11 Oct 2010
Motu Kaikoura Island
Eighty metres west of Great Barrier Island in the outer Hauraki Gulf lies a remote island surrounded by steep rugged cliffs. Motu Kaikoura seems like the perfect place for native flaura and fauna to flourish. But years of ravaging by deer, pigs, cats and rabbits is proving difficult to overcome. A restoration programme in 2007 removed all the animals, but a new survey by the Motu Kaikoura Trust shows birdlife has not returned to the island in the numbers they would have liked.