Wild Wairarapa lily cherished

A special working bee was held at the weekend on a remote part of Wairarapa's Palliser Coast, one of only two sites remaining in the country that have wild rengarenga lily growing.
The escarpment where the rare plant is found is part of an ancient pa site called Orangi Korero and the effort to protect the area is known as Project Rengarenga.
The project began five months ago when QEII National Trust's Wairarapa representative Trevor Thompson was carrying out a "covert monitoring visit" with landowner Haami Te Whaiti.
"The last stand area of rengarenga just called out to be helped," Mr Thompson said.
He saw this as a project "whose time had come" and he set out to find organisations and people with the skills and resources needed to make it all happen.
Sunday's working bee was to take out boxthorn before finishing fencing the area, which is well advanced.
"The project has grown from just helping the rengarenga, to enclosing a significant area with rabbit-proof fencing and planting the biggest mass planting of rare coastal plants yet seen," he said.
The work would also create gecko and skink lizard hideaways and there would be pest control for times when these little creatures were vulnerable.
The rengarenga are on Maori land beyond Cape Palliser lighthouse. Wairarapa Forest and Bird and Ngati Hinewaka have formed an alliance to protect and enhance the site.
Mr Thompson has organised other help from Greater Wellington Regional Council, Taratahi Agricultural Training Farm, the Department of Conservation and Norfolk Road Native Plant Nursery.
The nursery is growing rare and endangered coastal plants to be planted within the confines of the fence.
Mr Thompson, who is a committee member of Wairarapa Forest and Bird, said the sometimes harsh and difficult coastal area was a challenging environment to work in but also the very place that could benefit from well targeted conservation efforts.
"People are welcome to help and to be part of the solution to overcome biodiversity decline," he said.
"It's not rocket science, just evening up the odds for our plants and animals.
"They need a fighting chance and we are going to make sure they get it."
Boxthorn, being taken out during the working bee, is a native of South Africa and is described by conservationists as a "nasty plant with large spikes that takes over large areas of the coast if left unchallenged".
Maori oral history and archaeological evidence points to the Palliser Coast once being the most heavily populated regions of Aotearoa until the 17th century when most of the inhabitants suddenly left.