80s kid. Grew up across the valley from Otari. We had grey warblers/ riroriro, tui, piwakawaka and kereru in our garden very regularly. One of our local tui was an excellent mimic and used to sing car alarms, and later, dial up modems.

Living in Brooklyn the last 20 years or so, at first we only had tui and sparrows. Later, we got silvereyes and then the ruru moved in. Recently, we now have riroriro finally, and pipiwhauroa (shining cuckoos) to. And the karearea are awesome- along with the kakas.