Five of us had a conservation themed weekend in Raglan. We stayed overnight Saturday at The Barn, home of Kristel van Houte-Howes the NZ Director of Arocha. Saturday We attended a tree planting working bee at the Raglan Area School, organised by Sustainable Coastlines in conjunction with Meridian Energy. The day before, 400 plants were dug in by the local school children. Species included Rengarenga Lilly, Manuka, Pohutukawa and Karo. Over the previous two weekends, invasive weeds such as gorse and tobacco weed had been removed and chipped into mulch. We managed to spread the mulch around the newly planted shrubs despite the blustery SW wind attempting to blast everything into the harbour. A large picnic table will be installed in a week to finish transforming the harbour boundary into a pleasant area to visit. In the afternoon we went to the local town hall to watch the movie Oceans, and hear from conservation groups working in the Raglan area such as Arocha, KASM and Whaingaroa Harbour Trust. Sunday The five of us traversed over Mt Karioi, going East to West, checking and rebaiting the predator traps. Pest control on Mt Karioi is one of Arocha NZ's flagship projects, where they are working in partnership with other local groups and DOC to restore Karioi as a seabird mountain. We had a tally of 22 dead rats out of 49 traps - one trap is missing and will be replaced. Stoat kills are scarce at this time of the year due to possible cooler temperatures. We made good time over the mountain, enjoying the expansive views from the summit, and were very pleased to see Marty and Kristel at Te Toto Gorge on the coast to pick us up. After refuelling at the Barn we headed home to Auckland.