September 17th 2010

Reads a bit like a miracle cure for weight loss doesn’t it.

Well, for visitors that start arriving in our region this month its a fact.

A buyer for a home for sale in Nelson, hmmm….I’m not so sure about that.

Its possible you could do the same, but one has ones doubts. You see…..there is just one slight technical hitch here.

You’d have to fly, unaided….”on the wing” as in non-stop between Alaska and New Zealand.

Whats that in human speak…about 11, 500kms non stop!

I’m talking about our regions influx of annual visitors, the bar-tailed godwit.

Seeing as how this week is Conservation Week in NZ, this absolutely epic journey to our local shores in the Nelson Bays region seems just all the more relevant.

”]You can swat up on the Godwits here in an article I wrote last April, where I mentioned things like;

The birds would have gobbled up energy at some eight times their resting basic metabolic rate (BMR) during their week-long exertion, he said. Professional cyclists can only manage about five times BMR for a few hours. “Lance Armstrong would be no competition for these birds,” he said.

Colour me impressed!

There’s also the related reference to the “longest bar in the world“ which is at Farewell Spit….where the local paper stated this week “About 10,000 would flock Farewell Spit.”

Now that’s what I call serious endurance.

September 17, 2010

They say they flock together.

This week is NZ’s annual Conservation Week, and it would appear that Mainlanders (that’s South Islanders for the uninformed) do indeed flock together on their interests and reasons for living on the “big island.”

In association with UMR Research, and various National Park and other DOC Area Participants, a telephone survey of 750 New Zealanders aged 18 and over was conducted back in June 2010.

The survey found that;

• One in three (32%) South Island residents visited a national park last year compared to one in six (17%) North Island residents.
• One in three (29%) Christchurch residents visited a national park last year compared to one in ten (11%) Aucklanders and one in six (17%) Wellingtonians.

“When you ask New Zealanders what they love about their country, other than the All Blacks on a good day, they’ll almost always talk about the mountains, the forest, the bush, the beaches and the birds. We’re blessed with beauty in this country, but it doesn’t take care of itself,” said Barbara Browne, DOC’s General Manager Operations for the North Island.

She went on;

“So are North Islanders less interested in the places that make New Zealand so special? I don’t think so – I think with only four of New Zealand’s 14 National Parks north of Cook Strait, North Islanders are simply less able to access the National Park experience.”

With the following statement, the departments spokesperson summed it up really;

“It’s fantastic that one in three people on the Mainland headed to a national park last year – it shows that public conservation land really counts in the daily lives of those living in the South Island,” she said.

In encouraging Kiwis to revisit or re-evaluate how fortunate they are, Conservation Week reminds New Zealanders to really consider what we have, literally on our back doorstep.

There’s lots on , the week isn’t over yet so check out your local council or newspaper, better still phone DOC and ask them to direct you to a local event…..

If you’re an outdoors person, then this is just more reasons why a trip across Cook Strait to your new home in the South Island is worth considering?