top: Up close and personal with a local mountain stone weta
The Mou Waho Island Restoration Project is centered around a very special island on Lake Wanaka.
A feeling of magic prevails helped in part by it having an island on a lake on the island!
Twenty or so years ago it was infested by wilding pines which have been successfully cleared as part of a plan by the Dept. of Conservation to restore the island to a natural state. This included the re-introduction of the buff weka, which were translocated to a another island on Lake Wanaka from the Chatham Islands, where chicks were raised in a large purpose built aviary.
It is now estimated [it’s terrain is very rugged] that there are 160 birds on Mou Waho. Trapping is carried out to ensure that any predators that swim there will be caught.
DOC is also in a very successful partnership with Eco Wanaka Adventures and Chris and Lee do a wonderful job of assisting in managing the project – even getting tourists who sign up for their regular boat trips and guided walks/picnics to plant a tree, and making sure they meet the local weka, weta and geckos
Today we completed yet another annual planting – about a doz. of us planted about 80 natives trees. The trees were carried on the DOC boat, and the rest of us travelled in the Eco Wanaka Adventure boat.
Click on any link to see the photos by Southern Light
