We had a few final objectives to meet from our kimihia kōura project last year, so as advertised, we took a small whānau rōpu to Pouiatoa with the East Taranaki Environment Collective to spend the evening exploring the awa and stay the night in a small hut onsite. It was so good to spend time out in the forest and on the awa. We did some exploring to get to know our way around while it was light and went back for spotlighting after dinner. We saw heaps of good sized kōura up there, along with tuna, bully and giant kōkopu, we also conducted some EDNA testing. Please contact the office by email at office@ngatimutunga.iwi.nz if you’d like to see these results.. Thanks to the whānau who came along and to Kat from East Taranaki Environment Collective for showing us around.
While most of our whānau were still on holiday, we snuck out to Moki forest at Te Hikuwai o Waitara. We had some ENDA testing to complete for the Kimihia kōura project too so we thought we would make a day of it, pack a lunch and head in there with a few of our regular volunteers. It was such a spectacular day and the whānau had a great time exploring and taking in the sites. Of course, plenty of kōura were found and as is common at most of our sites, the resident tuna turned up to check us out.