Whakatane Kiwi Week

The kiwiathon will includes a phone-in auction of items donated by the Whakatane business community, phone in pledges, kiwi music, kiwi facts, guest speakers and a fundraising barbeque. A kiwi release will end the week. The Whakatane Kiwi Trust was set up in 2006 as a charitable trust to promote and help the protection of kiwi in the Whakatane area. Since then it has worked hard on the Whakatane Kiwi Project, together with the community, Ngati Awa, businesses, councils and DOC, to increase the wild kiwi population from just a handful of birds to more than 100. Whakatane is now the self-proclaimed “Kiwi Capital of the World” and the project is nationally and internationally recognised as the most successful kiwi project within a town boundary.