Kia Ora!
On our first day back from our beautiful trip to the west coast we visited Pam Anderson, a local landowner and conservation champion, at her property in Pigeon Bay, Banks Peninsula. Pam showed us how landowners can be actively involved in conserving native wildlife with her property, Balcarres, as a shining example. Balcarres is a unique sheep and beef farm that balances production and conservation. We started the day learning about the conservation aspect of Balcarres and Pam pointed out parts of her property covenanted with the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust Covenant where stock is excluded and indigenous vegetation grows. |
| Pam points out her property and some indigenous plants. |
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| Pam shows an example of covenanted land that is fenced off. |
Next we got to see the other aspect of Balcarres: sheep farming! We saw sheep being herded and then got to meet the herding dogs afterwards, which is always a cause of major excitement.
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| Sheep! |
After much fawning over the puppies and having to drag a few of our travelers away from the dogs we got a stunning view of the controversial mussel farm. There we learned that, although unpopular among some of the locals, the business is sustainable and even somewhat beneficial because it requires the water to be very clean.
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| The black lines in the water are the buoys used to grow the mussels. |
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| Enjoying the view. |
Lunch was our next stop, where we got to see some of the products made from the sheep’s wool. Pam told us some more about the Banks Peninsula Conservation trust and her sustainable ‘extensive rather than intensive’ farming approach. And on the happy note of seeing someone like Pam who is so passionate about conservation, we set off for Queenstown on our free weekend tomorrow!
Cheers!
-Emily
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