Joyce-Rewa Kolk (Tuatapere)

Queen's Service Medal for services to conservation

Joyce-Rewa Kolk of Tuatapere has been awarded the Queen's Service Medal for her services to conservation, an honour she claims she didn't deserve because her clean-up efforts along coastal Southland have always been a group effort. 

A long-time trustee of the Southern Coastal Charitable Trust, Ms Kolk said their massive rubbish clean-ups she's helped to organise in Fiordland and the west coast of Stewart Island has never been short of volunteers. 

In fact, the success of these operations has attracted volunteers from around the country to participate. When people saw how much rubbish landed on Southland shores, it got people to spread the word about severity of the problem.

The trust's 2018 beach clean-up from East Ruggedy to Doughboy on Stewart Island collected 16.5 tonnes of rubbish and was featured in the final episode of the television programme ‘Ocean Bounty’. 

"People want to do good," Ms Kolk said. 

In an effort to keep costs low, Ms Kolk plays a hands-on role in procuring stores, pre-cooking meals and catering for volunteers during clean-up operations.

Back on shore, she is heavily involved with running a sponsored network of hundreds traps along the Wairaurahiri River and Hump Ridge Track to Port Craig. An updated tally of the stoats, rats, weasels (and one hedgehog) caught in these traps is kept on the Wairaurahiri Jet website, a business she runs with her husband, Johan Groters. 

More than 1600 rats and stoats combined have been removed thus far.