Russell and his wife May set up Pestbusters in 2010 to help tackle the threat of predators to native birds, including tui, kererū, and bellbirds.

Ever heard a possum lurking outside your bedroom window in the middle of the night, breathing heavily, or a rat’s tiny feet scuttling across the roof overhead? Neither experience is pleasant.

I’d never been to the ‘Third Island’, and had heard enough raves about backyard kaka and beaches chocka with kiwi to want to check it out.

By the eighth coffee and umpteenth chocolate chip biscuit, I was feeling a little jumpy and seriously doubting that we would ever leave base. Our task was to lay out one hundred DOC-200 traps (a large box trap primarily targeting stoats) in the Ruahine Range behind Waipukurau, central Hawkes Bay.