Uploaded August 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Port Hills ranger, Di Carter, watched helpless as February’s raging inferno whipped over the valleys and hills she knows so well.
The blaze raged for days, smouldered for weeks and and was officially declared extinguished 66 days after it first ignited.
Carter says “each day was a rollercoaster of shock, then relief.”
Four months on, the Christchurch City Council park ranger is still counting the cost.
Since the turn of the century Di Carter has coordinated the planting of 350,000 native plants across the Port Hills’ public reserves. The fire tore through 4 reserves including Ohinetahi Bush and Kennedys Bush.
The Port Hills’ plantings perform a vital function, stopping soil washing into the catchment streams and ultimately into the Heathcote River and the Estuary.
Thousands of plants have been dug in by volunteers, and that planting program is now back in full swing.
Carter says it’s vital to the establishment of native vegetation, especially in the Bowenvale Valley “the grass here is just so thick that the seeds the birds drop just don't get through the grass thatch … so planting is the only way to get that process going.”.
She adds “there's an opportunity now to plant a higher proportion of the species that are less flammable.”
Carter’s been encouraged by the natural regeneration processes, “bracken is the first to colonise and allows other natural species to come in.”
Green flax tillers, or shoots, are coming away in the middle of blackened stumps, “they’re responding incredibly well.”
But she knows the task ahead is immense, “there's a lifetime’s work here.”
“16 years of planting is nothing when you've got 800-year old trees that have been saved, so you just get down and start planting again.”
At the top of Mount Ada, Di Carter listens for the birdsong.
“The crescendo of bellbird birdsong from Ohinetahi bush would meet you at the top and it was a beautiful place to be and now it's quite quiet."
But as with the native vegetation, Carter is confident the birds will flourish once more in the Port Hills.
Watch the video for the full story
chchdilemmas.co.nz
Port Hills ranger, Di Carter, watched helpless as February’s raging inferno whipped over the valleys and hills she knows so well.
The blaze raged for days, smouldered for weeks and and was officially declared extinguished 66 days after it first ignited.
Carter says “each day was a rollercoaster of shock, then relief.”
Four months on, the Christchurch City Council park ranger is still counting the cost.
Since the turn of the century Di Carter has coordinated the planting of 350,000 native plants across the Port Hills’ public reserves. The fire tore through 4 reserves including Ohinetahi Bush and Kennedys Bush.
The Port Hills’ plantings perform a vital function, stopping soil washing into the catchment streams and ultimately into the Heathcote River and the Estuary.
Thousands of plants have been dug in by volunteers, and that planting program is now back in full swing.
Carter says it’s vital to the establishment of native vegetation, especially in the Bowenvale Valley “the grass here is just so thick that the seeds the birds drop just don't get through the grass thatch … so planting is the only way to get that process going.”.
She adds “there's an opportunity now to plant a higher proportion of the species that are less flammable.”
Carter’s been encouraged by the natural regeneration processes, “bracken is the first to colonise and allows other natural species to come in.”
Green flax tillers, or shoots, are coming away in the middle of blackened stumps, “they’re responding incredibly well.”
But she knows the task ahead is immense, “there's a lifetime’s work here.”
“16 years of planting is nothing when you've got 800-year old trees that have been saved, so you just get down and start planting again.”
At the top of Mount Ada, Di Carter listens for the birdsong.
“The crescendo of bellbird birdsong from Ohinetahi bush would meet you at the top and it was a beautiful place to be and now it's quite quiet."
But as with the native vegetation, Carter is confident the birds will flourish once more in the Port Hills.
Watch the video for the full story
chchdilemmas.co.nz
