Hinewai Reserve, Nature reserve in Banks Peninsula, New Zealand

Hinewai Reserve is a nature reserve on the southeastern corner of Banks Peninsula, in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, made up of valleys, ridges, streams, and forest in different stages of growth. The terrain is rolling, with open patches giving way to denser woodland as the land continues to recover on its own.

The Maurice White Native Forest Trust bought a 109-hectare block of farmland in September 1987, and the reserve has since grown to about 1,426 hectares. In July 2011 a fire, likely started by lightning, burned roughly a third of the reserve. By 2017 native vegetation had regrown, and floods in December 2021 caused landslips across the land.

The reserve's quarterly newsletter, Pīpipi, is hand-written and illustrated by botanist Hugh Wilson, who manages Hinewai for the Maurice White Native Forest Trust. Named after the native pipit, it reports on the reserve's progress and ecology. Visitors walking the tracks pass through gorse and regenerating native bush, the same land the newsletter documents.

The reserve has marked walking trails at different levels of difficulty, so it helps to check which route fits your fitness before setting out. Weather on Banks Peninsula can shift quickly, so sturdy footwear and a rain layer are worth bringing along.

At Hinewai, no trees were planted to restore the forest. The land was simply left alone, and native species spread back in ways that surprised many ecologists who had expected the process to be far slower.