Pest Free Kaipātiki

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Pest Free Kaipātiki

Protecting, restoring, and enhancing
Kaipātiki's natural environment

08/10/2026

Meanwhile... Mama Ruru in Hillcrest has just laid a third egg! 🐣🐣🐣

We asked you to make your guesses: third egg or not?
And you were right, third egg it is! 🎉Well done to everyone who guessed correctly! 💚

Now the question is:
When will the first hatch day be?
Share your guesses in the comments!

To be continued ✨

Keen to help ruru families?
Set up a trap in your garden or local reserve: shorturl.at/qWh6p

07/10/2026

🌻 Community Flood Resilience in action in our Rewi Alley Reserve!

✨ Our tremendous Rewi Alley Reserve & Trias Squad (RATS) have completely transformed Rewi Alley Reserve at the top of the Wairau catchment. You may have noticed a sign and a flourishing planting at the Athena Drive entrance to the reserve, as well as a smaller planting along the path by the stormwater pond.

🌳 This has been part of Pest Free Kaipātiki’s volunteers ongoing work in collaboration with Healthy Waters to create absorption, filtration, and slow down water to ultimately reduce flood risk.

👌🏽 The RATS are working in the reserve every 2nd Saturday of the month (10th October this month) from 9-11am.
Feel free to stop by, chat, and join in on the rewarding mahi if you live in the Tōtara Vale area! 🌿

05/10/2026

🌻Spring is the best time to listen to birdsong!

As the seasons change we get to listen to the birds sing more and more.
Let’s find out who is singing in the bush. 🐦🎶

Join our Bird Count Survey:
📅 10 October 2026
🕘 8:00am-9:30am
📍Soldiers Bay
Ages 12+
What to bring: Gum boots, binoculars, warm clothes

Register here: pfk.org.nz/walks

This walk was originally planned for Saturday 26 September, but was rescheduled to Saturday 10 October

02/10/2026

Because kauri make us feel small 🌳

✨ Our Kauri Connections blog series explores the many ways we connect with these incredible trees, and the ways they connect us to place, people and time.

Our long-standing volunteer, Kim, shares his story and connection with kauri: from the trees in his own backyard to the many reserves across Kaipātiki.

🌿 His story spans decades, offering an inspiring insight into how our understanding, perspective and awareness of these magnificent trees have changed over the years.

Keep reading to discover Kim’s connection to kauri, and explore the cultural role these remarkable trees have played in Aotearoa.

🌱 Read Kim’s story: pfk.org.nz/post/kauri-connections-kim-o

01/10/2026

The election is coming up soon: Meet the Candidates for Northcote and North Shore!

Public Meeting will provide an opportunity to hear from candidates, learn more about the issues affecting the local community, and connect with you community.

📅 Thursday, 22 October 2026
🕓 6:30pm – 8:30pm
📍 Glenfield Community Centre

Find more information and register here:
events.humanitix.com/meet-the-candidates-northcote-and-north-shore-electorates-public-meeting

29/09/2026

Busy nesting season for Mama Ruru in Hillcrest: she has just laid two eggs! 🐣🐣

After preparing the nest over the last month, she laid her first egg last Friday, and a second one followed on Monday!

Will Mama Ruru lay a third egg?
When will the first hatch day be?
Share your guesses in the comments!

To be continued ✨

Keen to help ruru families?
🐀 Set up a trap in your garden or local reserve:
shorturl.at/qWh6p

🌳 Find out more about ruru nest box:
pfk.org.nz/host-a-ruru-nest-box

27/09/2026

Pest Free Kaipātiki would simply not exist without the beautiful mahi of our volunteers. 💚

✨ And sometimes we prefer to let them speak for themselves. Sonya English shared her volunteering experience with us as part of our Pest Plants Buffer project in Le Roys Bush:

« It reminded me how important it is to ask for help. Sometimes we think we should be able to manage things ourselves, but asking for support can be the very thing that allows progress to begin.

We are so grateful for the support, knowledge and generosity of Ian, Kat, Rebecca and the Pest Free Kaipātiki, and for every neighbour, friend and teenager who has turned up and helped.

What I will remember most, is how quickly things changed once people came together. The bush looks different, but so does the way we feel about caring for it. What had felt near impossible, now feels like something shared, worthwhile and possible. That has been a pretty special thing to be part of. »

🌿 Read the full story:
pfk.org.nz/post/from-overwhelm-to-hope-a-volunteer-s-successful-journey

🌻 Keen to get involved? pfk.org.nz/volunteer

26/09/2026

What’s fruiting and flowering in September? 🥰🌿

🌻 With planting season behind us and the days getting warmer, spring is in the air!

💕 Fuchsia procumbens, or creeping fuchsia, is the world’s smallest fuchsia but its flowers pack a colourful punch. These tiny blooms resemble colourful cocktails topped with upright red filaments dusted with blue pollen.

🌿 Hangehange are also spring bloomers, with green-white flowers that work hard to attract pollinators through scent rather than colour. Korokio’s minute, star-shaped flowers might catch your eye despite their size with their buttery yellow tone standing out against the plant’s deep green foliage and twigs. Our native orchids or greenhoods are hard to spot, so keep an extra eye out close to the ground for them!

🐝 Perhaps pause a moment longer as you observe these miniature springtime adornments to see if you can also spot any accompanying pollinators paying these flowers a visit.

🌸 Flowering: puawānanga, kōwhai, kūmarahou, pūriri, toropapa, ngutu kākā/kākābeak, kōtukutuku/tree fuchsia, creeping fuchsia, mānuka, karo, wharangi, rewarewa, haekaro, kawakawa, karamū, tātarāmoa/bush lawyer, tutukiwi/greenhood orchids, karaka, nīkau, mangeao, akatea (Metrosideros albiflora), korokio, tī kōuka/cabbage trees

Fruiting: tītoki, nīkau, pūriri

Fuchsia procumbens photo credit: A.J. Townsend, 2007
Corokia cotoneaster photo credit: John Sawyer

25/09/2026

🌿 Let’s make a Kauri Clay Friend together during the school holidays!

Kauri change the environment around them, their branches and trunks create shade and shelter, while their leaves help shape the soil beneath them.
That’s why kauri are rākau rangatira, a tree of great significance who create a home and care for their younger siblings of the forest, including us humans too. 💚

Join us for a kids friendly activity - that parents will love too:
📅 Sunday 4 October
⏰ 10:30–11:30am
📍 Birkenhead Library

Register here: events.humanitix.com/kauri-clay-friends-at-birkenhead-library-ff47reka

Address

3 Ross Avenue, Glenfield
North Shore
0626

Website

https://www.pestfreekaipatiki.org.nz/

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