Fensham Reserve
Wairarapa
Kaitiakitanga. Artist Sam Hughes
Watch your step
Writer: Hayden Maskell
Watch your step
through the mud, tangled vines,
squelching sodden swampy earth,
past the hammered trunks of mataī,
over crusty bracken and wounded roots,
their fibrous nerves exposed – the pain! –
to the air, scraped raw by Vibram tread
and the heavy gait of loping runners.
Safer, I think, to wander along
the slowly snaking Fensham boardwalk,
winding through kahikatea copses.
Safer to walk along heavy planks, so
expertly
sawn
around saplings that poke one finger
toward the dark and dappling canopy
a reminder to be quiet, a hush from
leaves and soft stems reminding us:
watch your step.
Writer: Hayden Maskell
From the outside, Fensham Reserve is a humble place. Follow the old yellow road signs out of Carterton, park on the roadside opposite the entry, dash across the tarmac, and you’ll find steep steps and a stack of gravel-filled Resene buckets. It’s no grand national park, no tourist hotspot, and unlikely to feature on a glossy Tourism New Zealand ad.
These are probably good things. There’s something about Fensham’s unassuming exterior that speaks of the quiet determination to preserve the life inside it. And, boy, is there life. Fensham is both steep and soggy. There’s a lot of mud and almost as much moss. It’s home to mudfish and kahikatea swamps, kānuka, mataī, tītoki and kōwhai, cutty grass, and more than 50 types of fern. Native birdlife thrums, pests are on the way out, and long-tailed bats have been found high in the trees. The whole place breathes.
John Fensham purchased this block of land in 1883 with the clear intention of preserving the bush – an extraordinary act for its time. Cementing his legacy, Fensham’s estate donated the land in trust to Forest & Bird in 1957, with the Society taking possession in 1978. Neighbours donated more in 2013. Forest & Bird’s Wairarapa Branch members care for the 48ha reserve, planting, eradicating pests, carting buckets of gravel up the hills, and building extensive boardwalks by hand.
Hands stood out to both Sam and me. The hands of our guide Pat McLean, gesturing in stately swoops over every tree and shrub. Hands plucking pest plants from the swamp. Hands cupping coffee mugs and digging with donated shovels. Hands guiding nature back to its rightful place.
Kaitiakitanga
Artist: Sam Hughes
Artist: Sam Hughes
I wanted to capture and celebrate the impact of conservation volunteers caring for the remnant swamp forest at Fensham Reserve. The hard-working hands, nurturing and protecting the seedling, represent the great work volunteers have done here helping massive mataī, and other flora flourish. In the circle of life, all living things are interconnected. One small act of kindness can help a tree to grow. It then provides shelter and sustenance to local birds, lizards, and insects, and joy to human visitors. Thank you to the Forest & Bird volunteers for conserving this forest for us and generations yet to come.
Medium: Watercolour, pencil, and ink