Source: Radio New Zealand
Wellington’s eco-sanctuary Zealandia is facing a bill of tens of thousands of dollars following last month’s wild winds.
In February, the lower North Island was hit by a brutal storm which brought down trees, shut roads and cut off power to thousands.
The capital experienced its strongest winds in more than a decade with gusts of 193 kilometres an hour recorded at Mount Kaukau, and 128km/h at Wellington Airport.
At Zealandia, which was home to Takahe, Kākā, Little Spotted Kiwi and more, the sanctuary’s conservation and restoration general manager Jo Ledington told RNZ the weather event had been described as like being in a “snow globe”.
RNZ / Mark Papalii
“That’s what it felt like, we came in and it just felt like the whole valley had been shaken, there was just leaf debris everywhere up to sort of 10 centimetres on tracks in places.”
Ledington said the wind toppled pine trees as tall as 30 metres which needed to be cleared.
“They are very big, big old trees.”
She said it had taken a financial toll on the community organisation.
RNZ / Mark Papalii
“The cost of cleaning up is high I have had to pull my team off their normal work of maintaining the predator free fence and yeah we have pulled everyone onto these tracks to get the cleaning up done.
“And then of course we need professional arborists to come in and do that really big heavy work and that comes at a significant cost.”
It was unclear what that full cost would be yet.
“It will be tens and tens of thousands yeah, we are running an appeal at the moment, and we have had incredible community support for that.”
RNZ / Mark Papalii
She said with Zealandia shutting more often due to storms, they were planning for how they dealt with the new normal of more severe weather.
That included refreshing the site’s predator proof fence with the latest climate data.
“The rebuild will be building for our future projections of wind and whatever gets thrown at it.”
It was hoped that the trees would be cleared by the end of March.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
