Local community activist, campaigner and butterfly queen, Gael Baldock, has an exciting new project on the go.
Dozens of swan plants grow along the strip. Many are overgrown, some have fallen over.
Baldock has a plan to create a fantasy butterfly world, especially for children. She tries her patter out on me and I am convinced. “I tell children that growing butterflies is a whole fantasy world,” Gael says. “The seed pods are swans and their seeds are fairies. Caterpillars turn into chrysalises and then butterflies emerge. Aphids are milked by ladybugs whose babies are nymphs.”
For many years Baldock has used the swan plants at Meola Road as a back-up source of food, a place to take her monarch caterpillars when her plants get too munched.
Gael Baldock’s story continues, “On Christmas Day, a walk after lunch revealed caterpillars in a park that had run out of food so I took them to Meola Road where I found those swan plants so thick with caterpillars that it was obvious they had insufficient food to pupate.
“Then further up the road where the giant swan plants formed a forest, by the back entrance to Motat, they were stripped so bare that the caterpillars were running blindly across the road in search of food. Many had been squashed by bikes, cars and pedestrians.”
Gael rescued about 1000 caterpillars over the following three days. She asked for helpers on Facebook. Many caterpillars survived as a result of Gael Baldock’s persistence.
She then conceived the idea of creating a butterfly sanctuary along Meola Road on the street side of Motat’s fence and Motat want to extend it onto their land. In fact all the land is council owned.
Gael has discussed her idea with the Waitemata Local Board and received encouraging support. Rob Thomas has offered to help source finance. She has, too, support from Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust. Gael has spoken to the bee pollinators about this being another ‘wing’ of their organisation.
A major cleanup of the area is the first priority - weeding, no spraying, some new fencing, some trimming of past planting, and of course encouraging young swan plants which self-seed all over the area.
She has a vision, too, of lots of flowering plants, providing nectar for butterflies and other pollinators like bees. Gael described stepping stones and interesting play places for kids.
“It will be important,” Gael told us, “to protect the mature trees along the Motat side of Meola Road, which may be threatened by AT’s planned cycleway along Meola Road. Meola Road is already a very busy and dangerous road, and cycleways on both sides of the road would be a recipe for disaster.”
Gael has supporters, too. Jacqui Knight from the Monarch Butterfly NZ Trust and members of the Horticultural Society are enthusiastic. There have been offers of donated plants from JM Landscape and a macrocarpa seat from artist Peter Brierley-Millman.
I think it’s close to the proverbial no-brainer. If finance can be arranged (it shouldn’t cost too much, and volunteers can be recruited, I’m sure), and enough volunteers come on board, there is no reason why Gael Baldock’s vision cannot become a reality.
It would be a lovely relaxing community facility. Those wishing to volunteer can contact Gael on Meola Monarchs via Facebook. Good luck Gael. (JOHN ELLIOTT)
www.facebook.com/Meola-Monarchs-Butterfly-Sanctuary-595142007499299/?ref=br_tf