Wellington Zoo pens love story to NZ
WELLINGTON ZOO’S newest addition is a ‘‘love story to New Zealand’’.
The $6 million expansion, Meet The Locals, featuring the country’s animals and agriculture opens tomorrow after 15 months of construction to create a bush-lined valley that simulates a journey from New Zealand’s sea to the mountains.
Zoo spokeswoman Amy Hughes said the new feature included everything from an enclosure for little blue penguins, to an eel pond, roaming lambs and chickens.
Tomorrow, Meet The Locals opens to the public, allowing them to interact with exhibits and animals in the 7000 square metre valley, which is at least a fifth of the zoo’s overall footprint.
Hughes said the zoo was describing this feature as its ‘‘love story to New Zealand’’, with a series of zones starting at Penguin Point, then travelling through a farm section, native bush and up to the home of our mountain parrot, the kea.
‘‘Visitors will be able to walk through with the sheep, they’ll be able to pat rabbits, they’ll be able to meet a whole range of animals Meet The Locals cost $6m. It covers 7000sqm or at least a fifth of the zoo’s footprint.
It includes lambs, eels, penguins, a beehive, rare Otago skinks and kea.
The exhibition took 15 months of construction after six years of planning.
More than 4000 native plants can be found in the bush area. they might not have met before, like grand skinks or Wellington geckos.’’
The interactivity includes a secret blow-hole that blasts a stream of water in the air on unwitting visitors, and a walkthrough kea enclosure in a rock alpine landscape.
Hughes said Meet The
Locals was built in an area of the zoo that had been unused for four years, having previously been home to a row of aviaries, and zebra grazing.
‘‘We really wanted to celebrate New Zealand, and New Zealand as it is now. That’s why we have the farm, because so much of New Zealand is farmland.’’
The feature was a good combination of animals and interactivity. That included the roaming chickens – rescued battery hens – that had settled in well.
‘‘We moved them into the coop yesterday and they laid eggs straight away. The idea is kids will be able to feel how warm a chicken’s egg is when it’s been laid.’’
The kea enclosure would not be completed for about a fortnight, she said.
It will link Meet The Locals through to the area outside the zoo’s tiger enclosure.