Bringing ngutukaka back from the brink

Ngutukaka, or kakabeak, is a popular garden plant in Aotearoa. But in the wild, it is now rarer than kakapo, with only about 100 individual plants surviving on steep, inaccessible cliffs. The East Coast is one of its remaining strongholds and the Tairawhiti Ngutukaka Trust is on a mission to bring the taonga back. Veronika Meduna joins the inaugural Tairawhiti Ngutukaka Festival to find out more about the community’s efforts to turn State Highway 35 into a Crimson Highway by rewilding this iconic native.