Help us get our destroyed native bushland restored

Our whānau have always had a dream - to have a slice of rare native bush to be kaitiaki of, and enjoy a peaceful life in a little eco house, tending our micro forest full of natives, birds & bees. We found that in Bluff, on a corner of little-touched Motupohue, and put every cent of our money towards making it ours. We got it - we were over the moon, and our future was secured (we both have disabilities so getting it before we lost the ability to work full time was amazing).

Then disaster struck. A quarter of our land was torn up, inexplicably pulling out trees and shrubs & destroying the ground surface too. Loose soil, rocks and vegetation are slowly disintegrating & coming down onto our section.

Council are actively monitoring the cause site due to it's instability and are working to get them to stabilise it via an abatement notice, but nothing is happening, and all we can do is clean up ours on weekends, and wait.

At the same time, both of us now have new serious health issues, with some needing urgent private specialists & treatment. It's been a very tough 2 months.

You have to pick your fights, the saying goes. And we've decided to use our energy positively and fix our land, rather than a drawn out expensive stressful court fight. What matters to us is getting our Slice of Heaven back. And we're asking for your help. We're working with Easy Big Trees to plant 4-5 2m native trees, smaller trees & shrubs etc to help stabilise earth, soak up water & restore our wee forest. That cost is about $2k. We don't have that spare but the need is urgent so we're reluctantly reaching out to you for a hand up to help us repair the beautiful sanctuary we, and nature so needed and deserved.

We'd also love to hear from you if you can help us with plants/planting. Get in touch if you can help with that!

This is really embarrassing to do, but we're in a tough spot and many have encouraged us to reach out for help.