EcoWorld tuatara moved to Lochmara Lodge ahead of Sounds release

Tuatara rehomed from the closed EcoWorld aquarium in Picton have been snacking on plenty of cicadas and beetles at their new home in the bay across the sound.

The three Cook Strait tuatara and one Brothers Island tuatara arrived at Lochmara Lodge Wildlife Recovery Centre on Friday, where they will be kept for at least two months, before being permanently rehomed to islands in the Marlborough Sounds.

The tuatara project at EcoWorld started in 2008 in partnership with DOC and local iwi Te Ātiawa. A High Court ruling in November last year gave aquarium owner John Reuhman 20 working days to leave the waterfront building after it dismissed his claims he had a 10-year right of renewal on his lease.

Lochmara Lodge co-owner Chris Bensemann said the team was privileged to be given the opportunity to care for the tuatara.

“I think I've seen tuatara once in my lifetime as a child, down in Invercargill,” Bensemann said.

“So to be able to see them, and to be able to see them up so close and see them in what we think is a fairly natural environment, is certainly a privilege, that's for sure.”

A former gecko enclosure had been modified to house the tuatara at the lodge, and the tuatara had already been seen coming out of their enclosures, catching their dinner on their own, and “eating plenty of cicadas and beetles”.

Lochmara Lodge is a 4.4-hectare property, accessed by a 20-minute water taxi from Picton or from the Queen Charlotte Track. It sleeps up to 40 people, and had an underwater observatory, a sea life “touch tank”, a kakariki breeding programme and kunekune pigs.

Bensemann thanked the Department of Conservation, Port Marlborough and “in particular" mana whenua and iwi for the opportunity to care for the tuatara.

“We will do our very best to make sure they have a happy and healthy experience here,” he said.

DOC sounds operations manager Dave Hayes thanked Port Marlborough and its specialist staff for their care of the tuatara.

“And also Lochmara Lodge, for providing a temporary home for the tuatara and looking after them,” Hayes said

Before the move on Friday, specialist staff provided by Port Marlborough had been caring for the tuatara, after the High Court decision ruled the port would take possession of the aquarium and its remaining animals.

Three days before the decision was released, one of the tuatara at EcoWorld Aquarium died.

The Brothers Island tuatara was sent to Massey University to investigate its cause of death, which was found to be in “poor body condition” in large part due to having scar tissue in both kidneys.

Hayes said because the kidney damage was “chronic”, it had not been possible to tell what the initial cause of the damage was.

Brothers Island tuatara were endemic to New Zealand, and, according to the EcoWorld website, there were roughly just 400 of the species left.

The High Court decision from Justice Gendall said Reuhman had built his case “exclusively” around a letter from his landlord, Port Marlborough, in 2015, offering him a right of renewal of EcoWorld’s lease.

But as soon as Reuhman made a counter-offer to “chance his hand for better terms” that offer was “extinguished”, Justice Gendall said in his decision.

Talks over the next three years discussed a number of “potential changes” to the lease, which included the “possibility” of a right of renewal, the decision said.

Yet throughout all talks, where Reuhman sought to achieve “better rent, future development, and early termination conditions”, no agreement on a new lease was ever reached.

When Port Marlborough took over the building in December, a spokesperson said its property and safety teams were on site undertaking remedial repairs to make the building safe as it was left in a “state of disrepair”.

The spokesperson said very few animals remained on the site.

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