We set off to Rakino with a number of tasks to undertake; a rubbish audit, water testing with Bert, and penguin sign construction. We ended up achieving the first two tasks, making some progress on signage, and taking on a few extra jobs besides. All to the good; a roaring northerly extended our stay by a couple of days and we didn’t mind at all.
You can read about the rubbish audit here https://www.rakino.org.nz/2025/06/08/rakino-waste-audit/ and I’m confident Bert will report on the stream and pond testing in due course. The penguin signs are a work in progress, so hopefully Matariki long weekend will see them installed, FINALLY.
The coolest thing that happened to me was sighting a live little blue penguin for the first time ever on Rakino. Usually I just document dead kororā, so I was really happy to finally see a young’un, hunkered down under a rock ledge in the vicinity of Maori Garden Bay. There are plentiful penguin tracks around the coast currently, with many double tracks heading out into the tide, indicating parents off fishing for the day. Please, dog owners, ensure your dogs are within sight and under control at all times.
Kororā tucked under a rock ledge.
I also got to photograph a kākā at John and Carolyn MacKenzies. Accounts over the weekend are of up to five of them skraarking around overhead, which is pretty exciting for a kākāphile like myself.
A young female kākā with an admiring audience of tūī, and a solitary bellbird.
Granddaddy vine which we collected a black sack of pods from.
The second bummer was the burgeoning bloom of clay sediment out into Maori Garden Bay which exacerbated as the rain intensified. This was particularly heartbreaking for me, as it is in the same area as our little blue penguin sighting, and also the numerous penguin tracks we had seen the previous day. It’s unacceptable to cause this level of environmental damage on Rakino, and should have been anticipated and mitigated.
Sediment in the stream prior to the bloom out into the bay.
Generally an excellent week spent hanging out though, some tasty pizza dinners cooked by Kate as she refines her offerings in anticipation of the Bay Belle floating pizzeria, https://www.instagram.com/baybellenz/ and many sociable evenings spent with all our island friends. I can’t tell a lie though; the rubbish audit was way too much fun.
Following on from the inspiration of the Hauraki Gulf Islands Network Hui, Lyndsey and I got permission to conduct a waste audit at the end of the recent long weekend. The purpose of the audit was to establish how Rakino-ites are utilising our rubbish collection system, whether we are recycling correctly, and what we are consigning to household waste, in order to ascertain the viability of a community composting system, with an associated community garden.
An unimpressive collection of recyclables and food scraps in the household waste bins.
We were unprepared for just how bad the rubbish disposal practises of Rakino-ites are. If we put the un-recyclables into the recycling bins in Auckland as we do on Rakino, our rubbish wouldn’t be collected. It’s only because Tom and Pat fossick through our filth in order to correctly assign it after they’ve collected it that we avoid sanction.
Recyclable aluminium cans incorrectly placed in the household waste bin.
Many people don’t even put their rubbish into bags to contain it. We found a lot of polystyrene which had just been shoved into the household waste bins. If you can’t take your polystyrene back to Auckland, please break it down and put it into rubbish bags with ties. This is because when the bins are emptied, the propensity for polystyrene beads and pieces to blow away is high. The same applies to moth plant pods; we hugely appreciate your efforts to remove moth plant, especially as it’s a scourge on Rakino with must be removed by landowners, according to council edict, but please put it in bags, and only the pods; not the vines or leaves.
Garbage just tossed into the bins sans bags; tissues, assorted crap, and un-bagged polystyrene.
The worst aspect was the volume of food waste. Food waste was mixed in with recyclables, and all tossed together into household waste bins. Come on, people; we have no rats on Rakino so you could simply bury it, though much of the food we found was still edible, which was quite confronting.
We need to set up a system for food rescue, followed by community composting.
Lyndsey and I are proposing setting up a system to improve the way we deal with waste on Rakino. At this point we can’t do much worse than we are currently; it’s disrespectful to Tom and Pat, and it’s disrespectful to our environment. Living ‘off-grid’ is much more than just collecting rainwater and making solar power. It’s also about treading lightly on the land, reducing, re-using, and recycling.
We intend to see all food waste, brown cardboard, and green waste diverted to community composting, apart from the modest amount that is currently diverted to Pat’s chooks, of course.
Initially we want to supply a few households with small plastic bins with handles, essentially the green compost collection bins we have in Auckland. Tom has generously offered to set aside some waste collection bins for food waste, which will be delivered to our compost site. We will also be removing cardboard (brown carbon waste) from the rubbish collection in order to compost this along with food waste, and we will be encouraging green waste to be donated to the compost scheme, rather than left lying around, or tossed down banks or onto neighbours’ properties. There is funding available, and we intend to go for it. This is Lyndsey’s baby, and it’s going to be a great success. Just watch this space.
Bert wielding a net in order to capture pond greeblies.
In early May, Montana and Marta from Waiheke Resources Trust visited Rakino to catch up with last years inaugural hui participants, and any other interested Rakino-ites. The main focus of the visit was to have a look at a couple of the wetland areas Bert has been water testing in, take a look at the invertebrates found in these areas, but also talk about any other initiatives we might be keen to instigate.
A lively discussion was held on Bert’s deck; most especially around the possibility of introducing a community composting system with a view to starting a community garden. Bert had initiated this part of the conversation, and unbeknownst to me this is a passion of Lyndsey’s, so I was very happy that Simon had made a last minute post on the community FB page, as Lyndsey turned up like a whirlwind of enthusiasm for the potential of this project.
We then headed down to investigate Bert’s wetland, followed by a visit to Hanna and Craig’s pond. I can report there are vast quantities of water boatmen in the pond, and no shortages of mosquito larvae on Rakino.
Marta sharing her knowledge of water creatures while Simon, Mon, Bert, and I observe.
The Hui was held on Waiheke again this year, at the Waiheke Sustainability Center where WRT are based. Participants from Aotea, Kawau, Waiheke, and Rakino attended. This year Simon, Lyndsey, and I self-selected to attend.
There were four main workshops, firstly a tuition in using GIS tools to track pest animal and weed control, as well as volunteer hours. This is a useful tool for recording as it can be quickly utilised for data reports, but also demonstrating to council their funding is being well spent. I cannot tell a lie; the feature that received the most admiration was an excellent widget that demonstrated before and after visuals of planting and wetland restorations, with the sideways movement of a cursor. I’m going to twist Simon’s arm into adding this feature somewhere on this website even if it kills him. Thank you to James Siddle for the presentation.
This was followed by a workshop on engaging with Mana Whenua, presented by Kim Collins from Waiheke Marine Project. Regretfully the intended Mountains to Sea run snorkeling trip around Rakino and Otata organised for Rakino and mana whenua rangatahi had to be postponed then cancelled this year due to inclement weather, but will be planned again for early next year, hopefully during the summer school holidays. It will be a great snorkeling day out for anyone aged 10 to 25, with a little bit of citizen science thrown in also. This is a good low key starting point for Rakino..
The last workshop of the day was the one Lyndsey was hanging out for, Waste Auditing and Surveying, with Denisa Kolouchova from WCRRP. https://islandwastecollective.co.nz/waiheke-community-resource-recovery-park/ This was a really valuable workshop and evolved into a discussion about how we can deal with the problem of food and cardboard waste on Rakino. I’ve been interested in this problem for a while, as you can see here; https://www.rakino.org.nz/2024/03/04/the-rubbish-report/ but it really needs a passionate permanent resident to drive any project like this, and happily Lyndsey and Bert are those people. I’ll be a great cheerleader though! This will take some of the load off Tom and Pat, and benefit the whole community. More to come…….
Septic tank wizard Craig gets up close and personal with the maw of the septic tank.
It was an early start for us on day two as we were traveling from Auckland. Montana cooked us a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs courtesy of Kai Conscious Cafe, and then we powered into the Septic Tank System Workshop, with Marta, and Craig Brown from CBC Wastewater. Septic tanks cause trepidation, no denying it. I suspect the majority of septic tank owners know very little about how they work, and how to maintain them so as to avoid great expense. I knew next to nothing about them despite having lived with one for seven years a few decades ago. I now have a pretty decent understanding about the inner workings of the scariest things on the island. I’ve looked into the maw and found it mainly harmless, and not that stinky. Craig was a great speaker with a compelling style of presentation. If you want the levels of scum/water/sludge measured in your septic tank, I now know how to do it, and what the ratio should be. That doesn’t mean I’m going to though… I think he’d be a great guy to get over to Rakino for a septic tank workshop some time in the future.
Scum/water/sludge measuring device/poo stick; a length of bamboo.
We finished up with a session at the Waiheke Library, with a plan to move ahead with our various island projects, and a commitment to meet again next year, maybe on Kawau or Aotea. An inspiring couple of days, great to meet up again with the representatives from other islands, and make some new contacts and friends.
Many thanks to Waiheke Resources Trust for their great organisation, the Kai Conscious Cafe for their delicious food, the presenters who gave their time and energy, and the participants for showing commitment to a really cool initiative. See you all again next year!
We have been trying to get Karen Saunders from Waiheke Native Bird Rescue to visit Rakino for a few years now, but despite the proximity to Waiheke, getting to Rakino can be difficult. Everything needs to align; the weather, Karen’s workload of avian patients, audience numbers on Rakino, a suitable venue, and availability of transport. Many thanks to Waiheke Local Board for providing the funding to cover transport costs!
After a few false starts and postponements we finally achieved a visit this Anzac Weekend. The Frecker’s generously allowed the Boatshed as a venue, Karen duly arrived via Sea Shuttle on a reasonably blustery Saturday, and the Rakino community came down to listen to and watch Karen’s engrossing audio visual presentation.
Karen Saunders from Waiheke Native Bird Rescue.
Rakino has a number of kororā burrows and installed nesting boxes, but we don’t really know what the population is. On an early morning low tide you can generally see their tracks in the sandy areas around the island. Woody Bay and Maori Garden Bay are regular spots to see evidence of their presence. They are also occasionally spotted on road, and as they are smelly little critters, their scent will give their occupancy away.
Kororā tracks in the sand at Māori Garden Bay.
Smelly evidence of a penguin rocky roost/ burrowing area..
We learned from Karen that the biggest threats to kororā are loss of and damage to habitat, threats to their food supply, and uncontrolled dogs. Karen and her team deal with the consequences of our neglect at Waiheke Native Bird Rescue, where they have the time & cash consuming task of nursing and rehabilitating injured and malnourished kororā back to health. https://nativebirdrescue.nz/
The one thing we can do to protect kororā immediately is to keep our dogs indoors at night when little blue penguins are on island, and to be aware of where their burrows are. To that end, we have signage ready to be installed in the penguin zones that are easily accessible by dogs, (thank you Waiheke Local Board!) and a long term plan to have a penguin survey done on Rakino. Karen told us that on Waiheke, the areas with penguin burrows where dogs are excluded have more than 8 times as many penguins as areas where there are burrows, but dogs are not excluded. That’s an astonishing statistic.
We also learned about the times of year when they are particularly vulnerable to threats. This is over the summer months, which coincides with high population times on island. They are very vulnerable at nesting time, but also when they are moulting, and cannot go out to sea.
The presentation was followed up with a tuition on trail cam usage. Waiheke Local Board have also provided funding for a trail cam, which is to be set up on an occupied nesting box. We’re anticipating capturing some images of kororā which will be captivating for the Rakino community.
My anticipation is that the Rakino community now have tools and knowledge to protect our resident penguin population from the threats that imperil them, and the understanding that if we lose our little blue neighbours we’ve lost them forever. We are also hoping we can get Karen back again for another visit, and I expect a number of Rakino-ites will be visiting the Bird Rescue Center in the future.
Engrossed audience, photo courtesy of Laura Mahon.
A low spring tide on Rakino is my favourite time, because there are places you can winkle into that are generally inaccessible on foot, if you are feeling intrepid. Having never attempted a to reach the northern end before, Saturday September 21st offered up a perfect alignment, low tide, brilliant sunshine, no wind.
A keen rock-pooler, I’m the first to admit that sometimes Rakino rock pools can be spartan. Rock oysters and pupu abound, but chitons, limpets, and anemones do not. If I found a common brown sea anemone I would be overjoyed. Therefore, you cannot imagine my overwrought hysteria when we stumbled upon some small colonies of jewelled sea anemones lurking in a hidden puddle. It was in sharp contrast to the previous days overwrought hysteria, but more of that shortly…
Jewelled sea anemones
Jewelled sea anemonesWhite striped anemone
Heading northwards involved a fair amount of whining and griping from me, rock jumping, bare foot scrambling, dodgy rock hand holds, and at times heading in the chilly sea in order to get around a minor piece of rocky headland, in spite of the retreating tide. This was not made easier by the discovery of part of a shed cray exoskeleton, promptly named Reggie, and carried for a couple of hours over the rough terrain, with no breakage. I also managed to not drown my phone. There were caves, holes in rocks, plenty of kelp, rocky beaches, and splendid isolation.
A hole in the rock formation.
No sooner did I say ‘we might get to the bottom of Pat’s place!’ than we literally ran into a stone wall. We could not go around into the raging tidal surges, and we could not go up the sheer clay cliffs which were reminiscent of Suvla Bay on a good day, so we had to admit defeat and turn back. This was a wise move as the tide was on the turn. Luckily turning tail is always faster than heading into the unknown..
The previous day had been markedly different. We arrived on the island with a senior coastal engineer, a representative of Auckland Council who has the not too arduous task of visiting all the inhabited gulf islands with council assets in order to ascertain council’s response to the challenge of a changing climate, and gather feedback from residents with regard to the long term resilience of those assets. Unfortunately it was torrential rain, a howling gale, and a near empty island, but we managed to wrangle up a few hardy Rakino-ites for him to talk to. The feedback was great, and after a short but interesting meeting we wandered around to Home Bay, so he could look at the council administered assets there.
Imagine our distress and embarrassment when we stumbled upon a scene of marine carnage; the beach littered with dead fish, three eagle rays with their wings hacked off, and saddest of all, a kororā, dead on the barge ramp. I do not wish to see this again, and if you are the holiday home owner responsible for the tradies that left this mess because of their callous disregard for our island marine life, please do the rest of us a favour and hold them to account. Set netting is legal, but leaving it unattended for a length of time in an area rays and penguins frequent is despicable. Thankfully Lez gave the idiots a well-deserved earful.
Drowned kororā on the Home Bay barge rampOne of the hacked up eagle rays.
I managed a late afternoon rock scramble south of Woody Bay on Sunday. The kelp looked lush, and good habitat for marine critters, enticing for some summer snorkeling adventures.
Kelp at the bottom of the saddle between Woody and West Bays.
Tassels of Neptune’s necklace bordering a rock pool.
Monday and Tuesday were spent getting a bit of late season planting done, thank you to John MacKenzie and the Rakino Island Nursery for supplying the trees. They will either get tough or die, but it was so damp after the torrents of Friday I think they’ll be fine. The flax, kowhai, and whau flowers are ripening and the tui were thwocking each other out of the sky as they pre-emptively scoped out food sources, vantage points, and territory, springtime business as usual. Simon spotted a couple of these slinky critters in the grass under the trees, elusive moko skinks, most likely a breeding pair. I’m happy they are surviving the predations of Kingfishers and pukeko.
In early May, Bert, Dylan, and I hosted a day visit to Rakino by the Waiheke Resources Trust.
Bert hosting a wetland tour for us on Rakino in May.
The WRT staff were visiting Kawau, Aotea, and Rakino as part of their mission to create community driven links between the four Gulf Islands. Check out the link to their website here : https://wrt.org.nz/
We had a busy day roaming through Bert’s and Kendal’s regenerating wetlands, visiting the nursery, and the intrepid Waihekeans Kristin, Montana, Nathalya, and Kym also had a comprehensive vehicular island tour courtesy of Dylan.
This was a precursor to a hui to be held by Waiheke Resources Trust on Waiheke in mid June, and attended by people from each of the four islands.
My association with WRT goes back a couple of years when they helpfully umbrella-ed a Local Board grant application, so I was enthusiastic to meet them in person, but also to connect with people from other islands. I was also interested to see a different side of Waiheke. I’d only visited the island in the past for events like Sculpture in the Gulf, and other people’s Big Birthday celebrations, so I was keen to have some encounters on Waiheke that were less injurious to my wallet with people that were similarly interested in ecology, environmental restoration, and waste reduction. Bert, Dylan, Simon, and I self-selected for the meet-up.
This necessitated a ferry trip and overnight stay, as the hui was to be held over two days.
Simon and I arrived early, and went for a quick wander around Oneroa. We spotted a likely looking chap in redbands and a swandri striding along the opposite side of the road. He had the reassuring aspect of a Rakino-ite, and turned out to be part of the delegation from Great Barrier as we discovered when we got back to the Sustainability Center which houses the WRT. Bert had arrived, but unfortunately rough weather meant that Dylan was unable to make the journey from Rakino to Waiheke in Kraken.
After lunch provided by the Kai Concious food rescue team followed by introductions we headed out on the first visit, to the Waiheke Community Resource Recovery Park, formerly known as the Waiheke Transfer Station, or ‘the dump’. WCRRP is part of the Zero Waste Collective, and it’s their task to divert as much ‘waste’ as possible from landfill. We had an animated discussion with Keith Enoka, the general manager of the waste collective, followed by a tour of the recovery station. I urge you to check out this link; it’s pretty inspirational, and an important consideration for all island dwellers as everything we bring to the island eventually ends up being removed at great expense. https://islandwastecollective.co.nz/
Bundles of recovered cardboard.Electric rubbish truck recharging.
Our next visit was to the Compost Collective. Mike Fogarty heads up the composting team, and he gave us a comprehensive run through of the processes involved. The collective is supplied with food waste from a number of Waiheke restaurants which they compost with green waste. It was a post-prandial challenge to stare into the bin which had a top layer of fat/meat/bones, but the final product is a rich, dark, worm-laden compost which has a high nutrient value. Check out the link here : https://wrt.org.nz/composting/
Mike and the clever bins designed for the layered composting system he has developed.Mike answering our composting questions while Simon looks askance at the meat/fat/bones devolving.
This was followed up by a visit to the plant nursery. The nursery supplies eco-sourced native plants to the public, but importantly, to the wetland planting restoration projects run by WRT, our next visit…
Waiheke nursery visit.
The Rangihoua wetland restoration project is seriously impressive, not in any small way because of the sheer volume of weeds that have had to be removed before any planting could get underway. Moth plant and woolly nightshade are a curse, but multiply that with invasive honeysuckle which is not permitted to be dealt with by spraying, and the task looks gargantuan. Kym Rawson the restoration manager gave us a tour of the area which is in varying stages of regeneration. It’s looking great, and I was also really impressed by the numbers of volunteers the project has, given that mainly people like planting trees, but weeding less so. Kym visited Rakino in May with the other WRT team, and had been impressed by the regenerative plantings on Rakino, as well as having useful insight to share about our wetlands.
Part of the extensive Rangihoua planting.Kym talking about weeds and how to remove them…
We returned to the Sustainability Center to relax, chat about the day with our new acquaintances, indulge in a couple of cold beverages, meet up with some more WRT staff, and feast on a potluck dinner, before heading off to our accommodation.
Day 2 of the hui focused on group workshops and a presentation by Livné Ore on the ins and outs of making successful funding applications. Livné was invaluable in guiding me when I applied for a modest sum for a snorkeling workshop, so I found her presentation helpful. Dylan had also found a window in the dodgy weather and managed to safely steer Kraken to Waiheke, so he could attend the final day.
Kristin and Montana will be collating all the outcomes of the hui, but broadly speaking there was agreement that it would be useful to share existing knowledge and resources, and that there was potential power in getting Auckland Council to view our collective islands as a distinct region while retaining our individual ‘cultures’. Thinking about some specific collective inter-island projects was also front of mind. We are also keen to re-convene in a year, as well as hold regular catch-ups and connect on social media. Everyone was keen to stress that none of us represent our individual islands, but as hui participants we have shared goals and interests. I’m looking forward to reading the collated discussion.
Many thanks to WRT for the huge effort in co-ordinating the hui, all the site visits, the great food provided by the kai conscious team, and many thanks to all the other participants who traveled to attend. I really enjoyed meeting people from other islands and seeing a completely different side of Waiheke to previous experiences.
Firstly, thank you to the hardy Rakino-ites that humoured me by turning up at the unreasonable hour of 10am for the first of the #ecofest2024 events organised for Easter. The icy south-west wind was howling into West Bay as our group hugged the cliff and hacked and poisoned rhamnus, but the views were spectacular. Elsewhere, the moth plant removalists were hard at work ripping out the devil’s weed and plucking pods. Bert has an enviable and cunningly wrought device which is just the ticket for this tedious job. It’s a sort of hooky prongy thing on a long pole, and he should probably patent it.
Julianne killing rhamnus
The second event was a 4pm low-tide beach clean-up at the northern end of West Bay, and it was really cool to see how many kids were there. My expectations for buy-in of my fanciful ideas are usually quite low, so massive thanks to everyone who turned up. Unfortunately the beach rubbish at West Bay is mainly small pieces of plastic which are entwined in the leaf and feather middens of the high-tide mark. Common items were foil lolly wrappers, small indeterminate pieces of plastic bags, and jandals. It wouldn’t be a beach clean without finding clothing pegs and soft silicone baits, but my favourite find was a foil wrapper claiming to contain a ‘fart bomb’, and Steve Livesay dragged a sodden duvet inner and cover up the saddle track which impressed me mightily. The beach was also smothered in Lion’s Mane jellies, some of whom were clutching onto bits of plastic. I asked them nicely before removing it…
Lion’s Mane Jellies en masse
Buckets of beach rubbish
I didn’t attend the Sunday RRA meeting as planned because I was setting up for Market Day, but I hear that much gratitude was given to Lez in the form of many rounds of applause, there is progress on the Hall, and the progress on the Fire Shed is self-evident, so many thanks to Chris, the Stephen’s (Thomas and Wong), Henry, and John Beasley, plus everyone else who has worked on the shed. It’s looking great. Let’s hope it doesn’t need to be utilised in a hurry.
Harriet played a blinder in generously offering up her garden for a Market Day fundraiser for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust. The kids’ activities for humans of all ages went down a treat, and I reckon we should expand on those for future events. A huge thank you to everyone that helped out, provided materials, time, and participated in this event.
Pinch pots and painting
A colourful garden party!
Thanks to: * Lez for jigsaw cut outs, and John for the test pots and treats, *Lucy for teaching pinchpots, *Reilly, Natalie, Carolyn, Dylan, Jo, Jim Wheeler, Lisa, and Harriet for their creations. *Eleanor for her paintings and life drawings. *Bert on sausage sizzle with William weeping over onions in the kitchen. *Simon for the poster, Gary for helping set up, and me for the interminable spruiking.. *Lyndsey & Caroline for their vintage goodies. *All the Rakino-ites who supported.
We raised $1350 for Westpac… which will be paid this week.
Bert on sausage sizzle duties.
It was also the last weekend ever of the Woody Bay Pizzeria as Alf hangs up his pizza paddle. We dropped in at Monday lunchtime and trade was roaring in the calm of the bay after a few days of a brutal westerly. Woody Bay was full of boats, and pizza eaters.
I hope everyone else had a relaxing Easter, but I had to go home for a rest. . .
Join us across three venues for the Easter Market, Sunday March 31st, 1pm – 3pm. Our hosts are Lyndsey at 51 Ocean View Rd. with a selection of vintage treasures, Harriet at 6 Ocean View with a group show of artwork, crafts, a pottery making activity for kids, and Wim and Jo on the corner of South Pacific and Woody Bay Rd. for kids clothes and hair accessories. There will be a sausage sizzle at 6 Ocean View, with all proceeds going to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust. Please bring gold coins for the sausage sizzle, $3 to an excellent cause.
Reading the minutes of the Labour Weekend RRA meeting I saw that someone had brought up ‘rubbish’ as an issue. I’m still uncertain as to what the issue was, as no-one I spoke to could remember the specific details of the topic as it was discussed, so I guessed it was probably something to do with putting recycling correctly in bins and composting food scraps instead of throwing them out with household waste.
I put my hand up to look at the way Rakino-ites put our waste into the communal bins because I’ve had some unpleasant olfactory surprises over the years when I’ve gone to dump my own recycling/household waste after my island visits. I’ve also been perplexed at the sheer volumes of waste that Tom has to deal with after busy weekends, the perennial issue of dead and dying vehicles, and the annual consternation around inorganic collections.
After speaking to Kayleigh Appleton at Waiheke Resources Trust I had an enthusiastic online meeting with representatives from the Island Waste Collective on Waiheke, and the WRT. The discussion was wide-ranging, but the most useful things I took from it was the possibility of availing ourselves of a can crusher from Waiheke, and diverting cardboard from the waste stream going off -island into a community composting initiative. Waiheke Resources Trust would happily provide a composting workshop for interested Rakino-ites.
Keith Enoka, General Manager of Island Waste Collective put me in touch with Bret Dragt from Auckland Council, who sent through the Gulf Islands Waste Plan written in 2018 with input from the Rakino Community, and some useful tips for household waste reduction.
Regretfully we have failed to achieve the waste reduction goals as set out by ourselves.
Tom has done an excellent job on the rubbish contract, tidying up the previous shambles at Home Bay, keeping the bins clean and tidy, and generally cracking down on illegal dumping as far as it is possible, but bach owners, myself included, could be doing a great deal more.
As you can see, the ambition was to achieve the aforementioned composting scheme and use cardboard brown waste on-island, but this hasn’t happened. The bokashi bins have also not been utilised to their full potential. It’s a lost composting opportunity.
Bret Dragt also provided this helpful guideline for waste reduction :
As you can see, the same issues still exist, six years on. The C & D waste referred to in the document is Construction and Demolition waste, the removal of which is the responsibility of builders and householders at their own cost, NOT the council and it’s contractors.
The lowest hanging fruit we can deal with immediately is removing all food waste and cardboard from the waste stream.
I propose we avail ourselves of a community composting workshop via the Waiheke Resources Trust, for any bach owners or residents who want to become composting ninjas. Given that the proportion of green waste to brown waste (paper/cardboard) should be about 50/50 in a successful compost I believe we could eliminate cardboard from the piles of waste which travel off-island. I’m happy to facilitate the organisation of a composting workshop.
Save the date! Saturday March 30th at 10am for a weeding bee on the West Bay Track followed by a high tide swim for the intrepid. Bring along your weeding gear, sunblock and togs. Track access is at the end of Woody Bay Rd.
