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Archives For 30/11/1999

Raoul Island Diaries: The boss has arrived!

DOC on Raoul Island —  09/09/2011
Pair of Tasman boobies, North Meyer Island.

Pair of Tasman boobies, North Meyer Island

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 Raoul Island Ranger – Threats (Weeds), Biodiversity & Mechanic, Tim Butcher.

The Otago arrives

Usually for me, the month of May means one thing—duck shooting! This year however, May brought with it a whole new variety of activities. It was early in the month that the HMNZS Otago arrived for our resupply.

HMNZS Otago near Raoul Island.

The HMNZS Otago steaming to Raoul Island

On board, along with our food and gear for the next six months, were our winter vollies, aka volunteers (a cyclone clean up crew), the Minister of Conservation and her party, a group of artists, a representative from the Pew environment group, two radio presenters and two sparkies (one of which was our DOC staff member from Warkworth, Paul Rennie).

A busy day of unloading saw everything and everyone landed on the island. The artists and the Minister set about exploring the island as they were here for only two days.

The short period of the Otago’s stay was a busy time; we were not used to having so many people to talk to! We were joined on shore by the Commanding Officer of the Otago on the day before their departure. We had organised a lunch and presentations for the VIPs which was held on the front lawn. I was a little concerned about giving a speech to the big boss (aka the Minister!), but it all went off without a hitch.

The next day we once again manned the fox (the flying fox, that is) and derrick and offloaded everyone’s gear. It was somewhat tricky with a solid northerly swell coming into Fishing Rock. To offload the people we had to launch our lancer (boat) with Toby driving and Zarak assisting. They were able to get right up to the rocks to pick people up and then deliver them to the Navy inflatable. No one went in the drink and Toby and Zarak did a mighty job pretending they were on Piha rescue!

Kermadec petrel chick, North Meyer Island.

Kermadec petrel chick, North Meyer Island

It was then time to say goodbye to our summer vollies Nigel, Maree and Terry. We were all sad to see them go as we’d had many a great time with them over the summer. They put a huge effort into the weed programme and into looking after the island.

Other ships in our waters

While the Otago was here we also had the Braveheart and Tranquil Image floating around with groups of scientists checking out the underwater life (as well as some who came ashore to catch insects and look at plants). Three boats out at the Meyer Islands all at once! Madness! The findings of the research conducted will be very interesting.

The clean up crew

Now that the Otago had left, we had a few extras for a month or so. The cyclone clean up crew (Mike, Zarak and Ian) got to work on cleaning up Boat Cove Road, which was hit hard by fallen trees and slips during the cyclone. After that they tidied up some other tracks and also repaired the derrick shed. They got through a mountain of work that would have taken us the rest of our time here to complete otherwise.

Tasman booby preening, North Meyer Island.

Tasman booby preening, North Meyer Island

The two Pauls got stuck into testing wiring, replacing fuse boards, digging holes, listening to Frank Sinatra and putting my tools were I couldn’t find them. As well as all this activity, we were getting the new vollies (Ed, Amy, Danielle and James) up to speed with the things that go on here.

The time with the extra people on the island was pretty fun. Mike celebrated his birthday during that time so a traditional dress up party was a must.

Out to the Meyers

A trip to the Meyers was a highlight of the month. We had two bird recorders to install—one on North Meyer and one on South Meyer. I spent most of the day sitting on the hill taking photos of the sea birds.

There were thousands of Kermadec petrels of all colour phases nesting, many with chicks ranging from newly hatched to bordering on being fully fledged. Hopping around between the nests were several kakariki.

There were still a good number of red-tailed tropic birds nesting on the cliffs. My best experience of the day came when a pair of Tasman boobies landed about three metres away from me. Without a care in the world they went about their business of preening and calling to each other. One was picking up small stones and sticks and giving them to the other as little gifts. Maybe a stick is the booby equivalent of a bunch of flowers?

There was also a juvenile that repeatedly flew low overhead, looking in on proceedings, but it never landed. At one stage, one from the pair walked to within a metre of me a stood there looking at me with a quizzical look on its face. Several hundred photos and a few hours later I left them to their business (even though they didn’t seem to care I was there) and headed back to the boat.

Red tailed tropic bird on nest.

Red tailed tropic bird on nest

From there we headed to South Meyer to install the second recorder. Once again it was covered with nesting Kermadec petrels. An interesting find was a recently deceased Kermadec little shearwater.

And back to normal life

Apart from our weekend activities, the hard work of running an island continues. There is always something that requires attention. But that’s what makes the job so diverse and interesting!

In Auckland, Islands, Native animals, Raoul Island, Volunteers , , , ,
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Jobs at DOC: Hunter, Kim Dawick

Department of Conservation —  22/08/2011

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 look at DOC hunter, Kim Dawick:

Kim (left), with his dogs Jake, Fleur and Jesse, and Joe Gurnick (right), with his dogs Girl and Storm. Te Mata Hut

At work…

Name: Kim Dawick

Position: Ranger – Hunter Supervisor, Waikato hunting team

What kind of things do you do in your role?

I work as part of a seven person hunting team. We hunt the remote back country culling goats; occasionally we also control pigs and deer if they are causing problems to other work programmes. We camp together in huts, tents or bivies for ten day runs and then we come out for a four day rest period.

My main role is to support the hunters. It’s a very strategic position where I try to have everything organised in advance, accommodating the individual needs of six others who will all be away from home for ten days without communication. If I’m doing my job properly I should have pre-empted all the possible contingencies and the hunters should think that I’ve done nothing at all. But if I’m failing in my role… all hell breaks loose and nothing goes to plan with seven people on “hurry up and wait’’ or worst case we are stuck in isolation with inadequate equipment.

Two of Kim's favourite former goat dogs, Jimmy and Jesse, holding hands

In our team we collectively own 21 dogs. To maintain high standards we put all newly recruited dogs through a rigorous selection and training process, but unfortunately only about 20% of the dogs we trial ever eventuate into anything special. Those dogs in the upper percentile that do make the cut are worth their weight in gold and no dollar value can be put on them, as by this time at least two years of intensive hunting/training has been invested in them. Our dogs are part of the family and we really look after them—they are the real hunters and we just follow them around in the bush to take their glory.

What is the best part about your job?

We work off track, and go to places so remote that very few people will ever venture. I get to work with real characters; it takes a special person to be able to do this job. But one thing they all have in common is that they are all honest, tough people who measure the value of a person by their loyalty and the amount of work they can do in a day.

What is the hardest part about your job?

It’s a tough job, period.

Gentle Annie in Te Mata. Dogs are Beau, Jimmy, Jesse and Jake and the ‘’Where’s Wally’’ hiding near the waterfall is Joe Gurnick

Where we work there is no cell phone reception, no internet, no heaters, no electricity, no refrigeration, no toilets, no corner store or supermarkets. We have to be successful at our job or we would go hungry because we rely on getting some of the meat from the animals we hunt due to lack of refrigeration. Often the only way out is a pre-scheduled helicopter ride in ten days time. We walk for eight hours a day, all completely off track without a break for ten days in a row, and often team members will hunt in excess of 12-hour a days in the summer months and they never collect TOIL. But when it’s your passion it never quite feels like work (in the conventional way).

We spend ten days away from our families—this means that the hunters only see their wives and children for 26, four-day periods a year! Our families are stuck in the real world paying the bills, getting kids to school, working in their own jobs and dealing with all the issues of raising a family by themselves, while we are away completely out of contact. It’s very hard on relationships and many marriages don’t survive. But, given the high risk nature of hunting, we try to look after each other as much as we can and because of this there is a comradery amongst the hunters that I’ve never witnessed in any other career.

What led you to your role in DOC?

After high school I qualified as a mechanical engineer, then did a post graduate Diploma in Teaching. I worked for a couple of years in both roles however, I was never happy in these careers. Whilst on my OE (teaching in London) my wife stumbled onto a job advertising for a couple wanted for work in Scotland. We had no idea what we were getting into and just hoped that it wasn’t a dodgy b-grade porn film! It turned out that they needed a nanny and someone to work the ‘farm’. It was quite fortuitous—the ‘farm’ turned out to be a castle game estate that ran driven pheasant shoots and deer stalking. I worked in this role for about 18 months and decided that I could never go back to teaching or engineering again… I was hooked on hunting for a living, so it was a natural progression for me to end up securing a job within a DOC hunting team upon my return to New Zealand in 2004.

After 18 days hunting in gorse in the Coromandel with zero goats for a four man team, Kim struck the jackpot and shot 19 in one mob. Dogs are Jake, Jimmy, Fleur and Jesse

What was the highlight of your month just gone?

This month I’ve been doing my planning for the year ahead, organising logistics, landowner permissions and putting out tenders for goat control. I wouldn’t call it an exciting month.

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. Family
  2. Dogs
  3. The ease at which we can experience so many interesting things in New Zealand

Three pet peeves

  1. Laziness
  2. Quitters 
  3. Liars

Three foods

  1. Banana Swiss Maid dairy food
  2. Goody goody gumdrops ice cream
  3. Meat

Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. Coromandel
  2. Marlborough Sounds
  3. Matawai

Favourite movie, album, book

  1. Donnie Darko
  2. Anything ‘’unplugged’’
  3. More of a magazine reader than a novel reader… it suits my short attention span.

Jake (the Muss) and Xena bailing a nanny goat, Whareorino

Deep and meaningful

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

Relax, you’ll find a job that you enjoy doing.

Who or what inspires you and why?

People who stand up for what they truly believe in, even if it’s unpopular.

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

Umm tall and good looking? Oh you mean: an engineer, a pilot or a hunter… two out of three isn’t too bad eh?

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

Stay at home dad? Although this is most likely a bit like hunting for a living… everyone wants to do it, until they actually try it.

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

As a goat hunter we tend to defend our honour a lot by denying any involvement between man and beast. However, if you want me to play this game I may as well be at the top of the food chain and choose to be a falcon. I guess it combines two out of three from that other question before about what I wanted to be when I grew up!

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

Get out there and do it. It’s a sad indictment, but I hardly ever meet New Zealanders in the bush. Probably 85% of the people I meet in the bush are tourists using our walking tracks, 5% would be New Zealand tramping clubs made up of senior citizens (good on you, you’re much tougher than our PS3 playing teenage couch potatoes) and 10% would be hunters. Pretty sad really that we pay for all these huts and walking tracks with our taxes and the average New Zealander doesn’t even know they exist, or choose to go there.

In Animal pests, Hunting, Jobs at DOC, Waikato , , , ,
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Jobs at DOC: Kiwi ranger and rodent dog handler, Miriam Ritchie

Department of Conservation —  15/08/2011

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 look at kiwi ranger and rodent dog handler, Miriam Ritchie:

At work:

Miriam Ritchie holding a kiwi

Name:  Miriam Robin Deans Ritchie

Job:  Kiwi ranger and rodent dog handler, Whangarei Area Office

Describe your role

I have two part-time roles: I monitor kiwi in the Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary to gather data for a long-term study of Northern North Island Brown Kiwi, and do some predator trapping within the sanctuary. I also do surveillance and monitoring of New Zealand’s offshore islands and rodent-free mainland sites with my certified rodent dog, Occi. 

Miriam with rodent dog, Occi

What kind of work /projects are you currently involved in?

I am currently removing transmitters from most of our adult kiwi sample as our project is undergoing a major change from intensive kiwi monitoring to a community relations/kiwi vs. dog advocacy campaign. I am also spending a bit of time with my dogs in the Bay of Islands working on Project Island Song, hunting down a trickle of invading rats that are threatening the potential rat-free status of the islands.

What led you to your current role in DOC?

Hard work, Raoul Island, persistence and taking opportunities.

Taking a helicopter ride to Three Kings Island

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. Bush
  2. Coast 
  3. Freedom

Three pet peeves

  1. Injuries
  2. Being late
  3. People trying to run me over on my bike

Miriam and Occi

Getting personal:

What three things do you always have in your refrigerator?

  1. Some greenery
  2. Cooked rice
  3. A half-eaten avocado

What was your favourite birthday present as a kid?

My first pony—her name was Kindy, and I had her ’til she died at 27 years old.

Tell us about your 15 minutes of fame

Hah, I think that’s yet to come.

Miriam with 'rodent dog'

What is your dream holiday location or activity?

A chunk of swimmable coast, some hills to sweat up and some dogs to chase.

What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

Plant things, garden, ride my bike and explore with my dogs.  

What was the most useful thing that somebody once told you?

I don’t think anyone told me this but with hard work and the will, you can do anything.

Name a book and movie you would recommend: 

Wouldn’t presume to be able to do that, people vary too much in what they like! Although…

Occi staying safe in his high visibility outfit

Book: John Salmon’s Native Trees of New Zealand, despite being a bit out of date now, is a great reference book for anyone who loves the bush. Movie: The Flying Scotsman. 

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

North Cape, Cape Reinga, Cape Maria Van Diemen—the tippy top of Northland.

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

Maybe the Kauri, being from Northland and all. They are pretty awesome in every sense!

In Animal pests, Jobs at DOC, Kiwi, Northland , , , , , ,
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Animal Health Board staff help save kakapo

Department of Conservation —  11/08/2011
For lucky Animal Health Board (AHB) staff members, District Disease Control Manager Jane Sinclair and Finance Manager Joy Tracey, the adventure of travelling to a secluded island surrounded by native birds became a reality when they won a trip to Whenua Hou/Codfish Island.

The purpose of the two week excursion to Codfish Island was to volunteer with the Kakapo Recovery programme.

Joy Tracey bravely places her finger in the mouth of adult kakapo, Rooster. While he does bite, he's known to be gentle

Jane’s experience

My adventure began when I first put my hand up at the AHB’s Christmas function auction. A few nervous minutes later and I was the proud winner of a two week stint on the kakapo sanctuary at Codfish Island. To prepare, I spent the next few Sunday mornings carrying my pack up Kakepuku—a 400-metre volcanic cone near Te Awamutu—and eating my breakfast at the top. It was hot, sticky work which ultimately proved to be worthwhile.

I arrived at the Department of Conservation quarantine office in Invercargill, where all my possessions were carefully inspected for seeds, dirt and mice. We were then put in an impossibly small plane (with just one pilot and three passengers) on our way to Codfish Island. We touched down at the landing on the beach at Sealers Bay.

As you might expect, Codfish Island has no roads and can only be reached by light plane or helicopter. The island is a specially protected nature reserve and no unauthorised landing is permitted. Flights in and out of the island are carefully managed to avoid any unwanted pests that could stowaway and cause untold destruction on the kakapo community

On our arrival, there was a mad scramble to off-load our gear as another group was ready to disembark the island. We were given an induction on what our roles would entail and the following day we each headed out with a map to tackle the feed-out run. Here’s where my Sunday morning training sessions came into effect. Carrying a 13 kilogram pack, it took me seven hours to complete that first day and I was seriously wondering how I would cope for a full two weeks.

After a great cup of tea and a good night’s sleep however, I was up and away the next day. I was finished in just under five hours and felt completely elated. The island’s vegetation is incredibly varied, spanning large forests to knee high scrub at the 500 metre summit. Peat also makes the underfoot conditions soft and, in some places, muddy. Everywhere on the island there were tomtits, tui, kaka, bellbirds, wood pigeons, rifleman and kakariki. Feed-out runs were divided into four different routes, looking after 28 birds in total. We had every third day off.

This feed station can only be activated by the kakapo with the correct radio frequency tag

On my first day off, I was asked to help with locating and catching a 2009 born kakapo named Hillary. We headed up to the summit and used telemetry to locate a signal off the North West Hut track.

Once we thought the bird was close, it was a case of quietly manoeuvring through head high vegetation until we were on top of it. Once caught, Hillary was weighed, given a thorough health check and released. It was a magical experience to be so close to one of these magnificent birds.

I was then asked if I would like to do some nest minding and spent the next four nights in a two man tent, high up on the island, looking after Flossie’s chick. When the chicks weigh less than 500 grams, they are given extra heat at night when the mother leaves the nest. A beam-activated door bell lets you know when the mother kakapo leaves her nest.

We were privileged to see a number of little kakapo chicks, one just hours old. Most of the chicks weigh-in at various sizes and look like little balls of white fluff with a huge beak. But, it goes without saying, they are incredibly cute

A small battery powered duvet is then placed over the chick and lifted every 10 minutes to ensure it is okay. Telemetry is used to indicate when the mother is returning and infra-red recordings of the nest are made and reviewed every 24 hours.

The dedication of the rangers was truly inspiring. When they’re on the island it is a 24-hour commitment over the entire month. They would literally run up the hill at any time of the night to check on a chick’s wellbeing. I must say, my two weeks on Codfish Island came to an end all too quickly.

I left feeling the fittest I‘ve ever been and encouraged that the kakapo are in such excellent hands. The work being carried out is achieving wonderful results, with 11 chicks that wouldn’t have survived without intervention this year. I have every confidence in the long-term future of this remarkable bird.

Written by Jane Sinclair for TB Matters.

One kakapo manages to slip in some dinner

In Native animals, Southland, Volunteers , ,
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Seal drops in for a spa

Department of Conservation —  27/07/2011

By Laura Boren, Senior Technical Support Officer – Marine Mammals, Department of Conservation

Every winter there will be a few young NZ fur seals who find themselves in interesting places, often to the surprise and amusement of the people who stumble across them.

It’s a common occurrence – they are just coming ashore to rest and will move on in their own time.

This fur seal pup found a cosy position by a spa pool in the Marlborough Sounds community of Anakiwa. The exciting thing for me was that the spa pool belonged to friends of my family. So, on a Sunday afternoon I received an excited phone call from the Biggs family asking me what they should do.

Seal pup relaxing by the spa

“If it’s not interfering with anything just leave it,” I said.

“Enjoy it while it’s there – just give it some space because at this time of the year it might not be in great condition and will want to rest.

“It’ll leave when it’s ready,” I assured them.

Later that day I had an equally excited phone call from my parents. My father had been to see the seal pup and had taken several photos. From the photos we could confirm that it was one of this year’s pups, and was likely to have weaned early – seal pups usually wean around 10 months of age, but this one would only be about 7 months old.

So, the pup hung around for the afternoon, resting next to the warm spa pool and, just as suspected, the following morning was gone.

Read ‘Seal drops in for a spa’ story on www.stuff.co.nz

Watch a video on the DOC website about how the NZ fur seal is making a return from the brink of extinction

In Marine, Native animals, Nelson/Marlborough , , , , ,
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