A small group of the rare mohua has flown to the relative safety of Resolution Island. But not under their own steam, writes Caroline Harker, of Wanaka.
Then the real magic happens. A new and different song rings out. Little yellow-headed birds surround us - a whole flock of them.
They are mohua (yellowheads) - the very birds we have come to find; the reason 15 people from the Department of Conservation and Peregrine Wines have flown here by helicopter and set up camp for as many days as it takes to find them.
These little birds were once the most common native bird in the South Island - but predators have all but eradicated them.
"People just didn't realise it was happening," says Doc scientist Colin O'Donnell.
"We asked for sightings of mohua and got calls from all over the South Island.
"But when we investigated there were none. People had seen them years ago and hadn't noticed the decline."
Mohua have disappeared from 75% of their habitats, and it was O'Donnell who first suggested something should be done. He knew the main culprits were stoats and rats.
After two stoat plagues in the Landsborough Valley, O'Donnell and his team set up a mohua monitoring site. They found only 14 birds, indicating probably fewer than 30 in the whole valley.
By 2001 Doc had laid 56km of trap lines in the Landsborough and now the mohua population is about 1000 birds.
Doc's aim is to establish other populations of mohua - to ensure genetic diversity, and guard against a predator plague in one area wiping out the whole population. Resolution Island, down in the southwest corner of New Zealand, is almost predator-free and should be a good place to start another mohua population.
Our first day in the Landsborough Valley is spent finding likely places to catch mohua.
The next we're up at mohua fart and off into the bush. Timing is crucial - we must capture our birds, get them to Resolution Island - hundreds of kilometres away - and release them with enough time at the end of the day for them to settle into their new home and find something to eat before dark.
We return to places we had heard or seen Mohua the day before. Today our task is to capture them.
First we clear a strip in the bush about a metre wide so we can erect fine mesh nets without snagging them on trees. We cut as few branches as possible; instead tying them back out of the way with ropes. Poles are assembled and the nets are carefully unfurled.
It's a painstaking process - a button or a fingernail could easily catch and tear the fine mesh. Remote-control speakers are hidden on either side of the net and then we are ready.
A switch is flicked and birdsong rings out from a speaker. The bush is strangely silent. Another burst of birdsong. Silence. And then quietly, from way off, comes a timid echo. At last. Soon a pair of mohua are flitting close to the net looking for the bird they think they heard. Another call rings out - this time from the speaker on the opposite side of the net - and our pair fly towards the twittering - and straight into the net.
Getting them out again is tricky but Doc project manager Megan Willams and Peregrine Wine director Greg Hay have done this before. They carefully untangle the fragile birds without harming them.
We move the net to several different locations during the day.
On one occasion we capture half a dozen mohua within a couple of minutes.
Sometimes I get the job of holding the birds and I feel as clumsy as an elephant - surely if I hold a bird a little too tightly I will break its bones.
Once they are out of the net Megan carefully clips a metal identification band around each bird's leg. In years to come if unbanded birds are spotted on Resolution Island that will show they are breeding successfully.
By mid-afternoon that day we have 43 birds.
Tomorrow we hope more will be caught.
The mohua are safely packed into wooden birdcages and are flown to Resolution Island by chopper, oblivious to the stunning views the rest of us are enjoying.
It's not the first time native birds have been transferred to Resolution Island - in 1891 it was declared New Zealand's first nature reserve and conservationist Richard Henry was given the job of capturing kiwi and kakapo on the mainland and taking them across the 600m channel to the island.
He lived there for many years trying to protect the birds but could not keep on top of predator numbers.
Ever-increasing numbers of predators - including mustelids, rats, wild cats, and dogs brought to the island by hunters, prospectors and fishermen - plagued Resolution and Henry finally gave up and packed his bags in 1908.
Now, a century later, we are hoping for more success than Richard Henry had.
Three years ago, Doc started a major predator eradication campaign on the island installing 2300 stoat traps.
In the summer of 2010-11, only four stoats were caught, which means it's fairly certain no unwanted creatures are breeding there. However, the traps are still maintained to capture any pesky immigrants who manage to swim across from the mainland.
"Stoats kill birds just for fun - not just when they're hungry," says Hay. "They'll kill at least one a day, so think about it - if you trap 400 stoats you could save 400 birds every single day. The maths is easy."
Peregrine Wines has been involved in bird projects before. With Doc funding cuts, corporate sponsorship is becoming an increasingly crucial part of conservation. Mohua are just the company's latest project.
The company is a major sponsor of the Wingspan Trust which looks after injured raptors - including Peregrine falcons - near Rotorua.
Peregrine has also funded years of work with tieke (saddlebacks) which were extinct on mainland New Zealand and have now been transferred back from predator-free islands to the Orokonui Eco-sanctuary just outside Dunedin.
And Peregrine was the first company to take up with the Fiordland Conservation Trust - a new organisation which finds private funding for projects within Fiordland National Park.
With the size of Fiordland and the number of potential projects, the scope for sponsorship is unlimited.
Hay has always been a bird man and says he's not in it for the publicity and marketing.
"It will be great to wake up tomorrow morning and know there are now mohua on Resolution Island," he says as we fly down the Fiordland coast. "It's great that as a company we can make a difference."
Our helicopter swoops down to Resolution Island and lands at Disappointment Cove.
Fortunately it isn't living up to its name - the weather is calm and sunny and the bay looks postcard perfect - but tree branches bent over like long hair blowing in a gale tell the truth of the usual climate.
We are met by Stewart Bull, who is here to welcome the mohua to their new home on behalf of the Oraka Aparima Runanga.
He makes a striking figure standing on the beach, the bright sunlight turning his head of long white hair into a halo, and also highlighting the sandflies which surround him and everyone else here on this auspiciously fine day.
He says a karakia for the mohua and then we open the cages and they fly out to explore their new home, unaware this is an historic occasion.
They are starting a new life on Resolution Island and one day, thanks to Doc and Peregrine Wines, there could be thousands of them.
• Caroline Harker is a freelance journalist and documentary film-maker, of Wanaka.
