Makara resident Ted Smith (90) was at Terawhiti Station Monday morning setting the first trap in to the ground to mark the start of Capital Kiwi, a five-year plan to bring kiwi back in Wellington

A massive effort to bring kiwi back to Wellington has begun with the first trap being set in the ground in Makara.

The plan is being welcomed by 90-year-old Makara resident Ted Smith, who hit the first trap's stake into the ground at Terawhiti Station, on the capital's south coast, on Monday.

Smith, who was born in Karori, said it could be done, and he wanted pests gone.

"All the predators we have have been introduced to this country, and I think we should now ask them to leave."

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Smith had explored Makara for about 80 years and wanted to see kiwi in his backyard.

"It's going to require a lot of work and effort from a lot of people, and it's going to take time, but it can be done."

Smith, with other landowners and members of the trapping community, gathered at the blustery farm to see the first trap prepared - a self-resetting Goodnature A24 trap, manufactured in Newtown.

It's the first of 4400 traps to be set across 23,000 hectares in Wellington by next winter.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Makara resident Ted Smith, 90, at Terawhiti Station setting the first trap in to the ground to mark the start of Capital Kiwi, a five-year plan to bring kiwi back in Wellington.

Capital Kiwi has three years to eradicate mustelids (stoats, weasels and ferrets), and then the Department of Conservation could approve the release of kiwi.

Speaking at the launch, project founder Paul Ward said mustelids were "the number one threat to our young kiwis' housing crisis".

Ward said New Zealanders called themselves, their money, and some sports teams "Kiwis".

"Like the birds we're feisty, shy, tough, and just a little bit weird."

But few had seen the kiwi themselves, and it wasn't right, he said.

More tourists than New Zealanders have seen kiwi, and if kiwis had seen their namesake, it was probably in a zoo.

SUPPLIED A project to reintroduce kiwi to 23,000 hectares of public and private land across Wellington has been launched. (File photo)

"What are we going to do if we can't look after these guys? We're going to have to turn KiwiBank to Rat Bank."

The partnership between landowners, iwi, community groups, councils, DOC, Kiwis for Kiwi, Goodnature and Meridian represented an "unprecedented community consensus", he said.

The vision was to have Makara a kiwi heartland, to have kiwi wandering around under the wind turbines, Mt Kaukau, and Karori and Island Bay residents getting their own kiwi dawn chorus.

"We're at the start of a five-year project, so we've got a lot of work to get on with."