Too expensive
The Dom Post reports:
Entry prices at Karori’s wildlife sanctuary are to almost double to pay for a multimillion-dollar visitor centre.
The trust behind the conservation project says its improvements will see visitor numbers almost triple in the coming years.
But there are fears the price rises will put off people.
On April 2 entry prices at Zealandia: The Karori Sanctuary Experience will jump from $15 to $28 for adults, $7 to $14 for children and $37 to $70 for family passes.
Double the price, and they project visitor numbers will triple?
I suspect not.
I think the sanctuary is great, but at $56 for a couple, that is close to pricing off the market.
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Tags: Wellington
March 19th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
I’d need to hear a few reviews of the new visitor’s centre, but tend to agree. Not really interested in paying $70 for a nice day’s walk around the bush.
Apparently you can opt to visit just the sanctuary, not the new visitor’s centre, and prices for that are more reasonable…
March 19th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
A weeks groceries for a walk in the bush that you can get for free with a 20 minute drive that doesn’t invlove the goat track of Karori road.
Hmmm thats a hard one.
Could I see those projections with some methodology of how they arrived at them please.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
And it’s not as though there are no other good bush walks in greater Wellington – which are free.
Rather than tripling visitor numbers, the liklihood that by doubling prices they will in fact halve (or worse) actual visitors is more on the cards.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
What a rip-off… you can go to the sanctuary of small town NZ and see native species in their natural wild enviroment for free.. and Experience the Real Okers and birds of NZ.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
We do not take visitors to Wellington there anymore.
Yes it is too expensive, one adult there is the cost of two adults tickets to the movies and to be frank at 2hrs a movie that’s good value for money still.
Plenty of other free walks and views, we take them to the Mt Vic lookout, Island Bay – Red Rocks, Seatoun/Breaker Bay up at the pa and Massey memorial.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Sounds like Peter Dunne is setting the prices.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
I really like the place & want it to suceed but the new pricing structure is going to scare off locals more than anything. Plenty of good free walks in the Wellington area, but I guess money needs to be paid back for the new visitors centre and they have to get it some how.
March 19th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Here’s how it’s really going to play out, IMHO:
(1) WCC wants to end $800,000 p.a. support of Sanctuary, so
(2) Sanctuary make big improvements to garner more customers so as not to need (1), but
(3) Sanctuary borrows $10,000,000 to do (2)
(4) Sanctuary remembers it has to repay the debt in (3)
(5) Sanctuary doubles ticket prices
(6) Sanctuary patronage reduces by more than 50%
(7) Sanctuary insolvent and closes.
(8) WCC becomes the proud owner of 73.8 hectares of FAIL, having traded an $800,000 expense for $10,000,000 bad debt…
(9) WCC re-opens sanctuary on something like original lines, no hope of recovering the $10,000,000 but at least it stops the sanctuary going to seed…
March 19th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I think ill wait tell (8) then it will be free.
March 19th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
What they should do is set up Kiwi shoots for the poor fellows that the Murri have banned from the twin lakes at say $1000/bird. That would pay all the bills after a couple of successful shooting seasons.
March 19th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
RPM, your analysis will be spot on. Sounds just like the Hamilton International Airport new terminal which the local Councils have had to bail out. There must be many more examples.
Step (10) is that the Council again learns it is hopeless at running a business and loses much more money even running the project on the original lines.
March 19th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Had a look at the very successful wetapunga captive breeding program yesterday.
2 staff, nymphs are keep in plastic jam jars with small holes punched in the top. Food is basically fish flakes and the bowls ‘beer-bottle caps’. No $10m budget however…
I remain somewhat in awe of the amount of money Karori has been allowed to spend in light of this.
For those of you wanting a little walk in the past, I did a couple of blog posts back in _2006_ on Kaori’s funding “issues”
http://my.opera.com/chthoniid/blog/show.dml/287395
http://my.opera.com/chthoniid/blog/gosh-govt-finds-money-for-karori-widlife-sanctuary
March 19th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Although to be fair, access to the sanctuary is only increasing to $18 dollars, cf $15 now, it is the $10 charge to go through the $10 million Visitor centre with its interactive experience. (which is not a required add-on)
The price of doing what people do now is only going up $3 dollars,
March 19th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
The sancturary itself used to be free.
Whats the % increase there? It used to be well used by locals. Now their virtually bared from the place unless they want to fork over daily dollars.
March 19th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
I understand that the new works were considered necessary to increase visitor numbers but I am starting to wonder whether it will turn out to be a turkey.
March 19th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
We’ve driven up to it once, saw the price of $15, and turned around and driven out. Good luck with $28….
March 19th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
As a long-time supporter of all-things Wellington, and one-time resident now living ‘way out of town’ I have to say that the sanctuary has just priced itself off ‘my’ market. To put it in context, $56 (the apparant new admission charge) will buy me and ‘she indoors’ around 17 2 litre bottles of milk.
Sadly, we can’t drink birds. . .
(Although roast Kereru does taste quite nice)
March 19th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Komata 2:37 pm,
Like gamey chicken, perhaps?
I reckon Johnboy’s (1:11 pm) onto it with his “Kiwi shoots” idea.
We could then add Kiwi to the menu along with Kereru.
Turn the visitor centre into a restaurant so that you can eat your ‘bag’ after a successful evening hunting – bugger duck season with the Maori’s restricting access to those lakes in greater Wellington.
Sign me up!
March 19th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
That’s nothing. I saw a CRT monitor for sale for $90 in a second hand store yesterday – you know the type, sells for $1 on trademe.
March 19th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Unless they’re putting in a new Ferris Wheel too and a damn as good Cocktail Bar It’s such a massive ripoff I won’t be returning
- that price is fine for Tourists but to make Wellington ratepayers pay double for it is ridiculous when they’re being taxed off the roof
March 19th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Makes one wonder what business case justified the loan from Council?
Someone should ask Prendergast why she promoted this disaster
March 19th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
You can visit Some’s Island (pardon me) for the price of a boat fare, (free if you are an OAP) and probably see more wildlife than at Karori. Last time we visited Karori we saw a dozen wetas, quite a few ducks and several signs pointing to places where birds are occasionally sighted. None put in an appearance while we were there. Beautiful setting of course but if that is what you like you would be hard-pressed to find a better native setting than that at Otari-Wilton’s Bush. And it’s free to all.
March 19th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
The kakas are usually all busy flying around over our place in Kelburn.
I saw one Kaka at the Sanctuary once. A flock of 14 of them flew over our place a couple of weeks ago. pretty cool…
March 19th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Wife and three kids – $70 – no way – they will see a significant drop off in custom and there is no way I will go there. Maybe a few $ dor a drive around to eastbourne and a walk to Butterfly Creek will be next adventure. Te Papa at about 5 minutes walk from home is free and would give my kids much more education.
Sack the Board and whoever else was involved in this stupid plan.
Far better to have maintained prices and massively increased patronage – seems like the cost plus model does not work when there is not a captured market.
I expect the prices to reduce substantially within a month as a crisis hits when numbers drop off by 75%
March 19th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
RRM is onto it twice. First, yes, so tragic and so predictable. Ah well….
Second, this is the true value of the sanctuary and everyone through Northland, Wilton, Ngaio, Khandallah, and Johnsonville gets the benefit; Karori to the West and Brooklyn and so on to the South and East. What the sanctuary has done is bring native birds back to the whole town, and it must (it will…) survive. But not by charging $56 walk-ups for an OK piece of bush, exhibition or no.
BTW – I’ve been a family member since it opened and will continue to be. I use it primarily to run in. Beautiful, esp. up the back in the valley but Wilton bush IMHO is a better piece of bush + has access to the tops between Kaukau and Johnson’s hill or Makara saddle; the sanctuary fence prevents that (of course) and I probably more often run the outside of the fence than in the park itself.
March 19th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
It’s already too expensive, I don’t go any more. Nice bush but superflous visitor centre with unfriendly staff.
March 20th, 2010 at 1:02 am
It must be aimed at international tourists, who are used to paying such prices. In the UK it costs 40 pounds ($100 – $120 depending on the exchange rate) for a couple to go to Kew Gardens, a similar attraction.
March 20th, 2010 at 3:58 am
I wouldn’t pay $15 let alone $28 to visit it. Maybe I would consider $5 or even $7 at a stretch.
I am sure that they don’t need to spend $10 million on a visitor centre – I am sure they can figure out a way to do it on the cheap. Perhaps a revenue stream could be created by leasing out a kiosk to sell food and drink, to visitors who are paying a reasonable entrance fee.
When the sanctuary runs out of money they should be made to fall over. They want to charge like a business, they should be treated like one when they fail.
March 20th, 2010 at 9:54 am
>>>a multimillion-dollar visitor centre<<< and monument to human stupidity as opposed to other species common sense.
March 20th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
I have to shoot Kereru at my place to stop the stupid buggers smashing my windows when they get high on fermented berries. They make the 911 Ahrabs look like like bloody good pilots.
March 20th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Do you eat them afterwards, Johnboy? – they’re meant to be good eating (though protected).
1 if by land, 2 if by sea.
March 20th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Yes, that is too expensive. I thought it was already too expensive.
I haven’t been yet and am unlikely to go, because the price is too high.
It’s just bush with walking tracks, right? And a chance at spotting native birds? Some signage and information?
Compared with free bush walks it is overpriced.
And the Zoo will be cheaper and gives you a better chance of seeing some wildlife.
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:25 am
RRM was spot on.
The sanctuary also takes credit for recovering tui & kereru numbers when this has been mostly from possum control in other wellington reserves. The sanctuary was always meant to be a long term project (>100 years) but are chasing short term ego.