Double delight for Kiwi sanctuary

The chicks are the first wild kiwi to hatch in the Auckland region in 60 years.

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Campers on the Tawharanui Peninsula now have a chance to hear the distinctive sounds of New Zealand's national icon after the hatching of two kiwi in a wildlife sanctuary north of Auckland over the holiday break.

The chicks are the first wild kiwi to hatch in the Auckland region in 60 years.

The Tawharanui Open Sanctuary, near Warkworth, which runs a programme that releases kiwi back into the wild to breed, says their names will need to fit the "mana of the situation".

Co-ordin-ator Matt Maitland says the sanctuary is now well on its way to its goal of establishing a self-sustaining kiwi population which can in turn help establish new sites.

Maitland carries out routine monitoring of tagged birds, and was last week surprised to find two extra sets of legs when he checked one of the burrows.

"It was one of those moments of nervous excitement," he says.

He weighed them, measured their bills and took a couple of feathers for DNA testing, and will now leave them to grow until the Auckland Regional Council instigates a population count in five years' time.

Maitland says the birth of the two chicks "brings our new additions to four that we know of". He says staff are convinced there could be up to 10 new chicks in the 588ha sanctuary.

Hugh Robertson of the Department of Conservation estimates kiwi number about 70,000 split over five different species. He says numbers are dropping overall, so operations such as Tawharanui are vital.

Predators meant kiwi would struggle to survive on the mainland without human help.

Tawharanui Open Sanctuary was established to create the conditions of an offshore island on the mainland in 2004. A predator-proof fence was installed and 44 kiwi released.

Maitland says the public have year-round access to the park, and are able to camp as kiwi "skulk about quietly at night time foraging in the bush".