End of an Era: 10 years of Island Life

Jun 15, 2022

2 min read

Updated: Jan 1, 2023

When I first came to New Zealand for my masters in conservation biology in 2012, I had the opportunity to visit an island population of north island brown kiwi, but little did I know that i would spend a big chunk of the next 10 years of my life studying these amazing birds and making the island and its people my second home. #islandlife

Ponui (which means long night in te reo) is an island in the inner hauraki gulf. It is divided into 3 farms and most of my time was spent on the southern most farm of Ponui. The farm has rolling pastures with around 200 acres of beautiful native bush!

I got on first on the island with my supervisor Dr. Isabel Castro and my colleagues (read more about their work here and they have even been featured in the Attenborough's big birds episodes). I came for a week of kiwi wrangling (as I was told) and saw my first kiwi Genesis and held my first kiwi Charlie. I had no idea that over the next few years I would get to know these kiwi intimately!. Over the years I have caught, transmittered, bled and followed kiwi, helped herd sheep and cattle, planted native trees, called people in the middle of the night (3 am) to come kill a rat (since I couldn't get myself to do it), cooked in a kitchen with maggots dripping from the ceiling, stalked little blue penguins (and failed), cursed those same little blue penguins as they sang under the cottage all night during breeding season. Helped move sheep on a barge, watched half a church being moved on the barge, bee kept for a day, got stung by those same bees on my inner thigh! Played with the farm dogs, got stalked by the only feral donkeys in NZ and fed horses called Keanu. Made friends with the farmers Dave and Ros, and their amazing daughters and extended whānau. fallen in the stream twice and got stuck in the swamp at night once, donated 2 pairs of shoes to the same swamp (1 nike and 1 Adidas, and not by choice!). Got lost in the bush for 4 hours!! Sat freezing my ass in the night to catch moreporks and wait for kiwi dads to leave their burrows so I could check on their eggs. Went hunting for glow worms, peripatus (velvet worms) and glow in the dark fungi. Watched the stars with my best mate on the beach and tried to solve the mysteries of the world and life!

Even the trip to the island has been full of adventure, with catching night buses to get to Kawa kawa bay, and pick up random German hitchhikers with Di and drop them in the Hanua ranges and then immediately call the Council to report 2 unprepared hackers in the Hanua!

These 10 years of adventures have been more than what I ever dreamed they would be and while I have had u and down moments, I don't regret anything! Here are some of the photos of my 10 years of adventures on the island. I am going to miss this magical place.