A living monument to altruism

Take a walk on the wet side and restore your faith.

When your drizzle’s full of shizzle everything can feel bleak.

Sometimes we just need a shot of pure goodness straight between the eyes.

Sometimes there’s no avoiding the fact that the bastards can, in fact, grind you down.

Or rather, life’s general bastardry. Or worse, one’s own.

Sometimes we can do with another reminder of the good side of life — humankind’s altruism.

Duntroon Wetland is a living, growing monument to exactly that.

Fourteen years ago it was surrounded by paddocks of willow trees and swamp. It was landbanked for Project Aqua, a new hydro-electric scheme with a big canal going down the lower Waitaki Valley.

For a combination of reasons the project was cancelled in 2004 but Meridian Energy was still keen to make good of the site, a remnant raupo wetland that had managed to avoid the effects of our human activities.

A public meeting in 2009 resulted in enthusiasm from some people and "whatever" from others, according to Karan Lawrence, of Duntroon District Development Association. But very quickly a true partnership developed between big bodies and small-town locals, even school children.

About $100,000 has been donated over the years, along with expert advice.

About 8000 plants have been planted and nearly all the work done by locals with the help of people sentenced to community work. A dairy farmer has facilitated planting on his land and even mows the wetland walking track himself.

Lying between Duntroon township and the Waitaki River, the hour-long return walk starts near the Alps 2 Ocean Trail or in the main street of Duntroon.

The track edges around the wetland’s boundary with farmland so, while plantings are still small, there are huge open views across paddock to mountain. Wide spaces frame big skies. All this, only 100m from the carpark.

Visibly bubbling springs feed the wetland from the inland Maerewhenua River. Its water is so clear in Duntroon that legend says early Māori used it as a mirror.

Apart from pūkeko and ducks, there’s not much birdlife yet but planted kōwhai and flax are mature enough to flower so there’s hope, and pest traps are doing their job.

Eels live in the knee-deep swamp, occasionally doing their rainy day trick of slithering along the track.

Hard work, both politically and physically, is the reality of projects like this.

A mature, planted cabbage tree has blown down trackside but there’s no drama. Chairman of the Duntroon District Development Association, Owen King, said its shoots will be cut off, dug into the ground, then will come away as new trees.

One of the boardwalked bridges is supported underneath by the chassis from an old Bedford truck.

"It was the easiest thing we could find at the time".

The whole thing is a heartwarming reminder for the jaded of the good side of human nature. And a wee nudge to make one’s own contribution.