Te Ara Taiao O Kaitake – Hikoi to the Kiwi Kōhanga

Te Ara Taiao o Kaitake is a collaborative environmental education model with multiple partners from Coastal Taranaki, Ōmata and Ōākura Primary Schools, local Hapū, Ngā Mahanga ā Tairi and other environmental groups across the community.  

Eighteen year 6,7, and 8, students from across the three schools have formed a ‘Student Leadership Group’ and have taken the opportunity to visit and learn from the talented environmental educators and Ngāti Ruanui Hapū, Ngāti Tupaea, at the Rotokare Scenic Reserve - a fully fenced, predator free sanctuary and Kiwi Kōhanga (nursery) – the only one of its kind in Taranaki. 

The Kaitake based students have been working hard in and around the Maunga and Kaitake ranges to learn all they can about Kiwi, their habitat, how to protect them and how to monitor them using, high tech telemetry gear. Earlier this year they had the opportunity, alongside local hāpu, Ngā Mahanga ā Tairi, Taranaki Maunga Project, Taranaki Kiwi Trust, Department of Conservation, and Rotokare Trust, to name and release Kiwi into the wilds of the Kaitaki ranges and assist with the ongoing monitoring of them via Te Ara Taiao o Kaitake student leadership group.   

The trip to Rotokare was special for the Tamariki as they got to learn from local Hapū, Ngāti Tupaea, about the Rotokare Kiwi Kohanga (nursery) and the whakapapa (kinship) of the kiwi that are hatched and spend their early life at the reserve; some of the very same Kiwi that this group of student leaders had earlier helped name (Puanga, Awhina and Aroha) and release within the Kaitake Ranges. 

After learning about the Rotokare Kōhanga for Kiwi that have sourced eggs from different parts of the Motu (country) to ensure genetic diversity. Eric from Ōākura School said ‘Genetic diversity in a small population makes them more likely to survive and grow.’  

Te Ara Taiao o Kaitake, Karuruku (coordinator) Jayne Bowden - Dobson said, “Consolidating all that the tamariki have learnt about Kiwi in the wild with a night session listening for the Kiwi calls in the sanctuary has been amazing. - they heard kiwi calls, and saw signs of kiwi probe holes in rotten logs.  

The chance to ‘follow the path of the Kiwi’ and experience a healthy, predator protected ecosystem that sustains and nurtures many other ‘threatened’ and ‘at risk’ species of Manu (birds) and Rākau (trees) and aitanga-a-pēpeke (insect family). For example, the tamariki found a rare Ngaokeoke, Blue Velvet Worm, who has stomach slime super powers, spitting slime on its prey to dissolve then slurp it up! Such a fabulous experience and provides a snapshot of what much of Aotearoa must have looked like long ago, and what we can aspire to for a healthy Kaitake future”. 

Picture: Looking in Kiekie clumps – were tamariki sight the protected species, Taranaki Gold Striped Gecko.