Living taonga arrive in Nelson

PATRICK HAMILTON/ The Nelson Mail

STARS OF THE SHOW: Anaru Paul, of the Spinyback Tuatara Trust, introduces a juvenile tuatara to pupils of Victory School yesterday.

Relevant offers

Two tuatara flown from Christchurch to Nelson yesterday will soon become the stars of a roadshow.

Their arrival at Natureland Zoo is the culmination of three years' work that next term will see the tuatara taken to Nelson schools to educate children about their significance.

It is a mission that involves a constructive link of business, iwi, education and science organisations.

Waimea Estates wine company sponsors the Spinyback Tuatara Trust involving Ngati Koata iwi, who are guardians of the tuatara living on Takapourewa, or Stephens Island.

The trust came up with the idea of the tuatara roadshow and Ngati Koata member and Victory School teacher Louisa Paul, through a Royal Society of NZ teacher fellowship, has been able to spend six months researching and refining the project.

Ms Paul said bringing the tuatara from Orana Wildlife Park to Nelson was an emotional journey because it was bringing home two taonga.

Trust chairman Mike Brown said the tuatara were underappreciated as an ecological resource.

"They are living links to the dinosaur and have a special significance to Ngati Koata," he said.

The 14-year-old male tuatara are acclimatising in the enclosure the trust and Nelmac have built for them at Natureland.

They are yet to be named and Ngati Koata will decide from more than 100 suggestions from Victory School children.

A group of 10 pupils helped welcome the reptiles with waiata at Natureland yesterday. Six-year-old Maile Davis, who patted one of them, said, "It's cool".

Next term the tuataras will go to six Nelson schools Victory, Auckland Point, Stoke, Hampden St, Hope and Ngatimoti.

Victory School principal Mark Brown said the tuatara were a treasure for Nelson and it was an exciting opportunity for children to learn more about them.

- © Fairfax NZ News