New Documentary Short Shares the Wonder of Hauturu

Media Release

Date: 10 April 2017

New Documentary Short Shares the Wonder of Hauturu: Little Barrier Island

This week the Little Barrier Island Supporters Trust launches a new documentary short about the most intact ecosystem in New Zealand: Te Hauturu te-o-Toi, Little Barrier Island.

Little Barrier Island: New Zealand’s Ark gives viewers unprecedented access to the wonders of this precious island. From the stony shores that are a refuge for native reptiles to high ridges, riddled with the burrows of sea birds, and deep into the primeval forest, where native birds, insects and the ancient tuatara live and thrive in peace. This is New Zealand as it once was.

The documentary has been produced by multi-award winning natural history production house NHNZ.

Ruud Kleinpaste, documentary narrator and patron of the Little Barrier Island Supporters Trust, says: “Little Barrier Island is one of New Zealand’s most precious treasures. We hope that this stunning film will show New Zealanders how important conservation is, on any scale.”

Trustee David Stone adds that the film is an opportunity for the New Zealand public to see the closely protected island for themselves: “Visitor numbers and movements are strictly regulated as it is critical that human impact is kept to a minimum. Consequently, very few people get to see what the environment is like up close. Thanks to the team at NHNZ we now have a stunning film that shows the amazing conservation work that has gone into preserving and nurturing Little Barrier Island.”

The Little Barrier Island Supporters Trust is launching the film with an event screening on Tuesday 11 April. Little Barrier Island: New Zealand’s Ark will be available for streaming online on the Little Barrier island website from Wednesday: http://www.littlebarrierisland.org.nz/

About the Little Barrier Island Trust:

With the island itself as inspiration, the Little Barrier Island (Hauturu) Supporters Trust was created in June 1997 (almost 20 years ago) to provide support for the Island to achieve its full potential as a wildlife sanctuary and it primeval forest of national importance and international significance.

Hauturu is New Zealand’s oldest Nature Reserve having been created in 1895

The Trust’s primary purpose is to raise funds for selected projects on the island, in particular to address threats to habitat or native flora and fauna. It also helps to disseminate information about the island via its website www.littlebarrierisland.org.nz, the newsletter Hauturu published three times a year, talks and now this short film, and to inform the public of pertinent conservation issues and explain DoC’s ‘No Landing’ policy.

During its close association with the Island and Doc the Trust has assisted funding of research (hihi, storm petrel and Cook’s petrel) and weed control; provision of assets and facilities, e.g. Norski eco-toilet, tuatara enclosure; negotiating the donation of goods such as herbicides, building materials chattels for the bunkhouse; and support of tuatara, kokako and kakapo recovery programmes and kiwi monitoring.

The Trust wishes to create a significant fund for the future support of academic and scientific research, continued financial assist of the weed eradication programme, and the funding of a state-of –the –art remote electronic monitoring system of the coastal traps system and possibly specific species bird and nest monitoring.

The protected status of the Island, its relative remoteness, and its rugged terrain, preclude regular ‘hands-on’ activity but the Trust arranges up to four ‘working weekends’ each year.

Little Barrier Island
New Zealand’s Ark

Duration: 1 x 11 minutes

Billing

Isolated by the waters of the Hauraki Gulf, Little Barrier Island is another world. For well over a century this place has been treasured and protected and is a standout example of how the careful management over time has created one of the most important sanctuaries in the world.

Synopsis

Eighty kilometres from downtown Auckland is another world… Te Hauturu-o-Toi: Little Barrier Island. For well over a century, this island has been a treasured and protected wildlife reservation. Hauturu Little Barrier Island is not just an incredible place but an exemplar of conservation. Native species such as hihi and kokako that struggle to survive on the mainland are thriving on Hauturu. There are no pests here, and the waters of the Hauraki Gulf provide protection through isolation.

Little Barrier Island: New Zealand’s Ark gives viewers unprecedented access to the wonders of this precious island. From the stony shores that are a refuge for native reptiles to high ridges, riddled with the burrows of sea birds, and deep into the primeval forest, where native birds, insects and the ancient tuatara live and thrive in peace. This is New Zealand as it once was. Little Barrier Island. Te-Hauturu-o-Toi. The Place of the wind.

© Scoop Media