Wentsch and Armstrong will meet scientists, conservationists and local communities.<\/p>\n
The pair are documenting the journey for a YouTube documentary exploring how the river is being restored and what lessons can be applied in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
A view of the Danube along the nearly 3000km route the pair are cycling.<\/p>\n
For Wentsch, the journey began with a childhood dream.<\/p>\n
She grew up near Stuttgart in Germany and always wanted to cycle the Danube after riding part of it as a child.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were already returning to Europe, so we thought, why not cycle the whole river and combine it with what we\u2019re passionate about, which is conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armstrong admitted he agreed before realising what he was signing up for.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnna said, \u2018I want to cycle the whole Danube,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Yep, let\u2019s do it.\u2019 Then I realised it was a 10-week ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
As they planned the expedition, they discovered the river was lined with restoration projects that offered valuable lessons for New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Europe they\u2019ve already commercialised much of their natural environment, and now they\u2019re spending huge amounts trying to restore it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have the chance to protect what we have before we lose it,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n
Now a month into the journey, they stopped in Neuburg, Germany, to meet experts restoring sections of the Danube River altered in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Armstrong said hydroelectric dams built for shipping blocked fish migration, disconnected floodplains and disrupted groundwater, forcing decades of expensive restoration work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf those environmental considerations had been built in from the start, a lot of that work might not have been needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip highlighted the different perspectives they each bring to their conservation efforts.<\/p>\n
Wentsch, who has worked with koror\u0101 and shorebirds in the Bay of Plenty, said she instinctively looked at every landscape through the eyes of nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always looking for the wildlife that should be there, or isn\u2019t there, and asking why.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armstrong said he focused on the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Bay of Plenty, we\u2019ve got incredible volunteers and community groups doing amazing conservation work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m interested in how people connect with nature and what motivates them to protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local wildlife spotted during the conservationists\u2019 journey.<\/p>\n
The pair said the journey had not been without its challenges, especially in the middle of a heatwave.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve had to abandon normal routines, starting each day between 5am and 6am to avoid cycling in extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of fighting the heat, we\u2019ve had to adapt,\u201d Wentsch said.<\/p>\n
When they return to the Bay of Plenty, the pair plan to use the expedition to launch community campaigns that connect more people with local conservation projects.<\/p>\n
Wentsch wants New Zealanders to think about nature before development decisions are made.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s much easier to protect ecosystems than restore them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also hopes freshwater receives greater attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur rivers are more than blue lines on a map. They\u2019re living ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armstrong hopes to encourage New Zealanders to match the country\u2019s clean, green reputation with action.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud of our natural environment, but many people don\u2019t realise the pressure it\u2019s under.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf nature is one of our greatest strengths, we need to protect it with action, not just words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zoe Blake is a multimedia journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wentsch and Armstrong will meet scientists, conservationists and local communities. The pair are documenting the journey for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[122213,2840,95,5845,188618,1561,33739,45619,10797,8809,257835,9174,2024,2082,71,23785,12027,25336,20932,3025,11692,111,43,139,69,1118,13792,1562,6739,17178,61,257834,6923,17450,80],"class_list":["post-519896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-3000km","tag-across","tag-and","tag-anna","tag-armstrong","tag-bay","tag-callum","tag-conservationists","tag-cycle","tag-cycling","tag-danube","tag-discover","tag-europe","tag-for","tag-from","tag-heavily","tag-learn","tag-lessons","tag-modified","tag-most","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-pair","tag-plenty","tag-river","tag-systems","tag-to","tag-wentsch","tag-what","tag-worlds","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}