The Marlborough Kaikōura Trail Trust was set up in 2018 to develop and operate the Whale Trail.
The Whale Trail is a walking and cycling trail between Picton and Kaikōura. The vision is to create a first-rate tourism asset for Aotearoa that makes Marlborough and Kaikōura better places to live and work. The trail will deliver significant economic, cultural, wellbeing and environmental benefits. As architects of a new ‘second generation trail’ the Trust aims to create an incredible user experience that tells the story of our communities and local iwi. They are also taking a key leadership role in completing the geographic jigsaw puzzle of a true national cycling network.

Te Tapu o Tāne and Lake Dunstan Charitable Trust plan to plant 100,000 trees into the Lake Dunstan shoreline. The ‘Bridge to Bridge’ biodiversity restoration project is focused on restoring native species and improving recreational access/use from Lowburn Bridge to Deadman’s Bridge on Lake Dunstan.

Since the lake was created 30 years ago, the shoreline of Lake Dunstan has seen much biodiversity loss, soil degradation, damage from pests, decline in recreation use and aquatic weed infestation. Local community groups are working together to manage pest and invasive weed species and reintroducing native fauna and flora that once thrived, allowing the area to be utilised to its fullest potential and improving the wellbeing of the community and visitors that travel to the region.

In 2022, we provided 200 trees to the Pātea River Walkway Restoration, and continued to support this project with another 660 trees in 2023. The Pātea Planting Trust was convened to plant an area that had been cleared of pines after a 2012 windstorm in the area. This land surrounds the Pātea Historic Walkway, which follows the western bank of the river from the town to the beach, passing through areas dominated by shrub species, pine forest and grassland.

This replanting project is unique because the pathway allows free public access to the South Taranaki coast, an area where substantial native vegetation is extremely rare i.e. the lower reaches of the Pātea River. Furthermore, given the rarity of native bush in such areas it will provide a fantastic example of coastal forest and dune communities to the broader New Zealand public.