The Wire with Caeden

Earlier this week, the government announced the date of the border reopening. The country’s border is set to open for tourists and others from Australia without residence visas from  midnight 12 April, and travellers from visa waiver countries such as the US and UK will come in May 2, with mandatory vaccination and a negative pre-departure test. Joe spoke to Dr. David Welch, a Senior Lecturer from the Centre for Computational Evolution and School of Computer Science at the University of Auckland

The Abel Tasman National Park is currently coming alive to the sound of young kākā following a successful breeding season for the park’s resident birds. Collaborators on the breeding programme including Project Janszoon, DOC and the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust are all celebrating the successful fledging of eight chicks from three nests in the Bark Bay and Torrent Bay areas. 

In 2015, Kākā were virtually extinct in the park with only a few wild male birds surviving there. Since then a total of 35 captive-bred birds have been released, with the last release happening in 2019. Most of these birds came from captive South Island kaka but about a third were raised from eggs or chicks collected from Nelson Lakes and Kahurangi National Parks. This year’s chicks were all banded and fitted with a transmitter before they left their nests. They are particularly vulnerable in the period between leaving the nest and learning to fly, which can take up to a week, but most are now competent flyers and adding their tunes to the chorus of the park.

This week on the Wire, Frances speaks with ornithologist Ron Moorhouse and Project Janszoon’s Project Director Bruce Vander Lee about the much loved birds and conservation in the area. 

This week is the third week of EuroVision, our regular segment where Frances catches up with our European Correspondent Cameron Mulgan. This week Cameron joined Frances from Berlin and they spoke about the developments in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Aneeka had her regular catch up with Dr Shane Reti from the National Party, which was cut due to time restraints. This week they discussed sanctions on Russia, and the borders reopening to international travellers. Listen back!