Showing off bugs under torchlight is just one of Jack Karetai-Barrett’s extra-curricular activities.
He first drew nationwide attention as the teen who cycled 894km to Wellington from his Whakatāne home in support of Māori wards in local government.
In late winter, recovered from his lengthy bike ride, he took Country Life on a night walk through the bush on the trail of wildlife, showing what it’s like to be a volunteer on Whakatāne’s kiwi conservation project.
“I’ve always been in the bush, yeah, the bush has, like, just been always a part of my life.
“I’ve been tramping, hunting, fishing, doing everything in the ngāhere for pretty much forever. Yeah, it’s great. I just love being out here.”
Karetai-Barrett started guiding at the Mokorua Scenic Reserve on the outskirts of Whakatāne after his conservation articles were spotted in the local newspaper by another volunteer with the Whakatāne Kiwi Trust, Stewart Sutton.
“Jack writes interesting articles to the Beacon, and I thought, ‘oh, I’ll ask his mum if he can write an article for Kiwi Trust. So that’s how he first got involved. He said he wanted to come every time, so he’s been coming as much as he can,” Stewart said.
We set out on the walk, Stewart leading with his self-described apprentice alongside, head torches on low, to light up the path but not scare off the wildlife.
“I go with the flow, like Stewart knows all the stuff, really. So he’s talking about something and I can add little bits,” Jack said.
“Every single time I come on this I always learn new things.”
He is learning to distinguish the different types of wetā. His last tour group, about 30 Chinese tourists were surprised by the creatures, he said.
“I did manage to find a wetā that was the size of my hand. When we put him back down onto the ground, he started chasing me back.
“They will jump and they will follow you.”
Stepping across a bridge, he bends down and points out a spider, camouflaged against the handrail.
“I find if you constantly adjust your eyes’ focus, then constantly unfocus and refocus your eyes, then you just see something.”
There are no kiwi calls tonight. It’s not the best season for that, Stewart explains.
“The males are sitting on the eggs.”
But there are bioluminescent fungi to examine and glowworms to find hanging out sticky fishing lines to catch their prey, a spider “coloured like a watermelon” and a clutch of wetā to ooh and aah over. The bigger the better.
School was Jack’s number one priority, he told Country Life, but after school and weekends were filled with coaching mountain biking, volunteering for Waste Zero Whakatāne as well as the Kiwi Trust and working.
He was hoping to spend his last couple of years schooling overseas, aiming for a scholarship at one of the United World Colleges.
Conservation is one of his big interests.
“It’s weird to say this, but the bush was more full of life when I was younger.
“Now you just don’t really see it as much. We were driving to Waikaremoana last year, and we noticed the decimation that possums have left, and that was just such a horrible thing to see.”
