South Georgia Island, a place 9,423km from our motu — Written by Te Korowai o Waiheke Team Member

“Nearby is the South Georgia pintail, with bright yellow bill and cartoonishly round head. South Georgia lacks the lush plant and invertebrate life we have here on Waiheke, so the pintail forages his feed on the scraps of king penguin bones. They dabble in the shallow water and waddle in groups amongst the four-ton elephant seals.”

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One Of The Smallest Birds In Aotearoa — Written by Te Korowai o Waiheke Team Member

“The unmissable trill of their descending call stops me in my pace. Above me is a flowering manuka tree, and hopping between its branches are a flurry of grey feathers. They are a monotone of moody clouds, with flashes of white on their tails and a speck of red in their eyes. I could fit all three of them in the palm of my hand they are so small.”

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Learn new outdoor skills and gain NZQA qualifications

Te Korowai o Waiheke is a charitable trust established by the local community to eradicate predators from the beautiful Waiheke Island. The first stage of the project is a stoat eradication island-wide. The second stage is a series of rat operational trials to understand how to remove rats from the whole of Waiheke.

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Vibeke
One of two bat species native to Aotearoa— Written by Te Korowai o Waiheke Team Member

There are a few precious taonga species remaining on my list of those yet to see. One had eluded me my whole life, until a crisp dusk this past Easter weekend. Just a few minutes out of town, we stood warming our hands in our pockets by the Whakapapa river bridge, a short drive north of Mt Ruapehu. Having been serenaded all evening by whio, or blue duck, and the rush of the river, we looked up towards the tall, dense forest towering above us.

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