Amy Prebble14:26, Jul 07 2021
STUFF
This article was published on Scout and is republished with permission.
Amy Prebble discovers how conservation efforts on Tiritiri Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf have turned it into a bird paradise. When you step off the ferry at Tiritiri Matangi, the first thing that hits you is the birdsong. The three croaky notes of the tui, the trill of the korimako (bellbird) and one call that sounds very much like an old car trying to start up. The cacophony is as arresting as the view. I disembark with a large party – my tween daughter Rose and her friend Beata, my dad Gary, my sister Julie, her husband Luke, their son Finn and his cousin Saskia – on a beautifully sunny Sunday morning. DOC ranger Emma Dunning greets passengers and warns us to make sure we’re not inadvertently transporting vermin to the wildlife sanctuary. She advises us that we can deposit our (pest-free) backpacks on a trailer that will be going up to the island’s lightho