Joining Waiheke’s stoat-fighting heroes - Jacks Waiheke Experience #2
Who wouldn’t want to spend their school holiday disposing of rodent carcasses and ending each day smelling like rabbits and rotten eggs? While that might not sound appealing to everyone, it’s been a dream come true for one 22-year-old American spending the winter on the island. I chose to work here this season not just to relax by the beach or chase weekend adventures across Aotearoa, but to gain my first real experience in the field I’ve wanted to be part of since I was a kid: conservation of the natural world. As I’ve settled into my role with Te Korowai, nothing has brought me more joy than tramping through the bush and getting my hands dirty helping Waiheke move closer to its predator-free goal.
A little over half of my time with Te Korowai has been spent working alongside the stoat trapping team—assisting with the laborious work of servicing and re-baiting the nearly 1,800 traps across the island, while also documenting their vital tasks through photography. Each day starts innocently enough, with a morning hui where I learn who I’ll be heading out with and where we’re headed for the day. From the cascading cliff edges of Thompson’s Point to the lush, tangled greenery of Whakanewha, I know the day’s route will never be short of breathtaking views and fascinating wildlife. Some traps are a breeze—right on the roadside, requiring no more than 90 seconds to check and re-bait if unsprung. Others demand more effort: a half-mile trek down steep, vine-filled slopes to find a fat Norway rat waiting inside. Occasionally, the familiar scent of a not-so-fresh hedgehog hits your nose long before you reach the trap. And hopefully, there’s no gorse covering the track—ready to shred your legs like nature’s invasive barbed wire. Still, no matter the conditions, every day feels like a new adventure, charged with the quiet suspense of lifting a trap lid and wondering if one of those elusive, cunning mustelids will be waiting underneath.
While I don’t mind a bit of mud and blood in my day-to-day work—comes with the territory, after all—it’s not what I’d call the highlight of the job. What truly stands out are the people: each trapper with a distinct background, story, and intrinsic motivation that led them to Te Korowai. Yet despite their differences, they’re united by a shared sense of purpose. A purpose to protect what is most sacred and meaningful to the Waiheke community. A purpose to help the island’s native environment thrive, free from the pressure of introduced predators. Some trappers work with remarkable speed and efficiency, moving through dozens of roadside traps in just a few hours—technical masters of their craft. Others move more slowly, carefully navigating the rolling hills, pausing to teach me about native species as we reach some of the more remote traps nestled deep in the bush. Regardless of their style, every one of them has been a generous mentor, welcoming me as part of the whānau and offering honest, grounded insights into the world of conservation and fieldwork.
Some days I finish a shift completely spent—caked in mud, muscles sore, and ready to crawl into bed before 8 p.m. Other days, I still feel a restless energy, having spent hours jumping in and out of the car with not a single rat or hedgehog to show for it. But no matter how the day goes, I always wake up knowing that another one lies ahead, filled with fresh terrain to explore and the steady companionship of good people. Stoating is a job that asks for a particular kind of person—someone both patient and persistently driven by a shared goal. The effort put in on any single day might feel small or even invisible at times, but it’s the ongoing, collective determination of the team that has brought Te Korowai—and the island of Waiheke—to the cusp of something extraordinary: a historic achievement in invasive predator eradication and ecological restoration. That determination has deeply inspired me since arriving, and it’s something I hope to carry with me, even just a little, upon returning home after completing my time here.
