Bringing Back Birdsong

Story by Susan Buckland. Photography by Mark Carter.

Waring his trademark broad-brimmed hat, Tony Bouzaid steps onto the jetty, calls out a cheerful “hello” and guides our boat alongside. As we’ve sailed into Fitzroy Harbour at the northern end of Great Barrier Island, everyone on board has been silenced by the beauty of the place, all eyes drawn to the property running down to the western shore.

The Bouzaids’ handsome villa, Fitzroy House, looks out over water that is mirror calm within the protective arms of the harbour. Flowering trees and shrubs splash bright colours amidst the green of the surrounding bush. Nestling in a valley beyond the house lies the sanctuary, 12-years in the making.

Tony leads our group up the path toward Fitzroy House, the base from which he has worked to create this very special place that is now open for the public to see.

“It has taken several years to control the predators but birds that are threatened elsewhere in New Zealand are making a comeback here.” His next goal is to build a predator-proof fence that will run for two kilometres across the peninsula, protecting 230 hectares. He needs a sponsor and resource consent. “We are working on both.”

Tony Bouzaid is no stranger to work. With his brother Chris, he expanded the sail-making business they inherited from their father and put New Zealand on the international yacht-racing map, winning a clutch of half- and one-ton cup titles in the 1960s and 70s.

Tony was swinging from a bassinette on his parent’s yacht on his first visit to this island on the edge of the Hauraki Gulf. More family holidays followed. Looking back now, he remembers golden-headed gannets wheeling above the mast, fish leaping like silver arrows from the water, forest tumbling thick to the shore and mountain peaks rising up to towering ridges.

“Dad sailed us all around the Gulf islands. Great Barrier was a favourite place and when Chris and I had families we took our own boats here for holidays. Sometimes we stayed in a cottage on the Fitzroy House property. The house, built in 1901 for a farming family, had become a summer guest house under subsequent owners. We were sad to watch it gradually running down until one Christmas my wife, Mal, had heard enough of my musings about its fate. ‘What are you going to do about it?’ she challenged. “We bought it the following year, 1992.”

Mal, a noted abstract artist, usually spends most of the winter in Auckland working on her paintings, but come summer both the Bouzaids are in residence on the island, enjoying what they’ve worked so hard to created.

The 200-acre property was crying out for attention. Goats and pigs had gone through the place like rotary hoes. The Bouzaids set to work to restore the villa before creating the now-flourishing garden. The idea of a wildlife sanctuary was several years away but its creation was inevitable. Years before boaties gave a second thought to tossing their rubbish overboard, young Tony Bouzaid was urging them to respect the environment in an article he wrote for a yachting magazine.

Three decades later and by then living on the Barrier, he was noticing a new problem – the silence of the bush. Forest covered the island like a thick blanket, but where were the birds?

“With all the predators here you would be lucky to see a single bird on the bush tracks,” says Tony.

“That’s why we decided to create a safe haven for them. We are attempting to redress the balance and to educate people about our ecology. We hope Glenfern will be an incentive to others to do likewise.

Predator problems abounded. “I collected seed from trees to grow in trays. It was eaten by rats. I put cages over the trays. The rats ate through them and rabbits got the rest. I put mesh walls up to stop the rabbits. Then I laid bait stations for the rats. Feral cats were prolific, too.”

Tony got permission from neighbours to bait their properties before seeking Department of Conservation consent to protect an adjacent scenic reserve. His focus is now on the predator-proof fence. It will cost $550,000, of which the Bouzaids have contributed $200,000 of their own money. Auckland Savings Bank has committed $58,000 and the Biodiversity Condition Fund $110,000, leaving $180,000 to find. Another $130,000 is needed to pay for an aerial poison drop to finally rid the peninsula of predators. Given a sponsor and resource consents, Tony hopes the fence will get underway next March.

“Slowly but surely the birds are returning – fantails, kakas, kingfishers, banded rails and brown teal ducks, to name a few.” He would also love to reintroduce the kokako. “The last two were taken off the island in 1994. But I’m pleased with our expanding North Island robins. They’re terrific little birds. We introduced them in 1995 after a 140-year absence, and they are holding their own, despite predation from moreporks, which are also protected!”

Tony kicks off our two-hour tour with an introduction to local ecosystems in a display area he has converted from a former spa pool room. His old army vehicle then takes us up and over the hill to Glenfern Sanctuary, where more than 9000 new native trees have been planted.

There’s a network of tracks through the sanctuary and keen hikers can stay at Seaview Cottage, which is next to Fitzroy House. Self-contained, with linen supplied it has an open fireplace (ultra-cosy on cooler evenings).

Rising like a king in the heart of the forest is a 600-yearold kauri and we climb into its crown across a swing bridge and up a ladder. Tony applied his mast and rigging experience to build them. Suddenly a kereru announces its presence with a whistle of wings above. Tony points out a nest of black petrels in the base of an ancient puriri. The forest feels fresh, cool and enveloping. Native trees jostle for the light and the birds find plenty of food amongst the more than 40 species growing there.

When the tour ends back at Fitzroy House, we take up the invitation to wander round the attractive garden while Tony sets off to give his sanctuary manager a hand with a job. For the last three years he has found time to chair the local community board, the boating club and the ratepayers’ association, but did not stand in this year’s local body elections. Pest eradication requires his full-time attention. There’s ongoing planting and wildlife monitoring in the sanctuary. And that pressing matter of that predator-proof fence.

Reprinted by permission. Copyright 2008 Plenty magazine Summer 2008 published for Hanover Group. Subscribe to Plenty today.

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