When most people head to Wānaka for a break, they pack their hiking boots, mountain bikes, or fishing rods. But for John, a keen conservation volunteer from Tauranga, the essentials also include gardening gloves and a sun hat.

John frequently visits Wānaka and during his trips, he makes time to lend a hand at Bullock Creek. From planting native seedlings to helping maintain pathways and traps, John’s contribution is a welcome boost for the Friends of Bullock Creek team.

“It’s such a beautiful spot, and it feels good to give something back,” John says.

Volunteers like John play an important role in keeping the wetlands thriving. Their support helps native plants establish, enhances habitat for birdlife such as the pīwakawaka and tūī, and ensures visitors can continue to enjoy the area in its natural state.

Next time you’re in Wānaka, why not follow John’s example? Drop by Bullock Creek, say hello to the team, and see how you can get involved. Every pair of hands makes a difference.

As the cold gripped the Wānaka district over winter, you may notice that the Tiaki Bees hives around Bullock Creek lie quiet and tightly sealed. But don’t be fooled, these hives are far from abandoned. In fact, this seasonal rhythm is a vital part of healthy hive management.

Why hives are closed during winter
During the colder months, honeybee colonies conserve energy and minimise risk by clustering around the queen inside the hive. Tiaki Bees beehives are deliberately closed up in winter to protect against chilling, reduce exposure to pests, and shield vulnerable brood (young bees) from the harsh conditions. Feeding is reduced, and the colony accesses stored honey reserves. This controlled dormancy helps the bees survive when nectar sources are scarce.

Opening up again when spring arrives
Come warmer weather, the hives are gradually reopened and bees begin their foraging again. Nectar and pollen become available, and the colony shifts into a busy growth phase: the queen resumes egg-laying, new workers emerge, and the hive rebuilds strength. Tiaki Bees actively monitor hive health in spring, checking for pests like varroa mites and ensuring the colony is robust enough for the summer months.

Around Bullock Creek, these hives are part of a growing partnership between Tiaki Bees and Friends of Bullock Creek, contributing both ecological value and educational opportunity. Visitors to wetland events often hear from Barna (founder of Tiaki Bees) about the local life of bees, their seasonal cycles, and their vital role in pollination.

Why it matters for the wetlands
Healthy bee colonies support pollination of native plants, including many that fringe the Bullock Creek wetlands. By aligning hive activity with the seasons, Tiaki Bees helps ensure that bees are most active when flora is blooming and pollination is needed. This seasonal opening and closing is part of good beekeeping practice, and benefits the entire ecosystem.

So next summer, when you see bees buzzing around blossoms near Bullock Creek, you’ll know they’ve just emerged from a carefully managed quiet season, ready to help our native plants thrive.

Tūī are an endemic songbird from the honeyeater family, best known for their remarkable ability to mimic sounds - not just other birds like the korimako, but even human-made noises such as machinery or phones. With their striking iridescent plumage and distinctive white throat tufts, tūī are a true icon of Aotearoa’s native birdlife.

As honeyeaters, tūī feed on nectar from native plants and play a vital role in pollinating species such as harakeke, kōwhai, and rātā.

While tūī are not currently at risk of extinction, their populations are still threatened by predators such as rats, possums, and stoats, as well as by habitat loss. To help our tūī thrive, we can set traps in our backyards, on our properties, or at workplaces to control pests, and plant native trees to create safe, food-rich habitats.

Several tūī make their home around the Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs, and we’re always delighted to spot them among the trees or hear their distinctive song echoing across the wetlands. Have you seen or heard any on your visits?

Recently we’ve had two new Trustees join Friends of Bullock Creek Board of Trustees. Bo has answered some questions to help us get to know him a bit better. You can find Bo volunteering at our Thursday sessions, so come down and say hi to him!

In five words, describe what makes Bullock Creek so special

Bubbling Peaceful Urban Oasis .

What kind of skills and experience do you bring to your role as Trustee?

Extensive experience in Conservation Capital Project Development and Construction Project Management.

How did you become involved with FOBC?

As new Wānaka residents, we were impressed with the swift clear stream running through the playground where our grandchildren play and just had to find out more. We ended up donating our moving box cardboard to FOBC and then became an active volunteer.

What have been some highlights of your work so far as a trustee for FOBC?

I have only been involved a short time as a Volunteer and now a Trustee, but seeing the transformation FOBC have made to Bullock Creek is amazing. The new plantings have really taken off and the invasive weeds are slowly but surely being beaten back, transforming the site.

What are some challenges you see regarding local environmental protection and regeneration?

The biggest challenge that I think is put upon the clear waters of Bullock Creek is the ongoing Urban intensification that can have the effect of increasing contaminated surface water runoff and that if not managed properly could enter the Bullock Creek waterways. This could be devastating to the Bullock Creek water clarity and habitat.

Where do you see FOBC in ten years time?

That the site has been fully reinstated to something that was close as what was there before human development altered the site. The whole site replanted and invasive weed species removed or controlled. Education programs developed along with spaces for public enjoyment.

Take a walk with us through the Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs…but in 4x speed! As you walk along the boardwalk through the wetlands, a plethora of life greets you, from the tūī to the pīwakawaka, to the kahu that regularly soar overhead. Plants such as harakeke, horoeka, karamū, mānuka, kānuka, kahikatea, toetoe, and tawai lend their fronds and canopies as welcome shade, habitat, food and respite to the humans and more-than-humans who call the wetlands home…or those just visiting! You may spot some ducks floating down the creek or even some fish like trout or the native koaro swimming along. Spend any amount of time here and you’ll feel grounded and refreshed.

Te Wiki o Te Taiao Conservation Week runs from today until the 7th of September. The theme this year is take action for nature.

All of us, whether as individuals, families, workplaces and organisations, have a role to play, and there are many actions we can take for nature, whether big or small, within our own capacities.

Why must we take action?

A combination of global warming, biodiversity loss due to human activity such as development and recreation, pollution and invasive species are contributing to the terrifying threat and loss of plant and animal species to extinction. Currently in Aotearoa, 40,000 (forty thousand!!!) species are at-risk or are threatened with extinction.

What can we do?

·Join a volunteer group, such as with us! Thursdays 2pm-4pm at 107 Stone Street, Wānaka

·Advocate for nature through local and Central Government levels; contact your local representatives and elected officials, write letters, petition, protest, boycott and divest to make your voice heard in action for nature protection

·Create an ecosystem for native plants and animals in your backyard/verandah/courtyard etc etc; mini-ecosystems support habitat for native animals including lizards, insects and birds, thereby supporting biodiversity

·Plant native plants at your home to attract pollinators

·Reduce wastewater run-off by washing your car on the lawn; wastewater and stormwater ends up in our lakes and waterways

·Install traps on your property; trapping pest animals helps keep our native animals safe, alive and thriving and reduces biodiversity loss

·Get involved in citizen science; contributing to the scientific data set helps organisations and Governments plan necessary and targeted ecosystem and biodiversity policies, strategies and actions

·Start a group and share the message about the importance of biodiversity and taonga species; educate yourselves and others about the significance and importance of saving our native species

·Donate to conservation organisations and Trusts, to help them continue their good mahi for nature

Check out https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/events/conservation-week/ for more information and for more ideas of actions you can take for nature this Conversation Week and every week of the year.

What is already being undertaken?

Well, right here with Friends of Bullock Creek, the work to restore the wetlands at the Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs site is just one example of taking action for nature. Over almost 10 years, more than 11,000 plants have gone into the ground, following the ongoing efforts to remove non-native invasive vegetation on site. The wetlands are home to a diverse ecosystem, from the wee macroinvertebrates and fish species in the creek itself, to the myriad native plant species, to the array of native birds making their home in the wetlands, not to mention the bees (!), Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs is a gem of a native restoration project.

Locally, we can also look to several other organisations doing good mahi for the environment, for example:

Te Kākano Aotearoa Trust- eco-sourced native seeds and plants, native nursery, community planting and education

WAI Wānaka- freshwater health and monitoring, education and community engagement

Southern Lakes Sanctuary- a collaboration of conservation organisations, educationcommunity engagement

Predator Free Wānaka- pest animal trapping and education

Forest & Bird- a range of local and national conservation projects for wai, te whenua, ngā moana and the climate

If you haven’t already met Andy, let her reintroduce herself. Andy is one of our Trustees, sitting in the role of Secretary, but doing a whole lot more for FOBC such as advocacy and funding applications. Read on to hear from Andy in her own words about her volunteer work with FOBC and why this is so important to her.

In five words, describe what makes Bullock Creek so special

 Unique spring fed urban wetland.

What kind of skills and experience do you bring to your role as Trustee?

I have been in business in Wānaka since moving here 25 years ago. Now retired I have the time to devote to FOBC and other voluntary projects that benefit the community. 

How did you become involved with FOBC?

The Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs is my backyard. I love being involved with a enthusiastic group of volunteers who are committed to transforming a forgotten corner of urban Wānaka into a snippet of native bush filled with the song of tūī and korimako.

What have been some highlights of your work so far as a trustee for FOBC?

I am a new Trustee, but I've been involved with FOBC for the last 2 years in an admin role. Highlights for me so far have been the significant increase in volunteer participation, funding success, (and) increased interconnectivity with other educational and environmental groups in Wānaka.

What are some challenges you see regarding local environmental protection and regeneration?

Increased urbanisation around the BC Hatchery Springs site and where we are working to restore the native vegetation. Flooding issues at the site caused by historic stormwater mis-management. 

Where do you see FOBC in ten years time?

The restoration of the BC Hatchery Springs site is complete. We have created an environmental education hub for water, plant and predator eradication. Our immediate neighbours both upstream and downstream are supportive and invested in our project. We retain a group of enthusiastic volunteers and financial supporters who are committed to maintaining the BC Hatchery Springs site into the future. 

The spring water we know as Bullock Creek first makes its way down from Cardrona, filtered through the Wānaka-Cardrona aquifer, which is found in the Cardrona Valley between the Criffell and Cardrona ranges. This aquifer also regulates groundwater locally and affects some parts of the Ōrau Cardrona River during summer, and eventually flows into the Mata-au Clutha River and Lake Wānaka. This same aquifer also discharges (as it does at Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs) at springs around Albert Town, Lakeside Drive and Ripponlea, as well as numerous human-made bores and wells.

An aquifer is the body of water that has soaked through the ground, through the gravel, sand and rocks, and settled underground; also known as groundwater, aquifers take on water in areas known as recharge areas, as opposed to discharge areas, mentioned above.

Geologically, the river and glacial gravel and sedimentation associated with the Wānaka-Cardrona aquifer is a mix of the Pleistocene and Holocene rock, ageing them from the present day up to 2.5 million years old!

The quality of the water that we have at Bullock Creek is wholly dependent upon the types of rock contained within the aquifer but is also impacted directly by human activity. For example, leaching of chemicals and fertilisers used in farming can find their way into the aquifer as well as wastewater run off from urbans areas which can contain microbial pathogens, ultimately ending up in Bullock Creek and Lake Wānaka, for example.

Water quality studies and monitoring is important to understand the risks to water quality and to mitigate them. A number of local organisations and council departments provide this data, and also encourage members of the public to report water quality issues. WAI Wānaka and Otago Regional Council can be contacted for further information; to report water quality issues call ORC on 0800 800 033 or go to this website: https://www.orc.govt.nz/environment/report-pollution/

Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs, in case you didn’t know, is teeming with life above and below ground. Tui, kahu, pīwakawaka, bees, blackbirds, worms, macroinvertebrates, fish, and mycelium all converge at the wetlands, not to mention the life force of the water itself. Wai is taonga in Te Ao Māori, evident in the life-giving sustenance it provides to the whenua and its plants and animals.

Bullock Creek springs seeping through the ground

Bullock Creek is the culmination of a journey, created by the Wānaka Basin-Cardrona gravel aquifer, located to the South-South West of Wānaka township, finally seeping directly from the ground throughout the Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs site. If you follow a map, you can imagine the journey the wai has taken to wend and weave its existence into the creek we know as Bullock Creek.

If you go down to the creek today, who will you meet? What will you find? Will you know where the water has come from?

Calling all Bullock Creek and nature lovers. We want you!

If you see a rabbit, please text Paul on 021 056 9146.

We are encouraging all members of the public to report any rabbit sightings you may have when at the Bullock Creek Hatchery Springs site. For any rabbit sightings, please text Paul the number of rabbits sighted, and the date and time of the sighting. This helps inform our rabbit (and greater pest) management strategy. Less pests in the wetlands means a win for local biodiversity.