The quiet campaign to protect a sacred spot and its birds

It isn’t birds you notice first when visiting Manukapua, a long sickle-shaped island of bleached white dunes just off the coast of the remote rural Kaipara community of Tapora.
Though its name translates as ‘bird cloud’, after a lengthy drive down endless winding roads and a narrow, rutted track, then a hike through gorse and pampas scrub, it’s the vast open skies and apparently endless sea that first strike you when you eventually emerge onto the beach.
Even on the low-lying tidal flats, it feels as if you can see forever, way past the steep island sandhills, across the vast expanse of Kaipar...