Waimarama Sanctuary
For some unknown reason, I’ve avoided the Waimarama Sanctuary, a 690 ha fenced enclosure just 3 km away, built to allow birds and vegetation to return to pre-European levels.
It’s working.
The fence is impervious to rats, possums, stoats, etc, although mice have been impossible to control fully.
Bird species that have come close to extinction have been released to allow them to breed unaccompanied by the predators that ravage them elsewhere. Recent releases include Kākā and Kākāriki, the orange-fronted parakeet variety.
The sanctuary had an Open Day to allow free entry, which I took advantage of along with hundreds of others.
I arrived early to avoid the crowds but was somewhat unsuccessful.
It was clear how far up the valley I would venture, and somewhat zanily, I avoided the shortest loop, or at least through the first section. Climbing was a good way to avoid people, and I managed to have a few 10-minute sessions listening to the cacophony the birds created on my lonesome. The number of birds the New Zealand forest can support is amazing due to abundant insect life.
When I finally dropped down to the valley floor, I met a cast of characters, but they weren’t keen on continuing, so I did.
The moist valley supports a profusion of native plant species that are ravaged outside the fence line by possums and wild goats.
What was once a gorse-covered hillside is being replaced with Mahoe and other plant species that once predominated in the local landscape. It’s reassuring the forest will eventually regenerate within the sanctuary. My first visit to Third House Shelter decades ago as a 14-year-old was memorable for the almost 30 goats congregating at the clearing. Numbers are much lower now in the area outside the sanctuary because the cullers use dogs to find them.
I walked past the sanctuary, including while the fence was being built, on numerous occasions over the years, but this was the first time I’ve been inside to use the fully benched tracks.
I won’t mind paying the $11 admission costs in the future, although I’ll pick a midweek time to avoid meeting so many people and concentrate on the birdlife.