Nearly halfway to his goal of raising $1 million to eradicate mice from the Antipodes Islands, entrepreneur and philanthropist Gareth Morgan is already looking ahead to see if it could be done on the mainland.
Mr Morgan, who led the Our Far South expedition to the islands earlier this year, will be in Dunedin tomorrow evening to talk about the experience and the lessons learnt as a fundraiser for the Million Dollar Mouse campaign.
Dunedin men Garry Wilson, Barry McLellan and Darren Buist, also went on the trip.
Mr Morgan said three issues stood out as being of the most concern: climate change, globalisation and pests.
The 10 scientists who went on the trip were able to deploy equipment which would give them readings on the impact of climate change on the region for the next five years as they transmitted data via satellite.
The impact on the Antarctic of an increasing demand for commodities was another worry as nations competed for land, minerals and fishing.
Then there was the impact of pests on the hundreds of species which used the Antipodes Islands for "rest and reproduction", Mr Morgan said. They competed for food sources, ate the sea bird's eggs and even their chicks.
"We did that. We left the pests there, so we have an obligation."
He hoped that by Christmas the campaign would have reached its target and, once the "Antipodes are knocked off", he plans to start looking at eradicating pests on islands where people live, believing that would, in turn, attract people to New Zealand.
Mr Morgan planned to talk to Stewart Islanders as part of that quest.
"We just want to lift the sights of New Zealanders on this issue."
The talk is being held at Otago Boys High School at 6pm.
