A day in the life of a Field Technician working towards a Predator-Free Waiheke
A day in the life of Chris Anderson: Field team technician for the rat pilot operational trials.
What does your day-to-day look like?
Chris (left) and Horst (right)
Day to day we may start off with a meeting regarding health and safety or a progress update on the project. Then we will head out into the field servicing rat traps, bait stations and monitoring devices including wax blocks and chew cards. Every so often I may pass by my fellow colleague who will tell me to “slow down my friend, stop running.” I’ll laugh and carry on with my day.
How did you get into this type of work?
I was finishing my final year of school with the idea of taking a gap year in mind. I heard of Te Korowai o Waiheke in a dean's meeting at school and from there I knew what I wanted to do in my gap year.
What has your previous work experience looked like?
As a 14 year old, I started off doing housekeeping in the weekends. This gave me some basic knowledge in the working world, leading me into a delivery runner position and shortly a resource coordinator position for an education-based design website.
What attracted you to working in conservation?
The idea of being outdoors every day amongst the stunning wildlife on Waiheke captivated me. I felt that I could do some good for the environment in conservation while filling in my gap year.
How did you get to Waiheke?
I was born in Whakatane and grew up in the Bay of Plenty for a few years before moving back and forth from there to Waiheke. Our family finally settled on Waiheke after we realised that there wasn’t plenty of fish in the bay as James Cook described it. Waiheke was my mum's home and it certainly is mine now.
How long have you been working in conservation?
These past six months have been the total tally of work experience I’ve had in conservation.
What’s your best work story at Te Korowai o Waiheke?
The unique combination of our Kennedy Point team being an 18 and 63 year old has really been an experience. We have been able to pass on different forms of experience, some helpful, some really not helpful at all. It has all been in good spirits though as I’ve been able to laugh with and learn from the Horst-inator, trap-setting extraordinaire, while I’ve been able to give him some insight into the modern life of being a teenager and how times have changed. Being the youngest and oldest members of the TKOW team, it has been a funny, interesting and sometimes long and painful, but great six months.
