FEATURE

Motutapu restoration up $275K thanks to 2000 DUAL participants on Saturday

By AU BOUT DU MONDE

On Saturday, the Partners Life DUAL event on Motutapu and Rangitoto Islands attracted almost 2000 people and in the process raised around $25,000 to help restore Motutapu Island.
 
In the eight years that the event has been running, over $275,000 in total has been raised by organisers Total Sport, and donated to the Motutapu Restoration Trust (MRT).
 
MRT Chair Brett Butland says that money raised has been invaluable in driving the ecological restoration of the islands, including:
 

• Building a plant nursery that produces 16,000 plants a year from eco-sourced seeds;
• The planting, by volunteers, of almost 97,000 native plants at Home Bay (58 different species);
• A massive weed control operation;
• The restoration of the historic Reid Homestead which is operated by volunteers as a visitor centre every weekend;
• The reintroduction of threatened wildlife species including Coromandel brown kiwi, takahe, saddlebacks (tieke), whitehead, pateke, and shore plovers.

 

Photo courteys of AU BOUT DU MONDE

Butland says that this weekend’s DUAL event was the first time that the new Rotary Centennial Loop Track has been used, and that the feedback from participants was incredibly positive.
 
“We work closely with a number of partners, and Total Sport is an integral part of our fund-raising family,” says Butland.  “We love having the Partners Life DUAL on the islands each year - it is fantastic to be able to show off the great work we’ve been doing and to share the unmatched beauty of these ‘treasures’ with so many New Zealanders at one time,” he says.
 
“We would like to extend our thanks to Total Sport, and to the 2000 competitors who contributed to the on-going restoration of these islands through their participation this weekend.”