News

Welcome to our new Rātā Shrine

Some visitors have been wondering about a structure that’s appeared discreetly in the Ōtari epiphyte garden. We can tell you now it is a ‘rātā shrine’, and it’s quite a story. Designer Adam Ellis works in creative fields; industrial product design and urban public gardens, integrating designed structural elements within lived landscapes (see pollen.net.nz). He also loves rātā. Years ago, supported by the then Ōtari supervisor Anita Benbrook, Adam volunteered at Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush. He said he learned so much he wanted to ‘give back’, so recently approached manager Tim Park with an idea to design a ‘living structure’ that celebrates rātā. He’s built a few other iterations around the country but none like this one. True to Ōtari’s ethos of celebrating and protecting rare native plants, this new structure features the white-flowering rātā moehau (Bartlett’s rātā, Metrosideros barlettii), which is close to extinction. Only 13 plants remain in the wild, in the Far North. Most rātā begin life as epiphytes and some grow into trees. This new tripod-shaped structure is designed to rot away over time and its supports are filled with sphagnum that will host tendrils reaching to the ground from the rātā planted at the top. It will take many years, but eventually, all going well, the plant at the top will become a self-supporting tree. We are grateful for Adam’s creative inspiration, to Ōtari staff who enabled the project, and especially for the generosity of John Randall, who funded the project as a living memorial to his late wife Robin, daughter of noted botanist, photographer and Ōtari supporter, Olaf John.

In fact, we are blessed with two flowering Rātā moehau trees in Ōtari, both grown from cuttings of the same wild individual from the Far North.

Posted: 21 October 2023

A Successful Open Day 2023

A keen wind didn’t deter keen locals from our annual Rā Tūwhera ki Ōtari | Ōtari Open Day.

Acording to Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush manager, Tim Park, it was the busiest visitor day for the whole year and twice as busy as on Open Day 2022.

There was a lot going on. A small-scale plant sale included specialties propagated by our very own, new Trust nursery.

Talks and guided walks enlightened visitors about the key role Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush plays in native plant conservation and supporting the thriving native bird populations of Wellington.

Key people were there, from RAMBO, Ōtari’s own predator control group, Capital Kiwi, Animal Services (keeping kiwi and other birds safe from dogs), Porirua Nursery, Zealandia and Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara Sanctuary to Sea, Ōtari Raranga Weavers, Rongoā (traditional health) and Open Lab, for the kids.

Everyone, including ‘big kids’, had a ton of fun playing games on the Cockayne Lawn with the health and wellbeing team from Tū Mātau Ora.

The Trust’s own cakes and preserves stall, cards and book sales, and raffles (thanks heaps to prize donors Melissa Boardman, Judi Lapsley Miller and Garage Project),

helped keep up the lively vibe. Thanks for coming everyone!

Posted: 21 October 2023

Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) Backcountry magazine book review

Sincere thanks to FMC for this review, your readers will very much be the outdoor, conservation-minded people who would appreciate Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush. There is just one, potentially negative quote: ‘unless you were or still are an Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush volunteer or staff member, this book contains perhaps more details than required.’ In fact, we take this comment as a compliment - the huge community of volunteers and staff who have worked and still work tirelessly in collaboration for the benefit of Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush are the essence of this special place and very much part of its story.

BACKCOUNTRY REVIEW

Ōtari: Two hundred years of Ōtari–Wilton’s Bush

By Bee Dawson, photographs by Chris Coad, The Cuba Press, November 2022, hard cover, 228 pages, $80. Reviewed by Peter Laurenson, New Zealand Alpine Club.

Ōtari tells the story of Ōtari–Wilton’s Bush, the only botanic garden dedicated solely to the collection and conservation of the plants unique to Aotearoa New Zealand, and a native bush reserve with over a hundred hectares of regenerating forest, including some of Wellington’s oldest trees.

Given the increased focus on ways to be in nature while reducing our carbon footprint, this book is timely. While Ōtari–Wilton’s Bush will not offer the same degree of challenge and adventure as our backcountry, with free entry it still does offer the most accessible native bush experience within our capital city. Ideally suited to families with young children and to the elderly, the reserve’s many trails provide very enjoyable nature walks, educational experiences and access to the Town Belt. The reserve also provides a worthy focal point for conservationists and botanists wishing to volunteer their time and energy.

Ōtari begins with the Ngāti Tama gardens in the area from the 1820s, and settler family the Wiltons, who protected acres of native bush for the community to enjoy, and then follows the evolution of the land into a plant museum under leading plant ecologist Leonard Cockayne and Wellington’s first director of parks and reserves, John Gretton MacKenzie.

Botanical descriptions and archival research are enlivened by the many recent and archival photographs, and by the colourful stories of the curators who created and managed the collections, starting with Walter Brockie in 1947, as well as the many gardeners, botanists and volunteers who have worked on the internationally renowned garden and reserve. Ōtari–Wilton’s Bush is a taonga that sustains both the people who visit it and the country whose plant life it protects.

Unless you were or still are an Ōtari–Wilton’s Bush volunteer or staff member, this book contains perhaps more details than required. It certainly documents the many facets of the reserve’s journey very thoroughly. Even so, if you’re a botanist and/or a Wellingtonian, then Ōtari: Two hundred years of Ōtari–Wilton’s Bush is a well-written, interesting story, and a call to action to engage with the reserve with renewed enthusiasm.

Until very recently a Wellingtonian myself, I found the degree to which Ōtari–Wilton’s Bush is entwined with the wider history of Wellington to be fascinating. I was also mightily impressed by the amount of dedicated, mostly volunteer effort and care that has been invested in the reserve, spanning more than a century. It helps to explain how the reserve has evolved into the treasure it is today.

Posted: 30 July 2023