Eight-year-old Ayaan Jalan aids the replanting effort.
Residents of the Auckland suburb of Hillsborough are celebrating the reopening of an "incredibly special" bush reserve, seven years after severe storm damage forced its closure.
Belfast Reserve - one of the few surviving pockets of native bush on Auckland's central isthmus - first closed in 2019 when heavy rain washed out a footbridge.
Some residents continued to use the reserve, despite further damage from falling pine trees, but five large slips triggered by the 2023 Anniversary Weekend storm made the bush impassable to even the most determined walkers.
The damage was so severe some locals feared they would never be able to use the tracks again.
