Aorangi Restoration Trust

Restoring native ecosystems in South Wairarapa

By 2045, the Trust aims to have restored the Aorangi Forest and its surrounds so indigenous forest, coastal, and marine ecosystems are healthy, and its streams, rivers, and wetlands are clean and abundantly inhabited.

News

16 October 2026

Aorangi Restoration Trust: 2026 AGM Reports and Documents

The Aorangi Restoration Trust’s Annual General Meeting was held on Sunday 4 October 2026 at Ruakōkoputuna Hall, bringing together members, volunteers and trustees. Reports and documents from the meeting are available to download below, providing an update on the Trust’s work to restore and protect the Aorangi Forest.

Read on the Trust website

28 August 2026

Tarāpunga Red Billed Gulls at Nga Ra o Kupe

Tarāpunga Red Billed Gulls are assembling again at their relatively new breeding colony at Nga Ra o Kupe.

A group of ART volunteers were trap checking on the Kawakawa Coast yesterday and noticed the Tarāpunga Red Billed Gulls are assembling at their relatively new breeding colony at Nga Ra o Kupe. It is so great to see that they now feel safe enough to form this substantial mainland breeding ground. Up to about 4 years ago they only nested on the little offshore islets near Mātakitaki a Kupe Cape Palliser. Hopefully our predator trapping campaign on this coast has helped! NZ Birds Online reports that the is in decline - "Recently the largest colonies in different parts of New Zealand have exhibited a marked decline in numbers (i.e. Kaikoura, Three Kings and Mokohinau Islands). The bird tends to nest at the same locality from one season to the next, and offspring mostly return to their natal colony to breed".

28 August 2026

Penguins, Planting and Pirinoa School

A collaborative day at Ōkorewa Lagoon brought together nine local organisations, including the South Wairarapa Biodiversity Group, Aorangi Restoration Trust and Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation’s Te Reo o te Wai education project, with Pirinoa School students playing a central role. Building on 12 years of community planting around the lagoon, the children planted native sedges and kānuka and helped install specially designed penguin boxes to provide safe breeding habitat for kororā (little blue penguins). The boxes, built by Martinborough Menzshed and sponsored by Martinborough Lions and P&K Mitre 10, complement the Trust’s predator trapping and coastal conservation work. Despite bitterly cold conditions, the students enthusiastically carried plants, boxes and driftwood, camouflaging the penguin shelters among the vegetation. Their thoughtful letters to the penguins reflected their understanding of the threats from predators and the importance of providing safe habitat for breeding and raising chicks. The project demonstrates the value of community collaboration and involving local children in practical conservation. If you see a kororā along the coast, please report the date, time and location to the Aorangi Restoration Trust at aorangitrust@gmail.com.

Penguins, Planting and Pirinoa School
Words by Jane Riddiford Trustee Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation & The Aorangi Restoration Trust
It was a fun day out at Ōkorewa Lagoon on the south coast in mid-august, as the mahi of nine local organisations came together for a common cause. The event was a collaboration between the South Wairarapa Biodiversity Group (SWBG), the Aorangi Restoration Trust (ART), and Ruamahanga Farm Foundation’s (RFF) education project, Te Reo o te Wai. The highlight ingredient that brought it all to life was the involvement of nearby Pirinoa School.
Over the last 12 years, volunteers from the SWBG have been steadily planting the edges of Ōkorewa Lagoon, providing important habitat for birds that fly and those that don’t; like kororā, the little blue penguin. This seabird is the smallest penguin in the world, standing just 30cm tall. Once a common sight under coastal baches and rocks, and still often spotted by fishermen out at sea, kororā’s story onshore is one of quiet decline. Their numbers have dropped sharply in recent years due to loss of habitat and introduced predators; stoats, ferrets, weasels, rats and wild pigs, as well as roaming domestic and feral dogs and cats.
Over the same period, the Aorangi Restoration Trust has placed penguin boxes along the coast and set out hundreds of traps for possums and mustelids. Sponsored by the Martinborough Lions and P&K Mitre 10 and built by the Martinborough Menzshed, the boxes provide safe habitat along the rugged coastline for penguins coming ashore. The narrow, protected entryways are designed to keep most predators out and help breeding pairs raise their chicks safely.
Just around the point east of Lake Õnoke, Ōkorewa Lagoon is an easy ten-minute walk from the Lake Ferry Hotel carpark. A bus sponsored by Green Jersey Cycle Tours brought children from Pirinoa school. Equipped with bushpro spades donated to RFF by the South Wairarapa Rotary, each child had the chance to plant and weed-mat up to ten native plants, a mix of flood-tolerant sedges such as carex secta / pūrei and salt-tolerant trees including kanūka.
Each class then found a sheltered spot, created by previous years’ planting, to hide their penguin box. A popular activity was hunting for logs to secure and camouflage the boxes. The end result looked less like a plain box and more like a den style penguin palace.
As with all of RFF’s Te Reo o te Wai field trips, time was set aside at the end of the day, and again back at school for reflection and sharing in different ways. Here’s a glimpse of how the children feel about protecting penguins.
As with all of RFF’s Te Reo o te Wai field trips, time was set aside at the end of the day, and again back at school for reflection and sharing in different ways. Following their day of hard mahi, the students wrote to the penguins, here is a snapshot of their letters:
Dear Penguins,
We made you some penguin houses to protect you so you can’t die easily.
I hope it's a happy place for you to live and your babies can be safe. – Kahukura
We put driftwood on top of it so dogs can’t lift them up.
I hope you have a nice time in the penguin house. – Quinn
All hidden in the bushes and covered in driftwood - they look like soldiers wearing camouflage. We planted nice new trees before we did the little kororā boxes.
– Hunta
The trees are native which is good. The boxes are hidden quite far away from the ocean.
It will be a long journey, I hope you stay safe. – Hugo
They are near the Lake Ferry pub right next to the rocky cliffs that are as jaggy as knives.
– Reid
It might take you quite a while to get there, but it is worth it for your cool new houses.
– Brax
The weather was blazing cold like a massive ice cube, so it was super-duper hard to carry the boxes and the logs in the freezing cold. Me and the whole school hope you move in to keep yourselves safe like sea shells in the ocean… good luck !
– Kyan
How you can help:
It will take many hands and many eyes to bring kororā back to our coast again. If anyone has a sighting of kororā, please email the details (date, time, and location) to the Aorangi Restoration Trust at aorangitrust@gmail.com