Whenua Hou: Codfish Island and the few Kākāpō Left

A Maverick Traveller: The Podcasts of Mary Jane Walker

AFTER my month on Rakiura/Stewart Island, I left for Whenua Hou, also known as Codfish Island, to work on track maintenance. Even in normal times, to stay on the island you have to go through quarantine, which I did in Invercargill. During the process, they checked for foreign grasses in my gear,so I had made sure to purchase new socks and wash down my pack and wet weather gear.‍

During the breeding season of the kākāpō, a rare flightless parrot that is active at night and sleeps by day, the rangers frequent the wooden walkways on the island for about two months, travelling between nests and monitoring the birds. Once they are nesting, volunteers camp outside the burrows and monitor the comings and goings of the parent. There are cameras placed in every nest to monitor the incubation period.

Original blog post: a-maverick.com/blog/whenua-hou-codfish-island-few-kakapo-left