Māia’s 2 Million – Done & Dusted!

Kia ora koutou katoa!

Celine and I flew to Wellington at the beginning of this month to attend the Predator free NZ Conference at the Silverstream Retreat where I met all the other apprentices and hosts who are working on projects throughout Aotearoa. I took plenty of notes and knowledge from the guest speakers over the few days we were there. I also had the opportunity to hikoi around kārori (Zealandia) and see some beautiful kākā and listen to all the manu thriving there, a place I highly recommend seeing!

We wrapped up the last of our kiwi listening surveys this year and have begun monitoring the kiwi in Omoana, which are now nesting! We had an awesome few days of laying new traplines out threre and at a beautiful KNE block in Okau and are now starting our trap audits throughout Taranaki, including on the maunga which has shot my steps up!

The puawhānanga have starting flowering, a sure sign that spring is upon us, which I am very excited about (as fun as the rainy days have been 😉). After completing the level 3 pest operations course at WITT, I immediately jumped into a level 4 conservation course, which I will be working on for the next year in between my mahi, first up was chain saw sharpening.

I have one more month left until my year is up for my step challenge…I stepped 282,383 steps this month, bringing me up to 2,076,904 !!! Boom, done and dusted they should have given me a higher target. You can make one last donation to my step campaign here at our Givealittle page https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/taranakikiwi