The Weekend Australian,
May 15-16, 2004

The owners of a luxury New Zealand golf resort are helping to preserve an endangered species. Lee Mylne reports from the North Island

An eerie call in the night: New Zealand’s endangered symbol, the kiwi, is afoot. In the dark silence, a small group of eager visitors to its habitat hold their breath. A cough or movement can be enough to send this flightless bird fleeing into the scrub.

Not far from one of New Zealand’s most northerly golf courses, resort guests have swapped their clubs for dimmed red torches as they anticipate a glimpse of this elusive nocturnal bird.

An hour before sunset, the group of four – no more are allowed at one time – left the luxury Kauri Cliffs golf lodge on Northland’s east coast, and headed into the nearby Puketi Forest for a four-hour tour on which there are no guarantees of a sighting.

No guarantees, but a much better chance these days. Ironically, the development of the lodge has given the kiwi a more positive future as the owners work with environmentalists to preserve and grow local kiwi populations.

Kauri Cliffs has 14 kiwis living in a replanted gully which accounts for many of the 250,000 native trees planted on the property as part of the development.

Environmentalist Greg Blunden, who manages the National Trust’s Aroha Island Ecological Centre near Kerikeri, about 30 minutes drive from Kauri Cliffs, believes the resort has been a boon for the North Island Brown Kiwi.

“There was even a sighting near the lodge itself, when staff were starting their early morning shift and one ran across the path in front of them,” Blunden says.

He told them: “Call Julian” - Julian Robertson, that is, Kauri Cliffs’ owner, a New York financier who made his billions on Wall Street and discovered this corner of paradise while holidaying in New Zealand with his family.

Kauri Cliffs is at the end of an unsealed road in a remote area at the top of the North Island, near Matauri Bay, with cliff-top sea views, secluded beach coves and a rugged coast, set against a 1200 acre-backdrop of native bushland.

Guest stays in eight identically furnished timber duplex cottages, tucked into bushland near the main building, looking east across the golf course to the ocean. The kauri trees which line the path to the accommodation are part of the massive replanting program, and cost around NZ$20,000 each. It was here that the kiwi sighting took place, giving strength to the hope that these highly territorial birds are spreading their wings, figuratively speaking.

Blunden’s kiwi excursion includes about 90 minutes in the bush. “We walk through the kauri forest, and listen and look – there are no guarantees that we will see kiwi, but we always hear them,” says Blunden.

Blunden describes Kauri Cliffs as a “mainland island” for the remnant population of kiwi that survives there, and praises Robertson and his wife Josie for their work.

“What the Robertsons have done there has ensured that place will blossom in ecological terms in the next 20 years.”

Blunden says there is very little government funding for such work. “It is up to individual landowners to get on with it and that is what the Robertsons are doing,” he says.

Part of that commitment is their involvement in the New Zealand Kiwi Foundation, which was set up three years ago to manage the National Trust’s 15,000 acre Rangitane Scenic Reserve.

At last count – about 10 years ago – there were around 70,000 kiwis in the wild, but the population is declining. Birds live up to 40 years, but the survival rate for newborn chicks is only between two and five per cent.

Northland is one of the few areas in New Zealand where there are still significant numbers, with about 57 per cent of the country’s kiwi population.

“There is more biodiversity in Northland than in any other place in New Zealand – and more kiwi,” says Blunden. “But there is no question that the overall population is still declining, and huge areas of the Crown Estate are not managed.”

CHECKLIST

Four hour nocturnal Kiwi Excursions from Kauri Cliffs cost NZ$350 for a group of four people. Two hour Guided Kiwi walks from the Aroha Island Ecological Centre cost NZ$60 for four, less if you are staying overnight. More: www.kauricliffs.com; www.aroha.net.nz