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Archives For 30/11/1999

Quirky questions about National Parks

 —  11/09/2012
DOC staff in visitor centres are knowledgeable characters. They know all about the history of their area, what to do, what to wear, where to go for this and that, and are happy to help visitors plan and prepare for their holidays.
However, from time to time, they do get a few questions they’re just not sure how to answer…. As Kiwis we take what we know about our natural areas, flora and fauna for granted, but to tourists, some things are a lot less obvious. Some questions are legitimate and only funny to us New Zealanders, while others, well… I’ll let you decide. Here’s a list of some real questions our visitor centre staff have been asked over the last few years.

From Nelson Lakes National Park

  • What is there to do in Fiji?
  • Can I take a shopping trolley on the Abel Tasman Coast Track?
  • Where can I get a pedicure?
  • I’ve heard there are Roman ruins in the Abel Tasman – can I visit them?
  • How long is an annual hut pass valid for?
  • I have just heard that native snails are carnivorous. Is it safe to go tramping? Do they bite?
  • How long would it take to get to the bottom of the lake in a water taxi?

Abel Tasman’s best kept secret.

Would you like fries with your McFranz meal?

From the Franz Josef i-SITE

  • Do you have a McDonalds here?
  • How long is the 40 minute flight?

From Arthur’s Pass Visitor Centre

  • I’ve been hearing a bird call… do you know what it is?
  • So is the greeting ‘Kia ora’ named after the kea birds?
  • Is this made out of real kiwi? (asked by a shopper about a kiwi toy)
  • Is that the wind? (asked as the village siren went off)
  • The kiwi in the forest—are they tame?
  • Can you please tell me what temperature it will be on 13 February? (a phone call received in December)
  • Is it named after the captain from Star Wars? (‘it’ being Mount Cook—the reply was “First, no—you are thinking of Captain Kirk from Star Trek, and second, Captain Kirk wasn’t around when Aoraki was named”)
  • Have any llamas been squashed on the roads lately, and will they become wild in the park?
  • Are there any peanut farms here?
  • “You get a lot of earthquakes here don’t you – will there be one today at 1pm? We have a woman on our bus – its her birthday and she has never felt an earthquake.” Funnily enough – we had a shake at 1.05pm!
  • The sign says ‘the road is closed’, what does that mean?

Aoraki/Mt Kirk.

Rakiura National Park

  • I’m catching the ferry to Stewart Island on 23 of January—will it be raining? (asked by a caller in early September)


Whakapapa Visitor Centre

  • Do you have donkeys here? For the children to ride on?
  • Are there any volcanoes here? (asked while standing looking at the volcanic information)
  • Are there any postcards of Australia? (No) Oh, why is that?
  • Can you tell me about the gondola to the Bruce Mountain Wildlife Centre?
  • Is it a good idea to take a car on the Tongariro Crossing?

Donkey rides – only $2 across the crossing!

Paparoa National Park

  • Where do I report a dead possum on the road?
  • I wish to cycle to the summit of Mount Cook, how far does the road go?
  • Can you please tell me the tide differences between here and Los Angeles?
  • We are told there is a micro-climate in this area. Where do we find it?

Paparoa’s micro climate for the micro visitors.

Have you ever been asked a quirky question from a visitor to New Zealand? Comment and share it with us.

In National parks, Old Conservation Week posts, Recreation, Regions , , ,
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Jobs at DOC: Taranaki Service Ranger, Traci Grant

Department of Conservation —  31/08/2012

Come behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation (DOC).

Today we profile Taranaki Service Ranger, Traci Grant.

Mount Taranaki, Egmont National Park

At work… 

What kind of things do you do in your role?

I do a mixture of reception and administration duties which include: hunting and possum trapping permits, answering general enquires, giving advice about tramping opportunities on our beautiful maunga, and also HR, payroll, timesheets, stationery, uniforms, vehicles, travel bookings, minute taking, and providing general help when required.

What is the best part about your job?

The people I work with, and the great things we achieve. It can often be quite hard working in an office-based role while everyone else is out there in the field doing it, but it is rewarding when you know what you’re doing is helping someone, and maybe making their day a little easier.

Walking the Milford Track with Donna and Mike

What is the hardest part about your job?

Juggling the number of different tasks and not being able to complete a task from start to finish, and then probably chasing people to get things completed on time.

What led you to your role in DOC?

An Environmental Ethics paper at university, a childhood full of family holidays in the outdoors, and definitely my adventurous dad. 

What was your highlight from the month just gone?

Winter is an extremely office based time of the year, but the highlight, let’s say for Autumn 2012, was walking the Milford Track and a road trip around the South Island for two weeks. I have to admit this was the first time I had been past Blenheim! And my gosh, how beautiful is the South Island??

South Island road trip 2012

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. My amazing friends, you guys are awesome!
  2. My ma and pa; they have put up with a lot of mind changes and late night calls but at the end of the day they always have dinner and a mug of Milo waiting for me!
  3. Home; I’m a homebody wherever that home (and my Crown Lynn collection) might be!

Three pet peeves

  1. People who talk over you.
  2. Accommodation that doesn’t have free internet.
  3. Cafes that only have white sugar for my coffee—come on I have fancier sugar at home haha!

Three foods

  1. A shared home cooked meal (made by someone other than me)
  2. Cupcakes/cake/brownie/BAKING!!
  3. Redbull. Okay it’s not a food but…

My signature vanilla and hazelnut cupcakes

Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. Home
  2. Whanganui river. Throughout high school and uni we would do at least one trip each summer; it’s a really magical place
  3. Whatipu at the head of the Manukau Harbour—my brother had his wedding here earlier this year. Not only was the rugged West Coast amazing but the old lodge, built in 1870, where we stayed had all sorts of treasures including old plates displayed along the kitchen walls!

At the summit of Mount Taranaki – you can just see Ruapehu in the background

Favourite movie, album, book

  • Movie: Crazy Stupid Love—thanks to Ryan Gosling I’ve seen it three times!
  • Album/Artist: Ash Grunwald; a friend and I saw him play in New Plymouth earlier this month—he has a bit of a Black Keys sound going on, so if you like them he’s worth a listen! And Tono and the Finance Company—this is an indie band from Dunedin who are now based in Auckland. I saw them play in Dunedin during our South Island road trip, and it was one of my highlights!
  • Book: For me it would have to be Your Home and Garden magazine—I love all the inspiration and crafty ideas.

Deep and meaningful…

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

No matter what happens, everything will work out—it always does.

Who or what inspires you and why?

My friends and the people I’ve met here and there along the way, especially the crafty ones and the passionate ones.

Walking the Milford Track (Dore Pass)

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

A volcanologist, a designer, and then later on, a philosopher. 

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

Well if I could do anything I would probably be running an online store selling the crafty things I make. Maybe I’d also run a coffee house and bake amazing cupcakes!

What sustainability tip would you like to pass on?

I like to turn things off at the wall. Oh and you don’t actually have to try and keep up with everyone else and their flash new things, you can be quite happy with that old Nokia brick phone!

Which green behaviour would you like to adopt this year—at home? At work?

At home—walk to town on the weekends, there is plenty of time. At work—use that webcam!!!

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

A robin or maybe a South Island tomtit, mainly because they are little and cute and get to live in some beautiful places—OR a tui, probably because they can hang out in the bush, but they also like being in town—that’s a bit of me!

South Island robin

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

Go outside, even if it’s just to the local park. Run around a bit, listen to the birds, and enjoy the shade of that tree in your back garden. Teach your children about the tui and the kereru, and inspire them!

In Jobs at DOC, Taranaki , , , , ,
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Pests down, birdsong back in Tararua Forest Park

Department of Conservation —  29/08/2012

Pest numbers are down and native birds are beginning to bounce back in the Tararua Forest Park north of Wellington following an aerial 1080 pest control operation in late 2010.

The operation, coordinated by DOC and Animal Health Board (AHB), aimed to restore forest health and boost native bird populations, as well as protect Wairarapa cattle and deer herds from bovine TB.

Intensive monitoring undertaken by DOC, the AHB, Landcare Research and Greater Wellington Regional Council before and after the operation has shown significant drops in pest numbers and increasing populations of some native bird species.

New Zealand parakeet/kākāriki

Although still early days, Dr James Griffiths of DOC said that signs for some bird species were promising. “Counts have shown that rifleman, whitehead and kakariki have all increased following the operation, compared to the non-treatment area where no 1080 was applied,” he says.

These species are all able to breed quickly but are also very vulnerable to predation. “In this respect they are like canaries in the coalmine and can give us an early indication if pest control is working.”

A decrease in possum and rat numbers, which have stayed at low levels for the two years following the operation, is also encouraging says Dr Griffiths. “We are making a major investment in monitoring to assess the long term results of this aerial 1080 operation on a range of predators. If we can keep predator numbers down it gives native bird populations an opportunity to breed successfully.”

Rifleman and mistletoe

“Stoat numbers are also tracking at low levels, but we haven’t detected a significant change as they were at low levels prior to the operation. If stoat numbers had been high prior to the operation we would have expected to see a significant drop now.”

The operation was part of Project Kākā, a 10 year DOC programme aimed at restoring the health of a 22,000 hectare belt of the Tararua Forest Park stretching from Otaki Forks to Holdsworth in the Wairarapa.

Whitehead/pōpokotea

“As we collect more data over the 10 year term of the project the effect of 1080 on forest birds and pest animals in the Tararua Forest Park will become clearer. We may also start to see positive changes in the bird counts for slower breeding species such as kākā.”

Rat, possum and stoat numbers will be controlled every three years in the Project Kākā zone through the aerial application of 1080, with the next operation scheduled for spring 2013.

Project Kākā aerial pest control efforts are also being supported by community volunteer trapping at Donnelly Flats. It is hoped that over time sustained pest control in the Tararua ranges will allow for rare species re-introductions such as whio, robin and kiwi.

In Animal pests, Native animals, Volunteers, Wellington/Kapiti , , , ,
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Fiordland College students join forces with DOC

Department of Conservation —  24/08/2012

by Caroline Carter (and Victoria Wood)

The opportunity to be a ‘Ranger for a day’ has proven a hit with senior students from Fiordland College.

On Friday 3rd August more than 30 students teamed up with DOC rangers from Te Anau and got a glimpse of just what it takes to manage New Zealand’s largest National Park. 

Roving reporter, Vicky Wood, interviews classmates, Tarn Grant
and Annika Meyer, at Te Anau Wildlife Centre

‘Ranger for a day’ is part of DOC’s support of the Kids Restore the Kepler project. This major restoration project, led by the Fiordland Conservation Trust and funded by Kids Restore NZ, aims to inspire Fiordland’s young people to care for their environment now and in the future. 

Caroline Carter, the education coordinator for the project, said the idea to work-shadow a ranger came about following a realisation that every student has skills and interests that are needed to achieve conservation goals.

DOC Ranger Ken Bradley supervises Barlow Rewita as he helps to
shift 8 cubic metres of gravel using a ‘muck truck’

15 year old Victoria Wood became more aware of this than most as she got to be a ‘roving reporter’ for the day. Commenting that she might just be the luckiest of them all, Victoria got to visit her classmates in their various locations and see what they were up to. 

Here’s her story:

Rangers for a day – by Victoria Woo

Fiordland College Year 11 students were lucky enough to be the first rangers for a day. We got to work alongside DOC staff and gain an insight into what their many and varied jobs entail. 

One of the team members from DOC approached careers counsellor Mrs Humphries a few weeks earlier to ask if we wanted to work-shadow a DOC ranger for a day. We were pleased that Mrs Humphries accepted as we were eager to take part. On the day, the parent of a sick student rang up the school to notify them that their child would not be able to attend, however he was so eager to take part he turned up at the last minute! 

Daniel Carruthers adds a special pellet mix to the hoppers
in the takahe enclosure

The tasks that we experienced included fixing vehicles and machinery at the DOC workshop, gardening and feeding native birds at Te Anau Wildlife Centre, assisting with the takahe recovery programme at Burwood Bush, checking didymo cleaning stations around Lake Manapouri, servicing and re-setting traps on the Kepler track, carrying out compliance checks on the Milford Road, publishing articles for the DOC website, assisting with jobs in the Visitor Information Centre and undertaking a river survey of whio/blue duck with the help of a specially trained dog.  

Matte Servaty teams up with rangers Richard Kindsey and Lynsey Murray
to carry out didymo checks around Lake Manapouri

A group of students also got to carry out maintenance work on the track at Tui Bay using a range of machinery under close supervision. This team shifted over eight cubic metres of gravel in under three hours. That’s twice the size of an average 4WD truck, and they did all this with only a ten minute lunch break. “This dedication is outstanding” said DOC ranger Ken Bradley. 

Barlow Rewita helps to shift gravel

There is no doubt that the other teams have put in the same amount of effort. DOC ranger Catherine Brimecombe said “giving people an insight can sometimes inspire them, and sharing the experience will help this grow”. With the positive ‘can do attitude’ of Fiordland College students DOC is hoping to make ‘Ranger for a day’ a permanent fixture in the annual calendar.  

The day with the team at DOC was inspiring for us all, but it was even more significant for our four exchange students, three of them from Germany and one from Thailand. This was the perfect opportunity for them to find out what living in Fiordland is all about and just what New Zealand has to offer right outside their back door. 

We all seized the experience the DOC team gave us and would recommend this opportunity to everyone. A lot of memories were made, including 15 year old Daniel Carruthers who got sat on by hungry kakas while feeding them breakfast. 

Some students were caught in action by our photographer Julia, and you can see these pictures on the Kids Restore the Kepler website.  

Julia Cruz sets about making a photographic slideshow of the day

“We were all thinking that we’d be turned into greenies,” said Julia Cruz. “However, DOC has showed us what it takes to have a job like this, and that it’s based on working as a team, building ideas together and getting the community in on it too.  It’s a really positive work place that we can all contribute to,” she added.

In Southland, Volunteers , , , , ,
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Raoul Island Diaries: Batten down the hatches

DOC on Raoul Island —  22/08/2012

Raoul Island is one of the Kermadec Islands, about 1000km north-east of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. DOC have a small team of staff and volunteers who live on the island in relative solitude. Their main focus is controlling weeds on the island, maintaining infrastructure such as buildings, roads and tracks, and carrying out work for Met Service and GNS. 

Since the island is so remote, we get these diary entries from the team and post them up on their behalf. Today’s diary is by volunteer Prue Fairbrass.

Not a cyclone??

Today I am going to tell you about our cyclone in June which, according to the weather office was NOT a cyclone, just a deep depression.

The damaged "bomb" shed, or Met Service shed.

The storm damaged “bomb shed”, or Met Service shed

Well, it was so deep it has made a complete mess of everything here. Trees are down in every available and unavailable space – on tracks, sheds and roads.

Surveying the wreckage

The ‘bomb’ shed where the weather balloons are sent from is now an open air, roofless, door-less structure. The fire shed lost its roof and side and was tipped over, and the fuel shed is no more.

We were trapped in the hostel area with tree fall, some of which we have managed to clear, but it will take months to get it all back to normal. We have no way of getting off the island at present until Fishing Rock Road is cleared, which we are currently working on (not that I want to get off the island, as it’s a fab place here!).

Luckily the hostel itself is okay, although we lost two windows from the hospital. Leaves and branches are piled up all over the place so it is an effort to go anywhere, but each day things are a bit better.

Are we in the outback?

The fuel shed.

The obliterated fuel shed

The saddest thing is the bush –  much of what is still standing has gone brown with the wind and salt spray and whole areas look like Aussie – i.e. dried open bush which is fine in Australia but not here!

The vege gardens are decimated and I had just planted a whole lot of cauliflower etc. The lawns have gone yellow and look as if they have been sprayed with weed killer.  Oh well, at least we were all okay.

The early settlers had several storms as well as rats and goats to contend with. It must have been devastating for them as all their food supplies would be wiped out. Arkwright’s (named after the TV series which I think was called ‘Open all Hours’) is our food store and was undamaged so we can eat ourselves happy!

Shutdowns and sun cards

The upended fire shed.

The upended fire shed

About the meteorological side of things. The buildings here are owned by the Met Service and leased by DOC. We are contracted to do certain weather readings 365 days of the year and send up weather balloons.

This is done by the DOC staff only (as a volunteer I don’t have to do this.) We have a roster for those doing this and also for “shutdown” (which I do), which consists of turning off the computers and putting them in a warmed cupboard as it gets very moist here, turning off the Met Service computer and doing the ‘sun card’.

The sun card is a most fascinating piece. There is a structure with a big glass ball on top. Behind this ball is an area to put a piece of thick paper (the sun card) and each day the sun shines through this ball and burns the card. This is sent to the Met office whenever we can get mail to them which is probably about every six months. It is probably an out-of-date thing to do but I am no authority on this.

Oranges on the ground.

Oranges, oranges everywhere!

Every cloud has a silver lining

There was one good thing that came out of the storm – I had been eyeing up the oranges at the top of the tree (why is it the best ones are always at the top?) wondering how to get them down.

I have picked up nine fish bins of them since the storm with about 150 oranges per bin and the pukekos, ants and tuis are having a ball with the rest.

Raoul Island oranges are famous for their juiciness and taste. They don’t look that great but they taste marvelous. I am making a bucket a day into juice – yum.

Well, this is but one of many experiences I am having on Raoul Island. It is an amazing place and I am having a ball here.

In Auckland, Islands, Raoul Island, Volunteers , , ,
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