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Archives For 30/11/1999

Kiwi Ranger – at a place near you!

Sarah Mankelow —  14/12/2011

Kiwi Ranger is a fun, interactive programme for kids of all ages – from 3 to 103! It’s a great way for families to explore new places together and learn something as well as having heaps of fun. Each Kiwi Ranger place has its own booklet full of fun activities and walks to do, developed by Mick Abbott and Carli Richter of Shades of Green. Complete the activities to earn a badge – unique to each location – and the title of Kiwi Ranger.

Blank Kiwi Ranger badge.

Blank Kiwi Ranger badge

It’s only in the South Island so far, but with more sites coming on board, it will soon be at a place near you!

In fact, 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

Check out the badges for the current sites below for some ideas-and to plan your next family holiday!

Aoraki/Mt Cook Kiwi Ranger badge

Aoraki/Mt Cook Kiwi Ranger badge

Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park

Come and marvel at high snow covered peaks–including Aoraki/Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. Experience stunning glaciers and lakes filled with huge icebergs. Take the Scavenger hunt challenge to explore the park and track down its special features in all its nooks and crannies. Spot amazing plants, birds and animals in the stained glass windows in the Visitor Centre.

Come and be an Aoraki/Mt Cook Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the national park visitor centre.

Kids say…
“I am going to reuse, recycle, reduce and limit the amount of water I use” 
“I pledge to promote our beautiful surroundings and protect our country”

Arthur's Pass Kiwi Ranger badge.

Arthur's Pass Kiwi Ranger badge

Arthur’s Pass

Kea, kiwi and kakariki are some of the incredible New Zealand birds you may hear or spot on your Arthur’s Pass Kiwi Ranger adventure – in our old alpine village high in the Southern Alps.

Close your eyes and fill up your senses by finding a spot where you can smell the spray from the Devils Punchbowl waterfall; or take your shoes off and, very gently, let the moss between your toes. Interview a ranger to find out how you can help the clever kea keep out of trouble, or come and join in the Kea Krypton Challenge as part of our summer programme  in January 2012.

Come and be an Arthur’s Pass Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the national park visitor centre on SH 73, Arthur’s Pass village.

 Kids say….
“I will plant trees and flowers for the bees”
“I won’t have long showers, and I will tell my mum to use organic cleaners” 

Franz Josef Kiwi Ranger badge.

Franz Josef Kiwi Ranger badge

Franz Josef

Franz Josef is a really special place with a huge icy glacier right next to lush green rainforest… and then the beach is really close to that! Great walks will take you to all these places – even to Okarito – ‘O’ for awesome!

It’s a great place to Rock on! Take two river rocks to make your own rockflour fingerprints! It’s raining its pouring? Make your own rain gauge to discover why they call it rainforest!

Come and be a Franz Josef Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the national park visitor centre 13 State Highway 6.

 Kids say …
“I liked finding out which trees grow on the West Coast compared to where I live on the other side of the mountains”

Orokonui Ecosanctuary.

Orokonui Ecosanctuary

 Orokonui Ecosanctuary

Journey into our forest of knowledge. Experience lush cloud forest and behold a myriad of rare birds and plants – including kaka, robin, saddleback, kiwi and rifleman. Walk through our pest-resistant fence and go back in time to a world without mammalian predators. Stretch your ears and do a sound map of bird song or find water creatures in the streams and ponds.

Come and be an Orokonui Ecosanctuary Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the Ecosanctuary visitor centre.

 Kids say…
“I will make bird feeders”
“I will not let our native animals go extinct.  I will kill pests.” 

Nelson Lakes Kiwi Ranger badge.

Nelson Lakes Kiwi Ranger badge

Nelson Lakes

 It’s amazing to stop and listen to tui and korimako/bellbird singing in the forests of Nelson Lakes – how they combine with the whoosh of wings, whispering winds or the lapping of waves on nearby Lake Rotoiti to create a symphony of sound.

A sound map is just one of the fun things to do here as part of Kiwi Ranger – or you can get up close and personal with eels/tuna, taste the sweet honeydew and more.

Come and be a Nelson Lakes Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at the Nelson Lakes Visitor Centre.  

Kids say…
“I will cut pine trees down and shoot pests”  

Mt Aspiring Kiwi Ranger badge.

Mt Aspiring Kiwi Ranger badge

Mt Aspiring

Mt Aspiring National Park is part of the Te Wähipounamu South West New Zealand World Heritage Area which means it’s so special that protecting it concerns all people. Explore what lives in its high mountains, remote wilderness and river valleys by becoming a forest detective, doing a scavenger hunt or pinpointing pesky pests. Be creative and sketch your favourite rock – how did it become that shape? Check out other kids having heaps of Kiwi Ranger fun in our new video!

Come and be a Mt Aspiring Kiwi Ranger! Pick up your booklet at Mt Aspiring National Park (Wanaka) and Makarora visitor centres.

Kids say…
“I will never feed kea”
“I will make sure my cat never hurts birds”

In Canterbury, National parks, Nelson/Marlborough, Old Conservation Week posts, Otago, Recreation, West Coast
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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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Mark Carwardine: Putting NZ on the wildlife tourism map

Lizzy Sutcliffe —  23/11/2011

By Lizzy Sutcliffe

British conservationist, photographer and presenter (and all-round good-guy), Mark Carwardine, is once again in New Zealand undertaking a whistle-stop tour of some of the best wildlife attractions the country has to offer.

Well-known for inspiring the sexual advances of another conservation hero – Sirocco the Kakapo – Mark is here to put New Zealand on the map as a wildlife destination for tourists coming from the UK.

His visit will highlight our ‘Small 5’ (as opposed to Africa’s ‘Big 5’) – species that tourists can expect to see on a two-week visit – Hector’s dolphins, tuatara, kiwi, kea and yellow-eyed penguins.

I caught up with him this week when he was in Akaroa to meet and photograph our very own Hector’s dolphins.

Hector’s dolphins* © Mark Carwardine

Meeting at DOC’s Akaroa Field Base in miserable southerly weather, the day did not appear to brim with photography opportunities. Mark, Area Manager Bryan Jensen, Ranger (and boat captain) Derek Cox and myself all set out through the clouds and surf to the head of Akaroa Harbour to see if we could find the, often elusive, dolphins – and we were not disappointed.

As the sea became rougher, the dolphins flocked to visit the only boat game enough to be out in the conditions. Groups of between two and six Hector’s would surf the waves as they rolled towards us, ducking under the boat at the last minute and then turn around to repeat their fun.

Frustratingly, despite this brilliant display, it appeared the weather was not going to be so cooperative and driving rain soon set in making photography near-impossible.

Thrilled by the antics of these rare dolphins but thwarted by the southerly, we were forced to head back to shore where we said goodbye to Mark who’s next stop was Wilderness Lodge in Arthur’s Pass to meet more friendly New Zealand locals – kea.

A cheeky kea on Mark's rental car! © Mark Carwardine

It was a pleasure to help Mark with his project and hear his conservation stories. For those of you not already doing so, I would recommend you catch up with the latest news from his travels by following him on Twitter.

*Mark took this photo of Hector’s dolphins in better weather on Sunday when he went out with Black Cat Cruises. We were sad to hear from him that there were several  jet skis getting far too close to the dolphins and not complying with the guideline for sharing our coasts with marine mammals. Please make sure you don’t take advantage of our friendly marine mammals and let them come to you.

In Canterbury, Marine, Native animals, Sirocco the kakapo , , ,
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Jobs at DOC: Community Relations Officer, Ron Hazeldine

Department of Conservation —  21/11/2011

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 Community Relations Officer, Ron Hazeldine

Constructing the new Denniston Experience. A must-see for everyone!

At work

Name: Ron Hazeldine (aka Hazey)

Position:  Community Relations Officer (Statutory Land Management), West Coast Conservancy, Hokitika

What kind of things do you do in your role? 

Acquisitions, disposals, exchanges, e-dealings, and I help others solve the mysteries of statutory land management functions. 

What is the best part about your job?

It’s twofold really; being part of a team whose efforts benefit conservation by acquiring high value land and disposing low conservation value land that can be used for other purposes. I also get immense satisfaction from being the Public Services Association (PSA) national delegate for the West Coast and I hope that members have benefited as a result.

Painting the old brake wheel at Denniston

What is the hardest part about your job? 

Working for DOC is great. How can that be hard? Though sometimes my crystal clear and very rational views on some subjects fall on deaf ears, so that’s probably the hardest thing I deal with.

What was your highlight from the month just gone? 

Organising a third successful fundraiser for the Hokitika Music Club at Hokitika’s Regent Theatre. Another $2,500 towards a new live sound system…

Playing at Hokitika Wild Food Festival 2010

The rule of three

Three loves

  1. My family (wife Jill and miniature poodle Pero)
  2. Country music
  3. Golf

    Mutsuki, one of six Japanese daughters we have hosted while they attend Westland High School

Three pet peeves

  1. I started too late in music (brought my first guitar in 19*# and left it in hibernation for 30 years)
  2. Golf is getting harder and harder
  3. DOC staff do not get rewarded as well as they should for the contribution they make to New Zealand

Three things always in your fridge

  1. Pepsi Max
  2. Tomato sauce
  3. Amstel Light, the best beer on the market

Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. Hokitika of course
  2. Granity
  3. Denniston in the Buller and any half decent golf course

Mt Cook in all its glory from the Hokitika Golf Links

Favourite movie, album, book

  1. Movie: I’m not a movie buff at all, but I laughed all the way through The Hangover
  2. Album: Diamonds in the Sun by Walt Wilkins, a Texan country singer
  3. Book: The latest copy of Acoustic Guitar Magazine. I am not a deep and meaningful reader like Bruce McKinlay!

Deep and meaningful

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

I don’t have many regrets but I would probably say that I should not have put my guitar in hibernation all those years ago and I definitely should not have stopped taking flying lessons.

Who or what inspires you and why?

Being a simple lad from Ruatapu, a satellite city of about 30 people 12 kms south of Hokitika, inspiration was probably an unknown commodity. But thinking about it now, watching Jack Nicklaus on a black and white telly inspired me to take up golf. In later years, working for DOC inspired me to become a PSA delegate.

Pero, around whom life revolves in our household

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

A pilot or a professional golfer. The first was too expensive and I lacked the talent for the second. Bugger!

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

I would give my eye teeth to be a professional musician. Whoops, a pink pig just flew by the window. Perhaps being a luthier making guitars is more achievable.

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

A kārearea—fast and fearless, because I am neither.

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

Conservation is vitally important to New Zealand, and it can and is contributing in many ways. But if it does not contribute economically then the risk is it will be seen as unimportant or worse, irrelevant. DOC can’t do it all. Time will tell whether or not we can convince others of the value of conservation, but it is better to have tried and failed than to not have tried at all.

In Jobs at DOC, West Coast ,
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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.

In Bay of Plenty, Jobs at DOC, Marine , , , , , , ,
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