Hinewai Reserve

Hinewai Reserve started off as a 109 ha block of farmland bought by the Maurice White Native Forest Trust in September 1987 and is now 1230 ha of gorse and regenerating native bush.

The transformation from open pasture and gorse to native vegetation has occurred rapidly.

The reserve is managed for the Trust by botanist Hugh Wilson, who hand-writes and illustrates a newsletter about the reserve, Pīpipi, which the Trust publishes several times a year.

[4] One-third of the reserve was burnt on 13 July 2011, possibly due to a lightning strike.

The gorse regrew and so did native shrubs and trees [6] In December 2021, Hinewai Reserve experienced significant landscape changes due to dramatic floods that caused numerous slips across the area.