threaten them on the mainland.
They planted Rewa Rewa, Totara and several Kahikatea, a
species of tree that can grow to over 60m high. Kahikatea
were largely wiped out from the area in the 19th century after
being exploited to make butter boxes.
Superstar songbird Joss Stone
somehow managed to find time in
her whistle stop trip to New Zealand earlier this year as part of her
world tour, to visit an island in the
Waikato river where she planted
trees with Pete and fellow musician,
Tiki Taane, that will offer a safe
haven to native birds.
She was helping a project designed
to protect birds from possums, cats,
rats and other predators that
On the mainland, possums and other predators compete for
the same habitat and food as birds; they also disturb nesting
birds, and eat their eggs and chicks. Few possums, cats, dogs
and rats can reach the island so it offers birds a much safer
Joss, who travelled over to the island in a white Sealegs amphibious boat, said “It’s great to be able to work with
Earthrace on this; the birds have so
many threats so to have a sanctuary on
the island is fantastic. I’d love to come
back when my trees have grown a bit
to see how they’ve made a difference.”
The tree planting project on the island
was started by Taupiri local, John
Charteris, who encourages schools,
groups and indivi GV