Wānaka athletes have taken a step forward, offering their strong legs to the community by helping to eliminate predators. The newly formed Wānaka Multisport Trapping Group have established a new trap lineup Daniels Spur at West Wānaka, that ascends high into the alpine environment. 

The group established the first part of the line at the beginning of October and second stage last Saturday. The project involves multi sporters, adventure racers, mountain runners and general outdoor enthusiasts that all share the love for the mountains. “Vivien, Jo Williams and I came up with the idea about eight months ago when we were out on a long training run in the mountains,” explained spokesperson Mags Helles. 

“Many of our volunteers are new to conservation, but love being in the outdoors and are super keen to add another purpose to their adventures and training missions; helping to protect our native species from introduced predators,” she added. The primary objective for the group is to maintain and increase the population of significant native species. The secondary objective is to involve  a ‘new’ and perhaps younger group that traditionally is not so involved in conservation work where going ‘light and fast’ has a good cultural fit — although running with a dozen eggs has its own special challenge! “We check and repair it every three or four weeks, and then if our volunteers feel inclined to do another training run, they will check it in-between then. We have had an overwhelming response of enthusiastic volunteers and have 20 people on board, and at this stage don’t require further volunteers to manage our line,” commented Hellen.  

However, because the group is self-funded, Wānaka Multisport Trapping Group welcomes more sponsorship to buy more traps and extend the line.