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Linley Earnshaw: Bell Bird

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President’s Column – October 2026

I very much enjoyed getting away on the first Ahuriri field trip. This was the first time I have been into the Ahuriri valley and it did not disappoint. The weather ended up being great and I think all who went managed to take some nice photographs. Our evenings together resulted in great conversation. One of the things I like about our field trips is the way our members help each other out and the socialisation. If you have not been on a field trip before do consider coming along to one. I hope those going on the second Ahuriri trip have as good a time as we did.

One of the things we trialled on the trip was using WhatsApp to keep in touch with each other. We found this particularly good for letting each other know where we were intending to go and return times. WhatsApp is one of the Apps that work with the satellite coverage available on One NZ and Spark and coming to 2 Degrees shortly. The satellite service does cost a bit more but it can be added to your phone for a small cost of a few days rather than being permanently subscribed to it. Well worth considering when going into remote areas. For future field trips we will probably use WhatsApp a bit more.

We have our next New Members session coming up in November. If you are a new member and would like to know more about how the club works or you have questions about the club, then please join us on the 30th of November. More details are in this newsletter.

Welcome to our new members – Lynette Hartley, and Nicola Jackson; and welcome back Andy Rae.

Regards

James Thompson