Trip Report - December run and Xmas lunch - Saturday 9th
Trip Report: December run and Christmas lunch
Trip Leader Chris Smythe.
Meet at Herbert Garage at 10 am, 11 vehicles, some members opted to join us for the meal only.
We travelled into Herbert’s Blakely Pacific Forest, led by worker Kevin Craig.
We stopped at a felling site where we had a great vista of North Otago – a tad windy though. Kevin gave an interesting talk on how Blakely Pacific is working to apply cleaner felling methods with a lot of the smaller logs stacked up to dry on site then being transported to a plant for chipping. Industry etc is beginning to convert to burning wood chips in their boilers so their is a demand. Another new incentive is utilizing the tree branches ( Oregon pine), these are loaded into trucks with bins, transported to a plant in southland where the bins are covered and a steam hose connected, the branches are steamed with the pine oil being collected. This product is a valuable commodity overseas. the truck then off loads the spent branches, they are piled up to dry and then chipped to supply the steaming plant.
Kevin then took us to a skidder site where there was huge rows of piled logs drying for future chipping. We expressed our thanks to Kevin and headed back down Mt Misery Road and turned right onto the main road and left into Bluff Hill Road, then onto Whyte Road.
We arrived at Inverness Farm where Dr Murray Judge took us down to the beach to an old boat launching area which has been planted out with natives. Murray showed us where Yellow Eyed penguins and seals come ashore.
We observed a lone seal relaxing on the stony shore. Murray and wife Bronwyn have been long time volunteers at the Moeraki Lighthouse Penguin colony and are involved with the trust. 18 months ago the Inverness farm came up for sale, the Judges purchased it, installed access tracks ( which Chris Smyth was involved with) and fenced off substantial land area along the coast line then donated that to the Yellow Eyed Penguin Trust.
This ensured the area would be a safe haven for the penguins that are choosing to nest along that stretch of coastline. Planting of natives is ongoing in conjunction with Forest and Bird.
The Judges then sold off the remaining farmland. Murray then took us further north along an access track and we arrived at a headland area overlooking an area where seals were enjoying a big tidal pool. Murray explained to us that the Trust removes the eggs from the nests, replacing them with dummy eggs, and incubating the eggs, raising the chicks to a sustainable weight then placing them back into the nest removing the dummy. This system works well at raising the chicks through the critical stage. Thanks were expressed to Murray and Chris presented him with a Lacebark tree to plant in the reserve.
Back down to the main road and into the River View Campground for the Xmas meal. I think the head count was 33, we squeezed into the Lodge which was nicely decorated with a Xmas tree and Xmas table runners. There was lots of noisy happy conversation going on, our table was a bit low for eating off however.
The meal was sustaining with nice Xmas cake to finish off.
Thanks Chris for an interesting day.
Merry Christmas All and a Happy and safe New Year.
Chris Thompson.
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