The final day involved an hour's bus drive south from Hokitika, and why the NEXT Forum was held in Hokitika - to the Perth River Valley (Whataroa). This is where ZIP (Zero Invasive Predators) has a goal of eradicating all the possums in a 12,000 hectare area and aim to keep it completely free of possums because of the river and mountain boundaries and the high tech monitoring they do. There are some very exciting developments in this groundbreaking project.
Here's the lowest part of the valley.
This is the next higher part of the Whataroa Valley.
This is the Whataroa A-team - ZIP CEO Al Bramley in the middle, Phil Bell, Al's right hand man on the left, and Courtney, who leads the field team on the ground in the valley.
What ZIP do.
Here are the huts the team stay in for 10 days at a time. They do have internet. Their job is to climb this terrain and check the traps. They report back every night what they find. I reckon a Lachie and Daniel type could automate this reporting process. Lachie are our two computer scientist sons. Don't worry, I will pass this on to Al and hopefully they will be in touch.
They check the traps in winter too.
Here is a closer look at the terrain they cover - they must have goat legs I reckon.
Hopefully the huts are cosy so they can keep warm in the winter.
The dotted lines on this map are where the traps are in the area. The huts are nearby to each line. Each team member is in communication with Courtney and each other, giving numbers caught in traps and telling each other they are reset.
In each of the contours there are different challenges. Thar (a large deer like creature, but actually related to goats) have roamed the upper river valley for a century. What is working is Zip is working with the Deer Association to assist them in getting the area predator free. Today we see 14 kea, which was 12 more than I saw in three days on the Milford track!
Here is a kea with me to show you I was there.
So was Dave, or is it another kea?
Then we bussed back to Hokitika and heard about The Cacophony Project - they are developing technology tools to help predator-free organisations.
And all the NEXT teams help one another. I got that thanks to the forum there was going to be even more collaboration. Bring on predator free NZ I say. Imagine NZ as a destination to visit and what jobs it could create - everyone in conservation in some capacity and a template for the world!
