Flightless birdies let loose on Karori golf course

Wednesday, 8 May 2024

“Leo” will never be accused of spending too much time on the golf course as he lives there now as one of 16 kiwi released into native bush at Karori Golf Club yesterday evening.

The release - almost one bird per hole - took Wellington’s wild kiwi population close to 150, with the south Makara hills already home to the national bird.

With kiwi footprints having been detected on the 11th green, it made sense to release more birds in the area. “Leo” (that’s his nickname) is among the number.

And so they arrived, from the airport in a ute, parking with a level of pretension in the life member’s carpark, unloaded in four wooden crates, with air vents, to a mihi whakatau by Te Atiawa/Taranaki Whānui.

From there, it was to the 6th green, an elbow folded into the bushy hills around, with a stream weaving its way beneath the green. To a kiwi the 6th is heaven, to a golfer treacherous hell.

Peter Kirkman of Capital Kiwi pulled a new arrival spiky feet first from the crate.

“Still feisty, after a long time in the box, which is good to see,” Kirkman said. Moments later there were long strides bounding into the darkness. Home.

Paul Ward, of the Capital Kiwi project, and the club combined for the release thought to be a New Zealand first, one that founding club member Keith Gaskin was on hand to see, aged 91.

“Excited,” Gaskin said of the arrival, having set up the club on farmland in 1967.

“There are not many foundation members left, and to have our national bird set free on this beautiful course is a proud moment.”

Karori Golf Club had been enthusiastic supporters of the project, with trap lines set up on the grounds to keep out pests like stoats and rats.

Club vice president Adrian Porter said the unique release had given it a chance to use its rural location for a good cause.

“I can see so much potential going forward,” Porter said.

“Who knows what what could come of it? We could attract tourists. We could put the Kiwi flag on our website.”

His hopes were for Capital Kiwi and the club (which is a charity) to benefit.

Ward told The Post the vision was to have kiwi roaming the hills, and without owning land that depended on landowners.

“Our project is to allow landowners, iwi and locals to have kiwi back,” he said.

“We know they can live in these hills, and they should live in these hills, this release enables that to happen.”

Steve Weir of Golf Wellington, which promotes and advises 26 clubs in the region, says it was the first release of kiwi on a Wellington course, and likely any New Zealand club.

“There’s no other course as far as I know, apart from Wairakei in Taupo, which has plenty of wildlife, and is fully fenced.”

Courses across Wellington had benefited from the opening of the Zealandia sanctuary in Karori, Weir says.

The release of kiwi was “a really nice adjunct to the wildlife brought in by the sanctuary, here’s been a noticeable increase in bird life across all courses, it’s kinda cool.”

Karori Golf Club already attracts native birds and paradise ducks, which follow a similar insect diet to kiwi.

Dogs had picked up the scent of kiwi on the course, showing Capital Kiwi’s birds, released kilometres away at Terawhiti Station, were roaming through Makara.

Wild goats also roam, with Gaskin having always bristled at the term “goat track” being used on his precious.

“Keith has been hated that for 50 years,” Porter said.

“So now we have the kiwi tag, which holds us in a completely different light.”