The onset of winter does not see any let-up in the activity along the stream banks with the focus moving to planting and, this year, the commencement of constructions of stage 2 of the track extension beyond the Sammaree Reserve bridge.

Planting

Kerikeri High School undertook weeding and planting of 75 native plants on a site by the old swimming hole, downstream from the Jim and May Brodie Bridge. 20 students attended and Sandra Leaming from the school commented that "the students really enjoyed themselves and more importantly learnt a lot about the impact of introduced weeds on our native forests and the need to maintain diversity by planting native trees". Rod Brown captured the following images of student activity.

The Friends of Wairoa Stream have also been busy along the top of the waterfall and the boundary with Inlet Estate with 797 plants going into the ground over the last six weeks. The planting along the Inlet Estate boundary (top 2 images below) was primarily planting into gaps that exist in plantings from recent years. The top of the waterfall (bottom two images below) was a combination of this plus getting one of intrepid team members (Barry Slabosz) safety harnessed so that he could plant on a very steep and unstable section of this area.

Track Extension

The 'first sods' were turned on this project last Monday with activity along the 100m stage 2 extension of the track which follows a tributary of the Wairoa stream.