Pakuranga College

We love having the college students over - a huge opportunity for us to pass on conservation/restoration values.
Pakuranga College visited the island during August and helped plant landscape the DoC camp ground in Home Bay. They did a
fantastic job. Ace Pakuranga College volunteer, Ben Dowdle (pictured centre left), wrote the following account:

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Motutapu Tree Planting

As we headed towards Motutapu aboard the Fullers ferry it seemed as though Pakuranga College might finally have a sunny tree planting day. We clutched our Esquires hot chocolates in our hands as the ferry moved throughout the Hauraki Gulf. We were heading out to Motutapu Island to help plant trees as part of the Motutapu Restoration Project. We were to be joined on that day by Auckland University Student Rotary, Pupuke student Rotary as well as many individuals who wanted to do their bit. Our group represented the Pakuranga College Environment Council.

While on the ferry, our teacher, Ms Arnold got talking with an Italian tourist headed for Rangitoto. Ms Arnold told him her nephew had visited Italy to play Rugby. He said he knew him. What a small world! Next thing he knew he was part of the Motutapu Tree planting group. Once Ms Arnold had finished recruiting tourists we were at the wharf and heading to our site.

The planting was in the Home Bay campground to provide shade and shelter for the people that flock to the campground during summer to enjoy the beautiful Island. For the first time in many years of island volunteer planting, the Trust organisers had arranged a site which was flat, a short walk from the wharf and right next to shelter. This made a welcome relief from some of the rather more vertical sites of previous years. After introductions from the people in charge of the trust there was a short demo where it was discovered that the ground was a shingle base which made for rather difficult digging, sadly for this demo there was no "here's one I've prepared earlier." We split into pairs to begin planting, there were 900 plants and 40 volunteers which worked out to 23 trees each.

The Motutapu restoration Project is a very exciting initiative. Many Islands in the Hauraki Gulf are replanting retired farmland and carrying out Pest eradication programmes. The Motutapu project is different, it is by far the biggest restoration project in the Hauraki Gulf and quite possibly the largest island restoration project currently ongoing anywhere in the world. Motutapu also has a rich military history having been a military base with guns emplacments during World War Two. The aim is to replant a third of the Island in natives and this is well under way with the help of many volunteer days like ours.

When we were there Motutapu was undergoing an intensive rat eradication programme which is hoped to be the final push towards making Motutapu a pest free haven for wildlife. We were to discover that Tree Planting is a social event, with many of the different student bodies mucking in together while the Motutapu trust trustees told stories of the Islands history and answered the many questions.

We had lunch on the beach and a short lived game of Beach soccer before heading back to the last native trees still without a home. It was less than an hour to finish and we were relieved and proud to have finished planting so many trees. It was off to the homestead for a Barbecue, hot drinks and last minute mingle. Then, keeping in tradition with the many previous planting days Pakuranga had been to, it began to rain, just as we were about to head for the ferry. The ferry pulled up and we made a dash for the wharf, thankful the site was so close this time.

We returned slightly wetter and certainly proud of our achievement. We will be returning next year, if not earlier. We believe the work of the Motutapu Restoration trust is a fantastic cause to spend a day planting trees for. It sure was fun, even though the weather didn't hold, but what do you expect?

Reporter Ben Dowdle
Thanks Ben, great article...