Bush Walk on Maungatautari

On Thursday 26 August, Room 9 went for a Bush Walk through parts of the Ecological Island Trust at Maungatautari. The vision of the Trust is to remove forever, introduced pests and predators from Maungatautari, and restore to the forest a healthy diversity of plants and animals.Takahe, kiwi, kaka and kokopu (fish) have already been reintroduced to two pest free enclosures. The pest proof Xcluderfence around the forest edge of the mountain was completed in 2006 and is 47 km. It is the longest pest-proof fence ever built in New Zealand.
More than 850,000 staples, 50,000 battens, 8,500 three metre posts, 240km of high tensile wire, over 50,000 stainless steel rivets, 280,000 screws and nearly 100,000m² of the all-important fine stainless steel mesh were used in the total construction.

When we first arrived at Maungatautari we went inside the Education Centre.

It is called Matapihi. It is the 'window' to the mountain.

Mrs Reid is the class teacher and she told us lots about the animals and plants in the bush. She was a great guide on the mountain too, as she told us all about the bush. She knew all the different bird calls.