Aroha Kaikorai Valley

It's time to make a change

The magnificent Kaikorai Valley is home to a large community with a mix of industrial and residential buildings and magnificent green spaces. The centrepiece of Kaikorai Valley is Kaikorai Stream, which threads its way through many historical features and modern developments. It has seen the best and worst of times. Now it's time for us to band together and make a difference.

Aroha Kaikorai Valley (AKV) is a registered charity, community and business-led organisation. Together, we can bring about massive change. We can eliminate weeds and pests, plant native plants to enhance our environment while attracting birds and cleaning up our waterways. 

Some great work has already been started by various organisations and AKV is hoping to build on that progress by teaming business support with people power to make Kaikorai Valley as beautiful and healthy as possible.

299

Active traps

156

Rats removed

1

Mustelids removed

232

Possums removed

50

Hedgehogs removed

254

Others removed

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Instagram | @arohakaikorai

Meet Marika Gray. Marika started volunteering with Aroha Kaikorai Valley at the beginning of 2024, joining the admin team, where she helps organise trap installations between our volunteers and backyard trap hosts. Marika loves being part of the Aroha Kaikorai Valley community and seeing the numbers of predators caught going up on the whiteboard. In her spare time she enjoys printmaking, learning instruments, sewing, and getting outside in the sun.
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Here's a graph of our birdcount from yesterday. Unfortunately the weather didn't come to the party but we still had 7 people take part! Hopefully as we do more trapping, we'll start seeing more native birds <3
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This morning we're doing a 5-minute bird count across Kaikorai Valley, using the trap.nz app. This isn't a hugely scientific study. We're just keen for you to take part! If a brown blob flies by, and you're not sure whether it was a sparrow or a dunnock or a grey warbler, just put your best guess, or put 'unknown'. Here are some pictures and sound recordings of our backyard birds to help you work out which bird you're seeing! https://gardenbirdsurvey.nz/identification/ Feel free to contact us if you have any questions 🙂 Happy bird monitoring!
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High up in the Valley
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Meet Beth Wishart. Beth came on board late last year as the AKV administrator and works for 6 hours a week. She loves our natural environment and is a member of several conservation groups around Dunedin. Beth loves how much AKV has grown in the last year and looks forward to being involved in more restoration across the valley.
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Curious about the birds of Kaikorai Valley? Come along to our monthly meeting, this Thursday 10 October, 5.30-6.30pm. We'll discover what birds we can expect to see in our corner of Dunedin, and we’ll learn how we can monitor them. For more information and to RSVP, see here: https://akv.nz/events/trappers-catchup-birds-of-kaikorai-valley
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Meet Craig Leach. Craig came on board with AKV in the autumn. He's been volunteering for three mornings a week for AKV in the admin team. Craig is a former DOC community ranger and has worked at Orokonui ecosanctuary, building tracks, trapping and working with volunteers. One of his career highlights was going to Whenua Hou with the kākāpō team. "The dawn chorus was so loud that even if you have been up half the night it was not possible to sleep through it. The bird life on a predator free island was simply breathtaking, sitting near the top of the island for lunch and watching and listen to all the birds was incredible."
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Meet the people answering the AKV emails! Here we have the AKV admin team, who are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to keep things moving along. From left, Craig, Beth, Marika and Paul. Look out over the coming weeks as we profile each of them :)
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