_______________________ FIFTEEN POHUTUKAWAS _____________________

My good friend Gerry, an active conservationist was lamenting the fact a couple of days ago that he wouldn't be here in Whangarei to look after fifteen Pohutakawa trees that he had planted earlier in the year as he was moving to Wellington to be closer to family. After inquiring as to what 'looking after' entailed I offered to take on the job of keeping an eye on his planting and removing any ingress and swamping of the trees by the surrounding Kikuyu grass. I wasn't able to go with him yesterday as he did his last feeding of the trees with manure but today I took a paddle to take a look at my new charges. I landed on a long low lying island that was surrounded by mangroves and muddy channels.

The high ground across the channel behind my kayak is Limestone Island which is now a reserve and has been planted over the years by volunteers (myself included). There are Kiwi, Geckoes, Wetas and a wide range of other endangered flora and fauna on the island.

This is what greeted me as I approached the beach. It is one of many bait stations that is part of a strategy to keep Limestone Island predator free. There are similar bait stations on all the other low lying areas close to Limestone Island and on the Island itself. The fact is rats, stoats and weasels are quite capable of swimming across the short channels that surround Limestone Island and creating havoc to the bird life - especially Kiwi.

This is one of the brand new Pohutukawas that have been planted. My job will be to visited this area a few times a year to clear the Kikuyu away from the trees until they are big enough not to get inundated and overwhelmed by this hardy and quick growing grass.

The large piece of driftwood in the background show that this low lying area can be almost under water on king tides or during combinations of high tides and stormy weather.

All the Pohutukawa I looked at were healthy and thriving. This area is ideal habitat for these trees whose roots are adverse to a periodic dunking is salt water, indeed thrive in a salt water marine environment.

Another bait station, this one close to the shore and ready for high winds with a rock on its roof.

The kayak back on top of the car. The area I visited is beyond Portland Channel on the other side  of Limestone Island which is to the left in the above photograph. I paddled back between the island and the mainland (to the right) with a following south west wind. It occurred to me that I could have had a rather pleasant down wind run if I had a sail up. Indeed you can purchase special little kayak sails made especially for this very situation - running downwind with a following wind - must look into that.

Post Script -This orange 'sit on' kayak belongs to my brother. We went and collected it from Kerikeri last week when he won it on a NZ TradeMe auction. Looks like I will have some kayaking company from time to time - that will be nice; he can help me look after the Pohutukawas.