Dinosaur?… close, but not quite. Meet some of our juvenile tuatara These little cuties are under a year old, which means they’re still right at the beginning of a very long life. Tuatara grow incredibly slowly and can take 10–20 years to reach maturity, but they can live for over 100 years. They’re often mistaken for lizards, but tuatara are actually something much rarer. They’re the only living members of an ancient reptile order that dates back more than 200 million years. Watching these juven

Last month, seventy-three tuatara were translocated from Southland Museum in Invercargill to their ancestral homeland in the Marlborough Sounds. ✈️ Our staff worked closely with kaitiaki, Ngāti Koata and Ngāi Tahu papatipu rūnaka ki Murihuku, to protect and guide the taonga species along their journey home. Zealan Simpkins of Ngāti Koata, spoke about the special day stating that the translocation process allowed him to reconnect with the taonga, his whānau, hau kāinga and the people of Southland