Yvan Sapele steals the show

By Ryan Imray

Yvan Sapele scored a hat trick for the Wainuiomata Reserves on 20 May, helping his team to a 7-1 victory over Victoria University.

On a wet and muddy Richard Prouse Park, the Reserves were in search of their first win of the season in Capital Football’s division 4.

With Wainuiomata leading 2-1 at half time, the game hung in the balance but five goals in 15 minutes of the second half sealed the game for the home team.

Along with Yvan, Brahian Benitez made a significant contribution to Wainui’s cause when he scored a brace and Rhys Glover and Rowan Whitfield also found the back of the net.

The premier side continued to struggle as Waterside Karori handed them their seventh defeat of the season. The Wharfies won 4-0.

The Wainuiomata Undertakers extended their lead at the top of the Masters 3 table with a 4-0 victory over Waterside Karori.

Wainuiomata Pasifika defeated K piti Coast United 2-1 and the OC’s beat Island Bay United 4-1, ensuring all Wainui Masters teams walked away with maximum points.

The Fiddick;s had a difficult day at the office after being transferred three times due to the weather, and lost 0-4 to Wellington United.

The Halfbaked drew their match with Waterside Karori 0-0 and the Roundballs also drew their match with Western Suburbs 1-1.

Puketaha presentation evening

By Frank Neill

The proposed new wildlife sanctuary in Wainuiomata – Puketah Sanctuary – will be the focus of a presentation at the Wainuiomata Primary School hall this Friday, 26 May.

The founder of Zealandia, Jim Lynch QSM, who is also the driving force behind the establishment of the Puketah Sanctuary, will deliver the presentation, starting at 7:30pm.

The Puketah proposal is to construct a 28.8km predator proof fence around 3,313 hecatares of the Wainuiomata Catchment.

It would be a major contributor to the revival of the endangeredk k p (a native parrot), as well as the threatened hihi/ stitchbird and rowi/ k rito kiwi. k k p require an abundance of rimu trees in order to breed. With its unlogged rimu forest, the Wainuiomata catchment is exactly what k k p needs.

K k p (Strigops habroptilus) has been the subject of immense conservation effort since its last survivors were rounded up and placed on secure offshore islands in the 1990s.

Establishing the Puketah Sanctuary would result in this rare parrot making a return to the mainland. Almost all k k p are on Whenua Hou, Chalky or Anchor Islands off the southern South Island. A few live on Hauturu/Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf. The southern islands are at or nearing carrying capacity for k k p and new habitat is urgently needed.

Puketah would fill that need.

The ecosanctuary would also become home to a series of other birds, including kokako, saddleback, red crowned parakeet, robins and other kiwi species.

Puketah could, in fact, provide homes for “all the species that formerly occupied Wainuiomata,”

Mr Lynch says.

That would, in turn, lead to a rejuvenation of the whole Rimutaka range, as birds from Puketah started flying out from the sanctuary.