You are never too old!
Caroline Williams is a woman in her eighties who loves our natural environment and has been interested in caring for it and enhancing the living cloak of Aotear ...
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Local Groups
Local expressions of A Rocha’s mission and vision
A Rocha local groups are places to cultivate and journey with others in ecological discipleship through practical action and shared learning
A Rocha’s Local Groups are communities of A Rocha supporters who live in a particular city, town or region, who meet together regularly to give local expression to the mission and vision of ARANZ. Local Groups tend to have practical conservation project(s) as a major focus but they also explore ways to give expression to all five of A Rocha’s Commitments:
- Christian
- Conservation
- Community
- Cultural Diversity
- Collaboration
– and to one or more of ARANZ’s focus areas:
- Restoring ecosystems
- Growing the next generation of kaitiaki
- Fostering sustainable communities
Our Local Groups’ involvement in practical conservation and sustainability projects offer opportunities for volunteer participation across the country. The types of practical community conservation initiatives include wetland, native bush and stream restoration, native tree nurseries, and trapping projects. Our Local Groups often work in partnership with other organisations and the local community to make a difference for their local environment and community.
Our Local Groups also organise education and engagement events and citizen science opportunities. All Local Group events including the working bees are listed on the A Rocha facebook page under Events.
We currently have five local groups across Aotearoa:
Auckland
Our Auckland local group officially formed in 2009 with the goal to build a community of A Rocha supporters to encourage and enable each other to care for creation and live sustainably. The Auckland local group holds regular working bees at Unsworth Reserve on the North Shore, at Oakley Creek in Avondale, and at Matuku Link in Bethell’s Valley. We welcome volunteers to help with these working bees.
Manawatu
Our local group in Palmerston North focuses its efforts around a thriving native plants nursery that distributes plants to local planting projects in the region. The group meets fortnightly at their nursery for planting and general maintenance, and sometimes go out locally to source native seedlings. Please contact Christine on 06 353 6820 or Keith on 06 357 5743 for more info.
Wellington
The Wellington local group started in 2012. It is structured as three subgroups – the Kāpiti subgroup, the Waiu Wetland subgroup in Wainuiomata, and the Wellington City subgroup supporting the work of Friends of Owhiro Stream. The subgroups also get together to organise joint educational events and working bees at key sites such as Battle Hill Farm Forest Park and Kopua Monastery.
Christchurch
Our local group in Christchurch was the earliest to form in 2008 and is made up of people from a variety of churches, who are keen to connect their faith with an enthusiasm to care for God’s creation. The Christchurch local group offered a major annual seminar each year from 2018 to 2021. While the group used to be active at several restoration sites, currently the local group supports the Aranui Bike Fixup – a free bike maintenance group based at Breezes Road Baptist Church.
Dunedin
The Dunedin local group was formed in 2012. After a couple of years hiatus, the A Rocha local group in Dunedin relaunched in 2016. The group organises restoration working bees at Tirohanga Camp, located about 20 minutes out of Dunedin. The Dunedin local group also participates in the Save the Otago Peninsula working bees, alternating with Tirohanga working bees. And Dunedin local group members are also rostered to volunteer at the Dunedin City Sanctuary Hilary St Reserve trapline in Pine Hill.
Read stories from A Rocha Local Groups below:
2023 recap at Waiu Wetland
In 2023, a total of 9 regular A Rocha working bees went ahead at Waiu Park. These were supplemented by some extra efforts for specific tasks like removing the h ...
Planting at Makara
In 2020 Joan and Bruce bought a block of land in the Makara Valley with the intention of living a more sustainable lifestyle and of restoring habitat. In Novemb ...
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Charity registration: CC36274
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