On 2021-11-18, there were 20 kākāriki karaka (orange-fronted parakeets / Cyanoramphus malherbi) captured from their captive breeding facilities at Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust and Orana Wildlife Park in Canterbury, legs were banded with coloured bands (to aid in later field identification), transmitters attached to back feathers, put into wooden boxes, driven to Christchurch airport, flown to Nelson, transferred to a helicopter, flown to Third House where they received a formal welcome, carried down to waiting 4x4s, driven to the appropriately-named Kākāriki Hatch, carried by foot about 800m downhill to the waiting temporary-release aviaries, then released one-by-one into the aviaries. Ten males in one, and ten females in the other.
Two days later (2021-11-20) early in the morning the aviary doors were opened, one-by-one (or sometimes in pairs) the birds flew from the aviaries to their first taste of freedom. They were also likely the first kākāriki karaka to fly through the Nelson beech forest for 100 years or more.
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