June 2026
A Lost Kiwi Found, Four Seasons in a Row, and Nights in a Hammock: Our 2025–2026 Review
The 2025–2026 season is behind us now, and it left the program in good shape — better than it found it, in a few measurable ways. Two things in particular are worth leading with: a kiwi nobody had been able to account for was found, and two nights were spent out in the forest in hammocks listening for calls. Both of those deserve more than a passing mention.
Field Notes from the Season
The trap lines and monitoring work ran well throughout the year. Numbers stayed where we need them to stay, the bait stations were kept up, and the records grew. There is no dramatic shorthand for a season of consistent predator control — it is a long accumulation of small actions done correctly, and the value only becomes visible over years. This season added to that accumulation.
Finding the lost kiwi was a real highlight. The bird had dropped off the radar, unaccounted for, and then turned up again — a good reminder that the data never tells you quite everything, and the forest still has the odd surprise left in it.
The overnight hammock activities were something different again — two nights out in the dark, in the trees, waiting for calls. Most kiwi monitoring is done at a distance through equipment; this was the opposite, being out in it in the middle of the night. It is one of those things everyone should do at least once.
The People, the Camp, and the Horses
This season's intern arrived with the right attitude and kept it all the way through. The role was taken seriously — the tasks, the responsibility, the standard expected — and by the end of the season the work showed. The program is better for having had them.
Among the volunteers, our regular joined us for the fourth season in a row. The fourth time! If you want a measure of what this place means to the people who come through it, that is probably the clearest one available. He is like a family member now, fingers crossed for the fifth season!
Camp-side, the season was productive beyond the field work. A new path was built, and a number of small improvements were made to the site that will make next season run more smoothly. The kind of work that does not appear in the conservation data but matters every day regardless.
And the horses. This season brought with it an unexpected education in horses — more thorough than anyone had planned for. The full story may require its own post.
To everyone who was part of the 2025–2026 season — thank you for showing up, for doing the work, and for leaving the place better than you found it. We hope to see you again next season.