Tūturuatu/shore plover Photo: Tara Swan
Half a year ago, Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre was on the brink of closure.
The sanctuary - described as a taonga on the border of Wairarapa and Tararua - was in financial turmoil, forced to make a desperate bid for donations just as a stoush over a new home for an endangered bird hit the headlines.
Since then, the entire board has been replaced and a new general manager is at the helm.
But what became of the shore plover, the tiny wading bird at the centre of all the strife?
Manager Toby Cantwell at Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre. Photo: RNZ / Mary Argue
You hear them before you see them.
As Toby Cantwell moves towards the line of brand-new aviaries out the back of Pūkaha, a series of high-pitched cheeping erupts.
The conservation manager's footsteps signal breakfast and the shore plovers seem to know it. They're on high alert.
Today's menu includes a reddish-brown mush of minced ox heart, kitten biscuits, insects and supplements all mixed in individual bowls, plus a handful of live, wriggling, mealworms - bred onsite and handpicked stoically by Cantwell.
He hates creepy-crawlies but they afford him an important once-over of the birds, a visual health check.
"The mealworms are quite good, because that means they [the shore plovers] come over to us nice and close, so you can get a good look.
"Often times you'll employ a pair of binoculars as well, so you can really see the detail of their feet.
"Is there any sign of any problem? Are they using both their feet, are they walking properly? Do they look like they've hurt themselves?"
The birds, with their motley white and brown feathers, take a minute to spot amongst the pebbles and tussock of their artificial coastal environment.
About the size of a fist, the endemic tūturuatu/shore plover is one of the country's most critically endangered birds.
Decades of habitat loss and predation, mean there are fewer than 250 left in the wild, according to the Department of Conservation (DOC), most of them on offshore islands.
Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre hopes its breed and release programme will help bolster those numbers, but earlier this year that ambition was hanging in the balance.
Manager Toby Cantwell. Photo: RNZ / Mary Argue
Pūkaha's plea for financial help
Established in 1962, the wildlife sanctuary is perhaps best known for its first species - the takahē, a Fiordland bird once thought extinct.
The flightless bird marked the start of Pūkaha's breed and release programme for endangered species, but in June this year the sanctuary's days were suddenly numbered.
In a desperate plea for financial help, the then-board announced that without an immediate and significant cash injection of $600,000, Pūkaha would be forced to shut its doors.
"Pūkaha has enjoyed over 60 years of community support, and we are asking our local community and New Zealand to again step up - provide financial assistance - or face the potential closure of this magnificent national treasure, " then-board co-chair Mavis Mullins said at the time.
tūturuatu/ shore plover Photo: Tara Swan
Pūkaha's financial woes escalated in a public stoush over payment for the construction of new aviaries for a critically endangered bird - the shore plover.
DOC had approved a grant for $530,000 for the aviaries - due to be completed before the end of 2024 - with funds to be released on the completion of agreed milestones.
But by May 2025, tensions regarding an unpaid $244,000 invoice from the contractor boiled over. BK Engineering walked off the job, and took its gear and the aviaries' doors with it.
DOC said it hadn't contracted the work and it was working with Pūkaha on finding a solution.
Ultimately, the department stepped in to finish the aviaries, saying they were integral for the shore plover breeding programme and urgently needed.
By mid-June the entire Pūkaha board had been replaced, and its new members were scrambling.
'Sweat, tears and many hui'
It's been a rollercoaster ride, according to Shane McManaway, the new board chair, who said the centre got itself into financial difficulties in the latter part of 2024 for "a whole host of reasons".
Pūkaha's 2023-2024 annual report shows soaring debt - hitting about $3 million - rising operational costs, and falling grant money.
While visitors numbers had increased, they were still about 12,000 below pre-pandemic levels.
By July this year, the new board closed a multi-million-dollar deal with iwi and creditors that kept Pūkaha's doors open.
BK Engineering was paid, but McManaway says the board didn't come up for air for months as its members sought to get a grip on Pūkaha's finances and secure support.
"Day in and day out, all of June, all of July, and most of August we didn't do anything else but really focus on making sure we got it back up on its feet," McManaway says.
Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust chair Sonya Rimene said the deal with the sanctuary came after a "lot of sweat, tears and many hui".
Ultimately, the Trust agreed to buy the sanctuary's education complex, Whare Wānanga, (which it did in August) helping relieve some of the centre's debt and also took on a $1 million loan from the Tararua District Council.
Masterton District Council and Central Energy Trust also came to the party, as did "many, many supporters" from across the region, Rimene said.
She said with Trust members on the board, helping to put Pūkaha "back in the black", and the Whare Wānanga already fully booked into mid-next year, they're feeling positive.
So is McManaway. He said the centre is currently advertising for a 'Chief of Awesome' to help enhance people's experience at the sanctuary and boost numbers through the door - a key part of future revenue and financial stability.
"We want to do more than wash our face to be fair, we want to make sure we can grow the business," he said.
"We really are putting a big effort in. A lot of hard work, but given that it's such a special thing for our beautiful region, it's been worth every hour that we've put in."
McManaway said the sanctuary's financial position is looking "pretty good" - a turnaround made possible by those who "rolled up their sleeves" and the staff who stuck it out during a "very awkward time".
Sights set on future
That tumultuous period is something interim general manager Rhys Watkins would sooner leave behind.
"It was a tricky time... When the new board came in, they obviously had some work to do."
That tumultuous period is something interim general manager Rhys Watkins would sooner leave behind. Photo: RNZ / Mary Argue
The "team of superstars" is getting things done, but he said running a conservation centre 364-days a year, doesn't come cheap.
"[It's] always a feel-good story and quite often it's not wrapped around with bucketloads of money."
Extensive trapping is required to ensure the survival of native species, such as kokako, kiwi, kakariki, and riroriro within and around the reserve's 942 hectares, he said.
Infrastructure, for example aviaries for breeding programmes, also costs.
Despite the challenges, he's optimistic.
"For myself, it's a very exciting time and I think there's opportunity on the horizon - and that's great.
"From a place where you're having discussions about doors closing... to now we're opening doors left, right, and centre."
DOC said work on stage one of the shore plover aviaries (whose doors were stripped) wrapped in August, and work is underway on a second aviary plus one for future chicks.
Lower North Island operations director Alice Heather said it took a lot of hard work to get the aviaries up-and-running and relocated the birds. There are currently 12 shore plovers on site.
She said Pūkaha is an important captive breeding site for endangered species and "the conservation of the critically endangered tūturuatu" is the current focus of DOC's collaboration with the centre.
"While birds are co-housed, DOC is not encouraging breeding right now but will be actively encouraging the birds during the next breeding season, beginning in spring 2026."
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