Luna .
Whakatāne Office
9 Louvain Street
[FYI request #33098 email]
Whakatāne 3120
[email address]
19 January 2026
Ref: OIAD-5919
Tēnā koe Luna,
Thank you for your request to the Department of Conservation, received on 2 December 2025,
in which you stated and asked the following:
“I remember visiting Te Urewera as a child and having the DoC workers show us
the progress on how far the Kiwi had gone and how they have recovered since
the 20th century.
I would love to see ho[w] they are now compared to when I was a child
I would like the recorded number of kiwi in Te Urewera from 2000- Present.
Can this please be given as a .csv file”
We have considered your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA).
Before proceeding to the Department’s response, we have provided some relevant contextual
information.
Te Urewera
The area previously referred to as Te Urewera National Park ceased to be classified as a
National Park from 2014, as a result of the Ngāi Tūhoe Treaty of Waitangi settlement and
associated enabling legislation.
Te Urewera was given
legal personhood. This area (that includes the land previously forming
the noted National Park) is now administered and managed by Te Urewera Board, which
comprises joint Tūhoe and Crown membership.
Care for Te Urewera, including the tracks and facilities, is carried out by Te Uru Taumatua – the
post-settlement governance entity of Ngāi Tūhoe.
Kiwi and ‘kiwi call counts’
Kiwi are cryptic and almost exclusively nocturnal, which makes it difficult to count all the birds in
an area.
As most territorial kiwi call, a standard monitoring method called ‘kiwi call counts’ is used to
determine trends in kiwi populations over time. This monitoring method only allows for an
estimation of relative abundance, as not all kiwi cal as frequently or as loudly as each other.
Period applicable to request
The period applicable to your request is about twenty-five years.
While every effort has been made to identify and provide what the Department
holds in
response to your request, we note limitations to the availability of information for a range of
reasons. Over time, there have been revised policies and processes, different record keeping
practices, natural disasters, new information management systems, files and information sent
to Manaaki Whenua Landcare and/or Archives New Zealand, and staff turnover.
Department’s response
Your questions and our responses are listed below:
1. What is the recorded number of kiwi in Te Urewera from 2000- Present?
2. Can the data be supplied as a .csv file?
Within what was Te Urewera National Park, ‘kiwi call count’ monitoring was established in
two locations:
A. Northern Te Urewera (Northern TU) from 2001 to 2013; and
B. Puketukutuku Peninsula at Lake Waikaremoana (Puketukutuku) from 2000/2001 to 2009.
The monitoring at Puketukutuku indicated that there was a trend of an increasing number of
kiwi calls from 2002 to 2009. At Northern TU sites, call counts were monitored annually from
2001 until 2013. Over that period, the call rate dropped and then rose to a level similar in 2013
as it was in 2001. Together, the data at both sites indicated that the kiwi numbers were holding
steady or rising in Te Urewera.
We have included a map (listed as Item 03 in the table below) to illustrate the approximate
areas that were monitored, which also had active kiwi management.
The table below also lists the two items supplied in response to your request for data. Note that
the data is released as Excel files, rather than the .csv file type which you have requested.
Item
Date
Document description
Decision
1
2013
TUMI- Kiwi- call count data (Northern Te Urewera-
Released in part
Otamatuna/ Mangaone)(Excel)
2
2009
Call count data Puketukutuku (Al Years)(Excel)
Released in part
(Please note the worksheet ‘2009 workup’ in this file for
the summary of latest trend in kiwi cal s in this area.)
3
2026
Kiwi Call Count Areas - Te Urewera (pdf)
Released in full
I have decided to release the relevant parts of the ‘kiwi call count data’ (listed in the above table
as Items 01 and 02), subject to personal information (such as names) being withheld under
section 9(2)(a) of the OIA – to protect the privacy of natural persons, including deceased
people.
In making my decision, I have considered the public interest considerations in section 9(1) of the
OIA and determined there are no public interests that outweigh the grounds for withholding.
2
As noted above, what was Te Urewera National Park ceased to exist in 2014, and the larger
area now referred to as Te Urewera was formed. This change also means that the Department
does not hold information for part of the period you are interested in - 2014 to present. A partial
transfer of the request has not occurred - as although Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua is the
operational entity, it is not a statutory/public authority and thus acknowledged as not subject to
the OIA.
You are entitled to seek an investigation and review of my decision by writing to an
Ombudsman as provided by section 28(3) of the OIA.
Please note that this letter (with your personal details removed) and attached documents may
be published on the Department’s website.
Nāku noa, nā
Jade King-hazel
Regional Operations Director, Eastern North Island
Department of Conservation |
Te Papa Atawhai
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