Lots To See & Do

There’s lots to see and do in the Sanctuary!

Because there’s lots to see and do in the Sanctuary – you’ll find yourself wanting to come again and again, so keep up to date with our opening hours.

On passing through the biosecurity gates into the Sanctuary you enter a special haven where you can re-connect with nature and re-energise yourself.

The Sanctuary features an extensive network of well posted walking tracks; the loop track is perfectly suited to those wanting a fairly gentle experience, it’s even suitable for people in electric mobility scooters and wheel chairs. For the more adventurous there’s Carter’s Track and the Valley Track – both of which feature a number of river crossings.

During your visit we recommend you stop along the way, sit quietly – listen and look out for the many bird species that inhabit the Sanctuary. There are plenty of bird species to look out for including: pīwakawaka (fantail), tui, ruru (morepork), korimako (bellbird), ngirungiru (tomtit), riroriro (grey warbler), kererū (wood pigeon) and tauhou (silvereye) and the recently re-introduced tīeke (South Island saddleback) and kākāriki karaka (orange-fronted parakeet).

The pictures below feature a juvenile (jackbird) tīeke on the left with its brown plumage, the bird on the right is an adult tīeke with its distinctive adult ‘saddle’ plumage which they develop at 1-2 years of age. Adults male and female are difficult to distinguish from each other, the males tend to have larger wattles and longer tarsus and wing lengths, and are heavier than females but the sexes can overlap in their measurements.