Our māori word this week is Moutere Rāhui / The Islands, one of the six distinct areas that make up Te Wao Nui, our sanctuary for treasured New Zealand wildlife.

Scattered off New Zealand’s coastline are an array of tiny rugged islands that are too harsh for human life but provide a rich home for many of our native land and sea birds, reptiles, marine mammals and invertebrates.

Unfortunately, introduced pests on these islands can threaten the survival of our taonga. This has led to initiatives like DOC’s Million Dollar Mouse project that is close to eradicating mice from New Zealand’s Antipodes Islands – the only place on earth where the Antipodes Island parakeet is found in the wild.

At Moutere Rāhui you can see our Antipodes Island parakeet, our pair of New Zealand Scaup and many of our endemic reptiles such as the tuatara.

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