It’s Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu – National Volunteer Week and we we’d like to acknowledge and celebrate the hundreds of volunteers dedicated to conservation mahi at our partner community organisations in Whangārei Heads – and everywhere! Their passion and dedication to protect our environment and taonga species is inspiring!

Here we are sharing a couple of volunteer profiles to acknowledge so many unsung heroes. Keep reading to meet Bridget Ross and Tony Climie, volunteers at Bream Head Conservation Trust.

An opportunity to give back to the community

Tony Climie, a retired geologist, has been volunteering at Bream Head Conservation Trust for 12 years, since returning to New Zealand and settling in Whangārei Heads with his wife and daughter. He estimates he cumulates over 500 days of volunteer work put into setting up trap lines to support the organisation’s conservation mahi.

His first contact with the organisation was at a school spring fair. “I was very impressed with the work they were doing and Geoff enthusiasm struck me, so I put my hand up. I love nature and it’s an opportunity to give back to the community.”

Tony loves working on his trap lines on his own, with his daughter, Jasmine, or supervising the Busby Trappers. “Trapping helps me keep a high level of fitness and provides me contact with nature. “

“When I came back to NZ, I was very impressed with the amount of people volunteering and caring for the environment. It’s great to see Kiwis more involved with conservation.”

Good for the soul

Bridget Ross (in the first photo with her daughter Elliott up on the ridge of Te Whara), a Whangārei local, grew up in Onerahi, where she lives with her family. Before moving back there, they lived in Whangārei Heads for ten years, where she grew a love for the local natural environment, especially the mountains. At the start of 2020, she started volunteering at the organisation, looking after the Peach Cove track – “from memory, that Peach Cove “cliff” had 854 steps!”, she recalls.

She got into trapping when Sam Ogle, a teacher at Parua Bay School, had one of her Enviro Club students teach the tamariki at Manaia Kindergarten about it for their Nature Programme. “The trapping interested me, so I started trapping at home and I was keen to take it further in the extended environment”.

Bridget looked after “Cookies Valley” up Bream Head for two and a half years, going up once a month to check the rat traps, possum traps, and bait stations. “It was always satisfying to arrive at a trap with a big rat in it. I never caught a possum, which was both great and disappointing! I loved the solitude and quietness of the bush. A bit of time out from life and study”. She recently retired from her trap line in Whangārei Heads and is looking forward to starting supporting an initiative closer to her home.

“Volunteering time in a local initiative to help the natural environment is very rewarding. I use the local tracks a lot, and to know that we are contributing and doing our bit to help the flora and fauna is good for the soul. Plus, getting out there, and for me, it’s in the native bush, is great for mental health. It’s a win-win really.”

18/06/2025