The country's first official landcare group has transformed a drainage gully in Havelock North into a suburban oasis.
The Karituwhenua Stream Reserve began in 1992 as an erosion-control measure and became a walkway in 1996 thanks to hard graft by neighbours.
"Most of the plantings we have done here are native trees and as a result of that we have a large number of native birds here now which is good – a huge number of tui. It is very noisy up here in spring time," group chairman Bob Harris said.
A trapping programme included hedgehogs because they competed with birds for insects.
The gully was once home to a clayworks, but it was forced to relocate in the 1930s after an earthquake caused the reserve's spring to dry up.