Journal Number 94
February 2005

NOTES etc

Hello to all the "Friends of Iwitahi"

And a big thankyou, everyone, for your support in making this year's camp such a successful one! It was very gratifying to have such a good turnout of interested people, both "old" and new and everyone seemed to have a good time, despite the unseasonable weather.

It was great to have a visit from Henry Samson, the Environment Bay of Plenty Pest Animal Officer, who was impressed with the progress and support he observed for the Iwitahi Native Orchid Protection Area.

The evening presentations were a highlight of the camp. We enjoyed the company of Jean, our visitor from the USA, brought by Joy Wray. It was fascinating to see the different orchids and their natural habitat in the USA and Canada.  Eric's awesome 3D slide show was mind-blowing as always - even if you are only watching the audience! It was bad luck he had such a rotten dose of the flu: in fact when we arrived back at camp to see his car being towed away, I thought, "I didn't know he was THAT sick," but luckily only his car was!

Thanks, too, to Ian for his quality presentation: both informative and entertaining as always. As for the mysterious Nick, his powerpoint presentation and Sunday morning plant-caging programme both remain a mystery to us at this stage!!!

Due to a late flowering season, unfortunately we did not see a huge range of orchids in flower and the weather was not conducive for thelymitras to open. Even so, it was good to see the areas of Chiloglottis valida increasing in size.

Thanks to such a great turnout of helpers, we achieved the task of banding all the grid corner trees. Monitoring will be a much easier job now and it also makes it easier for our weed clearance contractor to find the grids. Nearly all the blocks are now surveyed for orchids: a job only made possible by your much appreciated efforts at the last two camps, everyone! I am still in the process of correlating all the information.

Thanks for the offers of help from keen NZNOGGERs.  All the best for 2005.

Regards from Robbie & Sue Graham, on behalf of Iwitahi HPA Management Committee

A day in the bush looking at a good patch of Chiloglottis valida		Eric's 3D slide show