NGA MANU OPENS TO THE PUBLIC AND A NEW ERA BEGINS
Nga Manu Sanctuary was opened by the Minister for the Environment, Dr Ian Shearer, and was attended by local politicians, representatives from the New Zealand Wildlife Service and conservation organisations, along with many of those who had contributed to the establishment of the sanctuary. The opening was a success and generated considerable publicity, both in the print media and on television, which set the sanctuary up well for the summer holiday period.
The opening marked a new era, and Peter had to make a mental transition from experiencing the sanctuary as a place that had been very personal to him, to a shared space, open to anyone who wished to come. For this reason, the days following the opening were perhaps more of a strain for Peter than the opening itself. Up to this time he had had little contact with visitors to the reserve. Although there had been a couple of groups of visitors, these had been special interest groups such as Forest & Bird – most of whom Peter knew personally. For most of the preceding three years Peter had worked at the site either by himself or with Bill Parata, but now he faced having to share the sanctuary with a lot of potentially critical visitors. However, as he soon discovered, there was no need to be anxious about the public response – over the next 30 years he can recall only two or three visitors who were difficult to deal with – most were fully appreciative of the reserve and what it had to offer.
Photo above: First tour bus visit, soon after Nga Manu opens to the public, at the end of 1981. Note the complete lack of vegetation around the information centre. This area is now unrecognizably transformed with native plantings, lawn and paths – only the ducks and geese have remained a constant feature!
Development of the reserve did not stop with the opening. Not much was achieved during the first summer; Peter and Bill were busy looking after visitors and with day-to-day maintenance tasks. Initially they had no set closing time; rather they would open when either Peter or Bill arrived, and Peter would stay until the last visitor left. In the long summer evenings, this often meant closing at 8.30 or even 9.00pm. Subsequently, when a pattern in visitors over the day had emerged, they set the hours to a more reasonable 10am to 4.30/5.00pm.
Over the next two to three years, further facilities were added and the existing facilities improved. The interpretation of the natural history of the area was always an objective of the Trust, and Peter experimented, with varying degrees of success, with signs, labels, displays in the information centre and an audio visual unit (donated by the Roy McKenzie Foundation). Not surprisingly, the most effective method was face-to-face interactions between staff and visitors.
Visits by school groups became an important way for the Trust to increase awareness about the uniqueness and importance of New Zealand’s natural heritage. To assist teachers, the Trust decided to produce a range of study sheets and some resource material. Unfortunately, however, they could not afford to employ anybody to do this job. In the past, Bruce Phillips, a graphic art student and ex-school teacher, had done some graphics and illustrations work for the sanctuary. As he was at the time unemployed, he suggested that the Trust apply to the Department of Labour to get the work done under a PEP scheme. The idea was that he would then be referred to us by the department and the Trust would accept him. While this plan was good in theory, in practice it fell apart when another artist, Helen Clifton, was referred by the department. This was resolved by hastily arranging a second scheme to employ Bruce.
Helen and Bruce worked at the Sanctuary for most of the year. Bruce produced a very effective range of study sheets that we were to use for the next 10 years. Helen, who was an accomplished artist, produced several displays for the information centre (some of which are still in use) and a portfolio of illustrations of the plants of the sanctuary that have been used in newsletters, resource material, displays and labels ever since.
Other workers were also employed under the PEP scheme, and much of the development work done during this period was carried out with the assistance of workers from the scheme. From 1983 to 1985 the Trust employed 13 workers under this scheme, who helped to build the aviaries, the water reticulation system and to extend the pathways through the reserve.
Simon Leather was employed on a three month PEP scheme to carry out an intensive predator control trial using a network of bait and trapping stations. These efforts had a significant effect on the population of wild cats in and around the reserve, which was quite high at this time. Ducks were being lost to cats almost every night before this intensive trapping, but afterwards this became a rare occurrence. In terms of other pests – mustelids, possums, rats and rabbits (the latter were shot rather than trapped) – the pest control proved quite successful in the short term, but as the Trust did not have the resources to carry on at the same intensity once the scheme ended, the medium or long term effects were more limited.
The Trust made use of other employment schemes also. Massey University student Don Kerr worked over one summer under the Student Employment Programme. Don was a keen botanist and spent much of his time cataloging the plants in the arboretum and locating and listing all of the native ferns found at Nga Manu. This data was incorporated into the research that John Dawson and his students at Victoria University were doing.
By 1984 the Reserve was becoming quite busy – it had more than 17,000 visitors over the course of the year, as well as school groups totalling 3,500 children. By this time, Bill Parata had left, all the interfacing with visitors, and – in the case of the school groups – all the guided walks and lectures, fell to Peter to do. This was on top of working on further development, managing the PEP schemes and workers, and the day-to-day maintenance work, including the daily feeding and caring for the birds both at the Reserve and Ruapehu St. This was more than Peter could manage, and so it was decided that extra staff should be employed by the Trust.
Peter placed an advert in the local paper and received over 100 replies the first day. While this overwhelming response was no doubt in part due to the growing interest in the reserve, it was also a reflection of the employment situation at the time – unemployment was high, and jobs – even part-time and not highly paid – were highly sought-after. After interviewing 30 candidates, he finally selected two women, Laree Lust (who later became an author) and Kerry Voice, on a job share basis. They worked at Nga Manu for about two years, staffing the information centre on the weekends (it was unmanned during the week, when it ran on an honesty system), and helping out with feeding the birds, cleaning and maintenance tasks during the week. This allowed Peter to focus on the development projects around the reserve.
NGA MANU BECOMES FREEHOLD AND GETS A NOCTURNAL HOUSE
Not long after Nga Manu opened, Moss Smith approached the Trust with a plan to subdivide part of the farm surrounding the Reserve and offered to give the Trust the opportunity the freehold the site. The Board readily agreed that this was a valuable opportunity: a freehold site would enable the Trust to plan, invest in and develop facilities for the long term.
However, not unexpectedly, the subdivision did not happen overnight: difficulties with the subdivision plan, and negotiations over price and conditions once the plan had been approved all took time. But finally, in 1986 – four years after the initial approach – the Trust took free-hold possession of the site, at a purchase cost of $90,000. (However, this included an extra 1.7 hectares of land for a house site, which Peter subsequently purchased from the Trust in 1989 for $60,000.)
Once the freehold looked almost certain Peter began the next stage of the Reserve development. This came at a critical time, because many of the earlier temporary facilities were deteriorating rapidly. Completely coincidentally, Peter was approached at this time by a local organisation, based at the Waikanae Lioness Club, who offered to assist and co-ordinate fund-raising to build a kiwi (nocturnal) house.
Photo above and below: Pouring the concrete pad, and building the external and internal walls for the nocturnal house, 1989. The centre, the housing for the kiwis, was not filled with concrete, and instead filled with soil. This was so that it could be irrigated and kept damp, to create suitable habitat for the kiwis and the soil and forest floor-dwelling invertebrate on which they feed.
While the nocturnal house project proceeded, other facilities were being planned and constructed and the infrastructure upgraded. Power was laid on to the site and this enabled Peter to upgrade the water supply and then the water reticulation system. Later, a bore was installed to provide a more secure water source. The access road was sealed and the carpark and entrance area upgraded.
Photo left: Peter McCullum, Nga Manu’s first paid full-time employee, filling the kiwi enclosure with leaf litter. Peter also painted the mural on the wall of the enclosure. Peter is now manager of the Kapiti SPCA.
With the numbers of visitors increasing from year to year, the information centre was becoming too small, so Peter again called on Ray Cleland to assist with the planning for an extension or replacement. It was decided to modify and extend the existing building: by increasing the size of the souvenir shop, creating more display area and adding tea-rooms. Chris Geale, who had joined the staff in 1987 when Laree Lust left, took up the concession to run the tea rooms and shopin addition to her other duties. This meant that she took a half-share of the profit from the tea rooms and shop in addition to her pay for her information centre and other duties.
When the reserve opened, Peter had built a small lookout area on the slope of the western boundary to give visitors a view over the site. This was never particularly satisfactory, and as the trees grew the outlook deteriorated. Peter’s father had always been keen on a proper lookout tower (as a subtle reminder of this, whenever he traveled overseas he would send postcards and photos of lookout towers!) but it wasn’t until after he offered the Trust funds to build one that Peter began to see the advantages of an improved lookout.
Peter discussed the lookout tower concept with local architect, Denis Manz. He was excited by the idea, and he, along with engineer Peter Boult, offered to do the design pro bono. So in 1989 the Trust commissioned builders Rob Lust (Laree’s husband) and Peter Beard to build it. They had recently finished the nocturnal house and were able to make an immediate start on the tower.
Once completed, it was an impressive structure: 13 metres high, and able to accommodate up to 30 people. From its position perched on the western slopes of the Reserve, visitors can get a magnificent view over the site from the viewing deck.
The nocturnal house, along with the completed lookout tower and extended information centre, was opened to the public in 1989. The opening was quite a significant event, with Governor General Sir Paul Reeves leading the opening ceremony.
Photo above: The opening of the nocturnal house. From left to right: Governor General Sir Paul Reeves, Peter McKenzie, Professor John Salmon (Nga Manu Trust Chairman at the time). Right: Sir Paul Reeves holding one of Nga Manu’s kiwis. Below left: Lady Reeves holding kiwi. In the background from left to right is Sir Roy McKenzie (Peter’s father), Anna McLean (one of the people who helped raise the money for the no
cturnal house) and Peter’s mother (in pink).
The opening event went well, without any notable hitches. The only “incident” of note was that the local community board chairman got the pip and refused to attend after his request to do a speech was politely but firmly turned down. (Neither he nor anyone else on the Waikanae community board had contributed to the development of the Reserve, so a speech, no matter how brilliantly delivered it might be, was not seen as being particularly relevant to the event.)
The new facilities were an immediate success – the lookout tower in particular proving very popular. With the steady increase in visitor numbers, staffing requirements increased also. The Reserve now employed three full-time staff, one part-time, and additional staffing over the holiday periods.
