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Waiheke Island is now the first urban area in Auckland where kiwi live in a major conservation milestone aiming to “take kiwi from endangered to everywhere”.

Ten kiwi were transferred from neighbouring Pōnui Island and first welcomed to Waiheke with a pōwhiri at Piritahi Marae, Oneroa, on Friday.

The birds were then transported to Te Matuku Peninsula at the eastern end of Waiheke Island to be released to their new forever home.

The hope is that as kiwis start to naturally migrate, they will eventually establish an island-wide population.

Save the Kiwi chief executive Michelle Impey said it is a privilege to return the taonga species to where they once lived, long before Auckland City existed.

“Kiwi used to live all over New Zealand, and there’s evidence they may have lived on Waiheke too.

Kiwi are carried ashore at Blackpool Beach, Te Motu-ārai-roa Waiheke Island, after they arrived by barge from neighbouring Ponui Island. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

“How amazing will it be for future generations on the island to one day have daily experiences with kiwi?”

The project to bring kiwi to Waiheke has taken two years, fulfilling a 20-year dream for local environmentalists.

Impey said the proposal to release kiwi on to Waiheke has received almost universal support from locals, and is a sign that kiwi could one day go from “endangered to everywhere”.

Representatives from local schools and community groups painted the wooden kiwi burrows that the 10 kiwi will spend their first night on the island in.

Kiwi are carried ashore at Blackpool Beach, Te Motu-ārai-roa Waiheke Island, after they arrived by barge from neighbouring Pōnui Island. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

“Kiwi have a unique ability to unite people, regardless of their age, stage or walk of life.

“But it’s hard to care about something that is never seen, heard, or experienced.”

The new home for the flightless birds is Te Matuku Peninsula, one of the island’s most isolated corners.

Te Matuku Peninsula is remote and cannot be publicly accessed and the land surrounding the peninsula is extensively predator-managed.

The landowners have committed to maintaining the work undertaken to restore native forest and remove predators.

Kiwi trainer Will Kahu carries a kiwi to a new home on Waiheke Island. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Ngāti Pāoa chairwoman Herearoha Skipper said this release is very important to mana whenua.

“Returning kiwi to Te Motu-ārai-roa contributes to the overarching strategic environmental plan that Ngāti Pāoa has to restore the biodiversity on the whenua as well as in the moana.

“Both are inextricably linked; we cannot do one without the other.”

Skipper said Te Korowai o Waiheke and other predator-control projects have worked tirelessly over many decades to remove predators from the island, “creating a space where kiwi and other native wildlife can thrive”.

Waiheke Island-based community conservation project Te Korowai o Waiheke has deployed around 1750 stoat traps around the island, leading to a 76% increase in native birds since 2020.

A kiwi burrow painted by schoolchildren. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki chairman Billy Brown said the project is inter-generational.

“It will allow our tamariki and mokopuna to live with and enjoy these beautiful manu for many years to come.

“Returning kiwi to Waiheke will be the result of many groups working together. It will be everyone’s success – and therefore everyone’s responsibility to care for these manu.”

In 1964, the New Zealand Wildlife Service released 14 kiwi on to Pōnui Island after a request from landowner Peter Chamberlin. Today, the island is home to an estimated 1500 kiwi.

Children peer into a crate hoping to glimpse a kiwi outside Piritahi Marae, Te Motu-ārai-roa Waiheke Island. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

“He would have been so proud to see that dream come to fruition,” says Peter’s son, David Chamberlin.

“The population here only started with 14; who knows what could happen on Waiheke over the next few decades.”

Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.