Golden Bay – Golden trip – Golden chance

A three-day trip to Golden Bay has been strongly impressed on my memory. Golden Bay has a lot of beautiful scenery such as white sandy beaches, green ranges of hills and mountains, clean rivers and streams. We visited many famous places and talked with a lot of people including local councillors.

However, my deepest impression is of the friendly way people live with the environment and protect it. For example, local people receive support from the government and local council in building two systems of water treatment for their farming and housing in order to ensure that all waste water becomes clean before running into rivers and the sea. The government also supplies trees to local people for planting along the rivers and on the mountains to absorb any runoff of pollutants from farming and dairying practices and to prevent erosion. As a result, the water in Golden Bay is quite safe for horticulture and aquaculture. The local people can get buoyant prices from their products.

Anatoki salmon farm is a typical example. By using fresh water from streams, tens of thousands of kgs of salmon are harvested every year. The farm becomes a famous place for tourists to enjoy beautiful sightseeing, fishing salmon. The farm owners can easily earn a lot of money and their income is stable.

Another example of the benefit from the fresh water resource is Thorpe family farm. With an area of over 800 ha, the farmers plant a variety of fruit trees, feed sheep and cows. Fresh water plays an important role in their efficient farming. They use water for irrigation and generating a hydro electric turbine. This turbine can provide enough electricity for the farm. Their life becomes stable from the sale of wool, meat, milk and fruits.

During the trip, I could see the successful co-oporation between the local council and local people in killing possum to protect forests and bird species. The possum is a small animal with the fertility rate of 1 or 2 babies per year. Their main food is all kinds of trees. Their fur and skin can make wool and leather of high quality. Possum is not a native animal. It was imported from Australia for the industry of wool and leather 150 years ago. The industry developed prosperously but later declined as it was not subsidised by the government. Consequently, the number of possum rose dramatically. Nowadays, there are about 90 or 97 million possum in New Zealand and they have become a danger to forests. They have destroyed forests and there is no place for birds. The Government has spent millions of dollars placing poisoned fruits and trapping them in forests. The local council also provides traps and poisoned fruits to local people to catch possum in their own gardens and surroundings. The pub called Kaituna – “The naked possum” in Golden Bay has been successful in decreasing the number of possum and trading products from possum.

Recently, thanks to the local council’s determination and local people’s effort in killing possum, the number of possum is more controlled. Forests and birds have gradually recovered. We can hear birds twittering in the forests and we can see the green colour of trees.

Three days in Golden Bay passed quickly. We learned a lot of experiences from New Zealand in protecting the environment and developing the economy sustainably.