Country Calendar - A Bird in the Hand

In 1965 King Country farmer Warwick Wilson bought 400 hectares of bushland on the Kuaotunu Peninsula in the Coromandel. He planned to clear the native bush and graze 3000 sheep, but when wool prices collapsed he changed tack. Forty-five years later, he runs a Northern Brown Kiwi sanctuary on his property. In this episode of the all-things-rural show, director/reporter Carol Archie talks to Wilson about his vision for Waitaia Bay, and follows guardians John and Paula Williams as they monitor nests and relocate healthy eggs to Rotorua for hatching. Safe from predators, the young kiwis return home to live out their lives.

I've come to realise how little really good coastal bush we have left in our land. An ecologist made the comment that this was some of the best native bush remaining in the North Island.

– Former farmer and conservationist Warwick Wilson on his Coromandel property

Key Cast & Crew

Julian O'Brien

Producer

Don Paulin

Sound Recordist, Sound Editor

Frank Torley

Consultant Producer

Brent Whitwell

Editor

Barrington West

Narrator

Carol Archie

Director, Reporter