Ōtorohanga Kiwi House operations manager Julian Phillips shows off the industrial kitchen
The Ōtorohanga Kiwi House history will be the subject of a documentary made by trustee and film maker Robbie Neha.
Barbara Kuriger opened Ōtorohanga Kiwi House’s new centre with Jerry Friar. Photo: Chris Gardner
At the official opening of the kiwi house’s animal nutrition and enrichment centre last week Neha announced the project would be based on interviews with one of the founders, Barry Rowe
Conversations around creating a kiwi breeding programme began in Ōtorohanga in 1969.
“That history remains, and we are hoping to share that real soon, in the next year or two,” Neha said.
The area, he said had been known as kaka mutu or bird trap.
“My grandfather use to trap parrots, eat them, use them for other things,” said Neha, who unsuccessfully stood for Ōtorohanga District Council in October’s local body election.
Ōtorohanga Kiwi House trustee Robbie Neha is making a documentary on the founding of the attraction. Photo: Chris Gardner
Kiwi house board chair Kim Ingham said the centre had been built in the 1980s with Golden Kiwi Lottery Fund money and been used for incubation of kiwi eggs. But it had recently been converted into an animal nutrition and enrichment centre with an industrial kitchen designed to feed the park’s population.
This had been achieved through sponsorship and a loan from Ōtorohanga District Council.
Ōtorohanga mayor Rodney Dow said he was told as a boy the kiwi house’s aviary was the largest in the southern hemisphere.
“If anyone asks me where I’m from, I say Ōtorohanga, the kiwi town,” he said.
The council, having replaced its kiwi logo with The Nest last December, is consulting the district on changing it again – and two options include kiwi.
At last week’s opening Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger cut the ribbon with James Hardie head of sales Jerry Friar whose company provided the cladding.
Looking back, Kuriger said there was a stage “when you felt if you came to Ōtorohanga you might see one of the last kiwi”.
Today the Kiwi House is the home of a national breeding programme for native species including the Mahoenui giant wēta.
Discussing the new centre, operations manager Julian Phillips said the kitchen processed one cattle beast a month and could also be stood up for a civil defence emergencies. The building is a part of the town left untouched by the 1958 flood which caused enormous damage in Ōtorohanga and surrounding areas.
The kiwi house borrowed $2 million from Ōtorohanga District Council in 2020 as part of an $8 million redevelopment plan.
Ōtorohanga Kiwi House operations manager Julian Phillips shows off the industrial kitchen in the animal nutrition and enrichment centre. Photo: Chris Gardner
