Helping Penguins - Kaitawa Point, and more
Carbon EMS staff have recently been active in a couple of volunteering activities - a community clean up, and our continued support of Little Penguin (Kororā) conservation - this time with a working bee at Whitireia Park, Titahi Bay.
Our community service, in Whiteria Park, Titahi Bay, was very successful. Although light on staff participating, the four of us that made the journey out were itching to help make a difference. Along with 3 Japanese students and Joe from Conservation Volunteers NZ, we made a good dent in the area where we were working. The plan was to do some weeding, move some penguin boxes, and collect rubbish.
Outwardly there didn’t look to be much rubbish, but as always when you start really looking there is plenty, unfortunately. Some large items were collected, but there was also so much small plastic (spoons, straws, lolly pop sticks and plenty of other small pieces of plastic), along with lots of broken glass.
As well as the rubbish collection, we relocated a penguin home (box) and secured another in case any wayward dogs tried to gain entry.
We also spent quite a while pulling out weeds, but unfortunately we may have been a few weeks late as many had already gone to seed. Here are some of the weeds we removed.
Mallow wild turnip dandelion
Karo Asthma weed
We came away from our few hours, feeling like we had enjoyed a particularly pleasant spot on one of Wellington’s really nice coastlines, and made a positive difference.
We can wholeheartedly recommend a trip out to Titahi Bay and Whitireia Park and in particular the small walk to Kaitawa Point and associated beach, at the northern end of the road - an area that has a fantastic outlook, and a modicum of privacy. Pat Wall actually returned to the bay the next weekend to snorkel in the clear waters, and can highly recommend the waters in the bay.
Our other recent community service: a number of our staff were involved in a clean-up outside the back of our offices, in an area between our office and State Highway One. For a small reserve area, it sure attracts a lot of rubbish. Approximately 6 bags of rubbish and recycling was collected in the area. Things have certainly improved over time, as the area was previously seriously neglected.
What we are finding is, people that park their cars there tend to discard any rubbish directly into the bush where they park. We also find a high numbers of beer bottle & cans; we assume these are dropped into the bush by people heading into town to pubs and clubs (effectively "one for the road"). If only there were closer bins in this area, they would have a good impact on the amount of rubbish dumped, but of course people should be hanging on to these items and looking for bins themselves.
