Engineering skills put to test

Working bee at Lake Opouahi, Wednesday 3 October 2018

A group of club members went to Lake Opouahi to help Sue Taylor, a volunteer from ECOED, tidy up around the lake. We started off by removing dead blackberry from adjacent to the shelter and putting dead branches across a muddy section of the track.

We walked along the inside of a portion of the predator-proof fence, pulling out seedlings, cutting creeper attached to fence, grubbing out some plants, cutting and swabbing others with herbicide. Sue gave us a talk on the differences between ferrets and stoats and size of a kiwi’s egg in relation to its body weight.

After lunch, we cleared around the outlet from the lake. Water was observed to be flowing around the end of the outlet structure. We spent some time trying to do a temporary repair on the hole using planks, mesh and rocks. Most of the work was done by Bruce Hodgson (something to do with civil engineering) and Sue Taylor. After that, we headed home.

Thanks to those who provided transport.

Party: Bruce Hodgson, Paul Exeter, Ted Angove, Marie Deroles, Sue Walker, Pauline Loughran, Simon Hill, Doug Matheson, Peter Ide, John Burrell, John Stairmand, John Bennett, Dave Hills and reporter Geoff Donkin