Written by Robin Kermode.
The Wilkinson and James family, two friends, Caitlin and Marie travel to Rotoroa Island. This was taken just before passing Orapiu, south of Waiheke.
The wider whanau arrive at Rotoroa Wharf.
The wharf is on the left of the bay where you see the boats. There is a brown patch. In the distance is Waiheke Island. In between Rotoroa and Waiheke is Pakatoa Island and on the far right is Tarahiki (Shag) Island. Where the shags raise their families.
The boat unloads and all 17 passengers step onto Rotoroa Island.
There is a lot of gear. It is very windy. A lot of us keep out of the wind in the biosecurity briefing room until the boat is unloaded.
We walk to the Superintendents House.
Alastair gives us a safety and rules briefing of the house and island.
Robin makes seed bombs with all the young people - Mason 6, Georgia 5, Bella 4, William 4, Saxon 4, Connor 3, Charlie 2. Lachie is sleeping.
Time for listening to nature activity. We listen then when she hears we sing back to nature. Songs chosen Wheels of the Bus and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
After a bite to eat it is time to explore around the northern loop of Rotoroa Island. On the map above it is in front of the boats and over to the other side and we will walk up to the Northern tower through the old bush of the island.
We follow the Blue Track
The explorers receive their pouches with magnifying glasses, bird and plant pictures to look out for, and a pen or pencil and paper.
We head to Ladies Bay.
Someone has spotted theTakahē while walking. We backtrack to find them. They are at their feeders. They get supplementary food, every second day as they were originally discovered in 1948 in Murchison Mountains and the grasses, are different there. Tomorrow is feeding day and they are hopeful. These takahē are kept as wild as possible.
We play there for a bit on Ladies Bay Beach.
We go around Ladies Bay Pond.
We talk about the kiwis. There are 37 kiwis here as they have just done a muster using trained dogs. They come out at night. We will go on a kiwi hunt to spot one at night. Adults knew a lot about the Kiwis. Here is what they knew in this video. There also used to be 8 million kiwis 600 years ago. Now there are 80,000 at the most. They come to Rotoroa after they have hatched from their egg at the zoo or Waikato or Taupo. They are about 200g. They grow on the island to 1
We see and hear the tīeke/saddleback. You only see these in wildlife sanctuaries. Maybe one day we will see them in our backyards. Next photo was taken by Grant Birley.
Following photos taken by Rowan and Warren Nicholson who joined us on the trip.
We spot Pāteke. N.Z's rarest duck. There are three pairs on Rotoroa and you rarely see them.
Pōpokotea not always easy to see either as they flutter and blend into the bush.
We see pīwakawaka too. Lots of them.
Weka
Kererū
and tui.
Robin talks about the Pennantia Baylisianna or the Three Kings Kaikomako Tree. This was about to go extinct when a scientist discovered injecting males with female hormones. Arthur became Martha and now the tree bears fruit. There are 10 trees like this on the island.
Then up to the very top of the Northern Loop. Wow, what a view!
Then we spot the other family of Takahē. They don't all live together. They are territorial. Mulgrew and Fifi produced twin chicks last year. They have been on the island for 7 years. The twins go down to Te Anau soon to find partners. There are only 440 Takahē left in the world. The Te Anau recovery programme is world famous as it is doing such a great job at increasing the numbers of Takahē and keeping them all healthy.
And then down again.
or up?
More activities with Ranger Robin.
This is a brilliant fantail created by Bella.
On the 6th of July the next day, we head back to Ladies Bay. We walk at low tide from Ladies Bay to Mens Bay. We do a beach comb/look in the rock pools at the end of Ladies Bay.
We look at what we can identify from the rocky pool guide.
Even Lachie started looking.
Rowan and Warren Nicholson also came. They have been looking for kiwi, ruru and kōrora. They looked hard. They heard the ruru just above here at dusk and saw footprints of kōrora and no sightings of either three. 🥲 They were also our photographers for bird taonga on the island.
Family Photos.
A treat at the end.
A message to the sea.
Check out two Tōrea in the background.
Ranger Robin introduces us to tracking tunnels, traps, motel traps, tracking cards, and poos.
More activities with Ranger Robin.
Time to work on the wasjig puzzle for the adults.
First-time Ranger Robin shares Kiwi Has a Vision story with 6-year-olds and under.
The next day we went to see the takahē being fed at the top of the Maimai paddock.
Then it was time to go home. Rugby with Robin, Mason and Georgia. We all won.
