No, but over the last couple of years we have helped our colleagues across the Tasman establish their ‘Reconnecting Northland’ program, with four visits as a guest of the Tindall Foundation, and more than a few phone and skype conversations. Trevor Gray, Special Projects Manager with Tindall has reported in: “. . . the photos bear witness to the inspiring day we all had last week visiting Reconnecting Northland with some of our trustees. Ngaire Tyson, Todd Hamilton and their passionate locals wowed us with the community engagement that has dramatically increased kiwi numbers at Whangarei Heads – nationally they’re dropping by 3% pa, here they’re up from 200 to 675 in 10 years. We were also joined by an iwi group from up North to talk about the amazing Warawara pest eradication collaboration. Mixing indigenous concepts with agency smarts has come up with a potent new way to tackle pests where previously there was confrontation and inertia.

While both projects were inspiring in their own right, they all paid tribute to RN for pulling together people, agencies, resources and communities in ways that didn’t happen before. Several people mentioned Gondwana Link’s part in getting things started, which was nice. As our new manager John said in his thanks speech, finally we understand what a large landscape approach is all about.”

Music to our ears!