Queenstown's Kiwi Birdlife Park celebrates 30th anniversary

Thirty years ago, a Queenstown-based metalsmith had an unlikely ‘vision’ – to build the resort town’s first birdlife and conservation park on an overgrown piece of wasteland.

Invercargill-born Dick Wilson and his wife Noeleen moved to Queenstown in the 1950s with their family and opened the first garage and shop in Frankton.

Twenty years later, Dick, a remarkable visionary, noticed that customers at his garage were increasingly asking where they could see New Zealand’s famous icon the kiwi.

An animal lover who was passionate about nature and native wildlife, he knew of a piece of land used as a dumping site for old cars and rubbish on the edge of town. He applied to the Lake County Council to lease the land, ignored those who said he was wasting his time, and was granted the lease for the land and use of a natural spring in the early 1980s. He was 57-years-old when his dream project was given the green light.

After removing several tonnes of rubbish, fencing the entire area, clearing 14ft-high blackberry and broom canes, building ponds and removing about 100 huge pine trees, Dick and son Paul built aviaries, the first Kiwi house and a ticket office, also planting about 10,000 native pines to replace the pines.


Queenstown’s Kiwi Birdlife Park celebrates its 30th birthday this week. Photo courtesy of Southern PR

They contacted the New Zealand Wildlife Service (now Department of Conservation) to see how they could go about sourcing some birds, and two long and hard years later officially opened for business on January 13th 1986.

The park had one kiwi house, an enclosure for kea, a yellow-crowned kakariki aviary and a weka pen, while pukeko and ducks roamed free.  Admission was $3.50 for an adult, $2 for a child and on Day One they put through 41 adults and 21 kids. They thought it was the best thing ever! 

Fast forward 30 years and the Kiwi Birdlife Park attracts thousands of visitors every year, and is recognised nationwide for its conservation success stories. It now holds and displays over 20 species of native wildlife as part of nationally-managed programmes. 

It takes part in a number of breed-for-release programmes, and has planted over 12,000 native plants providing essential food and shelter to wild native birds that now call the Park home.

Its free-flight bird show was launched in October 2001 and was the first of its kind in NZ, remaining the only show to use native birds to help spread the conservation message. The Park is a proud member of the Zoo and Aquarium Association and was the first private facility in New Zealand to gain welfare accreditation. 


Some original staff from Kiwi Birdlife Park include (L to R) Rosalie Thompson, Greg (surname not known), Beth Heron, Dick Wilson, Noeleen Wilson, Marion Jefcoate, Paul Wilson. Photo courtesy of Southern PR

While Dick and Noeleen have both since passed away, the family link continues with son Paul Wilson as General Manager and wife Sandra an integral part of the Park since Day One.

Its celebration milestone is being recognised with an event opened by Ngai Tahu representative Michael Skerrett and Park and family friend Willie Solomon. DOC Threatened Species Ambassador Nicola Toki is a special guest speaker, attending on behalf of Conservation Minister Maggie Barry.

Park director and owner Paul Wilson said he was “extremely proud” of what his family and the park team had achieved over 30 years.

“We’ve worked alongside DOC to make a huge contribution to New Zealand’s unique species,” he said.
 
“It’s a truly rewarding task to have educated hundreds of thousands of visitors about New Zealand’s exceptional flora and fauna, and we hope we’ve inspired visitors to live a more ‘green’ lifestyle to help benefit the environment in which we live.”

Always innovating and adding to the scope of its wildlife on show, a brand-new reptile wing opened in December 2015, housing New Zealand’s ‘living dinosaurs’ the Tuatara and rare endangered skinks. Tuatara are not found anywhere else in the world and are now extinct on the North and South Islands.
Nicola Toki said she was “very supportive” of parks such as the Kiwi Birdlife Park.

“They’ve spent three decades advocating for what’s special about our native wildlife,” she said.

“With 87% of New Zealanders now living in towns, and a third of international visitors coming here because they want to have some kind of experience with our nature, places like Kiwi Birdlife Park are crucial in gently educating national and international visitors about our native wildlife.

“The Department of Conservation is extremely grateful to Queenstown’s Kiwi Birdlife Park for its significant contribution to some of our threatened species in the wild.”


Park staff today (L to R) Back row: Paul Wilson, Bianca Mattson, Sophie Olsson-Pons, Paul Kavanagh, Kotaro Higuchi, James Ashcroft, Chloe Roberton, Thea Garard.  Front row: Sandra Wilson, Nicole Kunzmann, Jennifer Clark (and Buddy Wilson), Bonnie Wilkins, Christina Becker-Fifield, Marion Jefcoate. Photo courtesy of Southern PR

Kiwi Birdlife Park park manager Nicole Kunzmann said Kiwi Birdlife Park was “incredibly thankful” for everyone’s support over the past 30 years.

“We’ve always relied on the generosity of others to ensure the future of the park and the animals within it, and support from locals across the board has never waned. We really wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for that groundswell of local involvement.”

Most recently, the Kiwi Birdlife Park has been working closely with DOC on a recovery programme for critically endangered Grand and Otago skinks (New Zealand’s largest lizards) that’s enabled them to breed the animals as well as becoming a crèche site for any juvenile skinks born in captivity around the country.

Just this week, new six-year-old male kiwi McMurdo has arrived at the Park. Born in captivity at Rainbow Springs, he’s being brought in to mate with existing resident Tapui, after Tapui turned out to be a female rather than the male that the Park were expecting! 

“Tapui was transferred in to us as a male to pair with our female Tawahi.  It was only when they didn’t seem to ‘click’ and no eggs appeared that we thought we’d better do a second DNA feather test to determine what was wrong,” said Nicole.

“Hopefully this time we’ve got it right!”