Ngā Manu Nature Reserve

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Ngā Manu Nature Reserve is a wildlife reserve in Waikanae on New Zealand’s Kāpiti Coast, North Island. It covers 14 hectares and protects the largest piece of coastal lowland swamp forest on the Kapiti Coast. The reserve has aviaries with native birds such as kākā, kākāriki, scaup, whio and kea, enclosures with tuatara, and a nocturnal house with kiwi and morepork. About 60 bird species can be seen, including kererū, tūī, black swan, paradise duck and pūkeko.

The bush area is not protected by a pest-exclusion fence, so it does not host critically endangered animals. Ngā Manu does take part in wider conservation and breeding work.

Ngā Manu has been run by the Ngā Manu Trust since 1974 and opened to the public in 1981. The land was chosen for its big remnant swamp forest and bought by founders Peter McKenzie, Professor John Salmon and David Mudge, with help from Sir John McKenzie’s inheritance. Geologist Charles Fleming later joined, and planting and landscaping happened in the 1970s. A famous tūī named Keko could imitate human speech and even count, but Keko died in 2020.

In 2023, Ngā Manu received a Qualmark Silver Sustainable Tourism Award. Today the reserve acts as a stepping stone for birds travelling between Kapiti Island forests and the Tararua Range.

Visitors are drawn by easier access and signs along the Kāpiti Expressway, opened in 2017. Near the visitor centre there are lawns and a native-tree arboretum. An education centre opened in the 1990s and is popular for school trips and can be hired for events. The reserve offers small tours and individual experiences.

A wheelchair-friendly loop track winds through the native bush, home to about 700 native plant species. It passes small lawns and three lakes, with wooden bridges between bush-covered islands on the largest lake, and a side track to a lookout tower overlooking the bush.