A Day Out in Okarito

I'm not sure how many times I have driven past the Okarito sign. Too many. I always suspected there were better places to go on the coast, and thought there would be too many tourists stuck down there. There aren't. It's a windy road in, you are heading for the ocean but there are low hills in the way. There is generally forest on one side of the road or the other. What has drawn us in finally is friends, Franny and Brent are rumoured to be living down here somewhere in a cosy little seaside cottage living the dream.

Franny and Brent are bird people. Through and Through. They used to go on bird camps when they were kids and between them they have worked everywhere where bird people work; Anchor Island, Whenua Hou, Titi Islands and other places more unique. They have done hard yards in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia with the Blue Throated Macaw and stalked a rare ground parrot way out west in Australia. Hang on, here's a quick profile and blog from Brent. But anyway we find their little cottage, just, and are quickly enchanted with the interesting souvenirs and trinkets accumulated during their adventures. And of course its great to catch up :-) For the record Franny is as crazy as Brent, but as far as Google is concerned she is still most famous for retracing the footsteps of Nathaniel Chalmers

We had suggested to Franny that we could help out wandering around in the bush. So the next day she sent us off with a big laugh on her face...

She gave is a map and some instructions to follow some old stoat trap lines and find these little ink pad things which record which nasty voracious predators have been passing by, heres an example here with lots of little footprints all over it..

The map is fascinating, and graphically shows what a unique area the Okarito forest is. The forest runs from sea-level up to the slopes of the alps and contains rugged hills up to few hundred metres of height. It is bounded on three sides by the Waihao River, the Tasman Sea and the Okarito River. The dense rimu forest has provided a sanctuary to the final population of Rowi and people have helped buffer the defences in the last ten years or so. Read here about the Okarito Kiwi Sanctuary.

Interestingly that article states the "stoat trapping operation in this sanctuary is thought to be the largest in the world". The extensive network of tracks and dots (representing traps) enabling this operation can be seen on the map we used...

Sometimes the vagaries of computers defeat me

A decision has been made now to mothball the trapping programme, relying instead on strategic use of 1080, which is actually why Franny and Brent are here, but I'll discuss that in the next posting. But what is left is an amazing network of tracks, and that is what we were wandering around in. It's a jungle. Fallen Rimu leaves with their long tiwsting bodies and comb like edges have this amazing ability to ratchet up the iside of your trousers and irritate the backs of your knees. Supplejack is breeding hard this year. The red berries provide a splash of colour in the canopy. There are not enough gatherers like Brent mixing their fresh shoots in their salads.On the forest floor fluorescent mushrooms gather where some miracle of life has provided them sufficent motivation to sprout.

It's damn hot too. We find our way around the trap lines alright, then get distracted by a white heron. We tail it down a small stream to three mile lagoon, and pause for sometime to appreciate the pristine estuarine environment. How many estuaries with unmodified catchments are left in New Zealand bar this one? The clear but tannin waters suck us in for a swim and as we are dressing Harold comes cruising past, giving us the evil eye and letting us know in no uncertain terms just who is the boss.

It's a struggle back to the village, the track deteriorates into 5 metre high Kiekie at the end, but we soon pop out on an old pack track, surely they could allow mountain biking here? And are back to our supplies for lunch.

That afternoon Penny drags me out to the lagoon, and I drag the Canadian canoe. We paddle for an hour or so up the estuary, stalking white heron and listening to the sea thundering on the otherside of the narrow spit. It always amazes me how smooth the paddling stroke can be and how fast you can get along. As the mist thickens we power back into the light breeze to the peaceful seaside village underneath the forested point.

Orokonui

I grew up in Waitati, the decaying hippy town cosied in Blueskin Bay north of Dunedin. It used to be 20 minutes into hockey on a Saturday in the boot of someones Kingswood. Its now 10 minutes over the straightened motorway, but Waitati is still another world from Dunedin and most of the traffic whizzes right on by. Waitati was a great place to grow up, a beautiful beach to walk along with a cave at the far end backing onto rugged coastline, an estuary where we used to fish and Rabbit Island. The island was the scene of my first major kayak journey across the channel from the beach and I also remember coming home from town in the dark one night to see the pine trees on the island ablaze.

Out the back of Waitati was a wooded valley. Orokonui. The giant eucalyptis grove contained "New Zealands Tallest Tree" which was a regular family outing. To get there we crossed the swingbridge, it was a very unswingy swingbridge, and wandered along Orokonui Road past the spooky old cemetry. We passed the site of the school cross country and the green waste tip where we cut firewood. There was a heavy wooden gate that led to the track through a narrow riparian strip between paddocks of Wapiti. I knew from an early age that Orokonui stream was a hotbed of biodiversity. In fact in one school project I was going to survey the entire stream, a couple of desperate field-trips later the project was abandoned. The riparian strip was replanted by my and other schools with the Department of Conservation, we checked the progress of these trees and debated whose was whose.

I remember when my Dad and John De Vries (who seemed to own half of Orokonui), and me, hacked a track down from Blueskin Road to link up with the walkway to the tallest tree. The old plantations were everywhere. Later we had community service work parties, dodgy dudes with slashers. Later this track grew into disrepair. When I went to University in Dunedin one of my favourite runs to show friends from out of town was to park up in Waitati, run through Doctors Point to the Beach, then through the Cave to Purakanui (it all seems much smaller now). We would either run around or cross the inlet and run over the hill to Long Beach, then the headlands to Kaikai and Murdering beaches. Rare spots frequented only by the lucky locals. The hill back up and around to Blueskin Road was a test and the last descent down Orokonui the reward. The memories of the old track flooding back and a quick check out of the tallest tree.

The predator proof fence at Orokonui: credit Otago Natural History Trust

It was with some excitement that I heard about the idea of an Orokonui Eco-Sanctuary, Dunedins answer to Wellingtons Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. There was some initial discussion that maybe a bigger area, or an area with a wider range of habitats may be more suitable, but the people with the drive and the power went ahead and got the job done. I was also slightly disappointed recently when I heard the main entrance to the park would be from the top, rather than from the valley, but I guess when local concerns and landowner issues were considered this is reasonable. Flicking through the site everything seems to be going very well, it seems to be very professionally organised. I am also pleased to see the tradition for using the Community Service people to build tracks is continuing!

The latest development is the release of six Kaka into the sanctuary. The first reintroduction of this species to an area on the mainland. This is a brave move with the Kakas tendency to stray and the vast area of suitable, if more dangerous, forest nearby.

The planned visitor centre at Orokonui: credit Otago Natural History Trust

Visiting scientists have also identified some terrific looking fungi in the sanctuary, which you can see photos of if you look through the site, and I now learn that the Orokonui stream has 11 (or is it 9) species of native fish. That is amazing. The Orokonui sanctuary sure is a special project and I wish it all the best. When I am next down I will visit and take some photos to update this blog. In the meantime there are more of these projects to familiarise yourself with on the excellent sanctuariesnz website. People and communities making things happen.