Events Blog

Newsletter -December 2025

pukekurafriends
Dec 22, 2025

Updated: Dec 23, 2025

Events Programme January 2026

FRIENDS' PICNIC

5:30pm, Thursday 29 January at The Gables, Brooklands Park

It’s that time of year again… where we kick start 2026 with our Gables picnic and the company of friends, family and the NP Arts Society.

Our picnic this year will be a little different…. the music will be more of background music, allowing us to mix and mingle, to admire gardens and the art on display in the Gables.

Please note there will be a gold coin contribution requested towards the cost of the music.

There will be some tables set up – but please also bring your picnic blankets, chairs… whatever you need to be comfortable and relaxed.

BYO sunhats, picnic, drinks……..family and friends – the more the merrier!

It’s always a pleasant evening and good for catching up with those we haven’t seen over the Christmas break - I look forward to seeing you there.

Sue

Review of December's Events

December 2nd - Wanderers' Walk

Tūparikino Active Community Hub Project

Leads - Joel Richardson and Emma Christie

There was an excellent turnout for this walk – including some of the Park staff.

We were brought up to date with the progress of the new Sports hub project known as (Tūparikino Active Community Hub). The construction of the hub which will start in the Autumn of next year will accommodate 6 indoor multisport courts.

The first stage of the project which started about a year ago was to relocate the horse tie-up areas that are used on race days and training days. New facilities have been built at the top of the road that leads down to the Bowl.

Old Raceday Tie-up Facilities

New Raceday Tie-up Facilities

At the same time the old public stand was demolished making way for the construction of the new six court stadium.

Demolishing Public Stand

The next stage is the construction of a large tar-sealed carpark which has already been half completed. This was the focus of the walk.

The tar-sealing of a large area causes two problems.

1. It reduces the amount of groundwater which goes into aquifers which feed the natural springs in the Park.

2. To handle the extra runoff water the existing stormwater pipe that discharges into the Park’s main lake would need to be replaced with a larger pipe.

To mitigate this problem caused by the car-park the council has adopted a Water Sensitive Design strategy aimed at maintaining and enhancing the natural hydrological cycle, including groundwater recharge and stormwater management. These strategies are designed to protect the spring-fed systems in Pukekura Park and reduce direct stormwater discharge into the lake system.

There has also been a new stormwater drain laid that ties into the drain running down Gover Street.

Within the carpark there are several swales and rain gardens which under light rain fall will collect all the run-off water allowing it to naturally soak into the ground. These areas also help to filter out pollutants.

Artist’s impression of how the carpark will look when the gardens are established

Cross Section through the Carpark

In a medium rain event when water cannot soak away fast enough through the rain gardens, the water flows down manholes within the gardens and is fed into underground storage areas which collect the water and slowly release it into the aquifer.

Undeground Water Storage

In a large/quick rainfall event where both systems are at capacity there is a weir inside the stormwater system that overflows into the existing stormwater system that is piped away.

The system has been designed to hopefully capture between 70 and 80% of the rainfall from the carpark and have it fed back into the aquifer.

Rainwater tanks will capture roof runoff for reuse (e.g., toilet flushing), reducing the volume of stormwater needing discharge and providing resilience during dry periods.

December 16th - Wanderers' Walk

FOL Tour - Lead Briana Dolan

Some of the group trying out -CURIOSITY

Although drizzly and a little bleak, 21 of us set out with Briana from NPDC to see the behind the scenes action at the year’s Festival of Lights.

I am always fascinated to hear about why things are displayed and distilled installed where they are. Take the 90s dance stage for example, in the middle of the palm lawn which creates an amazing atmosphere at night. Be ready to dance your heart out!

The octopus in Fountain Lake looks like it will be a huge hit. I was surprised by the size and colours and I think we all looked forward to seeing it at night.

We ambled up to the band Rotunda and onto Poets Bridge where we experienced the new cylindrical installation in the centre. Hard to imagine during the day but I’m sure it will be stunning by night.

Our walk then wandered up to the top of the park and back down to the Tea House. Although we saw so many of the features, there are still more to explore.

Thanks so much Briana, we all were fascinated and appreciated the chance to see behind the scenes.

For more information about the lights check out the FOL website https://www.festivaloflights.nz/summer/

Sue

Friends of Pukekura Park Membership Application Form

To apply for membership, either click on the link to our website page or download a pdf application form

Go to website page

Newsletter -November 2025

pukekurafriends
Nov 30, 2025

Events Programme December 2025

2nd - Curator’s Walk.

Meet at TSB Carpark (Red gates) 10.30 a.m.

Lead - Joel Richardson - A tour of the new Sports hub completed areas, where they will talk to us about the development and Water Sensitive Design strategies. The meeting place will be TSB stadium car park, meet at the red gates that take you down to the park.

16th - Wanderers’ Walk. Festival of Lights?

Meet at Bellringer Pavilion 10.30 a.m.

Briana Dolan from NPDC will lead us on the behind-the-scenes tour of the Festival of Lights – always a favourite tour!

16th - Committee meeting

25th - Evening Meeting

No Evening Meeting in December

Review of November's Events

November 18th - Wanderers' Walk

Fernery Tour - Lead - Martin Thompson

A select group of 8 joined Martin Thompson and Jasmine on a really interesting tour of The Fernery today.

Martin was keen to share the historical story of The Fernery, starting 1918 when it was first proposed. We tried to imagine digging the tunnels by hand - in typical Taranaki July weather in 1925... just wet and miserable I would imagine.

Our first stop was in House One - the fern house. The main feature is the Prince of Wales fern (see photo), reputed to be around 100 years old and looking stunning, obviously loving his home!

Alan recounted the tale of when the Prince visited the Park on the cricket grounds, 1606 children with pampas plumes, coordinated and arranged these into the shape representative of this fern. It would have been a sight to behold.

Above is a plan of the sportsground from 1920 showing the layout for the visit of the Prince of Wales. On the east terraces girls of the High School spelled out WELCOME, on the south terrace, Technical College students spelled out HRH and on the playing field over 1600 primary school children waving pampas formed the Prince of Wales Feathers emblem.

I also discovered a couple of ponga carvings I hadn't seen before - gloriously covered in moss.

We ventured into House Three - This also was originally ferns but currently displays trees, shrubs, perennials, featuring spring plants (Lillies, Crinum, Hydrangeas Rhodos, Acer, Hosta, Astilbe).

The working area (Staff Only) was explored next . It was especially colourful with the display of plants being weathered and grown to replace displays as summer draws nearer.

The visit was fascinating. The history tracked until 2025 (two months ago) when Martin was appointed. The displays are stunning and it was great to see and hear the processes behind them. What a wonderful team in The Fernery.

Thanks so much.

SUE

November 27th - Evening Meeting

Speaker - Mathew Allen

At November's evening meeting Mathew Allen, guest speaker, enlightened his audience of 18 on the attributes and value of giant bamboo.

Mathew (a close relative of Adrienne Tathams), who has a 23ha stand of a running variety of bamboo, said he has no trouble controlling its spread.

Fascinating to hear how readily it could replace Pinus Radiata (PR), the growth rate of bamboo (a grass) to maturity, 5yrs, compared with PR 25 - 28yrs.

Comparing also the strength - with a high tensile strength comparable to steel and a compressive strength greater than most wood, concrete, and brick, and the versatility, it's composition in construction materials, as good if not better than pinus radiata as well.

The fibres, he likened to fibreglass, but stripped of their sugars, and reduced to a pulp, they make excellent fabrics. Absorbent towels and wonderfully soft underwear.

The edible shoots, the kitchen utensils and "crockery", and don't forget their windbreak value.

Question time was unending, and very lively.

Thank you to Julie Hunt for her generous and delish supper, unfortunately the CAB rooms kitchen was in the process of being updated and a cuppa was not on offer due to no water

Judith

From the Zoo

Tracking Tiny Steps: How Brooklands Zoo Is Enhancing Newt Welfare with ZooMonitor

By Brooklands Zoo Keeper Kelly Green

At Brooklands Zoo, innovation and compassion go hand in hand - especially when it comes to the smallest residents.

The zoo team uses an app called ZooMonitor to track how the animals use their habitats. Starting with the Oriental fire-bellied newts, they recorded daily observations in the app and found that the newts were spending almost all of their time on land within their habitat and only rarely entered the water.

Staff made plans to alter their habitat to have more land available ... until the newts pulled a swifty and started using the water almost constantly!

"We don't know why they changed their behaviour but we've been able to alter our plans so that they have more space to use in water," says Brooklands Zoo Supervisor Max Jenkins.

"If their behaviour changes again, we'll catch it through ZooMonitor and will make any changes that they need."

The team is looking forward to using this technology to monitor the habitat use of other species in the zoo, allowing similar welfare advances.

Friends of Pukekura Park Membership Application Form

To apply for membership, either click on the link to our website page or download a pdf application form

Go to website page

Newsletter -October 2025

pukekurafriends
Oct 30, 2025

Events Programme November 2025

4th - Wanderers’ walk.

No walk due to Garden Festival

11th Committee meeting

18th - Wanderers’ walk.

Meet at Bellringer Pavilion 10.30 a.m.

Martin Thompson - Fernery Lead will take us on a tour of the Fernery

27th Evening Meeting

Citizens Advice Bureau, next to the Y.M.C.A. - 7pm

Matthew Allen: Bamboo - Matthew will talk about his experiences in growing bamboo and all the interesting things that can be done with this grass.

Review of October's Events

7th - Wanderers’ Walk.

Lead - Vance Hooper

Armed with umbrellas and coats we joined Vance on a tour of his extended garden and orchard. From a paddock 25 years ago he has established a gully of flourishing natives (including the rare golden rimu), bulbs and many species of splendid magnolias. Though he focuses mainly on citrus for the nursery he has been experimenting with growing bananas as a retirement project. Although at the limit of their growing range in New Zealand Vance has been trialling 25 species to see what would work in Taranaki.

After soil testing and adding lime and borax, he established long double beds with hedge mulch between, fertilizing only to get established with sulphate of potash. For our wetter climate he favours frost covers for the bunches to avoid condensation and windrub. They like being planted together. Male flowers are snapped off in October. When the bananas have fruited the leaves are chopped back to bring energy back to the stem. He has also found deflowering in the bag and by removing 3 or 4 hands he gets the same weight and larger size of bananas in the remaining hands. They get few pests apart from armyworm. We heard about a ruru who nested in one of the bananas and certainly were glad to shelter under their large leaves when the rain fell.

Misi Luki is the preferred banana to grow in the backyard but has found the Honduras variety copes with our winters well while Blue Java grows well but fickle to fruit. He has about 80 bunches ripening at the moment, a testament to the success of his scientific experiment.

15th Members Lunch

Twenty-four enjoyed a High Tea style Lunch at the Tea House in Pukekura Park.

19th Plant Sale

It was all hands on deck on Sunday morning for our plant sale…plants to be shifted, priced, arranged… all ready before 10am. A good crowd assembled just before the start and we had a great morning of sales.

A BIG thanks you to all who contributed plants – these well much appreciated and well sought after! Also a HUGE thank you to the helpers with trailers, utes and all the necessary accessories who came to help, sell and advise about plants. A really successful day.

We raised around $2500 for the Friends’ funds – and increase of $1000 on last year.

Well done everyone

Sue

October 23rd - Evening Meeting

Speaker - Tony Burrell

Tony gave an interesting talk about colour in nature to an audiance of 18, which was very good considering the inclement weather outside at the time.

He spoke about how the human eye perceives colour and compared it to other mammals, birds and insects, followed by colour in plants.

Human vision is Trichromatic (three types of cone cells for red, green, and blue light), allowing perception of a broad spectrum of colours, whereas most other mammals are Dichromatic (typically two cone types), perceiving colours mostly in shades of blue and yellow, and often red-green colour-blind. It is interesting to note that human vision has evolved to see a wide variety of colours during daylight, but in dim light we have black and white vision. Most other mammals see better than us at night.

Birds on the other hand have Tetrachromatic vision (4 cone types, including one sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) light). The ability to see UV light helps in foraging (UV-reflective fruits/urine trails), mate selection (UV-reflective plumage), and predator avoidance. Birds’ visual acuity (sharpness) is often better than ours, especially in birds of prey. They can have vision as sharp as 20/5 or 20/4 (meaning they can see details at 20 feet that a human would need to be 4 or 5 feet away to see).

Insects are different again. They have Compound eyes composed of hundreds to thousands of individual light-sensing units called ommatidia, forming a mosaic image. Very low resolution (pixelated image), but the image processing allows for enhanced sensitivity to contrast and movement.

Mosquitoes, some snakes and certain fish can also see in the infrared range.

Tony then talked about how plants produce colour in their foliage. The colour is predominately due to pigments which either absorb or reflect light. The main pigments are: chlorophyll (Green), carotenoids (yellow, orange and reds as in carrots) and anthocyanin (reds, purples and blues depending on the acidity of the soil). During a year a leaf can change colour. A new leaf may start red indicating a predominance of anthocyanin, then turn green due to a dominance of chlorophyll, then in autumn the chlorophyll may breaks down and the leaves can turn yellow or orange because of carotenoids.

Plants can use colour to attract, deter, camouflage or possibly mimic another plant. For example, Tony suggested that the palatable Alseuomia pusilla might be mimicking the unpalatable horopito so that it doesn’t get eaten. This theory is controversial.

Another aspect of colour that Tony highlighted was the difference between pigmented colour and structural colour. Structural colour is the production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces that interfere with visible light, rather than relying on pigments. These structures cause specific wavelengths of light to reflect and scatter, creating vivid, often iridescent colours seen in things like butterfly wings and peacock feathers.

From the Zoo

Ten Years on: Life as a Keeper at Brooklands Zoo by Brooklands Zoo Keeper Jenny Bucksmith

Celebrating ten years as a keeper at Brooklands Zoo has been a journey filled with growth, unforgettable moments, and deep connections—with both animals and people. Looking back, it’s incredible to see how far I’ve come, not only in my confidence working with a wide range of species, but also in the relationships built along the way.

One of my earliest and most cherished memories is of Charlie the cockatoo. His cheeky personality and love of conversation made him a favourite among staff and visitors alike. Charlie taught me that animals have distinct personalities, and building trust with them is a privilege.

Witnessing the birth of Feta the lamb was another highlight, as mum Tomato instinctively knew exactly what she had to do. Watching Feta grow and thrive under our care, was a beautiful testament to the nurturing environment we strive to create.

Over the years, I’ve had the joy of working with a wide range of species. The kune kune pigs, with their curious and gentle nature, are a delight to care for. The leopard tortoises, slow-moving but full of character, have taught me patience and precision in reptile care.

Raising pheasants and chickens from eggs to adulthood has been one of the most rewarding experiences. Watching them hatch, grow, and thrive is a testament to the dedication and teamwork that defines our zoo.

Perhaps the most significant change over the decade has been my growth in confidence. From nervous beginnings to now comfortably working with everything from birds to reptiles and mammals, I’ve learned to trust my instincts and lean on the expertise of my colleagues.

Brooklands Zoo isn’t just a workplace—it’s a community. The support, laughter, and shared love for animals have made these ten years unforgettable. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved and excited for what’s still to come.

Friends of Pukekura Park Membership Application Form

To apply for membership, either click on the link to our website page or download a pdf application form

Go to website page