Te Mahia School students have done an amazing job today at Whangawehi. Under a shinning sun, they established 200 trees and maintained the trees planted in the previous years. The Weta motels built during the winter were established along a fence line with the idea of using the wetas as monitoring tools.

At the end of the planting, the students sang the Whangawehi song they created, it was amazing to hear this very special song along the river.

Well done to you all, thank you to the School team, parents and Whangawehi volunteers.

Enjoy the photos. Years after years, I can see our tamariki growing and with them the seeds of a better future.

Kia ora Koutou,

As you probably all know, on the 10th of June,  the Whangawehi Catchment Management Group was awarded  two significant awards. The group won the Award in the “Caring for our water category” and the Supreme Award for 2017.  These awards mean a lot to us, a lot of hard work has been put into the project by all our volunteers, landowners, Marae representatives and we are all so happy. A big thank you to you all who have given your time for the group to succeed.

The evening ceremony was an exceptional moment for me. This nomination was the 4th in a row and I was wondering if one day I would be on stage! It paid to be patient.

I was a bit speechless when Minister Nick Smith gave us the Supreme Award but Pat O’Brien did a good job in acknowledging the work done by the community. Well done to you all.

Here is the whakatauki I shared during my brief speech for the “Caring for our waters” Award :

Ma te   tumanako

Ma te titiro

Ma te whakarongo

Ma te mahitahi

Ma  te manawanui

Ma te aroha

ka taea e au

By believing and trusting

By having faith and hope

By looking and searching

By listening and hearing

By working and striving together

By patience and perseverance

By doing this with love and compassion

We can succeed

A big thank you to all the volunteers who came to support the Whangawehi planting on Okepuha Station. The weather was challenging but overall we established 5 500 trees in 5 hours. Richard Coop organised a very generous barbe to make sure all our volunteers had enough energy to complete the task! Holes had been pre dug a couple of days before the event by Malcolm Westerlund who saved us a lot of energy.

The trees planted include some majestic species Totara, Kahikatea, Matai and other smaller species. The rest of the trees will established in the next few weeks.

Thank you all  for your contribution.

Nic

Hi all,

My apologies but the weather is challenging us again, we have made the decision to postpone our planting day planned for the 10^th of June.

There is no postponement date pencilled at this stage, we are waiting to enter a more stable weather pattern. We will be in touch with you when we reschedule the event.

The latest updates will be posted on our blog : whangawehi.com

My apologies for the inconvenience.

Kind regards

Nic

Hi all,

It is unfortunate but the forecast is for rain on Saturday and Sunday. We have rescheduled the planting day to the 10th of June, same place, same time. Hopefully the weather will be favourable. Have a good week end.