News

The Essence of Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush: introducing our new writing competition

Are you feeling creative? Looking for a holiday project?

The Trust is welcoming 2025 with its first ever Ōtari writing competition!

We invite you to write about what Ōtari means to you. Or describe something special that you’ve experienced in Ōtari. It could be something funny, happy, spiritual, meaningful, quirky. It could be about rare plants, old trees, tuna, birds, forest walks, the maze, Pā Harakeke, picnics, people you meet, or anything …

You could write a poem, a haiku, or a short piece of prose (300 to 400 words would be good), in English or te reo Māori.

Let’s share our love for this special place.

There will be prizes: a copy of our book ‘Ōtari, 200 years of Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush’, and a selection of native plants donated by Wellington Gardens. For entrants under 12 years: two tickets to our winter glow-worm guided tour (date to be confirmed, these were sold out last winter).

Winning entries will also be published on the Trust website (owbt.nz) and in the Trust’s March newsletter.

We especially encourage Trust members and our social media followers to enter.

The judging panel will include our Trustees, along with guest judges selected for their specific expertise.

We’ll give you the month of January to get your creative juices flowing. Send your entries to by January 31.

Posted: 29 December 2024

Some highlights of 2024

It’s a good time of year to reflect on all that’s gone on these past twelve months, at Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush. Here are some highlights:Our new Forest Weeders

- Volunteers have gone from strength to strength. Manager Tim Park says it’s been a boost to have this year’s new forest weeding group working with staff gardener Travis to get problem areas of weeds under control.

- Trustees campaigned successfully to restore funding for a redevelopment of Ōtari’s nursery and laboratory areas into Council’s Long-term Plan.Linda Lee harvesting at Pā Harakeke

- Having more weavers harvesting harakeke has been really rewarding for the team who established the special collections in Ōtari’s Pā Harakeke, says Tim.

- A presentation on rare native orchid germination research by Ōtari’s conservation scientists received acclaim at an International Orchid Conservation Congress in Perth in September.

- Kiwi came to Ōtari! The presence of one was confirmed by its transmitter, there could well be more.

- Sales of Ōtari-sourced plants propagated in our own Trust Nursery started in February and were immediately popular.

- Guided tours were also popular, in particular the re-vamped winter glow-worm tours which quickly sold out.

- Ōtari staff continued relationship-building with mana whenua around the country to source cuttings and seeds of rare native plants from the wild, and thus help safeguard their survival.

- And right now chicks are hatching and fledging in nests throughout Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush! Thanks to Ōtari’s RAMBO trapping team, also to all the responsible local dog and cat owners who are taking care to keep the native birds and lizard fauna safe from their pets.Marlborough rock daisies are flowering well this year

The Trust wishes everyone a happy and safe Christmas. Remember that Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush is open every day of the year – and free to enter. That includes 12km of forest tracks plus gentle paths traversing 5 hectares of the only public botanic garden in New Zealand dedicated solely to native plants.

Posted: 23 December 2024

Celebrating our volunteers

Ōtari’s many, hard-working volunteers (along with many others from around Wellington) were celebrated in a recent press release by WCC’s Wellington Parks and Reserves team. Read it here:

celebrating_voluntee…pdf (PDF, 2.48 MB)

Posted: 14 December 2024