{"id":594164,"date":"2026-09-08T18:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T18:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/594164\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T18:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T18:36:12","slug":"driver-tears-through-whangaparaoa-college-grounds-razes-bird-nesting-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/594164\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver tears through Whangapar\u0101oa College grounds, razes bird nesting area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe are very disappointed to share that around 10.25pm on Friday night [September 4], a vehicle was driven across our grounds, causing significant damage to the muddy grass and tearing up the lawn,\u201d the college wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">The school said it was looking into the incident after the driver also drove over a bird nesting site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe vehicle was driven directly through an area where plovers were nesting, destroying eggs and impacting vulnerable newborn chicks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt is deeply frustrating to see this kind of thoughtless behaviour on our campus, especially when it impacts our local wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"A school field and a bird nesting area were damaged during the late-night incident. Photo \/ Whangapar\u0101oa College\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>A school field and a bird nesting area were damaged during the late-night incident. Photo \/ Whangapar\u0101oa College<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Security footage shows the vehicle speeding around the unlit field for about a minute and a half, skidding and circling across the grass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Images released by the school show deep tyre tracks carved across the grounds, with large patches of grass churned into mud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">The school said it was gathering information about the incident and urged anyone who recognised the vehicle to come forward.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Security footage shows this vehicle causing damage to a field at Whangapar\u0101oa College in north Auckland. Photo \/ Whangapar\u0101oa College\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Security footage shows this vehicle causing damage to a field at Whangapar\u0101oa College in north Auckland. Photo \/ Whangapar\u0101oa College<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Department of Conservation (DoC) Mainland Auckland operations manager Bec Rush said they had not received a report but the birds were likely spur-winged plovers, which were native but unprotected under the Wildlife Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Rush said it was nevertheless disappointing to see \u201creckless driving around wildlife nesting areas, whether wildlife is protected or not\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe would encourage measures to keep people away from the area to give the birds space to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">If protected species were found to have been involved, the school should contact DoC, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIf there are injured birds, contact a local vet or native bird hospital to seek care such as BirdCare Aotearoa.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are very disappointed to share that around 10.25pm on Friday night [September 4], a vehicle was driven&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12635,35875,12784,36124,690,19552,19345,51249,10937,102146,111,43,139,2551,69,124707,292890,4062,73172,210,52635],"class_list":["post-594164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-area","tag-bird","tag-college","tag-damaging","tag-dead","tag-driver","tag-field","tag-grounds","tag-hunt","tag-nesting","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-nz","tag-ploughed","tag-razes","tag-school","tag-tears","tag-through","tag-whangaparoa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}