Restoration in Paraparaumu - Night 61

An hour long drive landed us just north of

Paraparaumu at a privately-owned marshland restoration project. Held under the Queen Elizabeth II Land Trust, the land has been placed under covenants that will retain it in its undeveloped nature for perpetuity. The two owners of the land have been removing non-native pine trees and replanting paddocks with native marsh plants for nearly five years now. Progress is coming along as one would expect with nature; slowly but surely. Located only 500 meters from the coast, the property offers spectacular views of Kapiti Island, the largest island off of this section of the North Island’s west coast – also held as a nature reserve.

Kapiti Island in the Distance

Again we found ourselves ‘releasing’ plants for the duration of the morning. As it happens, this time of year in New Zealand is often too dry to plant so conservation volunteers end up doing a fair share of weeding, with the hope that the ‘released’ plants will be better able to survive the warm, dry summer without the competition from nearby weeds. As I’ve mentioned before, the entire North Island is in a serious drought so we spent the afternoon watering and applying organic B&B (blood and bone) fertilizer to the plants. With eleven volunteers and only two water hoses, a bottleneck occurred at the watering stations. To cope with such inefficiency I snuck off and took a rather undeserved nap in the weeds.

What I Learned Today: I consider myself fairly open-minded with respects to people involved in non-conventional relationships. However, upon arriving at the volunteer location today the minute I found out that the two elderly women (late 60s/early 70s) cohabitated in the house my mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that they were lesbians. This assumption was made almost subconsciously and certainly without malice. Why, though? Are we really that conditioned to judge as such anyone not living in a normal (or rather, typical, for what exactly is normal?) situation? In all actuality, they are probably widows living together to share the high cost of home ownership and to retain companionship in their old age. Try and try as we might, we seem to be incapable of escaping our prejudicial natures.

written by

exumenius on December 10, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

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