Tonganui Corridores

Clive Paton Aorangi Trust Chair, Trevor Thompson QE11 National Trust and Aaron Donges Aorangi Trust operations Manager.

An impressive project

Imagine this. You’re walking through the forest in the lower Ruamāhanga valley, somewhere near Wairarapa Moana. It’s 1821. Your ears are tuned to the calls of kōkako, kākāriki, kererū and whio. Kākā, kiwi, kārearea, and tīeke thrive here too.. The water in the river is teeming with life and the forest ecosystem is thriving, from its tiniest fungi to its dense canopy.

Now imagine this – that 100 years from now, your descendants can have exactly this same experience.

The Aorangi Restoration Trust, with the support of Project Crimson, is working to bring this vision to life. With buy-in from landowners and iwi, they have already begun establishing native forest corridors across Tonganui, the Big South. In the long term, they aim to have functioning native forest, alongside farmland, stretching from the Aorangi forest park behind Cape Palliser, across the valley floor to the Wairarapa Moana and the foothills of the Remutaka Ranges.

“The plan is to just do a bit at a time,” says Bob Burgess, Project Manager at Aorangi Trust. “To piece together a corridor, our task is to connect with as many landowners as possible, work with them to achieve their plans as well as our aim for forest corridors, provide them with whatever’s needed to make this happen, and then get in there to clear, fence, plant, and monitor.” … Continue Reading

Happy Christmas

Wishing all our readers a Happy Christmas with some nice food and good company – and hopefully sunny weather. 

Lindie, Chris, David, Mike S & Mike B

You can save a life

Blood donors give an Auckland man a chance at life

After being diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma at 14, you would have forgiven Auckland local Leroy for being bitter about the hand life dealt to him. 

But attitude is everything for this remarkable young man, who at only 21— has beaten cancer, earned a Bachelor of Communication Studies and is now Auckland Director for Generation Zero, a youth organisation aimed at cutting carbon pollution in New Zealand. Campaign Manager for Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s election campaign. And Campaign Manager  for the Chlöe Swarbick’s recent successful Auckland Central election campaign. 

T-cell lymphoma is a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that occurs when T-lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, become cancerous. In Leroy’s case the tumour started in his neck. … Continue Reading

What was this sign all about?

That street corner sign. This sign came about because during the Documentary Film Festival 2020 we watched an entertaining film entitled “Mr Toilet Man” . The story of a Singaporean business man Jack Sim who uses humour to battle against the man made crisis of not having a proper loo. It was also inspiring to see a man dedicating his life to the problem no-one talks about. 

It certainly made me aware of a world where many people have problems with hygiene, polluted rivers, but also how unsafe women are when they don’t have access to a proper toilet.

Wikipedia states that 4.2 billion people do not have proper sanitation and 673 million practice open defecation. Only because there is no alternative. They are not freedom campers

On July 24, 2013, World Toilet Day to be held on the 19th November became an official UN day. … Continue Reading