Celebrate World Wetland Day with us at Matuku Link!
📅Sunday, 1st February 2026 | 10am – 3pm
Join us at Auckland’s largest mainland wetland for a day of nature, learning, and fun! We’re celebrating World Wetland Day with our annual Wetland Festival for World Wetland Day, featuring a wide range of activities for all ages. Get ready for a day of discovery, excitement, and free family fun at the Wetland Day Festival 2026 at Matuku Link, on Sunday 1 February from 10am to 3pm at 111 Bethells Road, Te Henga. From engaging with VR headsets to admiring our resident eels, you’re invited to enjoy games and crafts for the kids as well as guided walks by experts to answer all your nature questions. Stallholders in 2026 include Auckland Zoo, Birds New Zealand, Forest & Bird Waitākere, Arataki Visitor Centre, EcoMatters, The Entomological Society, Mountains to Sea, Kauri Rescue, Auckland Council Biodiversity, Pest Free Waitākere Ranges Alliance (PFWRA). There will be home baking, fresh coffee, a barbeque (vegan and non-vegan), and so much more.
As you wander the beautiful boardwalks and restored wetland habitat, you’ll see firsthand how much Matuku Link has changed since its beginnings in 2016, with over eight thousand volunteer hours per year spent restoring and protecting Te Henga Weland and surrounding areas. Learn more about our remarkable birdlife including pāteke (brown teal), spot a secretive pūweto (spotless crake), and if you are very lucky, you might even see our cryptic namesake, the matuku-hūrepo (Australasian bittern). Explore Matuku Link through guided tours focusing on bugs, birds, eels, and native plants, with family-friendly activities running every hour.
Since opening in 2016, Matuku Link has transformed, thanks to over 8000 volunteer hours per year! Come and see the progress, including new boardwalks and our Wetland Education Centre. There will be an all-day market with gifts, food, art, crafts, and live entertainment. You can chat with local conservation groups like Forest & Bird Waitākere, Birds New Zealand, Whitebait Connection, and many others. Enjoy homemade baking, a BBQ (with vegan options).
It’s a fun, family-friendly event, and best of all—it’s free!
See you there for a fun filled day for the whole whanau!
Matuku Link is a charitable trust which began in 2016 when four trustees bought a wetland and bush property after extensive fundraising. Through volunteer power, an old barn was converted into a Wetland Education Centre, two plant nurseries were built, and the old paddocks were replanted and transformed back into wetlands. With Jobs4Nature funding, boardwalks and accessible pathways were created for all to experience a part of Te Henga Wetland, Auckland’s largest mainland wetland. With only 9% of wetlands remaining in New Zealand, we need to change our thinking from ‘smelly swamps’ to ‘biodiversity beauties’, as wetlands are the kidneys of our environment, slowing down water during floods, capturing carbon and filtering debris and contaminants.
Annalily & trustees Chad Wilkie, Dale Bainbridge, John Fawcett, John Staniland and John Sumich and all our volunteers!
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