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Mou Waho gets most of the credit for the buff weka comeback, but the story actually starts on its quieter neighbour.
Te Peka Karara, known in English as Stevensons Island, is a 65-hectare reserve tucked into Stevensons Arm — smaller and less visited than Mou Waho, but historically the more important of the two when it comes to one of the region's biggest conservation wins: the return of the buff weka to mainland New Zealand.
In 2001, thirty buff weka were transferred from the Chatham Islands to Stevensons, in a joint initiative between DOC, local Ngāi Tahu rūnanga, and the University of Otago. A predator-free enclosure was purpose-built on the island specifically to breed the birds in safety before any wider release was even considered — a slow, deliberate first step rather than a straight reintroduction.
Mou Waho got the weka. Stevensons got them breeding in the first place.
The project wasn't a straight line. In 2009, a rabbit outbreak on the island drew in predators that killed several birds, forcing a temporary removal of the remaining weka. They were reintroduced in 2013 once the predator issue was brought under control — a reminder that even predator-free islands need constant, active management, not a one-off fix.
Once Stevensons' breeding population was established, chicks were transferred to the larger, more secure island of Mou Waho to found the population visitors see today — now estimated at around 200 birds. It's the reason a weka sighting on a Mou Waho walk is so likely, and it's also why, every so often, DOC gets a report of a weka wandering around Wānaka township itself, having apparently decided to swim the rest of the way home.
See where it all connects on our half-day lake tour, which visits Stevensons Island on afternoon departures.
