KCC - traps and dead possums
A big toothless smile while bushing crashing through the forest
Robins final South Auckland KCC event, as from now on he will be attending the West Auckland KCC events.
And what an exciting event - a visit to a Forest & Bird forest (who knew F&B actually owned forests, but they do) to do some pest control. The forest is called Olive Davis Reserve.
We arrived nice and early at 10am to join the large number of kids including a number of newbies, so Robin is one of the more experienced KCC members now.
The trip involved walking around the reserve and checking all the traps. The kids absolutely loved it, with lots of poison being replaced, and fresh apple being put in place inside traps. Robin also liked the fact we were bush crashing and not following a set path.
Possum Trap
Testing a possum trap
The reserve has been owned by Forest & Bird after a Bequest from the early 70's. It used to be a horse farm but has been replanted and there are still a number of old trees which had not been removed during the farming period.
After about 10 stops replenishing the traps, the highlight of the trip for the kids - one of the traps had a possum in it! So lots of excitement from everyone in this dead evil predator which kills so much of our native wildlife - here was the enemy in the flesh, and it didn't look so big or scary but very peaceful, actually it looked more like a toy than anything else.
A Possum is in the last trap!
The evil possum, killer of New Zealand birds
Imagine cooking with this.
Then another surprise, a really cute cottage in the middle of the forest. Built by Chapman-Taylor, a famous architect from the early 20th century. He build this little cottage in 1922 and the Olive Davies lived there until her death in the 1970's. Imagine living in this tiny cottage with no power all through the 1960's, must be the last people living so close to Auckland City with no lights or power. Very cool but would have required a lot of hard work with lighting a fire for the stove for meals, hot water and heat in winter and doing the washing would have been a nightmare.
Robin and his scared face
Now for the first time Robin has the camera !
Robin found the cottage scary as it was quite dark because if was surrounded by the trees and so very cold, through when they lived in it - it would have been open around with a lot more natural light.
We had a nice lunch in the sun that shone on a single corner of the cottage before heading on the short walk back to the road.
A great last visit with the Southern branch, look out Western KCC - here we come!