It was a chilly Saturday morning, but the sun was shining as we erected the Rotary Gazebo and drove the Community BBQ from Garden City Rotary, into position. A free sausage sizzle was a welcome early breakfast for some and a bonus for work done at the end for others.
At 9am a trickle of eager people from the community began to appear, followed by families, couples and some from the Papanui Historical Group. Karen from the Christchurch City Council Environment group gave a quick lesson on how to dig, plant and weed around the area, closely followed by Denis McMurtrie with a wheelbarrow and shovels directing people to the areas to be planted.
Denis had set up an area for children to colour in pictures of Dr. Seuss’s Lorax and Max Wright was given the job of dressing up in the Lorax suit to the amusement of passers by who waved from car windows.
The new path has been extensively extended and new planting beds have been made from the entrance to the street making the area more visible to the public. This was the first area to be planted on Saturday and the volunteers and Rotarians completed this quickly moving on into the body of the bush to finish areas around the new pathway. There is still plenty of planting to do throughout the bush as it continues to snake around the length of the new business park and railway line fencing.
Working with the City Council and Community Board has given Papanui Rotary the opportunity to be involved in leaving the city with an environmental legacy. Liz Courtney has also been given permission to erect the first Peace Pole in Christchurch at the Papanui Bush so watch this space for more information on the date set to erect this within the bush.
