Planting Around the World Mission 13, 14 & 15 (New Zealand)

In our Planting Around the World Mission our challenge is to plant at least one tree for every country we visit during our world backpacking trip. Why? With all the talk about carbon emissions we may help the environment in our small way. But also because we love gardening, plants and nature, we thought it would be a respectful gesture towards the countries – and its people – we visit. And of course, hopefully, a long lasting memory of our visit.

Location: Hunua Falls Reserve, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand.

This magical spot in the Hunua Reserve is now home to three more indigenous trees, planted on our Planting Around the World mission. Naturally, we had to plant a tree in New Zealand as part of our visit, but not to forget, we still owe one to Vanuatu.

Actually we decided to plant three trees. One for Vanuatu, one for New Zealand and another just in case we end up in a situation in South America where we don’t manage to plant one. (Or if this doesn’t occur then we’ve planted one extra.)

Since Mother’s Day this month, we also named after and dedicated these three trees to our mothers (one of them of course being our GRAND mother).

On the East side of the river, sits Zuhal (Alectryon Excelsus / commonly known as Tītoki):

On the West, Jennifer (Alectryon Excelsus):

And on the East side at the base of the waterfall, Esme (Beilschmiedia Tarairi / Taraire):

Happy Mother’s Day to you!!!

And thank you New Zealand, for showing us another beautiful piece of our planet. Your nature conservation efforts are outstanding. We hope that our small contribution is appropriate.