Ngā mihi o te wā Kirihimete me te Tau Hou Pākehā!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Zealandia fence by Hayley May

Our world-first fence celebrated its 25th birthday this year and, while it’s still going strong beyond its expected lifespan, it’s beginning to show its age and needs some love. We have now begun the first stages of the refurbishment project which will delve into what the future of the fence looks like. You can help further by donating directly towards this project.

Kaitiaki Ranger Tia with rārahu/bracken fern

Some of the highlights of the Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara Sanctuary to Sea project include enhancing the spawning habitat for inanga, opening our Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara exhibition, which shares stories of the people and the species of the catchment, and the second year of toitoi/common bully translocations. This year, led by our bicultural and kaitiaki rangers, we used a traditional mātauranga Māori method to collect the toitoi, called whakaweku.

Watch whakaweku in action on Instagram

A new nest cavity in one of the veteranised pines

We continued our veteranisation of the ageing pine trees in the sanctuary. Drawing on our years of species management, this year we used our remarkable amount of knowledge about what birds require from a nest box to include hollows which can house hihi/stitchbird nests.

Watch what veteranisation is all about on Instagram

Pepeketua by Rebecca Chrystal

The only mainland population of the endangered pepeketua/Hamilton’s frogs is now officially wild as the remaining frogs were released into the sanctuary this year. A new boardwalk was also built with generous support from the estate of John Nankervis, which will keep the pepeketua safe from people at night.

Watch the release on Instagram

A mustelid dog

We carried out our routine response to an incursion after a weasel was found dead in one of our traps. After this response, which included mustelid detection dogs scouting the sanctuary, we could confirm this was an isolated event.

Nio and Orbell by Jo Ferguson

Sadly, both the elderly takahē Nio and Orbell passed away this year due to old age. They contributed many years of advocacy for their species and delighted thousands of visitors and students during their time living at Zealandia.

Staff from the Department of Conservation carried out a survey of the kiwi pukupuku/little spotted kiwi population in Zealandia which showed they are doing well!

Watch the kiwi survey on Instagram

Thank you again for your support this year.