History of Tiritiri Matangi

This island was reclaimed farm land and has been entirely regenerated by volunteers, who planted almost 300,000 trees and exterminated all non-native predators to develop it into a conservation island for rare and threatened birds.

Tiritiri Matangi is now home to saddlebacks, the red crowned parakeet, stitch birds, several varieties of the flightless takahe and the little spotted kiwi, among many others.

Volunteer conservationists will take you over to the island and show you around on the purpose built tracks which lead visitors away from threatened areas.

Tiritiri Matanga was also the site of New Zealand’s first light house.