<- Connect with field trip experts and our ākonga crew
Meet Maria
Hi, I'm Maria. And I call this place – Fiordland: Tamatea and ‘Flightless’ – home. I operate a business in Fiordland with my partner, Seán. So we take people out for multi-day trips and show them what this place has to give and how to give back to it.
Getting to be here and be an owner-operator, skipper and engineer doesn't just happen overnight. For me it was quite a wavy journey. I started off living in Germany, and studying. And I also studied economics at university. But eventually, really had this draw and passion for nature and spending more time with people. So that's where the curves come in. And I went travelling and I started spending time on boats and diving. And started teaching people how to dive and studying how to become a dive teacher and scuba instructor. And out of that, spent more time on boats.
So you want to know how they work and how to run them. So I decided to become a skipper as well. So I learned how to drive boats, so I could captain these ships. But then when you captain these ships, you also want to know how they actually physically run; how does the machinery work? Because you're responsible for the ship and the people on it. So I then decided to do my engineering as well so I could look after the machinery as well as the people. And I had the privilege to do this for lots of different companies and different operations, and met my partner through this as well.
And eventually we thought we would really like to do this ourselves. Think a bit differently, and dream a bit differently. So we decided to get our own ship, and bring people to this place and show them around and look after them. Look after our own ship; skipper our ship and look after the people. Essentially just following what feels good combined with studying, and making sure that you know what you're doing.
Meet Seán
Hi my name is Seán. I'm one of the owners of Pure Salt with my partner Maria. Pure Salt is a charter ship company down in Fiordland. We take people out and explore this beautiful bit of paradise. For those of you that don’t know, Fiordland is the largest national park in New Zealand; down the south west coast of the South Island. Very remote, stunning place. We have the pleasure of showing people around the backyard. In here we can go walking, fishing, diving; all kinds of activities. Surrounded by many a beautiful island.
And we’ve got this big, beautiful ship, which is 90-foot long. And we’ve got all the comforts of home onboard. So when people come in and join us; cruise around and eat the good food that we catch from around here. And we’re very lucky to have amazing fish here and the forest. And onboard, we have all the toys and tools we need to be able to go out and collect those sustainably. And then we’ve got an amazing chef onboard who helps us out to enjoy those delicious delights.
My day involves looking after the ship, helping the team out, roaming around in paradise.
Meet the ākonga crew
Betty
Kia ora, my name’s Betty. I'm from Halfmoon Bay School on Stewart Island, and I’m 13.
Vesper
Kia ora, my name’s Vesper. And I'm from Wellington. I'm Year 6.
Tiki Iti
Kia ora, my name’s Tiki Iti Atkinson. I’m 15. I'm from West Auckland, and I go to Massey High School.
Betty
I got to be here because I won a very special competition. And that competition, you had to enter a video to win. My video was about kaitiakitanga and what it means to me. And in my video, I was talking about how I wanted to keep my island the way it is now for generations to come.
Tiki Iti
I got to be on this trip because my mum came rushing towards me and she was like,‘Tiki, I've got the best news’. And she told me about this amazing competition that I could win a spot on this boat down here in Fiordland. And I just was so excited to enter. And when the call came that I'd won, I was just ecstatic.
Vesper
I just love this place. It's so beautiful. There's so much you can do without realising it. Even if it's just small things, they just add up. They can make a big difference. So I think it's really important, and this will last me for a lifetime.
Tiki Iti
I’m really interested in all the marine life. So I'm super interested to get into the water and see what there is to see.
Betty
I'm really looking forward to hopefully seeing some black coral. And just seeing what there is to see in this beautiful place.
Meet Rusty
Hello, I’m Rusty. My journey in pest control started back in my own community. Out walking the dog, he couldn't catch the stoats, so I thought I'd do something about it.
Now, I'm the project lead for Pure Salt on Resolution Island. Where we take four people out into the bush and service traps and innovate. It's really fulfilling getting to watch all the birds come back, and being able to do something positive for the environment.
Meet Jo
Kia ora. Ko Jo tōku ingoa. My name is Jo and I work for Te Papa Atawhai | Department of Conservation in our Te Ānau office. My role is to come out and inspire people about this wonderful place that we live, and the conservation work that we do here in Fiordland. I also get to play with cool technology like this TR4 aerial. And it helps us to track amazing taonga species that we have on these islands. Like this…
What I love about my job is being able to bring ākonga, like we've had on this trip, to places like this and enthuse them and show them these places that they would never otherwise get to see. And I'm so pleased that we've been able to come on this journey as well, to show you guys the amazing parts of the country that we have, especially down here in Fiordland.
Meet Rebecca
Kia ora. My name is Rebecca McLeod, and I'm lucky enough to be one of the appointed marine guardians for this incredible place. We came into being in 2005. There's eight of us and our role is to look after the Fiordland marine area. So everything from the high-tide line, right down to the deepest, darkest depths of the deep basins.
And one of the really special features of Fiordland and the way that we manage the place is that we have ten marine reserves, and these are scattered throughout the extent of Fiordland in all different kinds of environments. So here we are at Moana Uta, which is like the… it stands for, like ‘inland sea’. And this whole fiord of Wet Jacket Arm is a marine reserve.
And you can tell you're in the marine reserve because we have these incredible poupou, which stand as kaitiaki over the marine protected areas. And they've all been designed and carved by carvers from Ōraka-Aparima Rūnaka, down in Murihiku, Southland.
The Fiordland Guardians approach is really amazing because it's all about the community coming together to figure out how best to look after this place that they know and love the best out of anyone. So it's not like the government's coming in and telling everyone how to operate this place. It's the community and we're the voice of the community coming forward and making sure that we look after it.
So we carry this amazing vision that Fiordland in the future will be just as wonderful as it is now or maybe even better for future generations, like you guys to come in and use and enjoy it. And I'm really passionate about this because I feel like I'm doing some really meaningful work. Like we get involved with the people that are on the ground looking after this place, and we help to direct them to make sure that all the actions that we take in here are leaving this place better for the future. And that feels like progress to me.
Meet Jessi
Kia ora koutou. Ko Jessi Morgan taku ingoa. I'm the chief executive of the Predator Free New Zealand Trust. And the Predator Free New Zealand Trust is all around supporting New Zealanders in the goal towards Predator Free 2050, which is a goal to remove stoats and other mustelids such as ferrets and weasels, rats and possums from the whole of New Zealand. So it's actually an ambitious goal. But we can definitely get there. And with the help of communities, we can definitely get there.
New Zealand has the highest rate of threatened species in the world. And our species have evolved here without mammalian predators. And so as a result of that, adapted to defend themselves against introduced predators, such as rats and stoats. So it’s really important that we remove them so that they can flourish and breed here. So yeah, the goal is really to remove those introduced predators so that our native species can thrive, and we can have abundant native species across the country.
What people can do at home is, you can control predators in your own backyard. So it's really easy to set up some chew cards and work out if you've got rats or possums, whatever's in your backyard, and then find the appropriate trap that will target those species. So for example, you can get a really easy to use snap trap. Put that in your back garden. It comes in a box that's safe from pets and kids. And then you can control rats in your own backyard. And then as you're more successful, I guess you can talk to your neighbours and get them involved too. And you get your school involved. It's a really easy thing people can do as well as schools.
Meet Fleur
Hi, I’m Fleur Sullivan. When I was a child, we traditionally lived off the land. And I'm lucky enough to have managed to carry that on through my whole life. I find a place that I really love. And you love it because you can see the bounty from the ocean or the river or the forest. And I see all this lovely gathering that you can do, to add so much to your outlook on life. I've looked to the past to find a future for sustainable living. And here I am, the happiest person in the world.
