Hinewai

Last weekend I went with some of the St Stephen's youth group to bunk down at the lodge at the Hinewai Reserve on Banks Peninsula, over the hill behind the town of Akaroa. The weather was blizzard-like, but apart from a 1-30am water-leak on the first night and a long clean-up operation, we were cosy and warm in the beautifully converted shearing shed and there was a long-enough break in the weather for us to go tramping along some of the upper tracks.

The reserve was established 20 years ago with the intention of fostering the regrowth of the native vegetation - when the trust began its work there were a few pockets of kanuka (kunzea ericoides), totara (podocarpus totara) and red beech(nothofagus fusca), but mostly paddock and virulent introduced gorse (ulex europaeus)... but with the removal of grazing animals, serious work at reducing the rabbit and possum population along with the avoidance of fire, the regeneration of bush has been stunning. The work is overseen by a small group with Hugh Wilson, a botanist, who is the resident manager - he is quite a character!

We used the context to look at issues facing the planet and how we might begin to address them from a Christian perspective.

The opening photo is a view of the reserve with the lodge to the left and down to Otanerito Bay in the distance. The gorse was conveniently in flower, but if all goes well, in another ten years it won't be there at all - the forest will have used the gorse as an incubator and then killed the gorse off once the gorse was starved of light. In many areas this has already occurred.

The second photo is of the others in the group taken in front of a red beech tree. It is rare to have beech forests near the coast on the eastern side of the south island.

The third image is the Fuschia Falls - just a short distance from the lodge. The native fuschia (fuschia excorticata or Kotukutuku) has prospered in this environment.