40 Years On
40 Years On Last month, 6th of October 2022, an unremarked and uncelebrated birthday passed quietly. There was no celebration, no party, but it was significant for all that. On the 6th of October 1982, River Valley Ventures Ltd was incorporated as a company. Generally, when we talk about the history of River Valley, we [...]
Ripples In A Pond
Ripples in a Pond “All my reporting life, I have thrown small pebbles into a very large pond, and have no way of knowing whether any pebble caused the slightest ripple. I don’t need to worry about that. My responsibility was the effort.” Martha Gellhorn, Journalist, b.1908, d. 1998 I recently came across this quote [...]
A Day in the Life of a Trap Checker
A Day in the Life of a Trap Checker For millennia, the islands of Aotearoa/New Zealand were separated from other land masses. This isolation led our endemic species (species found here and nowhere else) to evolve to occupy all the available niches in this pre-human landscape. Unfortunately, this evolution and specialisation made them incredibly vulnerable [...]
Confessions of a Review Addict
Confessions of a Review Addict Coming back from feeding out lucerne bailage to the horses, which happens daily over the winter and early Spring here at River Valley, I stopped by the mailbox and checked for any mail. Amongst the various items in the mail was a big green A4 envelope. Boldy printed on the [...]
2022 Hui for Whio
2022 Hui for Whio I have written regularly on the conservation efforts undertaken in the Ruahine Ranges to protect and enhance native bird life, particularly the endemic Whio or Blue Duck. The Ruahine Ranges run up the spine of the southern central North Island, from the Manawatu Gorge until meeting the Kaweka and Kaimanawa Ranges. [...]
Changed By Landscape
Who Moulds Who? In landscapes where human beings have resided for a long time, often thousands of years, you can see the impact those many generations have had. Hedgerows, drainage ditches, old stone walls, derelict buildings and, on occasion, much older evidence of habitation. Terraced hillsides and meandering paths, some having been in use for [...]
The Laughing Moa Cycle Trail
The Laughing Moa Cycle Trail Not far from River Valley is the small settlement of Moawhango. Some kilometres downstream from the River Valley Lodge, the river of the same name, the Moawhango, flows into the main river we raft on, namely the Rangitikei. Moawhango is a Maori placename that translates as noisy or raucous Moa. [...]
