Saturday 19 September was International Coastal Clean-up Day — presenting the perfect excuse to get outdoors and give back to the places we love. To celebrate we headed out to Auckland’s beautiful Rangitoto Island with 59 keen crew from Air New Zealand.

After boarding our ferry downtown we headed to the island and — after a quick safety briefing — split into two groups to hit the coastlines. The morning clean-up produced an impressive haul of rubbish, and around midday the volunteers headed back to the shelter for a well-deserved BBQ lunch, along with Phoenix Organics drinks, tea and Eighthirty coffee. A treasure hunt contest provided the beachcombers with prizes for the most intriguing finds, including a GPS device, a message in a bottle, a fake breast, a berley feeder in good condition, and a beautiful kauri and paua ornament.

Early showers passed and the spring weather turned it on for a fine and beautiful day. The afternoon saw the team head out for another clean-up effort, and in all the hard working crew managed to remove an impressive 3,500 litres of rubbish from four locations around the island, equivalent to 70 full rubbish sacks’ worth. A mighty fine effort from all!

As usual, the majority of the rubbish found quite clearly had come from Auckland City, floating across the harbour and washing up on the rocky shores of Rangitoto. This type of hands-on action proves to be an excellent, practical and fun way for anyone to learn about how the constant stream of litter from Auckland’s streets flows out through storm drains and affects the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. A huge thank you to all of the staff at Air New Zealand for your efforts, to the Watercare Harbour Clean-up Trust for the use of their trusty vessel, the Phil Warren II, and to Monster Valley for the epic photos.

If you would like to take part in an event like this, contact us today.