Wilderness September 2016

AT LAST, A GRAND VISION THE GOVERNMENT’S PLAN to make New Zealand predator free by 2050 is the kind of big idea that landed men on the moon. Imagine New Zealand as Maori, and even the first European explorers, found it: full of bird life, the dawn chorus heard from miles out at sea. Credit where credit is due: the late Sir Paul Callaghan first suggested the idea of making New Zealand predator free back in 2012. But whose idea it was is moot: the fact this is a stated goal, with a plan, and that has cross-party support is what matters. New Zealand is already a world leader in predator control, having eradicated mice and rats from numerous offshore islands and in fenced mainland islands. But the technological leap…

A VISION CONGRATULATIONS ON A terrific magazine. I really look forward to the great stories and photos each month. So it is with some misgiving I point out a small error in the Olivine Wilderness map (Wild Range, July 2016), but there is a story to it as well. I think Mt Edward is the unmarked peak on the other side of the Dart Glacier, and what is marked as Mt Edward is in fact Plunkett Dome. You may ask, why look so closely at this? So here is the story. Some years ago, my brother-in-law and I were walking up the West Matukituki Valley into the teeth of a howling gale to pass a few hours as my youngest daughter, her husband and a friend went up the Rob…

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The Department of Conservation has announced an ambitious plan to make New Zealand predator free by 2050. The development of a public-private partnership company, Predator Free New Zealand Limited, with $28m in government start-up money, will help fund and manage regional large-scale predator eradication programmes. DOC has set four goals which it hopes to achieve by 2025, including predator removal or suppression of an additional one million hectares, development of a new scientific method to remove at least one small mammalian predator from New Zealand entirely, to demonstrate that fences can successfully eradicate pests from 20,000ha of land, and the complete removal of all introduced predators from offshore island nature reserves. The plan builds on the work of Kiwi physicist Sir Paul Callaghan who first raised the notion of a…

The Ministry of Primary Industries has released aerial drone images of trees in Waipoua Forest displaying signs of kauri dieback disease. Jay Harkness, the communications spokesperson from MPI, said the aerial drone images are helpful to show the public the real effects of infection. “There’s all sorts of obstacles to people seeing the trees,” he said. “They might be on private property, or they might be in the middle of nowhere. An infected tree can look okay from the ground but when you get above it, it’s pretty obvious. “The photos show what the upper North Island's forests could one day look like, if we don't all clean our footwear and equipment before entering and before leaving areas with kauri, and stick to the tracks."…

1 An estimated 150,000 kea were killed during the century-long bounty system which ended in 1970 (p38). 2 The Inland Pack Track has reopened three years ahead of schedule, after Cyclone Ita destroyed the trail in 2014 (p18). 3 Cycling The Old Ghost Road is like pedaling through West Coast mining history (p44). 4 Eleven people have successfully completed the 80 km S-K route in the Tararuas in less than 24 hours (p16). 5 High-top tramping footwear won’t protect weak ankles (p64).…