Manukura Little White Kiwi

06/06/2025

🥰🥰🥰

Meet Mapuna, our stunning white kiwi and brother of the famous Manukura 🤍
Snapped during his recent health check, he’s striking a pose and reminding us exactly why we do what we do, to protect taonga like him.

Even in tough times, the mahi doesn’t stop at Pūkaha 💚
From feeding birds and monitoring traplines to carrying out vital health checks, our dedicated team is always working behind the scenes to care for this special place.
Bring the whānau to Pūkaha this weekend and enjoy all the amazing things nature has to offer.
As we continue to fundraise, we are forever grateful for every donation and supportive message.

Thanks so much for all your love and support.
Ngā mihi nui, we hope to see you soon

To donate ➡️ https://pukaha-donation-appeal.raiselysite.com/
https://givealittle.co.nz/org/pukaha

31/05/2025

Please help Pūkaha!

You may have heard that Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre is at risk of closure due to serious financial distress.

With rising operational costs and a challenging funding environment, we are now in crisis mode. But we will not give up.

Pūkaha has long been a safe haven for native wildlife and a place of learning and inspiration for generations. Now, we need your help to ensure it stays that way.

Every dollar counts.
If you’re able to donate or share our story, you’ll be helping keep this special sanctuary alive.

Looking for a great day out this long weekend?
Visit us and show your support! The sun is out, and the forest and its inhabitants are waiting to welcome you.

He waka eke noa – we’re all in this together.
Ngā mihi nui,
The Pūkaha Team

👉 Donate here: https://pukaha-donation-appeal.raiselysite.com/

18/07/2022

Manukura's brother Mapuna, is the handsome father of these two gorgeous kiwi, Tia and Kaewa. They currently reside in the Nocturnal House, and can be seen during your visit to Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre. Breeding season has started already for the kiwi and we can't wait to see what this year brings ☺️

You can see Tia sporting the white feathers on his head, a nod to the family genes!

We still miss Manukura, but her legacy still lives on!

27/12/2021

We cannot believe its been a whole year since our darling taonga Manukura left us. She was special to so many people for so many reasons and her legacy lives on!

Today also marks Tia's first birthday. Tia resides in the Nocturnal House, and is actually Manukuras niece! We see a lot of her cheeky behaviour in her, including the cute bouncing around.

We all love this video of Manukura, so it seems fitting to share again. This is how she is remembered by all the team at Pūkaha. A beautiful, cheeky Queeny.

01/12/2021

To protect our whole community and to continue to operate with as few restrictions as possible under the COVID-19 Protection Framework, from 3 December 2021 all Pūkaha visitors twelve years or older must present a vaccine pass as they enter the centre.

We understand that the requirements are an inconvenience and they may take a little time for us all to get used to the new routine for entering public spaces.

Hopefully we have made the process as simple as possible for all of our visitors to follow and you can get out and enjoy the wonders of the forest without delay.

There is no flexibility unfortunately. If you are not fully vaccinated, you are unable to enter. We understand this may be disappointing if you do not yet have a vaccine pass. It is disappointing for us too! Please do come back when you have both vaccinations and you have your vaccine pass ready.

Thank you for your understanding and ongoing support during these difficult times - He waka eke noa, we are all in this together.

Ngā manākitanga
The Pūkaha Whānau

18/10/2021

Mapuna heading home after a health check. Mapuna has dug his own beautiful burrow in one of the banks in his enclosure and often hides the entrance way with feathers and twigs. Normally a kiwi burrow would be a bit more camouflage with brown kiwi feathers than white ones!

This Save the Kiwi week check out some of the amazing work being done in local wildlife reserves in your area. With summer coming up, maybe now is the time to check out that volunteer project you have been thinking of doing in the community!

Volunteers at Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre can help out in so many different ways, from traplines, to visitor hosts. Message us on the Whānau if you want to find out more!

📷: Tara Swan

14/10/2021

It's SAVE THE KIWI month!

A month to celebrate not only kiwi, but also the amazing work being done by conservationists and kiwi lovers everywhere. We currently have 7 kiwi chicks in the nursery with one more internally pipped, due to hatch early next week!

To help contribute towards Operation Nest Egg and kiwi conservation at Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre check out their website: https://pukaha.org.nz/donate/

06/10/2021

In safe hands.

We have had such a beautiful start to the season, with the kiwi nursery filling up with these beautiful little fluff balls!

Over the next few days you may be lucky enough to catch a midday kiwi chick feed. Please feel free to call ahead if you are specially coming in to see a kiwi chick to confirm if there will be a feed. Learn all about our work with kiwi and Operation Nest Egg from our rangers daily at 12 noon.

21/09/2021

A massive thank you once again to Adrian from South Wairarapa Veterinary Services for coming in to xray our kiwi egg.

Sometimes things don't quite seem right, so to play it safe an xray is done to check on the kiwi chicks position in the egg. This one is due to hatch soon and is almost in position to break through the shell, previously it was in a bit of an unusual spot! You can even see the beak pushing on the membrane creating a tenting effect.

We will keep you up to date with the progress of this chick and others over the season 😊

21/09/2021

Today we welcomed the first kiwi chick of the season at Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre 💚

Little Taranaki-Tra5 hatched in the early hours of the morning, perfect and healthy at 348g. We are so excited to start the season! There are currently 6 more eggs in the incubators with hopefully another one not far off hatching 🥰

Kiwis for kiwi Kohanga Project

17/09/2021

See if you can spot our gorgeous boy Mapuna in these amazing wildlife photography entries!

Follow the link below to vote for your favourite if you want to see Mapuna and any of the others feature in the upcoming Stories Of Survival calendar.

Photo taken by one of our Rangers, Tara Swan during Mapunas morning health check.

14/09/2021

The first kiwi eggs of the season are in!

We have 7 eggs from the Taranaki region which will hatch here before heading off to their new homes!

In the Nocturnal House, you can spy the eggs in the big incubators and if you are lucky to time it right, they might even be in the hatchers at the front!

The hatcher at the front always contains a fake egg for visitors to see the size of a kiwi egg (pictured below). If you see a sign up however and rangers keeping a close eye on the egg then it possibly is due to start hatching!

We love this time of year so stay tuned!