Our group of hardy volunteers soaked up spectacular views before descending the track to scramble among the undergrowth of mature Old Man’s Beard vines, on a search and destroy mission!

We split into two work parties, with most of us revisiting our efforts there over a year ago to deal with regrowth and vines we’d missed. Parts of these slopes are covered in OMB unfortunately, so we focused on working over thoroughly the areas where we’d been last time. It was hot, hard work but so satisfying to locate a master vine and cut and paste it at its root, delivering a setback to the invader and a reprieve for nearby native plants.

Four people went to another site where the vine is just getting going, and reported that they were confident they got it all. The aim is to keep this area free of OMB to create a buffer preventing it from spreading into the southern parts of the reserve.

Thanks to our local volunteer guides Andy Ashley and his father Terry. Andy and Terry are core members of the Port Robinson Reserves Advisory group that began this large-scale, flourishing native restoration over 30 years ago.

After a picnic lunch back at the top, we enjoyed a tour of Andy’s impressive native fernery, which he has established in a large converted glasshouse on his property.

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