Diary Page

September 2006

Volunteers Needed

Karori Wildlife Sanctuary is looking for volunteers to help in their Visitor Centre and with guided tours. The Sanctuary is particularly interested in hearing from people who would be available midweek and at weekends. Experience with guiding, training or working with groups of people is preferred.

“Volunteering at Karori Wildlife Sanctuary provides an opportunity be a part of an internationally recognised and groundbreaking conservation project. It’s very rewarding – not only do you extend your knowledge in conservation, education and tourism, there are always social opportunities to meet and mingle with like-minded people”, says Guide & Host Convenor and long-term volunteer Pam Fuller.

The next Guide and Host training, run in conjunction with the Wellington Institute of Technology, will cover Customer Service, Flora and Fauna, and First Aid, as well as a number of organised walks, and will be run over September and October 2006. Volunteers must have an interest in conservation, be or become a Sanctuary member and be available for at least one day of rostered duties each month on a Saturday, Sunday and/or Public Holiday.

If you are interested in applying for the next round of Guide and Host training please contact Rachael Dippie, Marketing Manager, Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, by 15 September 2006. Telephone 04 920 9204 or email kwst@sanctuary.org.nz.

• More information about volunteering at Karori Wildlife Sanctuary

It’s bye-bye birdie for one Sanctuary resident

Until now, it has been one-way traffic as far as rare species transfers at Wellington’s world-first Karori Wildlife Sanctuary are concerned. But all that is about to change as the award-winning eco-restoration project prepares to transfer one of its rarest inhabitants out of the Sanctuary for the first time in its 11-year history.

On 28 September a male hihi (stitchbird) left the Sanctuary to be part of the Department of Conservation’s hihi breeding programme at Pukaha Mt Bruce (the National Wildlife Centre near Masterton). (More...)

Endangered Species Day and the Great Coin Count-up

Use your old coins to support the Sanctuary

Over the last few months, we have been asking people to donate their old silver coins to support the conservation of endangered native wildlife at the Sanctuary. To celebrate the culmination of this appeal, we are holding an Endangered Species Day and Coin Count-up on Saturday 16 September.

Sanctuary staff will be running a programme of talks and guided walks about some of the endangered species they work with. There will also be an opportunity to meet Spike, the tuatara from Victoria University, and to find out how the 70 tuatara and 30 Maud Island frogs we released earlier this year are settling in.

If you have been saving coins for us, bring along your collections and you will get in for FREE! There will be loads of games and activities, including magic tricks, face-painting, and a sausage sizzle. We will count up your coins and announce the totals throughout the day. There will be some great prizes for the highest amounts collected. It’s not too late to start collecting – download our special jar label to print out.

Dad’s Day Out: Free entry for fathers

Calling kids of all ages. Bring your dad along to the Sanctuary on Fathers' Day and he can come in for FREE! Entry for you costs $4 if you're aged 5 - 16, and $8 if you're simply a kid at heart.

Members’ offer – Sanctuary by Night Special

Little-spotted kiwi pulling up a worm Photo © Peter Daniel

The Sanctuary by Night weekend offer we ran in June was so popular with members that we’ve decided to do it again. Members are entitled to a 50% discount on Sanctuary by Night tours, anytime. But in August or September you can bring a non-member on a Night Tour, and it will be half price for them too.

So if you have friends or family visiting over the winter, why not treat them to a uniquely Wellington experience! And with the 2-hour tours starting as early as 5pm in August (5.30pm after the 14th), you can be back in town in good time to eat or catch a show. Kiwi sightings are becoming increasingly frequent on Night Tours, so there has never been a better opportunity to see our national bird in the wild. To take advantage of this offer, book through the Visitor Centre by phoning 04 920 9213.

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