Events

Join the Urban Ark Team in your spooky Halloween Costumes in search of glowworms !! This is a free community event proudly supported by Puketāpapa Local Board.

Lets connect with te taiao (the environment) at night. Join Urban Ark Manawa Taiao night adventure through Belfast reserve in Hillsborough. Together we will look for nocturnal wildlife and learn about glowworms. We will also bring our bat monitor along to see if we can detect some pekapeka clicks.

What to Bring:
* Warm clothes
* Sturdy shoes
* A head torch or flashlight

Please note: the walk takes place at night and includes stairs and uneven surfaces, so it’s not suitable for pushchairs or very young children. A moderate level of fitness and good balance are recommended.

Please register for free via Humanitix here (and remember to contact us if you cant make it !)

Group: Friends of Belfast Reserve

Urban Ark are teaming up with Friends of Oakley Creek to give Walmsley Park some love. Come help us clean up litter from in and around the creek!

Friends of Oakley Creek / Ngā Ringa o Te Auaunga have been working to restore the mauri (life force) of Oakley Creek / Te Auaunga for many years by lovingly removing invasive weeds and predators from its surroundings as well as plantin

g the waterway up with native trees. We also want to help them stop the rubbish from reaching the awa (stream) and polluting our waterway.

Removing litter from the surrounding areas stops it from being washed into the streams and out into the oceans - great news for our native critters who call these places home! Removing the litter also helps stop these items causing blockages downstream by bridges and small pipes when the river floods meaning it can help reduce flood damage in those areas - great news for the humans who call these areas home too! A win win situation.

This event will also be a part of the Puketāpapa Amazing Bike Race Challenge!

Meet: At the fale near the public toilets inside Walmsley Park - there are a few entrances to the park but the closest one is between 15 & 17 Aurora Ave - look out for our flags!

Please register so we know how much gear to bring.

This is part of the Making Space for Water Programme generously funded by Auckland Council’s Healthy waters team.

Group: Ngā Ringa o Te Auaunga Friends of Oakley Creek

Join Pt Chev’s Second Sunday Weeders at Eric Armishaw Reserve, an idillic location where native trees can thrive with our help. The greenspace isn’t in bad shape, but as spring rolls on the weeds will be back with a vengeance. Let’s stop them in their tracks. Controlling weeds gives our regenerating ngahere a chance to thrive, providing quality habitat for our native species.

• Meet by the playground at Eric Armishaw Reserve; look for the Urban Ark flag
• Bring your favourite gardening gloves and secatuers if you have them, but we’ll also have spare gear you can borrow.
• If you don’t have two hours to spare, just drop in for as long as you can manage.

Sometimes there is cake, often there is good chat, and always there are weeds to pull.

Contact Mary [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]; (021 162 5160) or Paul [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]; (021 150 8284)

Urban Ark are teaming up with the community to give Ōpoutūkeha / Cox’s Creek some love. Come help us clean up litter from in and around the mangroves at the edge of the reserve — this rubbish washes straight into the awa (stream) and then out to the ocean.

Earlier in the year we worked with the Hawke Sea Scouts and pulled out all sorts of things - including a couple of shopping trolleys!! By removing this pollution they helped protect and restore some of the mauri (life force) of Cox’s Creek. We want to help continue this good mahi into the future.

Further upstream, several community groups are also working to enhance the mauri of the awa and its catchment — removing invasive weeds and predators, and planting native trees along overland flow paths. We will talk about how all of this awesome mahi is helping make the catchment more Flood Ready…

Please register so we know how much kai and gear to bring.

Meeting location: The green space at the end of Parawai Crescent (passed number 36, just off the pathway that leads to Cox’s Creek) - look out for our Urban Ark flag.

This is part of the Making Space for Water Programme generously funded by Auckland Council’s Healthy waters team.

Join us for a weeding bee as we team up with Ngā Ringa o Te Auaunga / Friends of Oakley Creek to support their restoration efforts of Te Auaunga / Oakley Creek!

We’ll be weeding at Alan Wood Reserve which sits right alongside the awa (stream). This area is prone to flooding in heavy rain. Weeding this site will help the native plants planted here previously to survive and thrive.

These native plants will help absorb more water and slow flood waters down so it doesn’t reach the stream all at once, reducing the impact of flooding. They also stop excess sediment and excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus that wash off our streets during rain and improve water quality - pretty neat hey!

Flooding is a natural process and it isn’t going anywhere, it is also becoming more frequent with changes in climate. However, recreating natural habitats that allow water to breathe and flow as it should do are an important step in building our overall flood resilience and restoring the balance of people living nearby waterways and overland flowpaths.

Please register for this eventso we know how much kai and equipment to bring.

Meet: Down the hill from the basketball court in Alan Wood Reserve - look out for our flags!

Please note: There are multiple entrances to Alan Wood Reserve, the closest entrance to the site is at 53 Hendon Avenue, Mt Albert. Parking is best on Hendon Ave or Bollard Ave.

This event is generously funded through Auckland Council’s Healthy Waters Department.

Group: Ngā Ringa o Te Auaunga Friends of Oakley Creek

Do you want to feel part of a community? Want to give back in a way that boosts mental health and helps nature? Urban Ark - Manawa Taiao is seeking volunteers who want to contribute to our mission to increase native biodiversity through community action. The event is FREE but to help us get an idea of how many people to expect please register at https://events.humanitix.com/volunteer-welcome-session

This two-hour session is an intro to our work and our community. You will:

• Discover what Urban Ark is all about and where we are active: essentialy the central Auckland isthmus
• Learn how to safely set and check rat and possum traps (optional if that’s not your thing)
• Become familar with key pest plants (weeds) and find out why they are a problem
• Hear how we go about controlling weeds
• Find out about planting native speices, both pioneer plantings and enrichment plantings
• Learn how and where you can help. We have active trapping, weeding and planting groups across the region
• Share tea and biscuits while chatting to Urban Ark staff and other volunteers
• See the impact of weeding, planting and trapping on a small patch of urban ngahere

Urban Ark has teamed up with Conservation Volunteers NZ to run a series of weeding events targeted at removing wild kahili ginger from sites in Lynfield and along the Waikōwhai Coast.

This is the last working bee in the series of eight. We have previously removed more than 300kg of wild ginger off site near Wairaki stream and we are stoked to have you come and help us slash some more. Come along to satisfying-ly remove some pesky ginger, make some new friends, and stay for some hot drinks and bikkies.

email [Enable JavaScript to view protected content] for more info

Join the team helping to welcome kererū home. Meeting pint TBC look for the flag !

Kererū Weeders is a new weeding group launching in July 2026 with the aspiration of making our vegetated areas attractive to the kererū which are just beginning to return to the central Aukland area. We have roving weeding in bees in Western Springs Park, Bullock Track Bush, Jaggers Bush and Norgrove Reserve. For those who are new to weeding (or just want to upskill) we’ll have a short skills session at start of the weeding bee.

To get involved contact Mary at [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]