A real team effort at Rangikapiti

John Haines, Steve Amon (obscured) and Brett Tercel at work on more steps at the Rangikapiti reserve. Photo / supplied

If it takes a village to raise a child, it definitely takes a community to support the continued work of Friends of Rangikapiti.

So Friends chairman John Haines said after a crew of dedicated volunteers built a set of steps on the Mill Bay track on the Doubtless Bay reserve, with special thanks for Brett Tercel, Steve Amon, Coralene Crump, Steve Lockie, Bob Vartan and Bob Francis.

"A project such as the building of these steps wouldn't happen without the support of the wider community," he added.

"Our local Department of Conservation office paid for the materials that were supplied (at a discount) by Mangonui ITM. Phil Brown (DOC) met with me as we planned this exercise and arranged payment and the supply of gravel. Mangonui Haulage came through with some fill (thanks to Ivan Turner for being there at the right time to load our trailer) just when we needed it most."

DOC had recently rerouted a section of the Mill Bay track, eliminating the need for walkers to scramble up or down an extremely steep and slippery section of the short but interesting walkway that connected Mill Bay Rd with Rangikapiti Pā Rd, taking walkers close to some naturally regenerating towai, the only ones known of in the reserve.

Meanwhile John Matthews had completed five more slab benches for the reserve, Haines hoping at least some of them would be in place before the Christmas influx of visitors arrived. (There will be another working bee on Saturday, meeting at the end of Rangikapiti Rd at 9am, with sharp spades and buckets or other water containers).

The Friends were also grateful to the Mangonui Lions Club for its financial support for materials for the benches and plants not funded by Trees That Count.

The work of the trapping team was also paying huge dividends in terms of the reserve's native birds.

"There has been a noticeable surge in the populations of tūī, piwakawaka (fantails) and riroriro (grey warblers) in the last year, and pīpīwharauroa (shining cuckoos) have returned in force from their winter journey to the Solomons and other islands on the western edge of the Pacific," Haines added.

"I believe they've successfully avoided Covid-19 quarantine requirements."

He thanked Cooper's Beach Four Square for supplying a year's worth of peanut butter for the traps, which to date had accounted for 92 possums, 251 rats, one mustelid and 90 mice.