When Lynette and John Bates arrived at the former site of Mrs Bates’ grandmother’s house, close to where Hampden-Palmerston Rd (State Highway 1) passes the northern end of Shag Point, this winter they found the trees they had planted — a row of non-native shelter belt trees as well as ake ake, rata and kowhai — had all been taken.
Mrs Bates told the Otago Daily Times in September she did not plan to fund a replanting with her pension but "if somebody had some spare natives, I’d certainly put them in".
When they returned to the spot where Mrs Bates spent much of her childhood last month, the couple found somebody had done the replanting for them.
"We both just stood here going ... I wonder who’s done that? That’s incredible," Mrs Bates said.
"It was more than a nice surprise; it just about made me cry. It was a wonderful surprise.
"And we asked [who had done the replanting], we asked lots of people. We asked the rubbish man, we asked everybody — but nobody knew."
This week, NZ Transport Agency Coastal Otago contract maintenance manager Nick Rodger confirmed the agency’s Coastal Otago highway maintenance team was responsible for the replanting.
"We’d not said anything publicly, as we thought it’d be a nice surprise for Mr and Mrs Bates," Mr Rodger said.
"We felt bad that this couple’s hard work had been lost to an unethical thief, and thought we’d put some plants back to replace what had been stolen."
