Visit a kiwi creche—Young kiwis stay in a 12-hectare Atarau Sanctuary creche until they are about a year old—large enough to defend themselves from stoats. Rangers Kristy Owens and Glen Newton check the weight, beak length, body condition and vision. Stoats and rats are controlled in the Paparoa National Park, where some 40 kiwis have been released with high survival rates.
Shacklton ‘Shack’ Scollay is the 13-year-old son of Kina Scollay, fisherman, shark diver and filmmaker. He's a man of the sea too, here rowing around Waikawa Bay.
The Queen Charlotte Track is one of New Zealand's Great Rides with 72 kilometres of continuous single track, undulating up and down the coast between Ship Cove and Anakiwa, through bush and past secluded bays. It’s also part of the 3000-kiometre-long Te Araroa walking trail.
New Zealand timber bound for markets in Australia and China are loaded at Port Marlborough on to bulk carriers by log loaders that can carry 18 tonnes of logs at once. The vessel will also stop to load more timber in Napier and Whangarei.
Workers harvest mussels from the lines hung beneath the floats while shags pirouette about hoping to catch a free feed. Waimana Marine, a small family-owned aquaculture company, has been growing mussel farms in the area for more than 30 years—much of it going into health products such as mussel powder to support joint health. The mussel spat comes all the way from Ninety Mile Beach in the Far North.
Rangers Natalie Johnson, Micaela Courtney and Chance Ngatai do some weed whacking along the steep cliffs at the northern end of the Maud Island. Here, strangely enough, pohutukawa is a weed, as seed blows across from Taranaki and takes hold anywhere there is open space. Once established it creates a monoculture canopy that prevents other species from growing.
High on the top of Maud Island/Te Hoiere, DOC ranger Emmanuel Oysten checks tracking tunnels to maintain the predator free status of the island. A predator entering the baited tunnel will walk across an ink pad, leaving footprints on a white card that allows rangers to identify the intruder and know how to respond.
The Maud Island frog is one of the rarest frogs on the planet, and also the longest lived—a monitoring programme set up by Ben Bell in the mid-1970s has tracked the same individuals up for 50 years, some of them staying within a 20–30 square metre area for their entire life. Here, rangers catch, identify and measure frogs at night (they’re nocturnal) as part of that continuing half-century of research.
The long spur of Harter Point on Maud Island/Te Hoiere, direct the view across Pelorus Sound. Kakapō were introduced to the predator-free island in 1974 but struggled to breed without forests. Takahe have done better, but Te Hoiere is best known as habitat for weta, flax weevil, Cook Strait click beetles and Maud Island frog.
There are few roads around the rugged coast of the Marlborough Sounds, making the Pelorus Express Mail Boat a critical connection for isolated families for more than 100 years—such as Rangers Emmanuel Oysten, Anna Star and kids Fergus (7) and Quin (4). Mail, groceries and farming supplies are all transported on the boat, as well tourists.
The roll-on roll-off Interislander ferries that ply Cook Strait take passengers, cars and even trains across the 100-kilometre body of water, in almost any conditions. They carry a million passengers and nearly a quarter of the million vehicles every year. Here in Queen Charlotte Sound, Aratere and Arahura ferries pass between Allports Island and The Snout.
The narrow channel that separates D’Urville Island from the South Island mainland has the fastest tidal current in the country, reaching eight knots (15 km/h, or 4 m/s). It can be treacherous for vessels, which can only navigate the pass at slack water.
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