We have a natural wetland on the roadside end of our property and the hillside a ridge with gorse. We decided shortly after moving on in January 2020 that we would restore these parts of the property to their natural state. Both areas were being grazed by our neighbour when we moved in, and we allowed this to continue until we were able to organise new boundary fences as they were in poor condition in the case of the hillside not there at all.
Getting the fences turned out to be an adventure in its own right with various quotes and quality of fence. The wetland was more straight forward but we still had some challenges. The hillside was much more difficult with quotes ranging up as high as $30,000 for 160 meters of fence and a contractor who took a year to come on site. Broke a mirror off his Ute as he drove his side-by-side past, arrived at the site of the fence and said it was too hard, and we would need explosive to get a fence in. Rode away, never to seen or heard from again. We finally got Straight out fencing to do the job. Very impressed with quality and speed of their work.
After removal of Arum lilies and planting picture 2023.
Planting.
August 2023 and we were ready to plant. A neighbour requested that we Redig a drain through the middle of the wetland. We refused as this would have made the project completely fail, and found we were trespassed from the only vehicle access to the ridge… Wellington regional council were not fazed by this and provided some staff willing to carry the one thousand plants to the top of the property, this took around an hour, thank you GWRC. Plants were then planted by contractor on the ridge and we with the help of AROSHA volunteers planted the wetland, thank you AROSHA.
Picture of the high end of the wetland, spring 2024
Wetland planting Late 2024
Wetland May 2025 plants now starting to fill in the spaces
Weeding has been done in the wetland, and it has been a crash course in how many invasive pest plants we have brought into New Zealand since the start of European settlement. They have been an ongoing battle of control. Especially with crack willow (a noxious pest in NZ) being deliberately planted adjacent to the boundary of our property.
It was quite an epic to get attempt to irradicate the arum Lilly (known as death Lilly in Australia). We also poisoned some crack willows and found that some Kahikatea that were planted by our neighbour while he was grazing it. They came back from almost being dead, we suspect the willows were outcompeting them.
August 2024 another batch of plants arrived for both areas and the same planting. Once again contract planting and carrying plants to the hillside and volunteer in the wetland.
Picture showing the wetland in its “wet” state. This happens after heavy rain. We can’t go out when this happens.
Another round of weeding with a strong growth year through spring and summer.
The Hillside planting happened in both years at the same time with my wife Joan, doing the spot spraying and clearance of the plants once they were established and contractors doing the planting and much of the carrying of plants as we now have no vehicle access.
We have organised water tanks so we can do the spraying to clear the weeds around the plants, without having to hand carry many litres of water up the hill.
Not many pictures yet. The trees are a bit slower but definitely growing.
McLaren Audio 