News & Articles

The first Kauri Connections blog post: Witnessing change in Kaipātiki's landscape over the years, kauri have been a part of Kim's everyday life from home to work, and a new creative project.

Neighbours getting involved in removing pest plants from each other's properties. This article shares the inspiring story of our volunteer, Sonya English, and her volunteering experience with us as part of our Buffer project in Le Roys Bush. We are incredibly fortunate to live on a property surrounded by native bush and backing onto a beautiful council reserve. Our children have spent years exploring it, and it has always been one of the things we love most about where we l

Chew Card Results Presentation Night 08/09/26 Ngā mihi nui to all our volunteers! Thank you to those who took part in the survey and those who came to the presentation night to see the results. Every year since 2017, monitoring cards have been placed out in 44 different reserves, along 92 different monitoring lines. 2026 was another successful year of data collection, with 36 reserves and 68 lines. Why do we monitor? Monitoring results help to identify current predator re

We’re looking for someone who is passionate about protecting Kaipātiki’s natural environment and would like to contribute their skills, experience and perspective to our Board. Location: Auckland, North Shore (Kaipātiki) Role: Voluntary Time commitment: Approximately 10 hours per month on average. Pest Free Kaipātiki (PFK) is a community-led restoration organisation working with volunteers, communities and partners to protect and restore the natural environment across Kaipāti

Kia ora and welcome to Meet the myrtles. Meet the myrtles is a blog series highlighting some of our special native myrtle species. To find out what PFK are doing to reduce myrtle rust and protect our native myrtles, see our myrtle rust page. If you wish to read all instalments of this series you can find additional posts at the bottom of this page or click here for the list of related posts. Tuatahi: He aha te Whānau Rātā? Pōhutukawa flower and leaves, showing the long stamen

Interested in standing for the governing board of Pest Free Kaipātiki? Call for nominations for election to the Committee of Pest Free Kaipātiki Restoration Society are now open! The Committee is the governing body of PFK and carries ultimate responsibility for its activities; serving as a Committee Member or Officer is an important role. We are currently looking for a new Board member to join our collaborative governance team and help guide PFK’s strategy and long-term impac

If anyone has visited Puāwai recently, you may have seen that there has been some major changes to the little corner behind our Tool Shed. The originally damp and dilapidated corner has now been transformed into a bright and inviting seedling trial space. On Friday 26th of June, we had the “Big Move Day,” in which 122 seedlings were moved to Puāwai, carefully re-potted, and placed into our brand-new shade house to start the resistance trial.

The H5 bird flu has arrived to Aotearoa New Zealand. Overseas, this flu has spread rapidly through both wild and poultry bird populations. The main concern for New Zealand is the potential effects on our native bird populations, that are already threatened or endangered. It is important that we all know what to do if we see a group of sick or dead birds, don't touch or move them, and report to MPI. Continue reading to learn more about the bird flu and how to help with the res

When people walk into Puāwai, the headquarters of Pest Free Kaipātiki, they see a welcoming space — a hub for ecological restoration, education and community building. What many do not see is the enormous amount of volunteer labour that went into transforming this former bowling club building into what it is today. And at the centre of that work was Grant Knight. Grant in the woodshed after digging out all the soil left behind by the former bowling club Now recognised as a Li

Crawling through the leaf litter, ngāokeoke are a peculiar sight! Velvet worms (Onychophora) are a group of invertebrates that look a bit like caterpillars, but they are not insects. The ngāokeoke (velvet worms of Aotearoa) are all from the family Peripatopsidae, which encompasses the Southern species of velvet worms, including those from Australia and South America. Velvet worms are interesting because they are considered ‘living fossils’ due to their uniqueness compared to

by Zel Ng, Greening of Kaipātiki Coordinator In March, a group of over 30 citizen scientists of all ages headed to the beach at low tide to conduct a marine metre squared survey, which involves recording the animals and plants living within 1m x 1m quadrats scattered across the shore. We braved the sun, wind and mud to scrutinise the shore and discover some of the wonderful creatures that live in the intertidal zone (the shore between high tide and low tide) in Kendall Bay. O

Welcome to the PFK art competition information page! Below you can find all the information you need to enter. Once your artwork file is ready, click the button below to submit your artwork! Good luck! About the competition: The PFK Kauri connections art competition is being held to raise awareness about the importance of kauri trees and kauri protection particularly within Kaipātiki. Kauri trees (Agathis australis) are important ecosystem engineers and vital parts of our loc

By now most of those in Kaipātiki will have heard about yellow-legged hornets. It has been five months since the first queens were found in Glenfield and the 'hornet hunt' commenced. As of the 26th of March, 75 queens and 127 nests have been found. While yellow-legged hornets (YLH) may no longer be in the news, time is still of essence, and work is ongoing behind the scenes. On the 18th of April, Pest Free Kaipātiki (PFK) will be hosting an EcoFest biosecurity workshop that w

This beautiful long-tailed cuckoo, a strong flier used to long migratory flights, recently met its demise at the hands of an unlikely “predator” — a reflective sheet of window glass right here in the Kaipātiki suburb of Beach Haven. In fact, such window strikes are not as unlikely as you might think, and they have devastating results—studies have estimated that up to 1 billion birds die from window strikes in the US alone, and newer research from 2024 shows that even when bir

The pōhutukawa tree ( Metrosideros excelsa ), known as New Zealand’s Christmas tree, is another one of our iconic trees. Often seen clinging on to cliff faces by the ocean, spreading its roots and branches widely in old growth forests, or even in school yards. The symbol of the pōhutukawa is popular in the wider Aotearoa New Zealand culture, with artwork, Christmas cards and several children’s songs , all featuring the tree’s iconic red flowers. In te Ao Māori, the pōhutukawa

Photo of a long-tailed bat by Colin O'Donnell Pekapeka, or bats, are Aotearoa’s only native land mammals. There are two existing species, the long-tailed bat (pekapeka-tou-roa) and the lesser short-tailed bat (pekapeka-tou-poto). Bats were once common and extremely widespread throughout the country; however, they have now grown scarce due to predation and habitat loss. The long-tailed bat is distributed across mainland New Zealand, as well as Little Barrier and Great Barrier

by Shanti Truong-George, Kauri Protection Coordinator “I orea te tuatara ka patu ki waho.” A problem is solved by continuing to find solutions. The tuatara is one of the most unique reptile species in the world. The whakataukī above literally refers to poking a tuatara out of its burrow, but it more broadly speaks to being creative and persistent when encountering a problem. Though they may look like lizards, tuatara are not. Instead, they belong to their own order, Rhynchoce

by Shanti Truong-George, Kauri Protection Coordinator The banded rail (moho pererū, Hypotaenidia philippensis ) is a small, inconspicuous bird that lives in saltmarshes and mangroves. Being very shy, they hide deep amongst the mangroves. In Māori mythology, the laughter of the moho pererū, also known as pātātai , led to the death of Māui. Did you know we have some local moho pererū right here in Kaipātiki? Learn more about them and how to become a Banded Rail Bandit (protecto

Help the effort to stop the yellow-legged hornet from establishing in New Zealand and join the #hornethunt

As most of you may have seen, yellow-legged hornets (Vespa velutina), have been found in Kaipātiki. While this is a concern, as Kaipātiki locals and amazing PFK volunteers, we can work together to find and report any sightings to MPI. This blog post covers information on the yellow-legged hornets and frequently asked questions. If you want to help contribute to stopping the spread of the hornet, the best thing for our volunteers and Kaipātiki locals to do is keep being the am