Nature / Sustainable Tourism

Whakatane – a small east coast town in New Zealand’s North Island – wants to become ‘Kiwi capital of the world’, claiming it’s the only place on earth where it’s possible to hear kiwis calling from the main street.

Sirocco, the pin-up boy and darling of New Zealand’s high profile conservation efforts with the endangered kākāpō parrot population, is about to take off for somewhere he’s never been before – the big city.

Passengers on a whale watching safari were treated to a rare marine spectacle when two blue whales surfaced in the Hauraki Gulf, not far from Auckland city shores.

The ubiquitous iPod might be a familiar sight on the street these days, but in New Zealand the digital music players are being used in remote native forests to train rare birds.

Visitors to the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, could be surprised to learn that feeding the parking meter is helping to save penguins.

A remote holiday cottage on the northern end of the Abel Tasman track in the South Island has become New Zealand’s most energy efficient house.

A New Zealand cruise operator specialising in wildlife and scenic tours of Akaroa and Lyttelton harbours - near Christchurch, in the South Island – is going the extra mile to save an endangered penguin.

Forget tractors, lawn mowers and fuel ... a New Zealand winegrower has discovered an environmentally-friendly – and cute-as – answer to controlling the growth beneath his vines.

New Zealand’s kākāpō recovery team has successfully returned the last four kākāpō chicks to their birthplace on Whenua Hou / Codfish Island this morning (10.07.09), marking a significant milestone for the 2009 breeding season.

History will be repeating itself when world renowned botanist David Bellamy and a flock of endangered kōkako songbirds return to the New Zealand bush in September to commemorate an environmental milestone.