Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park

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Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park

This Hamilton City community project is the first in NZ that aims to reconstruct and restore 60 hecta

Waiwhakareke is an award-winning natural heritage park and New Zealand’s largest inland restoration project. The first plant was planted in 2004 and since then over 20 hectares have been planted, largely by volunteers. The project aims to restore the native ecosystems that were once present on the landscape. This is being achieved by following natural patterns of plant arrival and basing managemen

t decisions on ecological theory and lessons learnt in the park so far. Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park is a partnership between Hamilton City Council, Waikato University, Wintec, Tui 2000 Inc., local iwi and the wider community. A highlight of the park's calendar is the annual Arbor Day "Big Dig In" which sees members of all of these groups come together in their hundreds to plant thousands of native plants in one morning. The park is managed by Hamilton City Council and overseen by the Waiwhakareke Advisory Group. Regular working mornings are held by the Friends of Waiwhakareke on the last Saturday of the Month from 9am-12pm.

01/02/2026

🌿 2026 Wetland Inlet Planting - Celebrating World Wetlands Day 🌿

As we celebrate World Wetlands Day 2026, we’re excited to share the progress made during the first stage of restoring the Wetland Inlet, completed over six days in early December 2025.

✨ A total of 10,000 native wetland plants are now in the ground - mainly Carex secta and Carex virgata, with smaller plantings of Carex geminata and Cyperus ustulatus. Another 4,000 plants will soon be placed inside the drain itself.

Huge thanks to Forest Flora and Paul from WERT for their support and expertise. 🙌
This initial planting is essential for:
🟢 Strengthening bank stability
🟢 Creating safer habitat for native wildlife
🟢 Filtering water entering Lake Waiwhakareke
🟢 Restoring the inlet to its historic wetland condition

Wetlands play a vital role in biodiversity, climate resilience, water purification, and human wellbeing.

👉 If you’d like to learn more about why wetlands matter and how they support people and nature, you can read more here:
https://iucn.org/blog/202402/wetlands-and-human-well-being

24/11/2025

Bold and Beautiful? …Or Alien?
Have you ever come across any of these weird and wonderful flowers in our ngaahere?
These bold blooms aren’t just beautiful—they’re ingenious, designed to attract the right pollinators and keep life moving forward.
Often these berries are vibrant to encourage our native manu to gobble up and disperse the seeds when they p**p them out!
From attractive berries to hungry manu, it’s a perfect cycle of giving and growing. 🌱🐦

12/11/2025

👀As you might have noticed in our post a couple weeks ago, we have a new chalkboard in the Barn! So keep a eye on it to see some of our updates. This week we are featuring stick insects in the order Phasmatodea. Try and spot one of these elusive creatures on your next hiikoi in the park!

31/10/2025

You never know what eyes are on you in the park 👀

These stick insects were both seen on the native Common Broom (𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘢 𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴), camouflaging to their environment. 📷 One brown with the trunk and the other green blending into the foliage!
Stick insects (𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘢) blend in with their surroundings making them very hard to spot. Their diet is vegetarian and mostly come out at night.

There are about 23 different genera of stick insects, although there are some undescribed species out there!

Threats to stick insects include rats, possums and wasps.

24/10/2025

Wetland planting coming soon! This will be the first stage of planting along the inlet drain near the Baverstock entrance.

Species going into this area will primarily be native Carex grasses and other hydrophillic plants. Watch this space for updates when this first stage is completed!

21/10/2025

Another VIB (Very Important Bird!) graced us with their presence this month, the Grey Teal (Teetee in maaori).

These birds are very nomadic so no surprise they were seen on the lake for only two days! Although not endemic, it was self-introduced and is commonly found in Australia.

Just like the wildlife that frequent the park, these animals are great at finding their own food. Let’s help keep them wild and healthy by enjoying them from a distance. 😊

14/10/2025

Blooming blossoms! From the bright conspicuous koowhai to the delicate, aromatic maahoe, plant life is rapidly changing in the park.

The beautiful (𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘩𝘴𝘪𝘢 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢), also known as tree fuchsia or kootukutuku, are flourishing, and is known to be the tallest fuchsia in the world!! Tuui delight in its nectar, inadvertently transporting pollen from one tree to another. A win-win situation!

Poroporo (𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘮 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘮) shrub is sprinkled around the park in full flower! Look out for these striking bursts of purple flowers on the bush edge, where they happily bask in the sun.

The unmistakeable brilliant yellow of the koowhai (𝘚𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘭𝘭𝘢), dotted around the park, attract the tuui, and just like the fuchsia, also supply a food source for these brassy birds.

07/10/2025

Expert divers at Lake Waiwhakareke! Pictured is a pair of Kaaruhiruhi (Pied s**g) that were spotted drying off on a wet day.

Along with other S**g species that frequent the Lake, these skilled hunters are capable of staying underwater for several minutes at a time, chasing prey such as fish, kooura (native crayfish) and sometimes smaller tuna (eel).🪵

Kaaruhiruhi are classified as ‘At Risk – Recovering’ and rely on healthy waterways and sustainable fishing practices in order to thrive again.🐦‍⬛

03/10/2025

🌼Perfume in the Park! Coming into spring means that the ngahere (forest) is bursting with beautiful colours and smells of blooming plants.

In particular, Mahoe (𝑴𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒚𝒕𝒖𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒖𝒔) produces small white flowers with yellow pollen covered anthers (on male flowers) and has an amazing floral smell.

Mahoe is efficient at spreading itself through the park and has an important role in acting as a nursery species, protecting the more vulnerable plants.🌿

Keep an eye out next time you’re in the park.👀

23/09/2025

Last week five team members from Colliers came along and braved the wet 'n wild weather to help us with planting around 300 karamuu saplings 🌳🌦 Huge thanks to the team for their amazing mahi, it was very much appreciated!

If you have a corporate group that would like to volunteer at Waiwhakareke contact us at [email protected] ✨

21/09/2025

Spring has sprung upon us and the park is bustling with energy as birds build nests and plants are producing petals!

Currently, if you look closely at certain coprosmas species on the path edges, you’ll observe small flowers that are quite different on each shrub. Some plants will be male with specific pollen producing flowers with “dangly” bits, and others female with spikey upright styles extending from the flower to catch the pollen distributed by the wind. This is called dioecism.

Koowhai has also started blooming with tuuii being heard and spotted amongst them savouring the nectar producing flowers, another method of pollen dispersal. Houhere (lacebark), rangiora, mapou, kootukutuku, koohuuhuu (pittosporum), and maahoe will soon follow. So get out there and see what you can spot!

19/09/2025

Today the rangers celebrated Waiwhakareke's 21st Birthday with style! We have come pretty far since the first tree was put in the ground some 21 years ago, and it has all been made possible by the countless hours and love given by our amazing community ❤️

Exciting things to come in the new year so keep your eyes and ears peeled for the upcoming changes😉. But in the meantime, make sure you head out into the park and enjoy the springtime chaos 🌷🌼🌳

Address

Brymer Road, Rotokauri
Hamilton
3289

Telephone

+6478386720

Website

https://hamilton.govt.nz/parks-recreation-and-community-spaces/parks/detail/waiwhakareke-natural-heritage-park, https://

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