Return to Whenua Hou (Codfish Island)

Living on Rakiura comes with so many benefits. Spring is a lovely season anywhere but I'm blown away by the increase in bird activity here. Yesterday I would have seen over 50 tui, a score of kaka and kereru and several korimako (bellbirds) during the walk to my rat line and home again and heard my second pipiwharauroa (shining cuckoo) of the season this morning. What a buzz!

My big news of the week was experiencing my first helicopter trip across to Whenua Hou last Thursday. A frosty start turned into a stunning sunny and calm day, just perfect flying conditions topped off by being offered a seat up front the Rakiura Helicopters Hughes 500. I'll let the photos do the talking!

Paterson Inlet with Mason Bay (white strip) in background

Closer view of Mason Bay

About to fly over West Ruggedy Beach on way to
Whenua Hou (Codfish Island)

Whenua Hou helipad

Sealers Bay Hut

It was a wonderful ride and was much quicker than I thought it would be. We had great views of Paterson Inlet, the Ruggedy Range and Mason Bay - I took quite a lot of video footage but haven't downloaded it from the camera yet.

The reason for going over to Codfish was to search for Hieracium pilocella or Mouse-eared hawkweed (recently renamed to Pilocella officinarum). There's a good description of it on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieracium_pilosella. DOC's plan to eradicate the weed on Codfish means annual visits to grid search the sand dunes on Sealers Bay: the weed team lines up on the beach between two red poles and makes its way through the dunes to the bush line, guided by red poles every 20 metres or so. There is a lot of crawling on hands and knees and the phrase 'like looking for a needle in a haystack' came to mind many times!! When Hieracium was found it was marked with a waypoint on our GPS and sprayed. When we reached the end of one line, the eastern red marker leap-frogged the western one and we started all over again.

Hieracium pilosella (left), dandelion on right

No Hieracium here!!

Looking west along Sealers Bay - the red markers show our next line

Looking east along Sealers Bay - what's already been done

The best office view in the world! Having lunch
on Sealers Bay, looking over to the Ruggedies

The last time I was on Whenua Hou it was very busy due to kakapo breeding time and Sirocco was paying nightly visits to the hut. This time was a lot more relaxed; there were only 9 of us at the hut and Sirocco is entertaining Wellingtonians and visitors at Zealandia until the end of October - well worth a visit to see him if you're up that way, more information at http://www.visitzealandia.com/Site/Zealandia_Home/Inside/Whats_On/Sirocco_the_kakapo_at_ZEALANDIA_Karori_Sanctuary/home.aspx

The hut is very comfortable and the lounge/dining/kitchen area was transformed into a home cinema for the weekend quarterfinal RWC matches. The dress-up bag was brought out and everyone dressed up on Saturday night in their favoured team colours; my green dress didn't help the Irish though!! Anna gave a great felting demonstration on Thursday night and we watched the movie 'The Way Back' on Friday night. Fun times and a great bunch of people to be with. The weather was perfect; the only rain we had fell overnight so didn't delay our weed search and the chopper ride back to Oban was another great experience.

Early morning in the Sealers Bay Hut

Peace and solitude on Whenua Hou

Western end of Sealers Bay taken from the sandy area
in the photo above

Freshwater River with Paterson Inlet in background

Back home at Fern Gully Heliport

Mixed bag

We've had great weather here lately; sunny skies and mild temperatures and mostly calm except for last Tuesday when we had some strong gusts of wind. One of them was too strong for my TV aerial which snapped its bracket and toppled on to the deck roof, fortunately without damaging the Clearlite. After several minutes of looking at all angles, I've decided it's a bit hard for me to disconnect the cable and lift it gently up off the Clearlite and will leave it to the experts - it's an opportune time to replace it with a satellite dish and Freeview receiver; my TV has a built in receiver but apparently it's only a terrestrial one, not satellite.

Raylene's dog, Mac, came to stay with me overnight; the first time I've had a dog to look after on my own. I had nothing to worry about though as he found the blanket in front of the fire and I didn't hear another peep from him!

Mac, the sleeping beauty

I've been finding lots of feathers around my rat line tracks and last week saw what appeared to be a wild cat near one of the traps. I checked the traps again on Saturday and found the remains of a freshly-killed kereru and brought them home to bury. The two wings were still joined together and I took the opportunity of having a detailed look and took photos to capture the iridescent colours. Hard to capture with a digital camera but in real life they were amazing. Update 20.10.11 - the wild cat, a large tom, was captured in a live-trap cage a week or so ago. His stomach was stuffed with feathers so great to know that he's been trapped and disposed of.

Kereru wing feathers

I wish I knew more about anatomy and flight dynamics as each feather seemed to be engineered differently from its neighbour.

I'm off to Codfish Island (Whenua Hou) on Thursday and was told today that we're going by helicopter! This is a new experience for me and one which I've been waiting to cross off my bucket list for a long time. We go through a stringent quarantine process to go to the island and I've spent this evening washing all the gear I'm taking in Trigene - an antibacterial/antiviral solution. Last time I went I had to wash my sleeping bag too but fortunately bedding is now supplied - it took several days to get my down sleeping bag totally dry in the NP summer sunshine so very relieved I don't have to do it here. I will be taking my camera so hope to share the experience with you.

Whenua Hou - the hut is by Sealers Bay

I'm back barberry hunting and today James found the biggest barberry tree I've seen yet - a base of maybe 50-60cm diameter with 6 large branches growing from the base and reaching a height of 3-4m. We decided that it was too big to cut down with our Silky saws (folding bow saws) and will get it chainsawed instead. Lots of barberry in the area we were checking and I'm sure it deliberately grows in the most difficult areas to access. If your idea of fun is fighting through supplejack and bush lawyer, slithering through mud and being eaten alive by sandflies then come and join us on the weeds team!

Update 11.10.11 - Here's a photo of the above-mentioned barberry stump - it couldn't be chainsawed at the widest part of the stump but it's still impressive.

Barberry giant - upside down and sitting on a chair.

Sunshine and snow

Up early this morning, drew back the curtains and was surprised with a snowy deck! I hadn't lit the fire last night as it was warm inside after a sunny afternoon and although the temperature had dropped overnight, it certainly didn't seem cold enough for snow. I'm sure my veges would have an easier life if I had a tunnel house!

I was on Ulva Island duties again this weekend - the second poison bait drop happened last Tuesday and the tracks need to be checked for baits which may have dropped from the canopy overnight. This morning I caught the water taxi at Golden Bay at 8.30am, walking very carefully on the icy jetty, and walked the tracks to Boulder Beach and West End Beach. The weather ranged from sleety rain to hot sunshine meaning I was warm in my 3 layers of clothing for the rain and hankering for a t-shirt when the sun shone! Here's some pics of this beautiful jewel which will hopefully be rat-free again from now on.

Ulva Island signpost

West End Beach - Mt Rakeahua (with a snowy top) is
in the background

Post Office Cove

Can you see the bodies/faces in these rocks?

Ulva Island has lots of birdlife and lovely native bush - check these out...

Native spider orchid

Kaka demolishing a branch

Flowering rata

Plenty of surprises still from my new home - tell you more about it soon.

Fern Gully Track

The second track I walked was to Fern Gully which starts at the end of Main Road and takes about an hour for the return trip (or about 2 hours from the Visitors' Centre and back).

Fern Gully Track - 2 hours return from the Visitors' Centre
- map courtesy of Google Maps

It's a very pretty track zig-zagging Mill Creek which explains the muddier track and lots of boardwalk. It's relatively flat and there are five bridges to cross with the reward of a clearing and wooden seat at the end of the track. It's been classified as a Tramping Track in the DOC brochure (challenging tramping, track may be rough and muddy) and I'd definitely recommend tramping boots for it - or be extra-careful about walking on the boardwalk if wearing walking shoes/trainers.

Fern Gully Track start (end of Main Road)

Bridge across Mill Creek on Fern Gully Track

Mill Creek

Clearing at the end of Fern Gully Track - the wooden seat
is the light patch in the middle of the photo

During WWII residents planned on hiding their children at Fern Gully if the island was invaded. Mill Creek is fast-flowing so would offer plenty of fresh water; deer could well have been on the menu as there appeared to be plenty of deer tracks in the clearing yesterday. The sign warns that this is the end of the track and that Day Visitors should not proceed beyond this point - there's a lot of bush to get lost in if you do!

I've got a couple more tracks to walk to complete all the listed short walks in the brochure - I was tempted to do Kaipipi yesterday as well but it looks too interesting to do in a hurry so will save that for another time. Garden Mound (4-5 hours return trip from the village) and Maori Beach tracks (6-7 hours) are both over the other side of town so nice to save for a long summer's day. I'll also have to do the 3 day/2 night Rakiura Track (one of the Great Walks) - but think I'll leave the 10-12 day North West Circuit for younger, fitter bodies!!

Ryans Creek Track

Tuesday and Wednesday this week were gloriously sunny days so a great time to experience two of the walks listed in DOC's 'Stewart Island/Rakiura Short Walks' brochure. I've been doing my Visitors Centre training every morning this week and knowing the walks in the brochure makes it much easier to recommend walks to visitors.

I finished my morning's work and walked along Golden Bay and Thule (pronounced thoolee) Roads to the start of the Ryans Creek Track. Each turn of the road brings new views across Paterson Inlet/Whaka a Te Wera - here's a few pics from yesterday...

Golden Bay Road

Thule Bay

Thule Bay

Vaila Voe Bay

I did the track in a clockwise direction, starting at Vaila Voe Bay and walking through to Main Road. The track winds around the coastline to Ryans Creek, then heads inland past the airfield. Most of the track is in bush as the sides are too steep and slippery to walk along the water's edge but occasionally it comes down to wee beaches where you can get good views.

Ryans Creek Track, courtesy of Google Maps

Far side of Vaila Voe Bay

The track is gravelled, well marked and relatively easy walking - it's up and down as it follows the coastline and there's a couple of muddy patches and a fallen tree to walk round. I wore tramping boots but it would be fine to do in walking shoes or trainers if it's not wet.

Ryans Creek Track

Ryans Creek

Picnic table near Ryans Creek mudflats

Ryans Creek Track - turn left for Kaipipi and North Arm,
straight through for Main Road back to the village

The round trip from the Visitors' Centre is 3½-4 hours at a comfortable walking speed - a lovely way to spend my afternoon.

September Surprises

I had two big surprises on Thursday - in the morning I was asked if I'd like to go to Codfish Island (Whenua Hou) with the Weeds Team in early October. Would I what!!!! It will be magic to go back to the island that started off my dream to live amongst the bush and birdsong.

My second surprise came in the afternoon when I was offered the casual ranger position at the Visitors' Centre which I'd applied for. I start my training tomorrow and am looking forward to being shown the ropes by the friendly team that keep everything running so smoothly.

I am so lucky to be living my dream AND getting paid for it! My work with the Weeds Team and the Visitors' Centre is on a casual (as required) basis which suits me down to the ground; I'm certainly more productive when I know that I've got work coming up otherwise I tend to let the days slip by without achieving much more than a widening grin :).

My museum stint last weekend went fine; I spent most of the time having a good look round to familiarise myself with what was displayed. It's another must-see place for visitors interested in the history of the island. The proposed new museum would result in double the display space so that items currently in storage could also be on show.

Rakura Museum

I wrapped up the week with checking my rat lines and, as the sun was shining brightly, I took my camera along so I could share the experience with you!

Walk up Peterson's Hill Road, then through the bush walk...

...to Deep Bay (at low tide)

Trap 24 on DB1 line

Trap 27 on DB1 line

Trap 35 on DB1 line

View from the top at the end of DB1 line

The second line (DB2) runs from the top of the hill and back over the ridge to Deep Bay. There are 54 traps and a number of them needed to be rebaited as the bait was starting to go mouldy. Two rats were caught this time, both adult females, one a kiore and the other a ship's rat.

I went to Raylene's after checking the traps and just as well I had my camera with me as a tui visited one of her trees in blossom and was so focused on sipping nectar that he allowed me to get quite close. Patience is definitely a virtue though as most of my photos were blurred as he darted from one flower to the next but I was finally rewarded with this shot...

Kia ora manu