Wildlife warrior Ruth 'KIWI LIVE IN MY GARDEN!'

The Wellington writer has the perfect home for hatching new ideas

- Kasia De Vydt-Jillings

The first time celebrated children's author and illustrator Ruth Paul saw kiwi footprints on her 80-hectare Wellington property, she stopped in her tracks, amazed to see the results of the ambitious plan to rewild the national bird in the capital.

"Exactly one year later, in the same spot, I saw all these little baby kiwi footprints and suddenly it all seemed real," recalls Ruth, 61.

Not only were kiwi living wild in the Wellington hills for the first time in more than a century, they were also raising chicks – and doing it on her land.

"It's extraordinary," she says. "You do all this work, planting native trees, pest control and then one day, there they are. I cannot believe I hear kiwi every night now and it's become normal."

Ruth's journey to become a kaitiaki kiwi [guardian] unknowingly began 30 years ago, when she and her husband Chris bought a rugged 24-hectare lifestyle block in Mākara. They built a completely off-grid, straw-bale eco-home by hand.

"We've been ridiculously fortunate to have this magic place to raise our kids," shares Ruth, before explaining their decision to go fully off-grid was "more pragmatic than romantic".

Set high in the hills, it was "eye-wateringly expensive" to get mains power and water onto the property, so solar and hydro was the way to go.