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The Plan

A headland going back to forest, with its old animals standing in it

Twenty-one hectares of Cape Wanbrow, replanted in native bush over the coming decades, with the wildlife of ancient North Otago set along the tracks people already walk. This is what is intended, what has happened so far, and every piece of it you can look at on its own.

The view from high on the Cape over Oamaru harbour: moored yachts on pale blue water, the breakwater and beach, the limestone town beyond, and snow on the ranges at the horizon.
The view from the Cape over the harbour, the town and the ranges beyond.Ma Kōtukutuku – Ancient Cape Wanbrow Trust · From our June 2025 community briefing.

01

A living native headland

Native forest back across the Cape, and the birds, skinks and insects that come with it — shelter species first, then the trees that feed birds, then the podocarps the forest is named for.

How the planting works →

02

A walk through ancient wildlife

The animals that lived in North Otago and no longer do, standing on the tracks people already walk: moa, adzebill, laughing owl, giant swans — each drawn from the fossil record and cut from steel.

The sculpture trail →

03

A place the town looks after

A volunteer project on Council land, alongside the groups who have cared for this headland for decades, and in step with Te Rūnanga o Moeraki, whose wāhi tūpuna covers the Cape.

Join in →

What changes on the Cape

Five kinds of work, on one hillside. The Cape is at a different point of this in every block, which is why the plan is a map before it is a document.

  1. 1

    Plant the bare ground

    About 9.2 hectares of the project area is bare ground waiting for plants — two blocks of it carry no cover at all. Hardy, exposure-tolerant species go in first — kānuka, kōhūhū, tī kōuka, ngaio, lancewood — spaced close enough to shelter what follows. The fleshy-fruited understorey that feeds birds comes next. The slow, long-lived trees the forest is named for go in last, once there is shelter for them: tōtara, mataī and kahikatea.

    Four to five years of shelter first — 5 species on the regional planting list are fast enough and hardy enough to give it.

    A steep grassy slope of pale tussocky grass with scattered dark green shrubs and two broad ngaio crowns against a blue sky.
    “Looking up across the proposed planting area towards the Lookout.”Ma Kōtukutuku – Ancient Cape Wanbrow Trust · The zigzag before planting: grass, a few scattered natives, and nothing between them. A small copy, 640 × 480 — the only version of this photograph we still have.

  2. 2

    Clear what is holding it back

    African boxthorn, broom and gorse come out of the planting area. Around every young plant the grass is knocked back and kept back for two years, or until the tree reaches two metres — which is the part of the work that decides whether any of the rest of it survives.

    Weed removal is a funded output in its own right.

    A close view of rank grass and thorny boxthorn growth.
    “A close up of the weeds that will need to be contended with.”Ma Kōtukutuku – Ancient Cape Wanbrow Trust · A small copy, 640 × 480 — the only version of this photograph we still have.

  3. 3

    Turn the pine spur back to native

    The largest steep block on the Cape is a pine plantation. Natives are established underneath the pines first and the pines come out in stages afterwards — taking the shelter away in one go would expose everything planted behind it. 2.0 hectares of what looks like cover on this headland is that plantation.

    Proposed. Removing the pines needs the Council’s agreement.

    A gravel track along a grassy ridge, a wall of dark pine plantation filling the middle distance, and the sea beyond.
    “Looking down from Lookout Point towards the area covered in Pines. The WDC intends to remove these as needed to allow future planting to continue across the whole cape.”Ma Kōtukutuku – Ancient Cape Wanbrow Trust · The pine question in one frame. A small copy, 640 × 480 — the only version of this photograph we still have.

  4. 4

    Stand the sculptures

    Weathering steel silhouettes with the animal’s skeleton profile-cut from polished stainless and stood off the surface — the bird and its fossil record in one object. One stands at the bottom car park; the South Island giant moa, 3.6 m tall, is funded and drawn for Lookout Point.

    Up to 15 sites proposed, the next five over three to five years.

    A weathering-steel moa silhouette with its skeleton cut from polished stainless steel, standing on mown grass beside a steel cabbage tree, with plant protectors scattered across the slope behind and a scrubby hillside above.
    “The first of the 5 Moa Sculptures is erected at the carpark at the bottom of the track.”Ma Kōtukutuku – Ancient Cape Wanbrow Trust · designed by Trish Shirley, built by Apex Engineering · The one hero image the project has, and the most important asset request on the list. A small copy, 640 × 480 — the only version of this photograph we still have.

  5. 5

    Say what is here

    Signage that names the plants going into the ground, a planting-plan board at the top of the zigzag, and storyboards for the cultural, ecological, historical and recreational values of the Cape. Most visitors will never open a website; the Cape has to work offline.

    Anything interpreting this place culturally is written with the rūnanga.

Beyond the headland, two purposes of the trust reach further than this map: expanding predator control, without which restored habitat grows and goes unused, and wildlife corridors linking Ōamaru southwards towards Orokonui. Both are in the catalogue below.

20.9
hectares
in 19 surveyed planting blocks
9.2
hectares to plant
block area less the cover already there
1,164
plants in 2026
the first full season
20,000
plants, long term
70% trees, 30% shrubs and flax
1 of 15
sculptures
one built, one funded and drawn
11.4
km of track
crossing the project area, built by others

At the current rate of about 1,500 plants a winter, the long-term figure is a multi-decade target rather than a schedule. The project area is a band roughly 850 m by 450 m across the harbour-facing slopes and the ridge — not the whole headland. The Cape’s true summit, 127 m, is outside it.

How far we have got

The whole plan, and the part of it that exists

20.94hectares, in 19 surveyed blocks
grouped here into 7 places · a band roughly 850 m by 450 m across the harbour-facing slopes and the ridge
Planted by the project
0.29 ha
Cover already there
9.75 ha
Pine plantation
1.95 ha
Still to plant
8.95 ha
Already vegetated
11.70 ha
56% of the project area, and a property of the land rather than anything the project did. 1.95 ha of it is recorded as pine.
Still to plant
9.24 ha
Block area less the cover already there.
Planted so far
0.29 ha
3.1% of the bare ground, and all of it below Lookout Point.

After a full season the project has planted about a thirtieth of the ground it has to plant. That is not a discouraging number; it is the shape of a beginning. Every figure here is measured from the surveyed boundaries and the planting map, so this section moves when the ground does.

The two figures either side of it are never added together. More than half of this ground already carries vegetation, and 1.95 ha of that is pine — so a single "percent restored" would show the plantation as the most restored ground on the Cape. They are kept apart block by block, in every place on this page and on the map.

Plants in the ground, 2026

1,164

As at 10 September 2026, across nine planting days. Working towards 20,000.

Ancient wildlife sculptures

1 / 15 installed

One built, one funded and drawn. The other sites are a draft layout, not decisions.

Track on the ground

3.0 km walking

8.4 km mountain bike

Measured from the Trust's mapping, so approximate to about ±10%. Almost all of it was built by other people.

Everything on the map, by state

  • Not started5
  • Planting under way2

Moving right now

The plan, place by place

Every area, sculpture, track and programme has its own page: what is there now, what it becomes, what has to happen, and how far it has got. The same records the map of the Cape draws.

Restoration areas

Seven pieces of ground, made up of the 19 surveyed blocks. The pale bar is the cover already growing there — a property of the land, and in one block it is pine. The bright bar is what this project has planted. They are never added together.

The sculpture trail

Weathering steel and polished stainless, each animal drawn from the fossil record. Two of them are real: one standing at the bottom car park, one funded, engineered and waiting for its spot.

A render of the South Island giant moa sculpture in place on the Cape: a tall weathering-steel female with her skeleton in polished stainless, a small male beside her, and two steel lancewood trunks rising behind, with the sea and headland beyond.
The South Island giant moa, rendered on the site.Design Trish Shirley · render for Apex Engineering · Not yet installed. The exact spot at Lookout Point is being confirmed with the Council.

Proposed positions. The rest of the trail is a draft layout under review — 12 spots, each with a subject, a size and a fabrication note, and none of them decided. Both the position and the animal at it may change.

Tracks, lookouts and signs

The Cape already has its paths, and almost all of them were built by other people. The plan works along them rather than across them — practical detail for walking the place is on Visit.

Wider programmes

Parts of the plan that are not a piece of this hillside — the nursery the whole thing depends on is in the Oamaru Public Gardens, and the corridor reaches well past the Cape. They have no shape on the map, and a marker for them would be tidier and wrong.

Gazetted reserves

  • Bushy Beach Scenic Reserve

    Scenic Reserve · Department of Conservation

  • North Otago War Memorial Reserve

    Recreation Reserve · Department of Conservation

  • Cape Wanbrow Lighthouse Reserve

    Government Purpose Reserve

Data and attribution

  • The 19 planting blocks and their areas, existing-cover estimates, planted ground, walking and mountain-bike tracks, and sculpture sites

    Ma Kōtukutuku – Ancient Cape Wanbrow Trust: planting block survey and GIS · Ma Kōtukutuku – Ancient Cape Wanbrow Trust. Blocks surveyed by Survey Waitaki (Oamaru Lookout Point, Revision A, August 2025); mapped in ArcGIS Pro by Craig Jones; areas and cover estimates from the Trust’s own block chart · Used with the Trust’s permission

  • Coastline, cliffs, tracks, streets, reserve boundaries and place names

    OpenStreetMap · © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0

  • Landform — contours, the high point, and the shaded relief

    LINZ NZ 8m Digital Elevation Model (2012) · Sourced from Land Information New Zealand · CC BY 4.0

  • Offshore depth

    GEBCO 2020 grid · GEBCO Compilation Group (2020) · Public domain

The species the planting works towards are the Otago Regional Council’s list for CLF4.2 — Kahikatea, tōtara, mataī forest, the ecosystem that belongs on ground like this. The full list, and the birds that could use it, are on The Cape.