Huge trappings for local charity

News Release

Huge trappings for local charity

Taupō , 18 January, 2013 – Native wildlife in the Hinemaiaia River Valley area now has a greater chance of survival thanks to Taupō locals digging deep in their pockets.

Michelle Caldwell Sales and Marketing Manager, says, "Due to the annual Locals Day fundraising weekend being such a success in December we've been able to extend beyond our three charity donations to a fourth, and include the vermin trapping project in the Hinemaiaia River Valley.”

The vermin trapping is a volunteer project run by Dave Cade and his son Hadlee who started 4 years ago. Tim Ford came on board offering more expertise on possum trapping and between them they trap rats, stoats and weasels to help protect the bird population in the area. “This area is a magical place to fish, hike and enjoy the great New Zealand outdoors but it's hard to spend a fantastic day enjoying your surrounds and then going home to your warm bed while the native birds are being decimated by vermin," Dave says.

Thanks to Hukafalls Jet's Locals Weekend Dave and his team now has a further 17 traps bringing the total to 140. The latest additions are user-friendly gas operated traps that re-set themselves and that don’t require Dave and his team to manually check all the time, they were organised by Dave Bedford of Greenstone Fishing.

“It's absolutely brilliant to have more traps,” says Dave, whose previous fundraising has been done by collecting aluminium cans, he has also made some of the traps himself. “The challenge now is that we have 140 traps to clear and we need more man power to do this. We also clear out noxious plants in the area and are pretty pleased with the results.

"People often mountain bike past and comment that we're doing a great job but what we need is for them to give us a hand sometime! Our outdoors is a paradise that we must look after so that our future generations also can enjoy it.”

Dave would love to hear from any locals who would be keen to give a few hours of their time and help out.

Every year in the first week of December Hukafalls Jet holds a Locals Only weekend where locals get the chance to have a thrilling Hukafalls Jet ride up to the base of Huka Falls and simultaneously donate to charity, rides cost just $20 with all proceeds being donated.

The latest fundraiser was once again a huge success with more than 1100 Taupō locals taking a ride over the two days. The other charities to benefit from the fundraising are Youthtown, Mt Tuahara Gymnastics and Project Tongariro. Hukafalls Jet Locals Weekend are proud of being the original Taupō business to offer this type of charity event.

Photo caption: Phil Ball (Operations Manager at Hukafalls Jet), Tim Ford, Simon Thew (Business Manager at Hukafalls Jet), and Dave Cade (aka Didymo Dave).

ENDS

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