2/9 Hacking the Wild Ginger

We watched Red last night – quite amusing. We read for a while in bed before falling asleep. We woke up about 6 and could see that it was going to be a gorgeous day so Dave and I had an early breakfast and then hopped into the car to go up to the end of the road where there is a great viewpoint of the Na Pali coast. The sky was clear and the sun had just risen so we got some lovely pix. I can’t remember if I have talked about the wild chickens and roosters that are all over the island. They are all around camp and even way up on the last viewpoint! It is against the law to kill them, but all I can see is Sunday dinner when I see them crossing the road in front of our car. We got back to the camp and made our lunch and then we were off. Our target area was close to the upper viewpoint along side of the Awa-awapuhi trail. Our focus today was eradicating the wild ginger (see above photo), which grows from rhizomes just under the surface of the earth. We would treat each cut part with a Round-up type of herbicide. We also found plenty of guava here to treat also – this uses a different herbicide so we were supplied with two different bottles. To prevent using the wrong herbicide on the wrong plant, they were dyed green (for the ginger) and red (for the guava). We also found a few karaka nut trees that are not native so we treated them also. We worked until 1 and then stopped for lunch in a grassy place along the trail. We then continued until 4:15. We drove back to camp, dropped off the herbicide bottles, and washed the gloves that we wear to protect our skin. I didn’t hear the final count – will try to find out tomorrow. We carry a clicker with us to record each weed that we kill. We are not back at camp and waiting our turn in the shower. We are pretty filthy today so I am going to wash our outer work clothes after the shower and before dinner. I think we will have some leftover mac and cheese and meatloaf tonight along with a fresh pineapple. If we can stay awake, Alastair is going to show a slide show of the restoration of an old mill that he owns in Scotland. Now that it is done they are going to spend 4 months over there beginning in April. The other photo is of Alan and Smidgie scraping a wall yesterday in the future wood working shop.