computer, anything with trumpets, live performances of Muse and Fat Freddy’s Drop.
  3. Book: Most stuff by Milan Kundera

Deep and meaningful…

What piece of advice would you tell your 18 year old self?

Go with your gut… while also considering advice from wise folk (mentors).

Who or what inspires you and why?

This is a tricky question to simplify or limit to one or two people. But I am ultimately inspired by those people that have kept on going, who have struggled on through whatever the world throws at them to achieve what they have set out to do, overcoming adversity. There are countless examples, and it’s something we’ve all had to do at one time or another.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Like the rest of my under 9’s soccer team, a professional football player. Back then, for Liverpool—today it would be Barcelona FC.

And now, if you weren’t working at DOC, what would you want to be?

Bernard Black (played by Dylan Moran) for his brutal honesty. If you’re a Black Books fan you may know the character.

If you could be any New Zealand native species for a day, what would you be and why?

Eleocharis acuta is a long-time favourite of mine. An emergent macrophyte from our marshes and swamps, it exudes soul and funk.

What piece of advice or message would you want to give to New Zealanders when it comes to conservation? 

Every little bit helps. Species loss, water quality decline, and other conservation issues are often slow to accumulate—restoring biodiversity is an incremental process too.

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Jobs at DOC: Operation Rena

Department of Conservation —  07/11/2011

Every Monday Jobs at DOC takes you behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation.

This week we meet some of the people working on Operation Rena in Tauranga  

At work…

“Would you like bubbles with your bath?” Penguin cleaning, a part of the de-oiling process

Name: DOC staff involved with Operation Rena

What kind of things do you do in your role?

DOC is providing operational support for the Massey University led National Oiled Wildlife Response Team on behalf of Maritime New Zealand. To cut a long story short, DOC staff are contributing to the following:

Crew Leaders, Sector Supervisors, Skippers’ Safety, Division Commanders, Iwi Liaison, Radio Operators, Wildlife Handlers, Information, Finance, Personnel, Operations, Logistics, GIS/Mapping, Night Operations, Admin Support, the Situation Unit, and the Resources Unit.

What is the best part about contributing to Operation Rena?

People have come from across the planet to help out. They come from a variety of backgrounds, organisations, businesses and agencies to assist in the efforts of the operation. There is an incredible commitment by these people to get the job done—and to meet the objectives of the operation with a huge amount of collaboration and a real lack of egos getting in the way.

What is the hardest part about Operation Rena?

The Minister of Conservation keeping an eye on proceedings at the Oiled Wildlife Recovery Centre at Te Maunga, Tauranga

A number of the staff are spending time away from home and family.

The unpredictability of a boat precariously grounded on a reef in changeable weather is also hard!

What led you to your involvement with Operation Rena?

DOC’s Deputy Director-General of Operations, Sue Tucker, asked and, as keen and willing DOC staff members, we have all happily put our hands up to help out when and where required.

What was your highlight from the month just gone?

To date, we have managed to cover 60–80km of coastline per day since the grounding. This has enabled us to recover 402 wildlife members, including little blue penguins, gannets, shags, shearwater and seals. A part of that number was 60 nationally vulnerable New Zealand Dotterels before the spill! All of this was undertaken while keeping our cool, with a high team morale. Phew!

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. Clean seas
  2. Clean beaches
  3. Clean birds

Three pet peeves

  1. Grounded boats
  2. Leaking oil
  3. Missing shipping containers

Three things always in your fridge

  1. Milk for the coffee to start the day off
  2. Sardines for the birds
  3. Beer for winding down after a long day

Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. Tuhua (Mayor) Island—An awesome volcanic environment that is pest free and home to numerous indigenous species with an amazing marine reserve. 
  2. Maketu— the landing site for the Te Arawa canoe and a nesting area for estuarine species including our New Zealand Dotterels.
  3. Motuotau (Rabbit) Island—Penguins galore!

We also used to quite like Astrolabe Reef for its amazing sea life with great diving and fishing, but we’re a little indifferent to it right now!

Loading the DOC boat for Tuhua (Mayor) Island

Favourite movie, album, book

  1. Movie: Free Willy. We’re not a big fan of movies like Titanic or Poseidon at the moment!
  2. Album: Time and Tide by Split Enz, especially the song Six months in a leaky boat.
  3. Book: We’re often found perusing Rena Operation Astrolabe Incident Action Plans for a  bit of light reading at the moment, and have been considering finding a copy of Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound, but don’t really have the time right now.

Deep and meaningful…

What keeps you motivated and why?

Seeing the huge community effort that has gone on over the last few weeks in response to this disaster. There are an incredible number of small but important jobs that need to be done for an operation like this to keep moving. Often these jobs are picked up by volunteers—anything from sifting sand at local beaches and picking out tiny pieces of oiled sand, to cleaning mucky pens at the wildlife centre after the de-oiling of the birds.

Wildlife Incident Management team in action at the Incident Control Centre in Tauranga

And now, if you weren’t working at Operation Rena, what would you want to be doing?

Working back in my day job at DOC, tirelessly making New Zealand the greatest living space on Earth.

If you could be any New Zealand native species for a day, what would you be and why?

“Kia ora whanau” Iwi Liaison Taute Taiepa making the calls and loving it!

A massive pod of Maui or Hector’s dolphins. We’d go back in time by about 4-5 weeks and be patrolling off the Bay of Plenty coast. There would be so many of us that if a large container ship came past we could nudge it out of the way of any obstacles and escort it safely into port!What piece of advice or message would you want to give to others when it comes to Operation Rena?

A huge thank you to all those that have helped on the operation to date. The support from people who have ‘downed tools’ from all over the country to come and help has been amazing.

To those that haven’t come—we still need your help! This thing isn’t going away in a hurry and it will only continue to function with the support of you all.

For all the best and current info on the situation check out the Maritime New Zealand website.

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Jobs at DOC: Freshwater ecologist, David Kelly

Department of Conservation —  31/10/2011

Every Monday Jobs at DOC will take you behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation.

This week we meet freshwater ecologist, David Kelly

At work…

Fisheries survey on Six-foot Lake, Campbell Island

Name: David Kelly

Position: Scientific Officer, Freshwater Section R&D, Christchurch

What kind of things do you do in your role?

A combination of managing science projects, developing tools for more effectively managing freshwaters (such as flow management models and conservation ranking tools), and providing technical advice in varying capacities on freshwater management. 

I spend a reasonable amount of time working with some of the Conservancy planners and solicitors around RMA processes.

I work with some of the other sections in National Office, such as the Policy Group, on inputting ideas to national policy statements and environmental standards. 

I work quite a bit with scientists and managers from other organisations such as CRIs, universities, and regional councils on various freshwater projects. 

What is the best part about your job?

By far the best part of my job is being out there and getting wet. As with most people who work for DOC, it’s my love of the environment, and particularly rivers and lakes, that drives me. So pursuing a career as a freshwater ecologist means that I have the privilege of spending time out there submersed in my study medium.

I dive, I wade, and I flop around on the banks in my waders like a clumsy seal, and it’s all great. Like all fieldwork, there are days when you say ‘I can’t believe I am getting paid to do this’, and then there are the days when I say ‘There is no way I’m getting paid enough to do this’ – usually as sleet is falling in a howling southerly.

The freshwater team on a weekend excursion up the Rakaia River

What is the hardest part about your job?

The hardest part of my job is the amount of contract management I do. Because we are a small section, a significant amount of this work is done externally through other science providers. This involves a lot of process and paperwork, which is a little less inspiring than either running experiments, or analysing data.

What led you to your role in DOC?

It’s a bit of a long story how I ended up here: I was finishing graduate school in Canada, and co-taught a course on coastal limnology (the study of freshwaters) with a kiwi—Warrick Vincent—who was then working at Laval University in Quebec City.

Warrick is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. It was through Warrick that I made contact with some of his colleagues from NIWA, where I came to work (with the lakes team in Christchurch) for a number of years.

I was co-managing a project between NIWA and DOC, on a national lowland lakes examination, and eventually DOC advertised a position within their newly formed freshwater section to run this work. The thought of working for an organisation that is more directly linked to conservation management was really attractive to me, so I applied.

What was your highlight from the month just gone?

It would have to be attending the combined meeting of the Freshwater Science societies of both New Zealand and Australia in Brisbane. It was great to see what is going on across the ditch in terms of their approaches to managing freshwater under some very challenging circumstances (multi-year droughts), and to get to share some of our projects and ideas with them.

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. My family
  2. Fishing
  3. Hunting… my wife might question whether that is really the correct order, but I’m holding strong on this one.

Three pet peeves

  1. Earthquakes—having to abandon my home in Christchurch; surprise
  2. The lack of thermal insulation in buildings—come on, what latitude is it here anyhow? 
  3. Way too much sport in the news—never with any coverage of ice hockey I might add.

Three things always in your fridge

  1. Milk, because I can’t even begin a conversation in the morning without at least one latte in me.
  2. Finely crafted homemade beer, for which I have a ‘special fridge’ with in-built taps.
  3. Wild venison salami—because making pizzas in my wood-fired brick oven is truly the highlight of all my cooking experiences; man-flame-outdoors-large tools-wild meat-pizza. Mmmmmmm.

The pizza oven on Christmas day lunch at Inangahua

Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. My bach on the Inangahua River, where I am now lucky enough to live for a stint while the earthquake aftermath unfolds in Christchurch (working out of the Kawatiri Area Office temporarily, so thanks to the folks there for making me welcome). 
  2. Campbell Island—wow, what a place to see wildlife up close and personal, my most memorable DOC trip ever!
  3. The wild and free West Coast back-country rivers—fishing and hunting nirvanas, I’d tell you which ones, but then I’d have to kill you.

A day exploring Campbell Island

Favourite movie, album, book

  1. Movie: The Big Lebowski—’The Dude’ cracks me up every time, and laughing is one of the most important things in life.
  2. Album: It’s nearly impossible to narrow it to one, but by the sheer amount of enjoyment I’ve gotten from spinning the vinyl version of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon makes it the winner.
  3. Book: It has to be a quirky one, possibly Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins.

Deep and meaningful…

What piece of advice would you tell your 18 year old self?

Make sure you do something you enjoy, and don’t hurry into it, it’s all about the journey—not where you get to.

Who or what inspires you and why?

Really smart people who know a lot about a whole range of things. I like to see people that are not only good at their jobs but at a range of things outside work that they can pass along to others. And my six month old son Jasper, whose smiles and giggles make even the worst day all make sense.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Funnily enough a doctor, but I think this was subliminally instilled in me by my mother. Once I was older and realised how many people were on the planet, my far greater concern was to help other species.

And now, if you weren’t working at DOC, what would you want to be?

Possibly a fishing guide, I love being out on rivers and I think I could watch fish all day.

A good haul for the freezer

If you could be any New Zealand native species for a day, what would you be and why?

I reckon an octopus—they are so smart, can squeeze through the tiniest of spaces to uncover delicious crayfish, and how handy would it be to have even three arms let alone eight?

What piece of advice or message would you want to give to New Zealanders when it comes to conservation?

Learn from the experiences of other countries that have much higher population densities, and don’t let the incredible natural assets you have erode away.

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Jobs at DOC: Maniapoto Ranger, Gary Coles

Department of Conservation —  24/10/2011

Every Monday Jobs at DOC will take you behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation.

This week Gary Coles’ colleagues provide us with his Jobs at DOC story, with a few quotes from the man himself.  Gary turned 60 on Sunday 16 October. So Gaz, we salute you!

Name: Gary Coles (or Gaz to us).

Just starting out, New Zealand Forest Service 1970’s

Job title and location:

Ranger – Asset and Historic, Maniapoto Area Office, friend to all creatures great and small (that aren’t pests), and all-round good guy. 

Describe his role:

It all started a long, long time ago…

Back in 1970, when many of us were being born, Garry attended the Golden Downs training school run by the New Zealand Forest Service. After graduating, Gary went on to assist with cutting and forming the Heaphy and Whangapeka tracks. After stints in the Ashley and Balmoral Forests in North Canterbury, Gary headed north to Pureora Forest Park in 1986 to carry out animal pest control. Upon the amalgamation of the NZFS, NZWLS and Lands and Surveys in 1987, Gary started his career with the Department in Te Kuiti, and the rest is history…

So, what makes him so special?

Pest control in Pureora

Gary’s a bit of an icon around these parts—a quiet chap with an encyclopaedic knowledge of local and historic information. In fact, one of the most frequently used sayings around the office is “Dunno, ask Gaz.”

Time in the field with Gary is an important part of any new recruit’s induction. We know they’ve been well tutored about all things technical, geographical and historical by the time they are returned!

And at the end of each working day, Gaz always calls by the office for a quick yarn and a laugh, before heading off home to fix some kind of machine or tend to his native plant nursery in the back shed.

What kind of work does he specialise in?

You could say that Gary is an honorary Master (track) Builder. Pretty much all of the tracks around our area have been worked on by Gaz at some stage. Also, he’s a superb lawn mower!

What does he always take with him when he’s out in the field?

Did someone say there were sardines?

“A good lunch (including sardines), tea bags and a thermos, a good first aid kit for the guests and I never leave home without today’s newspaper!”

What’s one of his funniest moments at work?

Gaz has had many, but the funniest one we heard (and a general testament to Gary’s uncanny compassion toward nature) was when he was recently working at the Arohena campsite one dark and thunderous day…

After a busy morning cleaning the campsite and feeding his pet trout in a secluded inlet up stream of the local Anglers hut, Gaz took a moment of quiet contemplation to catch up with the latest on the Rugby World Cup in the new corrugated iron loo. While engrossed in an editorial by Andrew Mehrtons on the perils of Argentinean front row facial hair in the scrum, a bolt of lighting and a boom of thunder unleashed an earth shattering blast over head sending a nomadic family of pukekos racing into Gary’s stall for cover. Undeterred by the invasion of privacy, Gaz quietly pushed the door open with his foot (in case they needed to return) and carried on reading his paper. Eye witness accounts swear they saw a hint of smoke coming from the ablution block after the bang!

Dismantling the hut in Pureora (not the loo at Arohena…)

Tell us about his 15 minutes of fame

Aside from discovering the toe bones of a giant Moa on his family farm near Marton, Gaz recently took a group of fit, hardcore hunters half his age to do some maintenance work on the Waitomo Walkway to Ruakuri. By the end of the day, word got around that he’d not only out-worked these blokes, but had also out-walked them back to the car park, confirming his legendary status to all the young’uns back at HQ in Te Kuiti.

What few words of wisdom would he like to pass onto all those young’uns just starting out?

“If it’s hard at the start, it generally gets easier over time…”

What does he like to do when he’s not at work?

“Fossil hunting along the rugged west coast in my kayak with a mate, then restoring old machinery and a touch of gardening to finish.”

“It’ll be as good as gold in no time…” - Fisholeening at Pureora

Does he have a special skill/quirk/strange fact that people may not know about him?

Come on Gaz, everybody has one… Gary always eats sardines for lunch so we reckon that’s why he’s got such shiny hair!

What’s a book that he recommends all DOC staff should read?

Waireinga/Bridal Veil Falls near Raglan

“Tuwharetoa, by John Te H. Grace. It traces 600 years of events starting with their arrival in the Arawa canoe during the fourteenth century up to the present day. An amazing read! Complex battles, alliances, feuds and migrations which shaped the history of the tribe”.

Three loves

“Any kind of old machinery that needs restoring, then nature, nature and more nature! One of the best chapters in my life so far was the time I spent working on island sanctuaries, such as those in the Mercury Island Group”.

Three pet peeves

“Lazy people, lazy people who dump their rubbish around campsites and lazy people who dump their rubbish in our reserves.”

If there was a competition for best place in New Zealand where would get his vote?

Doubtful Sound in Fiordland National Park.

And if there was one native species that ruled them all, what would be his pick?

“The female tunnel web spider! She’s beautiful. She’s big, she’s hairy and she’s one whole lot of female you don’t want to mess with…” 

And finally…

Thanks Gaz, for letting us share some of your more memorable moments with everyone. You’re one of those great DOC identities who really make a difference to the area you work in. So, from all the troops in Maniapoto, happy birthday mate!

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Jobs at DOC: Research and Development Spatial Analyst, Richard Earl

 —  17/10/2011
 

Every Monday Jobs at DOC will take you behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation.

This week we meet Spatial Analyst, Richard Earl:

Skipper Ritch!

At work…

Name
Richard Earl.

Position
Research and Development Spatial Analyst.

What kind of things do you do in your role?  
I drive a Geographic Information System (GIS), which is basically a computer mapping system. I model ecosystems and species distributions based on their known locations, and I also examine what Natural Heritage work DOC does and where. 

Without good geographical information, DOC can’t necessarily make good decisions about where we put our effort, and with ever-lowering budgets, it’s crucial we put our effort (as efficiently as possible) into the most important places and species we have. Our work is in building that geographical information and helping to integrate it into national systems, and to analyse it and understand it. So, mostly it’s panning around in maps on the computer, manipulating the tables behind the spatial data that’s on the maps, setting the computer to run analyses, then producing maps and tables of information from those analyses to provide information to the people who need it. We turn data into information. 

Also, sometimes I’m allowed out of my cage and I get to go to some amazing places to actually collect data—in the form of counting birds and checking traps and tracking tunnels and looking for radio tracked birds, but that’s only a couple of weeks a year, if I’m lucky.

 

What is the best part about your job?
I get to pan around the country looking at all our best spots (from above), perform interesting (and often challenging) analysis, and when I can get it—field work, usually counting birds in Fiordland.

Ready to go

What is the hardest part about your job? 
That’s a tricky one. Because I enjoy my job so much nothing ever seems very hard, or it is hard, but I’m enjoying it, so… um… finding the time to get everything done? 

What led you to your role in DOC?
I’ve always had a conservation bent, reflected in my university studies (Geography and Ecology undergrad, Environmental Science Masters) and involvement in environment groups and Trees For Canterbury (a charitable trust here in Christchurch—“growing trees and growing people”).

What was your highlight from the month just gone?
Working out time-saving ways of getting certain processes done, thereby getting through what would have been laborious work a lot quicker.

The rule of 3…

3 loves
My family, mountain biking on sweet, sweet native forest single track, (actually, pretty much ANY single track), and gooood music (and good beer).

Cycling through mud!

3 pet peeves
Idiots on the roads who have no respect for cyclists, ArcGIS crashing for no apparent reason, and the waste of resources I’m seeing every day as Christchurch is dismantled house by house with diggers ripping into houses that are full of beautiful native timbers that should be salvaged and reused.

3 things always in your fridge
Cheese, including standard blocks, parmesan, and often stinky blue ones. Beer, but only certain beers should be in the fridge, most good ones should just be in the cupboard. Pesto and/or hummus. 

3 favourite places in New Zealand
So many, but… Banks Peninsula (in particular the few remaining forest remnants, the spectacular coastline, the family bach at Little Akaloa, and of course the beaches), Fiordland, Waitutu and Poteriteri in particular. Also, Takaka and its surrounds (especially the DOC houses at Totaranui and Collingwood) and the localities they allow access to.

Favourite movie, album, book
I cannot possibly narrow it to one of each, so…

Movie(s): Dead Man—pretty much all of Jim Jarmusch’s movies in fact, and the Coen Brothers’ too.
Album(s): They change every few months, but most recently Wooden Heart by Listener and Sit Down, Man by Das Racist. My favourite artists in general are Prefuse73, Joanna Newsom, Roots Manuva, Coco Rosie, Boards of Canada, Diplo, Grizzly Bear, Pavement, Sonic Youth and Ladi6 etc.
Book(s): It’s hard to narrow it to one book—most recently, my best read has to be It’s All About The Bike by Robert Penn. My favourite authors include Richard Brautigan, Iain M. Banks, Paul Theroux, Jared Diamond, Martin Amis, and I’m also an avid reader of graphic novels (yep, comics). My favourites includes The BPRD and Hellboy series, plus anything by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba (two absolutely brilliant Brazilian brothers).

Deep and meaningful…

What piece of advice would you tell your 18 year old self?
Don’t be such an idiot.

Overlooking Raupo

Who or what inspires you and why?
Uh oh, cheese alert 🙂 My Dad, because he’s just so damned knowledgeable in so many ways. My boys—their beautiful innocence inspires me to be a good person and to try my hardest to be a good role model to them. My partner Tracey, for being so amazing with our boys and for loving me. My workmates, each for their skills and knowledge that differ from mine. My boss Elaine, for just being so on to it, and John Leathwick who’s a bit of a guru in my profession (and I get to work with him!).

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A farmer. 
 
And now, if you weren’t working at DOC, what would you want to be?
Doing what I’m doing but not at DOC? Otherwise, a farmer, but not in the traditional sense…  I envisage a self-sufficient permaculture farmlet with a backdrop of bush and perhaps a little forestry, with an integrated mountain bike park (also crossing into neighbouring lands seasonally). I’d grow food and maintain and ride and guide the trails. People would come to ride and we’d feed them really good food and maybe have some accommodation… possibly a small brewery too, crafting beer made from local malts and home-grown hops. I’m allowed to dream, aren’t I?

A lunch break at Long Point

If you could be any New Zealand native species for a day, what would you be and why?
Definitely a bird. Maybe kea or a kaka, or falcon, but I also love the passerines too. The parrots for their smarts and fun, the falcons for their sheer speed and skill in the air, all of them for the beauty of the environment they live in and their ability to get around that environment so effortlessly. 

It always makes me jealous when I’m tromping through the undergrowth getting nowhere and they’re just cruising around up there laughing at me. Then again, a Hector’s Dolphin would be pretty cool too, or a fur seal…

What piece of advice or message would you want to give to New Zealanders when it comes to conservation?
Get out and enjoy it, treat it kindly and with respect, help out, plant more natives, kill some pests, and actively integrate New Zealand biodiversity back into your gardens and cities.

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