What's On at Zealandia

Volunteer guide Chris Gee was awarded the Faye Schaef award at ZEALANDIA’s annual volunteer dinner and award night in December. Louise Slocombe met up with Chris to talk about the work he does at ZEALANDIA , which he describes as ‘skippering and guiding’. However, as the conversation progressed, she found out he does a huge range of other activities... 

As Wellington’s Zealandia celebrates its 21st birthday, sanctuary founder Jim Lynch reflects on what has been achieved and lessons learned along the way.

Our sister sanctuary in Australia is Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary. Located in Canberra, Mulligans Flat is home to native Australian bandicoots, bettongs, mice, a variety of birds and other wildlife. They have a fence similar to that of ZEALANDIA's, except it is designed especially to keep cats, rabbits and foxes at bay. 

Find out from Alison Russell-French, President of the Trust, about the challenges and successes of this very different, yet very similar, wildlife sanctuary. 

The boldness and curiosity of North Island robins/toutouwai makes them great subjects for cognitive research, according to biologist Rachael Shaw from Victoria University. 

Introducing hangehange (Geniostoma ligustrifolium) – this small, pale flower may seem all too easy to miss… but not for our native flies, who happen to be very attracted to pale green! 

This auld proverb means those living together should try to get on, but this ain't necessarily so in the shag colonies at ZEALANDIA.

I’ve just met some of Zealandia’s track team. I didn’t know what to expect really. Some kind of experts in running jumping and throwing things maybe? But I quickly found out that while mountain biking and walking were involved, so were lopping, sawing and digging. Track maintenance is their game, and there are two teams, mid-week and weekend.

Have you ever noticed how kōtukutuku - our native tree fuchsia (Fuchsia excorticata) - produces flowers of two different colours? This is because it colour-codes its petals to allow for maximum pollination efficiency.

On earlier visitor maps,  ZEALANDIA`s Lower Dam was referred to as The Lower Lake and the Upper Dam as the Upper Lake. Originally, however, The Lower Dam was named The Lower Reservoir, which was an earth dam completed in 1878. Due to the European settlers wanting farmland, large fires in 1850 and 1860 cleared that area of its broadleaf forest. Some of the valley was farmed uptil 1906, then any remaining catchment area was bought for waterworks.