Community Gardening at Dovedale

"The concert" is a big event being put on in Christchurch where several bands from New Zealand and one big name band (still unannounced) will play- but the only way to get a ticket is to volunteer 4 hours of your time. Brad coordinated a project for up to 30 people to come to the community garden where he regularly volunteers. It was a big success and over 30 people ended up coming. New beds were dug, a path was made, posts were painted and the whole garden was weeded. A fun day to get people excited about getting together to garden, and volunteering in general (with enough turnips dug up to feed an army!)

Te Kakariki

Hangi

 

A Kakariki is a little green parrot that used to live on the Canterbury plains but is now very endangered because only 1% of the native bush remains. The plains were cleared using fire by the Maori to make it easier to hunt and by the Pakeha (Europeans) for farmland.On Saturday I helped out with a bunch of volunteers to plant native trees and bushes to make a corridor from the mountains to sea, and hopefully bring back some of the native wildlife. The day was sponsored by several groups, including a local Maori tribe, who cooked a "hangi" for us. It's a very efficient way to cook a lot of food at once! The food is put in a pit with hot rocks and buried for several hours until it is cooked.