January 2025 Newsletter

Upcoming Volunteer Trips

We have these volunteer trips coming up, all travelling by water taxi from Okahu Bay:

Saturday February 15th (Kakabeak project - full)
Sunday February 23rd (invasive weed control, track clearing, penguins, shearwaters)
Thursday February 27th (invasive weed control, track clearing)
Wednesday March 12th (invasive weed control, tracks)

You can book on any of these trips by registering here:
https://motuihetrust.my.site.com/volunteer/s/weekend-volunteer
or email operations@motuihe.org.nz

Any enquiries for visits for larger business groups midweek,
email Simon on volunteermotuihe@gmail.com.

Presentation Evening

We will be holding an informal information evening at the OBC on Tuesday 25 February at 7pm, a number of our project leaders will tell us about what they have been working on. There will be the opportunity to ask questions and become involved in different projects on the island. A light supper will be provided. If you are keen to come along, get in touch with Julie at motu.julie@gmail.com.  Further details are included in the attached invitation.

Kind Donation from Sealgair Charitable Trust



We are very grateful to receive a kind donation from the Sealgair Charitable Trust, and their kind words congratulating us on our mahi and achievements.  We will use the donation to purchase some new monitoring equipment which will enable us to discretely watch the activities of the wildlife on the island.

Calling all Track Clearing Leaders

Lois does an amazing job of arranging track clearing during volunteer trips. If you'd like to train as a leader to supervise our eager volunteers, contact Lois at eandlbadham@gmail.com. Full training and support will be provided - track clearing is a physical activity so a reasonable level of fitness is required.

Bookkeeper needed

The Motuihe Trust is looking for a new bookkeeper, to process our accounts using Xero.  If you are interested in finding out more, email accounts@motuihe.org.nz.


Volunteering at the Kiosk

In spite of the unpredictable weather, we've enjoyed reasonable ice cream sales through the kiosk. We have volunteers booked to manage the kiosk through most of the summer, but there are still a few weekends left if anyone would like to put their hand up - this would involve travelling over on Friday and back on Monday morning as DOC boat transportation is our only option for these weekends. Full training and support is offered.

If you'd like to help, contact Fiona at info@motuihe.org.nz.  The kiosk allows us to provide information to visitors about the island, the project and its heritage. It also provides important revenue to support the restoration project.

We were delighted to be visited by 50 budding young sailors as part of the North Island Optimist Clinic. The sailors were delighted to be able to buy a well-deserved ice cream from the kiosk, ready for their return sail to Eastern Beach into a strong head wind.

Saturday 18 January Kakabeak Project
 

Saturday 18th January marked the first rare plants trip of 2025. We kicked things off by visiting all of our kākābeak planting sites from last year to do our quarterly monitoring. The windy summer we have been having has been taking its toll on our kākābeak, which are looking very dry. Hopefully recent rain has given them some relief. It was good to see the other threatened plants that have also been planted out with the kākābeak doing well. The Scandia rosifolia (koheriki) has flowered and is setting seed, which we hope will lead to new seedlings in the coming year. The Wahlenbergia vernicosa (coastal harebell) has also produced copious seed. Despite being young, the Ozothamnus leptophyllus (tauhinu) is beginning to flower as well.

Our volunteers were also productive in the nursery pricking out the last of last year's kākābeak seedlings, giving our seed house a much-needed renovation to increase ventilation, harvesting more kākābeak seed and then cheerfully going through the fiddly process of preparing seed and sowing new trays for this year's planting season.

Ben and Bella had a busy weekend, visiting another island the next day to collect more Scandia rosifolia seed in order to boost the genetic diversity of the population we are establishing on Motuihe. We are all looking forward to a busy year with this project!

Kakabeak seedlings germinate after seeds being sown only 1 week before

   
Measuring kakabeak 

Tauhinu flower
                            
Fundraising

We are currently fundraising for our project to bring titipounamu (rifleman) to the island. New Zealand's smallest bird is only found on Great Barrier and Tiritiri Matangi Islands in the Auckland region, and the great news is that Motuihe has great habitat for these taonga.

Any donations will go directly towards translocating these amazing birds onto Motuihe so that all visitors can enjoy seeing them in their natural habitat.

If you'd like to make a donation, scan here

or visit our website motuihe.org.nz and select the DONATE button.