{"id":373,"date":"2015-02-18T03:59:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T03:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stephenbolwell.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2018-06-21T06:53:38","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T06:53:38","slug":"goodbye-new-zealand-and-thanks-for-all-the-sheep-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stephenbolwell.com\/?p=373","title":{"rendered":"So Long New Zealand and Thanks for All the Sheep. Part 1."},"content":{"rendered":"
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New Zealand doesn’t have a perfect environmental record, despite its hokey reputation as clean and green… It does however have more than its fair share of beautiful beaches. My family wander along one on the Tasman Sea.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We recently said goodbye to our New Zealand House as another family moved in to what had been our home for eight years.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

I guess most of us like to think that our properties are special, but this one really<\/em> is – \u00a0there is a\u00a0conservation area that didn’t exist before we arrived – \u00a0an unusual situation when a new house goes up, because most people bring in pets and refine their gardens, which more often than not, drives wildlife out. I had hoped to do\u00a0exactly the opposite and bring back native species by restoring an alien environment into something altogether more natural… I mean how difficult could that be?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We arrived from England in 2002<\/span> to discover that New Zealand wasn’t the paradise we had expected – most of the great old primary forests had been cleared in lowland areas and replaced by agriculture – more than half the country has been given\u00a0over to farmland, and three quarters of that is now pasture – an environment totally unsuited to the native birds, but ideal for the many pests introduced by man, that have either eaten or driven much of the native wildlife out.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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A classic New Zealand image, but things are changing. A neighbouring old woolshed was demolished shortly after this picture was taken.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ingrained ideas that New Zealand works best as just another version of ‘the old country’\u00a0have become uncomfortable, but things are beginning to change. Increasingly, New Zealanders are establishing their own identity – which creates a more positive attitude towards conservation.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pommies… they think they can change everything!<\/span><\/h4>\n
It was outrageous to think that I could make a difference here – even a small one. My intention was to build a house close to bush, and knock out a grazing regime that had been in place for decades and then set about increasing native plant diversity in what has for many years been an essentially agricultural area. I also hoped to create a native garden with a\u00a0super abundance of flowering plants – a natural resource that might encourage back both missing and infrequent birdlife to the adjoining bush.<\/span><\/strong><\/h6>\n
We wouldn’t try to save endangered species, just encourage back species that had become scarce and if we could do that the rare birds – even those presently heading for extinction, might one day return. I set about the process with great enthusiasm… but this was followed by years of failure<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h6>\n
It took a \u00a0while to find a suitable spot – a little way up a mountain, the last stop on a winding road before both\u00a0the road, and electricity ran out. We weren’t quite at the arse end of nowhere but once we had built a house, we could clearly see it from the bathroom window.<\/span><\/h6>\n
FANTAILS – THE FIRST TRULY NATIVE BIRDS THAT WE SAW.<\/span><\/h6>\n
http:\/\/www.stephenbolwell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/N.Z.-FANTAILS.m4v<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n
It was essential to find a site connected to a protected reserve by at least a slither of bush, so that if there were native birds in the area they’d find us (native forest birds are adapted \u00a0to live in the bush and many prefer not to cross open farmland). Hopefully they would come down off the mountain reserve and find us before\u00a0hitting the\u00a0lowland pasture just below us. Not an easy task, but we found our site within a couple of weeks; then I set about everything in a a hurry, which was very much against the ethos of the New Zealand way of life.<\/span><\/h6>\n

Autumn 2002:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
At the end of a spur of woodland bush we purchased what is known in New Zealand as a lifestyle block – usually this is a plot of land big enough to keep a few stock animals… and quite the last thing I wanted to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\n
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Our fence line runs from centre picture (where the bush line ends) to left of picture. The dots on the pasture (just in front of where the house will be sited) are turkeys – aliens from North America, that spent much of their time on our land and I grew fond of them. Then a neighbouring farmer shot all of them. I asked why, and he said that they were eating too much grass… which made me think that conserving anything here might well be an uphill struggle.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

October 2002.<\/span> <\/span><\/h4>\n
I hated to see the land so beat up, but topsoil was carefully put to one side and then replaced around the house once it had been built.<\/span><\/h6>\n
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This initial destructive phase was not my favourite part of the project, but apparently things had to get worse before they could get better.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
New Zealanders may have a reputation for being relaxed, but our builders weren’t wasting any time – they moved at break neck speed while we selected interior fittings \u00a0– the question was… could we keep up?<\/span><\/h6>\n
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The 29th of October 2002: The concrete foundation in place, the house build is progressing.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
While the builders kept busy, I filled in age old sheep scrapes, then a gully bottom that had been washed out and finally I made a start on invasive weeds in need of clearance.<\/span><\/h6>\n
A couple of neighbours, Jim and Ron saw me struggling with intrusive barberry and without needing to be asked showed up with their chainsaws and saved me a month’s hard labour. \u00a0For working favours beer is the usual currency of appreciation here.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Most neighbours are kind and helpful because New Zealanders are generous by nature. Best of all they are supportive of what I hope to do.<\/span><\/h6>\n
\"Jim<\/a>
Jim fells troublesome barberry invasive along the native bush line.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Not far behind the house I enjoyed visits the waterfall which is down in a steep gully and difficult to get to. None of our older visitors ever made it down there, and a friend who did, had a heart attack and left on a stretcher, but thankfully made a full recovery.<\/span><\/h6>\n
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Although not far from the house, the waterfall felt remote.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Once the house was finished my neighbour Paul moved a great deal of top soil back onto the banks using his tractor – there was certainly plenty of it and for years great piles remained along the driveway. I transported this where ever it was needed using a wheel barrow – an epic struggle but not quite as desperate as the one I was having with the weeds.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Agricultural soil is nitrogen rich and markedly changed from the natural soil found in the bush. Pasture takes time to revert, and I was now seeing more weeds from Britain than plants native to New Zealand.<\/span><\/h6>\n
The moist wet climate presents ideal growing conditions for most of the year and after struggling for two I was close to giving up. The \u00a0old paddock wasn’t converting to anything like a native garden \u00a0and I was beginning to think my efforts rather foolish.<\/span><\/h6>\n
The whole place was full of plants and animals that I recognised from Southern England, gorse, bramble, thrushes, blackbirds, hedgehogs, stoats… the list seemed endless, and a great deal of bush had already been eaten out by Australian possum before we arrived. A mass aerial poisoning of the area with 1080 pellets soon after we arrived was rather frightening – 1080 kills anything that eats it, but it did considerably reduce possum numbers which was a relief because they eat just about anything that leafs, fruits or flowers. Before control programmes became more stringent, possum numbers in New Zealand were estimated at around 30 million.<\/span><\/h6>\n
We began seeing flocks of silver eye passing through, small birds that evolved elsewhere in the southwest Pacific region. Silvereye are more adaptable than many truly native birds. In winter they come to the bird table and they are often seen feeding on fallen fruit. Silvereyes regularly visit New Zealand gardens and are viewed as native birds.<\/span><\/h6>\n
SILVEREYE IN AUTUMN FEEDING ON FALLEN PEARS.<\/span><\/h6>\n