Off the northwestern coast of Stewart Island sits a small, forested reserve that visitors are not allowed to see. Codfish Island, known in Māori as Whenua Hou, is closed to the public and free of the rats, stoats and possums that have wiped out ground-dwelling birds across mainland New Zealand. For months at a stretch, Department of Conservation rangers were sent there to protect the kakapo, a flightless parrot so rare that every living bird has a name.
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