January 2026 Newsletter

Happy New Year everyone!

Upcoming Volunteer Trips

We have these midweek group trips coming up, travelling by Dreamweaver from Pier Z:
Thursday 12 March
Friday 27 March
If you are a group interested in joining one of these trips (or another date), please email Simon on volunteermotuihe@gmail.com

We have these volunteer trips coming up, all travelling by water taxi from Okahu Bay:
Saturday 7 February (general volunteer day - full)
Sunday 8 February (endangered plants (rescheduled- full))
Saturday 21 February (endangered plants)
Sunday 1 March (general volunteer day)
Wednesday 18 March (invasive weeds)
Sunday 22 March (endangered plants)
Sunday 29 March (general volunteer day)
Individuals can book on any of these trips by registering here: Register here
or email volunteers@motuihe.org.nz

Fundraising Update
We are truly grateful to receive another year's funding from Foundation North. We have enjoyed their support over many years, and without their help we would struggle to support our many programmes that take place on the island.

A big big thank you to Foundation North for their generosity.

Volunteering Opportunities
We are looking for more recruits for our weeding and specialised weeding programmes.

Mothplant constantly needs seek-and-destroy, it is an ongoing battle to stop this fast growing vine from smothering our beautiful native forest. Because of the terrain and the nature of the work, you need to be physically fit to be on the mothplant team, but it does save on gym costs and is more therapeutic!

We also have a number of new invasive weeds that we are controlling and hopefully eliminating before they become bigger problems. This work is not as physically challenging as mothplant control, but still requires a reasonable level of fitness.

Motuihe Memories
There is still time to have your memories of volunteering on Motuihe over the past 25 years included in our Memories book. If you have any stories or photos you'd like to share, email memories@motuihe.org.nz.

Kylee from the OBC kindly shared these photos from 2008, what a difference has been made over these years.

memory

Kiosk Update
Inspite of some unpredictable weather, our keen team of volunteers has opened the kiosk and sold many ice creams. The kiosk raises valuable funds for the project, and our volunteers spread the word about where visitors can walk to enjoy the trees, heritage and birdlife. We are still hoping for our summer weather to come back again, so we can continue to open over the coming weekends.

Claire Fergusson looked after the kiosk earlier in January, and shared this photo of visitors from Ireland enjoying ice creams in the sunshine.

kiosk

Motuihe's Tombolo
(article by Fiona Alexander)
As I was standing on Roberton Island in the Bay of Islands over the summer I was struck by the similarity in geographic shape with Motuihe. Roberton is made up of two islands joined by a tombolo - a build up of sand and shingle that forms an isthmus between the mainland and an island or two islands - just as Motuihe is. The heritage headland and the main restored area of Motuihe are joined by an isthmus of sand and shingle that has been built up by wave action over thousands of years.

This is one reason why the Norfolk Island pines are so important. Their root systems help to hold the isthmus together. Wave action can easily erode the isthmus and remove the connection between the two parts of Motuihe. Another example of a Tombolo is Mount Maunganui. (PS Tombolo should not be confused with Tombola as fund raising activity at fairs!)

The photos show Roberton Island on the left and Motuihe on the right,
both have the Tombolo geographic feature joining two islands together to form one island.

fiona

Motuihe Island Wins The Golden Wheelie Bin Award
We are thrilled to announce that Motuihe won the Golden Wheelie Bin award for the tidiest island in the Hauraki Gulf. This is largely due to the mammoth efforts of our amazing DoC rangers Paul and Seana.

The golden wheelie bin has been getting to know the island, and has been photographed at a few different locations. We think the other islands will be hard pushed to win the award back again, so we expect to be seeing more of the wheelie bin on the motu.

bin

5th and 6th January - Drone Survey
Through generous funding from NZ Lotteries, we hosted Island Solutions for 2 days on Motuihe, along with their drones. Geoff and Matt worked tirelessly to guide their drones over the motu, recording moth plant vines and their locations while the plants are at their most visible - in January these invasive pest plants are covered in white flowers which makes them easy to spot. And the drones are easily able to see vines in the top of the canopy which are often invisible from the ground.

It is not the outcome that we were expecting unfortunately. With the huge efforts of our volunteers over the last years, we had thought that we had our mothplant under control, but the survey was sobering. Moth plant is still a huge problem on the island, especially in the southern areas so there is still much work to do.

Once we got over our disappointment at the results, we started on a plan to tackle the problem. The survey has given us a set of GPS co-ordinates to allow us to locate the visible vines, and depending on the nature and terrain of the plants, we have a variety of techniques in our toolbox to get the problem back under control. We'll be throwing everything we have to get rid of as many vines as possible before they begin to pod. If you are fit and able, and keen to help with our invasive weeds programme, please get in touch operations@motuihe.org.nz.

Drone

Two large flowering vines identified by the drone survey

Full Time Weeders on Motuihe
We have been very fortunate to have three DoC weeders full time on Motuihe during January. Megan, Liam and Ella have battled all kinds of extreme weather during their stay but have managed to achieve a huge amount regardless. The outbreaks of calystegia and climbing dock have been sprayed. And the team have been able to follow the waypoints from the drone survey to systematically work through the Tieke track and around Bald Knob to knock out many hundreds of moth plant vines. Meagan and her team have now moved onto their next island, these three are employed full time by the Department of Conservation to work around the Gulf. This is funded by the International Visitor Levy, and we will see them back on Motuihe next year - the funding is for two years. The photo shows Meagan, Liam and Ella with climbing asparagus collected on Hauturu - thank goodness we don't have that weed on Motuihe!

For much of the time that Meagan and her team were with us, our summer contractors Shanaye and Grace worked with them so we had a concerted force. Shanaye and Grace have now finished, and have headed to the Galapagos Islands on a field trip as part of their studies. They of course fell in love with the island during their stay, so I'm sure we'll see them back again in the coming years.

weederd

Kārearea or kāhu?
We've had several independent but unconfirmed reports of a kārearea seen on Motuihe. This would be exciting news if it were true, as the NZ falcon has not been seen in the Hauraki Gulf for many years. Please keep your eyes and ears open, and report any suspected activity - with photos or recordings if possible.

There are differences between hawks and falcons, but it's sometimes difficult to tell them apart. We do know there are kāhu chicks on the island which makes ID even more difficult: Falcon and hawk differences

Falconvskahu