Project Island Song

This year for National Volunteer Week, we decided to introduce a Volunteer of the Year award, to recognise and highlight an outstanding individual contribution.

The inaugural award was presented to Kevin Philpott at our celebration event this week.

Kevin lives aboard his boat and spends a lot of time on and around the islands, where he has done a huge amount of independent work for the project.

Kevin has been instrumental in helping us to adopt and make good use of the W**d Manager app. Over the past 18 months or so, he has been methodically walking the islands, scouting for w**d problems, and mapping these onto the app.

This work is invaluable for us in planning and prioritising work for our W**dbusting group, as well as tracking our progress with dealing to them over time.

Thank you Kevin for your drive and determination to contribute!

Volunteering New Zealand Volunteering Northland

To celebrate National Volunteer Week, we invited some of the volunteers who have given the most time to the project over the past year to join us for a little celebration of their mahi.

Thanks to the generosity of Russell Mini Tours, Bay of Islands, we were able to treat them to a fascinating tour of Kororāreka, sharing many insights into our local history, before sharing some good kai and kōrero.

Volunteering Northland Volunteering New Zealand

Students from Kawakawa Primary School were treated to an extremely rare daytime wētāpunga sighting during their Floating Classroom on Moturua on Tuesday this week!

These nocturnal beauties are normally well-hidden during daylight hours, so this was an incredibly special encounter for our tamariki.

What a beautiful day to plant trees!

47 fantastic volunteers, including an enthusiastic crew of rangatahi voyaging aboard the R. Tucker Thompson, worked together to plant more than 500 native trees at Urupukapuka Bay on Sunday, helping to restore the diversity of seed sources on the islands and speed up the regeneration of the ngahere.

Big thanks to Tom Lindesay for leading our planting programme, and to Trees That Count for funding our trees again this year!

Come and plant trees with us! Our annual planting day is coming up fast, on Sunday 7th June.

We'll be planting around 500 native trees at Urupukapuka Bay, and we still have some space for volunteers if you'd like to join us. The planting day is family-friendly, lots of fun, and free boat transport is provided. You're also welcome to travel out on your own boat and meet us on the island.

Find all the info and sign up through the link below!

For the second year in a row, we were delighted to be joined recently by staff from ANZ Aotearoa Northland for their annual volunteer day.

The team once again got straight to work helping us to tackle the invasive moth plant, collecting a staggering 898 seed pods for bagging and removal from Mangahawea Bay on Moturua!

Some good hard mahi, lots of laughs, and an awesome outcome in our community! If you'd like to get your team out volunteering on the islands then just get in touch.

Huge thanks to OutFit North and their amazing members, for raising an incredible $2000 for Project Island Song last month!

Active April is their campaign to encourage their members to get outside, be active, and reset some good habits that might have slipped to improve their wellbeing.

Around 60 of their members participated, with one doing 50 pull-ups every day for the month, a team joining together to run a combined 200km, and one member doing 2000 push ups across April.

Thank you to all these awesome people, and to Outfit North for choosing to support our mahi!

In well-deserved recognition of his dedication and community spirit, our Chair William Fuller was awarded the King’s Service Medal (KSM) in the New Years Honours for 2026. On 14 April, he was presented with his medal by the Governor General in a ceremony at Government House in Auckland.

William (known to many as Mr Fuller) has consistently given his time and energy to initiatives that strengthen the Russell/Kororāreka community. Through his roles as Principal of Russell School, Chair of Guardians of the Bay of Islands/Project Island Song, and his involvement with the Bay of Islands Walkways Trust, Te Araroa Trust, and Russell Landcare, his impact has been both meaningful and enduring.

William is a valued member of the Project and the wider Bay of Islands community. We are incredibly proud to see his mahi recognised. Congratulations, William – you are an inspiration to us all.