Hi everyone, and a Happy New Year to you all.

I am sure we would all like to think that the Covid-19 disruption to our lives might improve this year.

Because of a contact that our editor, Alison, has made with the Te Henga wetland in Auckland, DUNZ has been able to create a new wetland specifically with pāteke in mind at Te Henga.

This really has gone a full circle – a lot of the pāteke originally bred by our members under our captive breeding programme were released years ago in the region in the hope they would bolster numbers in what was a stronghold area for the species.

This appears to have worked and we are now able to supply habitat for them as well.

A great project from the DU perspective as it is open to the public, run by a trust, and managed by the enthusiastic members of Forest and Bird up there.

It ticks all our boxes for sustainable projects, similar to Wairio.

It is just a pity we have only a few members in the Auckland region available to visit the site.

Regarding this year's conference in Wellington, we have yet to finalise the facilities, but Zealandia is our bus trip destination, and they have suggested that, if any of our members would like to turn up there on the Friday night, they would organise a Kiwi experience walk for them as well.

 This would need to be booked, so something for all of you intending to come to think about.

Cheers

Ross Cottle