Nicola Edmonds
The first time celebrated children’s author and illustrator Ruth Paul saw kiwi footprints on her 80-hectare Wellington property. She stopped in her tracks, amazed to see the results of the ambitious plan to rewild the national bird in the capital.
Baby kiwi footprints
“Exactly one year later, in the same spot, I saw all these little baby kiwi footprints and suddenly it all seemed real,” recalls Ruth, 61.
Not only were kiwi living wild in the Wellington hills for the first time in more than a century, they were also raising chicks – and doing it on her land.
“It’s extraordinary,” she says.
“You do all this work, planting native trees, pest control and then one day, there they are. I cannot believe I hear kiwi every night now and it’s become normal.”
Ruth’s journey to become a kaitiaki kiwi [guardian] unknowingly began 30 years ago. When she and her husband Chris bought a rugged 24-hectare lifestyle block in Mākara. They built a completely off-grid, straw-bale eco-home by hand.
“We’ve been ridiculously fortunate to have this magic place to raise our kids,” shares Ruth, before explaining their decision to go fully off-grid was “more pragmatic than romantic”.
Restoring the native bush
Set high in the hills, it was “eye-wateringly expensive” to get mains power and water onto the property, so solar and hydro was the way to go. In 2019, they acquired the neighbouring 56-hectare former pine tree block and set about returning it to native bush, planting 18,000 trees in the past four years.
“I’d love to see thriving native bush – a permanent forest that’s never cut down,” says Ruth.
“It’s amazing to have kiwi in it. That’s the icing on top.”
It was 2022 when Paul Ward and Pete Kirkman from Capital Kiwi, the group dedicated to releasing kiwi in the hills of Wellington, unexpectedly drove up her long driveway.
She recalls, “They got out and had a chat about this outrageous idea to rewild the animals.”
Ruth remembers thinking, “Kiwi in Wellington? You are joking!”
Since 2018, Capital Kiwi has laid 4600 traps in and around the hills of Wellington. In the wild, only four to five out of every 100 kiwi chicks survive, with the rest succumbing to predators like stoats. The idea is if the number of predators is dramatically reduced, kiwi will have a better chance – and Ruth’s valley was exactly what the team needed. Come April 2023, 11 North Island brown kiwi were released on her land.
A spiritual release
“I was able to put one in its burrow,” she says.
“It was almost a spiritual moment to welcome them to this place and set them free. “It sounds weird, but that’s how it felt – like a little prayer for the future as I released it.”
Among the kiwi in the area is one truly remarkable bird – Anahera, a matriarch in her forties, who over her lifetime at Ōtorohanga Kiwi House hatched more than 60 chicks. In November 2022, Anahera and her mate Noveau were some of the first kiwi released into the wild in Wellington on Ruth’s neighbour’s block. Before being tagged and released, Anahera was carried through a crowd of locals gathered for a pōwhiri to welcome the kiwi at Mākara school. Ruth stood among them in awe.
“Of those 200 people, everybody hushed and a group of little kids were following behind picking up feathers,” she recalls.
“It was a very moving moment.”
Bringing her story to life
A finalist in two categories of the 2025 NZ Book Awards for children and young adults with her book You Can’t Pat a Fish, Ruth recalls feeling a tug she couldn’t ignore to tell Anahera’s story. The result is Anahera The Mighty Kiwi Māmā.
“She’s a taonga [treasure]and very special to lots of different kaitiaki, so I needed the blessing of all those groups first,” she says.
“Now we’re part of the story as well because we are her future kaitiaki.”
After so long in captivity, Anahera and her offspring are thriving in the wild too.
“Capital Kiwi has announced Ngārangi, her first wild-born chick, is at fighting weight, has had his tag removed and is out in the wild on his own,” enthuses Ruth, who was left with so much kiwi knowledge floating around her brain that she decided to write another book.
Ghost Kiwi is an eco-thriller for pre-teens that sees 11-year-old Ruby discover and protect a rare white kiwi chick.
“I’ve done my dash with kiwi books now,” laughs Ruth.
But the stories and the birds have undoubtedly left a lasting impact.
“I have to write things that feel really true to my heart now,” she shares.
“It’s not about making money – it’s about finding stories that resonate and following them.”
