Events - Wellington

A Rocha in Wellington: We meet monthly for a pot luck dinner where we share creation care ideas, discuss projects, have guest speakers and pray together. After exploring potential projects that we could be involved in long term, at our meeting on 6th May 2009 we unanimously agreed to adopt a mistletoe reintroduction project.The aims of this project would be: To reintroduce and protect native mistletoe in the Kapiti region and to share the skills and expertise we gain with the wider community. Several factors favour this project: (1) Mistletoe is endangered in the Wellington region and DOC already has a programme focusing on preserving this plant, with resources available on the net; (2) to our knowledge, there is no other community group working to reintroduce mistletoe, meaning we aren't doubling up in the area; (3) It is a project suitable to the size of our group. We will initially focus on the green mistletoe (Ileostylus micranthus) as there has been some success in growing this species from seeds and it can be found locally. We will source seeds locally and 'plant' onto the same host species if possible. The host trees will be clearly marked and extra possum traps set up around them. We will document our efforts so that we can share our knowledge and experience with other groups. Our first working bee was held on the 23rd May 2009 (more details below).

Upcoming and Recent Events

For more information about upcoming events, please email us at new.zealand@arocha.org

Sat 16th January 2010 - Meeting. Venue: Otari Information Centre

Sun 6th December 2009 - Native Plant Stall. Our native plant stall was a great success at Christmas Knack craft market on 6 December. It was a perfect Wellington day, with the sunlight and clear blue skies showing off our plants to their best advantage. We enjoyed the exchange with other ethically minded creative people, stall holders and customers. It was great to be part of a local event and meet residents who had a wealth of local knowledge and strong commitment to the community. We made some good sales, and had many great conversations with plant enthusiasts. However, the stall was a lot of work, for a only a medium size profit ($123.50). We concluded such work had more benefits for public relations than for fund-raising, so will consider other methods if we decide as a group to generate more income. We do now have a small fund to begin such endeavours from.

Sat 21st November 2009 - Lynton and Anna's information extravaganza! Lynton and Anna are setting sail from NZ early in 2010 to be volunteers at A Rocha Canada and A Rocha Kenya. Many are no doubt left wondering, who is this A Rocha and what on Earth will be these two be doing for a year? To have these nagging questions answered, we cordially invited you to our information extravaganza on Saturday the 21th of November 2009. There were stories, movies and of course.... there will be waffles!

Sat 14th November 2009 - Mistletoe outing and pot luck dinner. From 2pm, there was a walk around to see whether mistletoe is growing on seeded host trees. There was enthusiastic excitement as those who climbed trees discovered some of the Ileostylus micranthus seeds sprouting pin-head sized leaves. At 5.30pm there was a pot-luck dinner and gathering to firm up plans for next year.

Fri 2nd October 2009 (6.30pm) - Pot luck dinner. Kristel van Houte-Howes, the National Director of A Rocha NZ, made her way down to visit us. She visited with us to get a feel for what we are up to, what our plans for the future are and to find ways the National organisation might assist us. She also shared with us what is happening on the national level and as well as with other local A Rocha groups. This evening was also a time to figure out what direction people want the group to go in and what level of commitment each person wants to give.

Past Events

August 2009 - Pot luck dinner. After a couple of quiet, wintery months, this was a good chance to get together again for a pot luck dinner.

June 2009 - 'Planting' Day. We collected the seeds (~30) and planted them on the prepared host trees.

May 2009 - Working Bee. This first working bee was a reconnaissance day to find the mistletoe seed source, identify the current host species, locate suitable hosts in the Valley Rd property and prepare the host tree (banding if necessary, setting possum traps, etc.). We had received permission to search for and take mistletoe seeds from two locations.

May 2009 - Pot luck dinner and Meeting. At this meeting, we decided unanimously agreed to adopt the mistletoe reintroduction project.

April 2009 - Pot luck dinner and Meeting. At this meeting we discussed potential projects for the Wellington A Rocha initiative group, focusing primarily on a Mistletoe reintroduction project. We agreed to do more research before the next meeting, including a botanical survey of the property for the presence of suitable host trees, and enquiries with DOC regarding sourcing seeds, 'planting' techniques and appropriate times for 'planting'.

Feb 2009 - Kotukutuku Bush Trip.

Dec 2008 - Pot luck dinner and Meeting.

Nov 2008 - Pot luck dinner and Meeting.