Penguins find cosy retreat on Flea Bay farm

Cosmo Kentish-Barnes is the roving South Island producer for RNZ's Country Life programme.

As I started my descent to Flea Bay on the east coast of Banks Peninsula in a two-wheel drive rental, I realised why a dozen kilometres back, a sign said four-wheel drive vehicles only. The track was steep, stony and at times uneven.

At least it wasn't raining. I went slowly but couldn't help admiring the dramatic volcanic headlands in the distance.

Flea Bay is home to the Pōhatu Marine Reserve and the land around it has been farmed by Francis and Shireen Helps for over four decades. The rugged, low-stocked property is steeped in history. Kōrero echoes off the hills. Francis says people have been using the land for 800 years. He reckons there were 15 to 20 hectares of kūmara gardens on the sun-drenched rises above the bay.  

"To get it to grow this far south they burnt a lot of timber, put the charcoal in the soil to act as nutrients and the women, the old Ngāi Tahu folk told me, screened shingle off the beach and put it in the gardens to act as a heat sink," he says.

Crossbred sheep graze the dry hills around the bay. They lift their heads and stare as I pass. A penny for their thoughts. Francis says wool doesn't even cover the cost of shearing anymore but he's not giving up on the fibre, in fact he's bringing Romneys back into the mix to boost the quality of the clip.

"At 90 cents to a dollar a kilo the temptation is to chuck it out … but I'm thinking of the future, so we're going back from straight Perendales to a Romney-Perendale cross, as the style of wool is good."

Determined to protect ecologically significant land, the couple have established several QEII covenants on the property. We walk up a valley, past an old cow and Shireen's flock of Valais Blacknose sheep, towards a forested gully. The verdant foliage shimmers in the sun. Birds are in song. This is the newest block of land to be protected and has only been closed up for a year.

"Most of them are regeneration covenants, but this is a restoration covenant, so I'm planting things that were here but are no longer, such as nikau palms and the podocarps like tōtara, mataī and kahikatea," Shireen says.

One of the covenants is designed to protect nesting areas for the white-flippered penguin, one of the smallest and rarest penguins in the world. There are roughly a thousand breeding pairs in boxes and burrows on 130 hectares of penguin habitat around the bay.

"It's probably the largest mainland colony left in Australasia," Francis says.

Protecting as well as rehabilitating injured or sick penguins has been a labour of love for the Help family for over 30 years.

Shireen says some pairs have chosen to live in the garden around their house. She lifts a lid off one of the boxes and a silvery blue male with piercing eyes looks up, annoyed to be woken from his morning snooze.

"He's looking after their nesting site. At this time of the year breeding is not happening but bonding is and making sure nobody pinches your home!"

The birds are also the focal point of Pohatu Penguins, Shireen's eco-tourism business, which allows visitors to view the threatened species and take part in their monitoring programme.