Sir Jerry visits sanctuary

Governor-General and former New Zealand Defence Force commander Sir Jerry Mateparae at the ready for possibly his last RNZAF Iroquois flight, with Cape Sanctuary founder Andy Lowe (centre) and Cape to City ambassador Ruud "the bugman" Kleinpaste. The Iroquois will be decommissioned on Saturday. Photo / Duncan Brown

It was the beginning of one era and the end of another yesterday as Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae visited the Cape Sanctuary wildlife preserve on the Cape Kidnappers peninsula.

"This is the start of pest-free New Zealand," said landowner Andy Lowe, as he welcomed Sir Jerry's party to the Seabird Site. It overlooks the southern side of the cape, where the Lowe, Robertson and Hansen families established the unique sanctuary with its 10km predator-proof fenceline.

After a short tour of the site, where he held such inhabitants as the Cook Strait giant weta, the Hawke's Bay tree weta and a tuatara, Sir Jerry was climbing aboard another endangered species, the RNZAF Iroquois on which he had arrived. It was possibly its final mission before the air force ends a half-century flying legacy, with the decommissioning of the last of its workhorse helicopters on Saturday.

Flying from Hawke's Bay Airport on the second of the four days Sir Jerry and wife Lady Janine are in Hawke's Bay, the Governor-General first landed at the Kiwi Creche near Te Awanga and released a young kiwi chick.

The cape was bathed in sunshine but with a chill as Sir Jerry landed near Ocean Beach soon afterwards and made the trek up the pathway to the Seabird Site. The small party, which also included sanctuary supporter Ruud "the bugman" Kleinpaste, was greeted with a haka from Hastings Boys' High School pupils, under the watch of teacher Jemasin Te Huia, who is tangata whenua from Ocean Beach.

Over the eight years since "re-introductions" began with the transfer of common locals such as the tomtit, whitehead, rifleman and robin, there have been releases of North Island brown kiwi and latterly little spotted kiwi.

Releases of pateke (brown teal) began in 2008, and 20 tuatara arrived in 2013, and then there are takahe and red-crowned parakeets (kakariki).

The enthusiasm of Mr Lowe's wife Liz, a self-confessed addict to the project - noting particularly the arrival on the cape of grey-faced petrels - seems almost as big as the project itself, though she prefers to be known as one of the 400 volunteers.

The start of pest-free New Zealand, Mr Lowe said, was the Cape to City project - launched in April with Mr Kleinpaste as "ambassador" and targeting reducing the cost of pest-control to further enhance the environment - developing with the initiatives around the peninsula.

In the afternoon, the Governor-General visited Smedley Station near Tikokino before rejoining his wife in Napier for two other engagements.

Among several stops today is a re-dedication of the hospital in Hastings as the Hawke's Bay Fallen Soldiers Memorial Hospital.