Exotic timbers, monster kokopu, rare mussels
Humfrey Newton shows off his mussels - the rare species of freshwater mussel Echyridella onekaka was first identified from his pond. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
Humfrey Newton’s little forest that he planted over his seven hectares of lowland at Onekaka is slowly but surely coming to fruition.
His latest inventory of potentially harvestable timber trees tops 1200. They’re all sorts, from western red cedars and Japanese cedars to redwoods, black walnuts, eucalypts and wild black cherry, oaks and elms, even a cork oak – all boutique timber varieties. Around 40 per cent of them are his prized Tasmanian blackwoods (Acacia melanoxylon), many of which have reached prodigious proportions (up to 80cm trunk diameter and 7m of clear log) since their planting in the late 1970s, and they’ve been well pruned ever since.
Mobile band-saw miller Jack Stevens periodically comes in to cut the logs into flitches and planks, which Humfrey uses to make his rustic and sturdy furniture. He hasn’t needed to buy any timber for years, and it’s now coming on stream so fast that Humfrey may become a small-scale boutique-timber merchant.
Dreams and pragmatism seem to have mixed easily on his modest version of an English estate, which he dubs Onekaka Woods. His two-storey hand-hewn wooden house sits alongside a big leafy pond, which comes complete with a jetty off the veranda, and wild ducks. One of Humfrey’s recent garden projects has been the addition of an impressive raised rock vegetable garden that he replenishes with silt deposited regularly into his pond.
The network of watercourses over the undrained and entirely shaded property have become a refuge for some small creatures as well. In a DOC freshwater fish survey done almost 10 years ago, the largest giant kokopu ever recorded in Golden Bay – 400mm (16 inches) - was found residing in the stretch of Dogan Creek that passes through Humfrey’s land. “They’d never seen one as big. These fish like shady creeks with overhanging banks, just like what naturally occurs under all these trees.”
Another discovery, this time of national significance, was made in 2006, when an entirely new species of freshwater mussel was announced after samples were taken out of Humfrey’s pond and Dogan Creek. Until then, only two species of freshwater mussels were known in the country, the common kakahi, Hyridella (Enhyidella) menziesii, widely distributed throughout North and South islands (found here in Kaihoka and Island Lakes), and the scarcer North Island species Cucumerunio websteri websteri, which ranges from Waiuku southwards to Wanganui. This third species of freshwater mussel is now called Echyridella onekaka. About 60mm long, it can be seen in the soft-bedded sections of the creek.
One fascinating aspect of freshwater mussels is their ability as tiny juveniles to attach themselves to native fish, such as kaoro and kokopu, in order to distribute themselves. Generally, national kakahi populations are declining, a problem thought to be associated with a drop in native fish populations. Exactly why the Onekaka variety of freshwater mussel has existed in complete isolation is still a bit of a mystery to its discoverer, Mark Fenwick of Te Papa.
Humfrey’s reasons for settling at Onekaka go back a long way. Raised in Ashburton, he credits his uncles for imparting to him their love of trees. Dropping out of university to roam the world gave Humfrey new perspectives on life. As he recalls: “The question that kept coming up for me was – did I want to work in an office, or should I plant trees?”
Humfrey opted for his arboreal passion and returned to New Zealand, where he used his inheritance to purchase his block, then covered in scrub and rough pasture. It was only after every last corner was planted in trees that Humfrey fixed on the idea of making furniture. Because his trees weren’t quite ready, he bought an old timber house for $600, demolished it plank by plank and used all the materials to build his initial garden seat furniture, the latest incarnations of which are scattered along Takaka’s main street.
A tour round European furniture workshops and museums, plus a stint working in a Dorset furniture shop, inspired him to set up in Nelson for a year or two, but he eventually returned to his land in Golden Bay.
Humfrey reflects: “When I started planting trees here it was more an environmental thing, but with time I realised I had to be more practical. Over the years I planted thousands and thousands of trees here, but my policy strongly became to thin, thin and thin out, always aiming to leave just the superior trees. This is an ancient management policy that means the forest only gets bigger and better, with timber the by-product from selective harvesting. Apart from all the exotic varieties, there are also the hundreds of native trees I planted – rimu, kahikatea, matai and pukatea. They won’t mature until the 22nd century, so I’m not taking orders for anything from them yet!”
Gerard Hindmarsh
