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Bush Penguin Restoration
Kate McDonald and Herman Addens were committed to controlling the goats, possums and honeysuckle on their property inland from Gisborne on which they were also operating a bird rescue service.
When they approached Prometheus in 2002 for a loan to enable them to subdivide their 200 acre portion of the property from their previous joint owner and establish a QEII Covenant we were pleased to support them in their ongoing restoration and preservation aims.
Their block had been included in a survey report in 1995 for the Protected Natural Areas programme as the largest remnant of Bush (excluding Gray's Bush) between Gisborne and Tolaga Bay.
The bird rescue service that they had established on their property under authroisation from the Department of Conservation is now known as the "Bush Penguin" service in honour of it's first patient, a NZ Kingfisher whose antics when confronted with his own reflection reminded Kate and Herman of nothing so much as a strutting penguin.