The Lenz Reserve
Catlins
The Gathering. Artist: Gabby McKenzie
Through the Lenz
Writer: Sue Heggie
As they do, lashing storms pass.
Rushes slow to a standstill.
The windless reserve now heady and sweet.
The community emerges, taking the air.
Fuzzy koru unfurl, ask questions.
Sunlit, intricate patterns play to the gallery.
Green mosses well up, tautuku poke orange tongues.
Excited miromiro chase, coy pīwakwaka fan-flirt.
The kārearea remains poised, unmoved.
Damage is done. In shadow, anguished trees lean and drape.
Unripe berries drop too soon.
Sodden frail bodies merge with mulch.
Banks gape denuded; dunes simply slip away.
But today, spoonbills spoon, leggy kōtuku reflect, cryptic
mātātā mind their business, kārearea swoop. As they do.
On my first night in The Catlins I dined with the aptly-named Sutherlands, Fergus and Mary. On the delicious menu were Fergus-caught blue cod and Central Otago apricots.
Writer Sue Heggie
The Sutherlands are a species specific to the Catlins. Born and bred Southerners, they have spent their lives volunteering for Forest & Bird. They live, breathe, and care for the Lenz Reserve. They generously share their time, fish, and extensive knowledge.
The next day, Fergus and Gavin White, the resident hunter-conservationist, guided me on an amble around part of the reserve. Gavin too is encyclopaedic in his knowledge of the Lenz. We walked from the on-site accommodation through the bush to Fergus’ fascinating Walk Through Time. I think I saw a moa in the distance.
Later, we went through the forest to the beach and, after a wild storm, trees were down, and dunes and banks gouged. But the forest was alive with birds, mosses
plumped after rain and ferns freshly washed. The podocarp forest was awesome in the true sense of “awe”.
I heartily thank Forest & Bird and the team at Lenz reserve. I didn’t see the rare Tautuku gecko, but I did meet Gavin who discovered it lives here and Fergus gifted me his watercolour of it, so I’ve practically seen it.
A bonus is that, without internet, no news is good news there. I slept like a rātā log. My bag weighed heavy with Gavin’s venison on my homeward journey, my heart light with the experience.
Fergus’ advice and now mine – put Lenz Reserve on your bucket list.
The Gathering
Artist Gabby McKenzie
Artist: Gabby McKenzie
The birds in my artworks always mimic the lives of humans, and I wanted the viewer to feel as if they were peering into a special scene where a ‘working party’ meets to discuss track maintenance and trapping.
Gathered around an old metal cog leftover from early logging activity are a riroriro, mātātā, korimako, and miromiro. Wētā, kahukura butterfly, and a Tautuku forest gecko are quiet onlookers to the proceedings.
Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas