Greetings and Morning Tea Our Planting Sites History

Greetings and Morning Tea

Our Planting Site’s History Taipo Gully was named by the local Maori people after an incident that occurred in the late 1800's. There used to be gates across the "road" (now SH 16) – really a walking track. These were often left open by people as they travelled between local marae to visit friends and family. My great, great uncle hollowed out several pumpkins, cut out eyes and then put candles inside them. He put them on the gates one night. . After this the area was named Taipo (Ghost) Gully and people would take a detour around the gates rather than risk seeing the "ghosts".

The photos from Gill

The Planting § After morning tea and a stretch which was welcome after the long bus ride, we moved on to the planting site where the landowners has thoughtfully staked the places where we would dig and had laid out the plants – a first for us as previously this had been our job. § It should be mentioned that Shane and Jenny had come down a fortnight earlier to collect the plants and acclimatize them. The few that remained were taken up by Mrs C and her husband whilst checking out the RAMs (health and safety issues). § We also met Shane’s super friendly dog. § The weather was perfect but the ground sodden because of all the previous days’ rain!! This meant it was extremely hard work digging through the kikuyu roots before the holes filled with sloppy mud and water. § We worked away and even managed to be filmed and interviewed for Trees for Survival management to use later on a CD.