Auckland Zoo ectotherm keeper Seth Garden with an adult female wētāpunga. Photo / Peter de Graaf
There aren't many things on this planet that will make TV host ''Miss Kihi'' Ririnui recoil in horror.
It turns out that having one of the world's biggest insects crawling up her arm is one of those things.
However, Miss Kihi was quick to conquer her fear.
Within minutes she was not only at peace with the prehistoric-looking female wētapunga on her arm, she also seemed to have formed a bond with the gentle giant.
Miss Kihi, also known as the Native Diva, was taking part in the re-introduction of New Zealand's biggest species of giant wētā to the Bay of Islands on Monday.
The 27 adult wētāpunga released on each island — Urupukapuka, Moturua and Motuarohia — will boost the population of 120 released in December last year to just over 200.
The wētāpunga was once widespread in Northland but ship rats wiped them out everywhere but Hauturu (Little Barrier Island) by the early 19th century.
Miss Kihi, representing her Rāwhiti hapu Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha, welcomed the insects' return.
''The wētā is such a tūpuna ngāngara (ancestral insect) it's important that we understand the taha Māori (Māori side) of this project and make the spiritual connection. It's about us as people, Māori and Pākehā, doing what is right,'' she said.
Giant wētā facts
• The wētāpunga is one of the biggest insects on Earth. Adult females weigh about 40g or up to 70g when carrying eggs. That's more than a small bird.
• New Zealand has more than 70 species of wētā, including 11 types of giant wētā, but the wētāpunga is the biggest of them all.
• Wētāpunga have been around for 190 million years. That makes even dinosaurs look like new kids on the block.
• Wētāpunga are gentle giants. That big spike on the female's rear end is not a stinger but an ovipositor, a tube for laying eggs in the soil.
• Wētāpunga hide in punga fronds during the day and feed at night. Their favourite food is the leaves of native trees such as karaka, māhoe and kohekohe.
• These herbivores produce some of the biggest faecal pellets — that's poo in layman's terms — in the insect world. It's so big it's often mistaken for rat poo. Wētāpunga keep the bush healthy by recycling nutrients from the tree tops back to the forest floor.
• Wētāpunga shed their hard outer covering, or exoskeleton, 11 times as they grow. They reach adulthood in two years and live up to three years.
• Wētāpunga used to be common in Northland and Auckland but introduced pests, especially ship rats, wiped them out. The last Northland sighting was at Paihia in 1838.
• Until a few years ago wētāpunga survived only on Hauturu (Little Barrier Island). A breeding programme at Auckland Zoo has allowed the return of 6000 wētāpunga to the wild, mostly to the islands of the Hauraki Gulf.
• Project Island Song, Auckland Zoo and Ngāti Manuhiri (the mana whenua of Hauturu) have so far re-introduced just over 200 wētāpunga to three islands in the Bay of Islands since 2020.
The re-introduction is part of Project Island Song, a community initiative striving since 2009 to restore the native flora and fauna of the eastern Bay of Islands.
Ruud ''The Bugman'' Kleinpaste — never one to miss an insect-related event — travelled from Christchurch to join in.
He was delighted to see the project shift its focus to invertebrates after successfully bringing back five species of birds.
''Finally insects are grabbing the limelight. They are the ones that run the planet — not us, not the stock market, not the oil companies.''
''If we are serious about restoring New Zealand's biodiversity these are the actions that will make it happen. In fact we've done it all upside-down and back-to-front. We should have brought back the insects first, then the birds.''
Kleinpaste praised Project Island Song for the way it was driven by hapū and had involved children and schools from the outset.
''Kids have to live on this planet that we buggered up. They need to rediscover the operations manual of Planet Earth.''
Also taking part on Monday were children from Hikurangi School, project volunteers, island residents, Rāwhiti hapū Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha, and Ngāti Manuhiri as the mana whenua of Hauturu.
Despite a tight timetable and the shortest day of the year, Monday's release went without a hitch.
Project Island Song manager Richard Robbins said the new arrivals would boost the genetic diversity of the founder population.
Several hundred more wētāpunga would be released over the next three years, as long as Auckland Zoo could breed enough of them.
Auckland Zoo wētā breeding programme co-ordinator Ben Goodwin said the ''gentle giants'' were tree-dwelling herbivores that emerged at night to munch on leaves.
They performed a vital ecological role by returning nutrients from the canopy to the forest floor.
They could travel 40m a night — a vast distance in insect terms — and would eventually spread to every suitable habitat on the three islands.
Summer Mills-Metcalf took her own life in 2018 while taking fluoxetine.