Rachel’s kiwi adventure
A baby kiwi is strutting her stuff in the wild after being named and set free by supermodel Rachel Hunter.
Hunter named the 3-week-old kiwi Matariki, after the star cluster that signals the beginning of the Maori New Year. The chick was released on Motutapu Island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf.
Hunter said: “I love the stars and I just thought it was fitting for her. She’s gorgeous, she’s special. She was feisty on the way over [to Motutapu] and then a superstar when she came out [into the wild] and kind of just chilled out and fell asleep.”
A group, including people from the Department of Conservation, Motutapu Restoration Trust and local iwi Ngai Tai Ki Tamaki, gathered to watch and help Hunter release the kiwi into the bush.
“I’m very, very honoured and very, very lucky,” she said. “We know how sacred they are to their environments out in the wild . . . and to be able to come out here and release one into the wild is super special.”
Matariki, weighing less than 500 grams, was hatched at Auckland Zoo from an egg collected in the Coromandel. She will join 55 other Coromandel brown kiwi on pest-free Motutapu, including Whauwhau, who was released by former Prime Minister John Key and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2014.
The number of kiwi released on the island has risen since May 2017 as part of charity Kiwis for Kiwi’s aim to increase each species of our national bird by 2 per cent a year.
The charity’s efforts, drawing on an $11 million government grant to save the kiwi, worked in step with DoC’s decade-long kiwi recovery plan, which had a goal of lifting the total kiwi population back to 100,000 by 2030. Keith Gell, DoC Auckland inner islands operations manager, said the vision was for Motutapu to become a creche for kiwis so, when the population became big enough, surplus birds could be used to boost numbers elsewhere.
Yesterday’s release was also a chance for Hunter to catch up on some of the conservation work happening on Motutapu.
The supermodel has been paid $50,000 by Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development to be an international ambassador for the city.