Country Calendar - A Bird in the Hand

I offered my land from day one, because I believe kiwi are a tremendously emotive symbol that can help us raise the funds needed to restore their habitat and the ecosystem to its original pristine state.

– Statement by Warwick Wilson on the Project Kiwi Trust website

I've come to realise how little really good coastal bush we have left in our land. An ecologist made the comment that this was some of the best native bush remaining in the North Island.

– Former farmer and conservationist Warwick Wilson on his Coromandel property

Warwick has found himself looking after trees rather than stock.

– Reporter Carol Archie on Warwick Wilson

We're getting closer and closer to that vision of the natural numbers.

– Kiwi sanctuary worker Paula Williams on the success of their Coromandel-based kiwi programme

The decision was made for me with the collapse of wool prices around the world, and I didn't ever think they would come back again. So we moved into a limited amount of forestry and kept the foreshore clear to protect the bush.

– Warwick Wilson explains the reasoning behind reverting his Coromandel farm to a small scale operation

An egg lift usually means an all night vigil for John. He must wait for the kiwi male to leave the nest.

– Reporter Carol Archie reports on an nocturnal kiwi 'egg lift'

North Island brown kiwi eggs are gently plucked from their nests and dispatched to a conservation programme in Rotorua. It’s all starlight and torchlight and solar power out here, with the occasional whirr of a generator or quad bike headlights sending bunnies scattering into the shadows.

– Excerpt from an article about the kiwi conservation programme in Waitaia Bay, NZ Life & Leisure, January 2012

It had about three years of wool on and it was enough flotation to keep its head above water, and it just headed straight across the bay...

– A Waitaia Bay sheep musterer describes a tricky sheep capture