Today we visited ‘Zealandia’ which claims to be the world’s first ‘fully-fenced urban eco sanctuary’! Spanning a square mile alongside the Karori Resevoir, this native bush is home to some of New Zealand’s rarest birds, reptiles and insects once close to extinction.

Their 500 year vision is to transform the valley back to its pre-human state and they’ve certainly made a good start! Today we saw – amongst others – kaka(large parrot), takahe (large flightless bird), bellbirds, hihi and the New Zealand robin (like its European cousin but much less common and without the red breast).