Photos: Robert Trathen.
Before meeting her partner Marley Ford, Kelly Gilbride was a self-confessed city slicker who had never hiked before, rarely paid attention to nature around her, and was making ends meet as a podcast producer by day and bartender at night.
But then life with her lichenologist beau changed everything. So much so, she was inspired to make a documentary about Marley and his peers. They joined ecologists and enthusiasts from around the globe to document as many species in their suburbs as possible for the City Nature Challenge.
“I wanted to do something that encouraged people to pay attention and connect to the world of nature around them. Because that’s what Marley did for me,” shares Kelly, 32.
“He’s someone that really sees the world, not just the blur of greens.”
They first met at a gig with friends about four years ago and for Kelly, the connection was instant.
“Marley looked at me and smiled, and I went home and told everyone, ‘I’m in love with this lichenologist,’ then pursued him relentlessly for months,” she laughs.
Marley had grown up on a remote farm in the Hokianga. He mustered cows on horseback with family and always connected with nature. He is one of a very small group of passionate Kiwi lichenologists – scientists who discover and study lichens – which he balances alongside his day job as an ecologist.
“Lichens are a fungus in a symbiotic relationship with algae or bacteria – two completely unrelated things living together,” explains Marley. Adding you might recognise them as the blue and white growths on trees or the road.
Smiling as he recalls first meeting Kelly, he admits that it took a little longer for him to catch on.
“Initially, I was clueless,” he laughs. “Honestly I thought Kelly just wanted to be friends really badly. I didn’t think she would be interested in my lifestyle, trekking through the wilderness. Spending all day looking at plants seemed really nerdy compared to art and all those podcasts.”
However, Kelly was exhausted by the constant grind of city life. Marley represented everything she didn’t realise she was missing.
“He’s very solid, smart and steady-handed,” she enthuses. “I’m kind of the opposite or at least I was when we first met. He sort of unlocked a whole new world for me!”
It wasn’t long before Kelly was trading nights out in town with friends for bush walks and now she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s like I’ve slotted into who I always wanted to be and I’m living the life I always wanted. I just didn’t know how to before.”
The pair moved out of Auckland. They now live in Ōnerahi in Whangārei with Marley’s dad Fordy and their two beloved dogs, crossbreed Chutney and American bulldog Slug.
Kelly balances her pursuits around a new job. She works for the Far North District Council in the climate action and resilience team. Meanwhile, Marley could be working on conservation projects. He’d search for new or rare plant species, plotting the forest, or working on his PhD on the threatened Northland gumlands’ ecosystem.
Kelly even joined Marley mapping wetlands for two months last year.
“It was getting up rain or shine, putting on gumboots and wading through up to waist-high mud at times,” recalls Kelly. “Marley was
completely in his element and I was fully out of mine!”
In April, the pair collaborated on Here the Wild Things Are. A new documentary out now, following a group of Kiwis as they participated in the City Nature Challenge.
The global competition saw more than 83,000 people record almost 2.5 million observations of 65,000-plus species of plants and wildlife around the world in three days. It focuses on celebrating the urban nature that’s often overlooked in cities.
Kelly directed the project, while Marley featured in it as a participant and also worked behind the scenes as an associate producer. They hope its release will make nature more accessible to others.
“People might think that nature is something, like a faraway mountain, forest or beautiful view that you have to hike to,” says Kelly. “But it’s also on your walk to work, on your letterbox and in your garden. That was a really novel idea for me when I first realised nature is all around us.”
She shares that Marley is a master of noticing this.
“Even when we go to the supermarket, he brings his camera to photograph grass in the crack of the pavement,” she reveals. “He’s so knowledgeable
and stops every 10 steps.
“It’s impossible to go for a walk with Marley and not have that incredible light-bulb shift of seeing everything in a new way!”
Watch the documentary Here the Wild Things Are at loadingdocs.net/short/here-the-wild-things-are
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