Workers find pistol in beach cleanup
A Fiordland beach is an unlikely place to find a pistol, but that’s exactly where volunteers found it during the Fiordland Coastal Cleanup.
Thirty volunteers have spent last week scouring the beaches in Fiordland picking up all kinds of rubbish from Chalky Inlet to Breakseas Sound.
While a pistol was the ‘‘weirdest’’ piece of rubbish, cleanup organiser Joyce Kolk said there was an even distribution of domestic rubbish and lost fishing gear.
Other surprise items included three soccer balls – ‘‘where did they come from?’’ – and an Australian realty sign, she said.
The volunteers on the trip stayed aboard the Real Journeys vessel the MV Wanderer and were helicoptered into accessible beaches in groups to fill up fadges with rubbish.
The helicopters then transported the rubbish to a boat.
A funding shortfall for this year’s trip meant volunteers paid up to $1200 to go along.
Having to pay a higher fee had not deterred the volunteers, with some travelling from as far away as Australia to join in, Kolk said.
Many of them had taken part before but a few were ‘‘clean up virgins’’, she said.
‘‘Most of them just have a common interest in cleaning up the coastline.’’
The volunteers were joined by staff from the Department of Conservation, who cleared rubbish from the coastlines of various islands.
The rubbish is being transported to Bluff to be sorted and weighed today.
Kolk estimated about six tonnes of rubbish was picked up.
After 15 years of coastal cleanups, people were beginning to get the message about not littering, Kolk said.
‘‘I think the message is getting through that people should be better.’’
There had been less needless rubbish dumped, she said.
However, a lack of respect from some New Zealanders meant tourists would also lack respect for the country and litter, she said.
‘‘We need to sharpen up."