SOKK Website

Environment, Conservation and Outdoor Education Trust

Get Involved
  • Home
  • The SOKK Project
    • Monitoring and health checks: How it’s done
    • Predator trapping: Our major targets
    • The kiwi crèche at Opouahi
    • Biodiversity in the kiwi crèche
  • Stories
  • Our whanau
    • Our volunteers
    • Our sponsors
    • Our trustees
    • Our history
  • Education
    • SOKK as a classroom of the outdoors
    • Kiwi talks at the crèche
  • Facts and figures
    • Trapline catches – latest
    • Kiwi crèche update
    • Nester status – latest
  • USEFUL LINKS
    • Maungaharuru Tangitū Trust (MTT)
    • Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay
    • Guthrie-Smith Education Centre
    • Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust
    • Manaaki Ruahine Facebook
    • Mauri Oho
    • Ruahine Whio Protectors
    • Save the Kiwi
    • Te Ngahere Facebook
    • DoC
  • Contact us

Our volunteers

Volunteers are the mainstay of operations in the field. Many volunteers have bush and navigational experience through tramping, hunting or search and rescue, but being bush-savvy isn’t necessary for monitoring, or for chick management or maintenance at the crèche.

If you think you’ve got what it takes and would like to help, please get in touch!

​Meet some of our volunteers:

Phil

Phil
Phil is a retired teacher and has served as an ECOED trustee. He has had a long association with outdoor education and was a key trustee in the development of the Wilderness Base adjacent to the kiwi crèche. He volunteers at the crèche by assisting with maintenance.

David

David
David has been tramping since his late teens, when he joined the Napier Tramping Club. He has had many exploits in the outdoors and is an outstanding ‘hut-bagger’, near the top of the tree.

Judy and Pete

Judy and Pete
Judy and Pete are retired from farming. With an interest in wildlife, especially kiwi and having worked with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, they’re pleased to be supporting species conservation in the Kawekas through trapline work.

Ann J

Ann J
Ann has been a committed volunteer at the crèche since 2014 even though she lives a two-hour drive away. She finds kiwi work a welcome break from house renovations.

Anne C

Anne C
Anne C retired from teaching in 2013. She now juggles assisting the kiwi creche work with overseas trips and family commitments.

Robyn

Robyn
​Since 2015, Robyn has been helping Deb in the Kawekas. Robyn is blessed with long arms – a great asset for nest raids in deep burrows!

Sue

Sue
​Sue has been volunteering at the crèche since 2011. Sue fits transmitters to the young kiwi chicks before delivering them up to the crèche – sometimes late into the night. She is pretty adept at crawling through blackberry, and previous experience in electronics is helpful with fixing broken tracking aerials.

Fiona

Fiona
​Fiona joined in 2017. She has spent many years hunting deer with her husband and sons. Under Deb’s tutelage, she’s now putting those skills to work hunting kiwi.

Kate

Kate
Trying to protect our iconic species is very important to me and volunteering for Save our Kaweka Kiwi gives me so many opportunities to be involved in so many ways. And seeing a kiwi in the wild is an experience like no other!

Anna with kiwi ‘Lionheart’

Anna
Anna joined us in 2021 as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award studies and often accompanies Deb on monitoring or kiwi adventures. Anna has also gained her kiwi handling accreditation.

Peter

Peter
Despite years of tramping and other back country pursuits, I thought you had to stand in line to get a look in at volunteering for DoC and then Dave told me that Deb was short of people for the kiwis! The first time I saw a kiwi and then the chick and then an egg, all hauled out of the burrow… I was wrapt!

Grant

Grant
Grant is a recent recruit to the trapping team. He has spent a lot of time hunting and fishing in the Kaweka Ranges and taking his family on camping trips. He is happy to help with the Te Puia hot springs trapline once a month.

If you’d like to join the team, please contact us

​​

Stories

Cyclone Gabrielle causes major damage to the kiwi crèche – and the loss of two chicks

Monday 6 March, 2023DoC Rangers Kahori and Alan did a recce trip on 26 February to see if it was possible to get through to the crèche by road. … Read More

New kids on the hill

Banner Photo: Grant Russell from Stantec holding kiwi chick 'Stanley'Meet Stanley, our first chick release for the season. Deb had the pleasure of … Read More

Wow, a kiwi chick

Johno, our superhero kiwi in the Kaweka Forest Park, produced a kiwi chick and an egg (subsequently incubated at Westshore) in his first clutch of the … Read More

Stoats galore?

Thursday 26 January 2023Te Puia, (TP1- TP9) DOC250 traps, Hot Springs – Te Puia (370 – 411, DOC200, and CT13), Mangatainoka (W1-W15) Double … Read More

Johno’s fading signal leads to a double surprise

Banner Photo: Johno S and JohnoT in their transportation carrier for the ride to the kiwi crèche.Fiona and Robyn received a message from Deb … Read More

About us

The Environment, Conservation and Outdoor Education Trust (ECOED) was established in 2002 to halt the decline of North Island brown kiwi in the Kaweka Forest Park. At that time, the estimated kiwi population was about 200. In response to the crisis, ECOED initiated the Save the Kiwi Hawke’s Bay Project, which is now known as Save Our Kaweka Kiwi, or SOKK.

Our goal is to restore a healthy population of kiwi in the forest park.

Do you want to help?

From marketing and fundraising to trapping and kiwi monitoring, we'll be able to find a way for you to help.

Get Involved

Email: [email protected]
Lake Opouahi, Hawke’s Bay

Major sponsors

MAJOR SPONSORS

Copyright © 2023 · ECOED is a registered charitable entity in terms of the Charities Act 2005. · Registration No. CC27154 · Website by D2 ·