Welcome to The Brook Waimārama Sanctuary – an extraordinary part of New Zealand.
Just minutes from Nelson’s city centre, the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary is the South Island’s largest fully fenced eco-sanctuary—690 hectares of protected native forest alive with rare and threatened species. This is a place where you can reconnect with nature, breathe deeply, and experience the mauri (life force) of Aotearoa’s unique environment.
Home to iconic species like the kiwi, tuatara, and kākāriki, the Sanctuary offers self-guided exploration across 15km of walking tracks, as well as guided day and night tours.
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2026 Bug of the year is here!
The lesser known cousin to bird of the year has come around(wait till they hear about fish or fungus of the year). This showdown aims to highlight the critters that go underappreciated compared to celebrity species like kākāpō. We would like to highlight the strange and wonderful species that occur within the Sanctuary, with the hopes to earn your vote!
Kahuwai | Black Tunnelweb Spider
Porrhothele antipodiana
I have a mixed history with this incredible spider. One hairy individual decided that my jersey pocket was a great place to set up shop. It received a rude awakening upon the home invasion of my unaware hand. Its brilliant fangs pierced and invenomated my finger, and despite the swelling and the shock and the pain… I couldn’t help but feel bad for evicting the guy. Its hobbit-like hole dwelling nature led the spider to my soft, warm pocket. Ironically, but not surprisingly, this species was the inspiration for Peter Jackson’s ‘Shelob’ in the Lord of the Rings films.
Kahuwai, the black tunnelweb spider, forms dense sheets of silk surrounding their tunnels. These sheets are monitored by the spider, who detects vibrations of a passer by. Wētā, land hoppers and any other unlucky invertebrate. The kahuwai swiftly grabs its prey and drags it into the depths. This spider however is also the victim of the endemic golden hunter wasp, who paralyses the spider before dragging it into the wasp’s nest (talk about shoes on the other foot!) and laying an egg beside it. The spider then becomes baby formula.
Despite the bite, this amazing spider has my vote! Check out the New Zealand Bug Of the Year 2026 website! Voting closes on the 16th of February!
Photo: @henry._.hart (in the second image of Shelob`s lair you can see a giant pill millipede has fallen victim...)
#BrookWaimāramaSanctuary #BugOfTheYear
Jan 25
2026 Bug of the year is here!
The lesser known cousin to bird of the year has come around(wait till they hear about fish or fungus of the year). This showdown aims to highlight the critters that go underappreciated compared to celebrity species like kākāpō. We would like to highlight the strange and wonderful species that occur within the Sanctuary, with the hopes to earn your vote!
This candidate is the beautifully disguised Rō, the Two-Spined Stick Insect. Micrachus hystriculeus is endemic to central Aotearoa, most common from Nelson, through Marlborough and Wellington. Stick insects display a classic example of crypsis. That is, their behaviour and physiology work in tandem to remain completely undetected and unharmed. They feed on leaves high in the canopy of trees like kānuka. At night you can often spot them, usually with the small males riding on the backs of the much larger females.
All modern New Zealand stick insects are the relatives of two colonisation events from New Caledonia around 30 million years ago. They radiated into nine separate genera and dispersed into coastal, lowland and subalpine ecosystems throughout the motu. This species, alongside at least five other stick insect species, live out their slow and sticky lives within the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary.
Will you vote for Micrachus hystriculeus? Check out the New Zealand Bug Of the Year 2026 website! Voting closes on the 16th of February!
Stay tuned for our last candidate…
Photo: Saryu Mae - @invertebratist
#BrookWaimāramaSanctuary #BugOfTheYear
Jan 24
2026 Bug of the year is here!
The lesser known cousin to bird of the year has come around(wait till they hear about fish or fungus of the year). This showdown aims to highlight the critters that go under the radar compared to celebrity species like kākāpō. We would like to highlight the strange and wonderful species that occur within the Sanctuary, with the hopes to earn your vote!
The first species we would like to highlight is the Giant Pill Millipede. Daylight at the Sanctuary is a splendid cacophony of birdsong that many visitors have come to love. The night time however, is a different story. Kiwi and ruru emerge, moths take flight and the incredibly bizarre and slow moving giant pill millipede begins its expedition. This creature spends its whole night foraging among rotting vegetation, recycling dead leaves. They are more squat and heavily armored compared to a typical millipede, and this allows them to roll into an impenetrable ball if under attack. You can imagine the comical result when they decide to go ball mode on a slope!
The genus Procyliosoma belongs to a family that only occurs in Australia and New Zealand. Millipedes are the modern relatives of an ancient group of arthropods known as Diplopods. These ‘double legged’ segmented invertebrates arrived on the scene more than 400 million years ago, tens of millions of years before vertebrates emerged onto land. The largest millipede(and terrestrial invertebrate) to ever live was Arthropleura of the Carboniferous period, which grew over 2 metres long!
Please consider voting for this adorable pokeball. Check out the New Zealand Bug Of the Year 2026 website! Voting closes on the 16th of February!
Stay tuned to hear our next two candidates…
Photo: @henry._.hart
#BrookWaimāramaSanctuary #BugOfTheYear
Jan 23
🌸 Ngahere Neighbourhood: spider orchid (Corybas trilobus)
Tiny but extraordinary, the spider orchid is one of Aotearoa’s most species-rich groups of orchids — and one you might miss if you don’t look closely.
This small, ground-dwelling orchid forms dense colonies across the forest floor, its single rounded leaf sitting beneath a delicate, spidery flower that rises just a few centimetres above the moss. The flowers range in colour from deep crimson and pink to pale green or even white, often flecked with purple.
Identifying Corybas trilobus can be tricky — it’s actually a species aggregate, meaning several closely related species are currently grouped under this name and not yet formally described. This makes it difficult to define its exact characteristics or preferred habitats. What unites them all, however, is their small size and the distinctive three-lobed leaf that gives trilobus its name.
Though each individual orchid may be short-lived, spider orchids often grow in dense colonies that spread slowly underground. These colonies can persist for many years, forming quiet, enduring communities that are part of the rich biodiversity beneath our feet — delicate, intricate, and vital to the forest ecosystem.
🔎 Species: Corybas trilobus
🟢 Conservation status: Not Threatened
📸 Photo by Rebecca Bowater
#NgahereNeighbourhood #BrookSanctuary #NativePlants #NZOrchid #SpiderOrchid #Corybas #NewZealandNature #Conservation
Jan 22
Third kiwi pukupuku chick confirmed! 🪶
Our ecologist has now confirmed a third chick in the Sanctuary — from one of the adults we monitor.
These two clips show the chick out foraging on the forest floor — a seriously encouraging sign that kiwi pukupuku are breeding and settling in well here.
Every chick is a milestone for the Sanctuary and for the long-term future of this species on the mainland.
🎥 Two short videos: chick foraging
#kiwipukupuku #kiwi #conservation #predatorfree #BrookWaimāramaSanctuary
Jan 20
A tough update from the Sanctuary.
Last week on Wednesday, strong winds hit the Sanctuary and Campground hard, causing seven breaches along the pest-proof fence (including the section shown here, brought down by a fallen tree).
As soon as it was safe (the next morning), our staff and volunteer fence repair team swung into action. By Tuesday everything was patched, and by Friday permanent repairs were completed.
This is also stoat dispersal season, so we’ve responded at each breach site with a dense grid of traps and monitoring tunnels, plus extra monitoring around the fence line. These will be checked regularly for the next eight weeks.
A couple of tracks were temporarily closed for tree clearance, but they’ll all reopen tomorrow. Ngā mihi nui for your patience — and huge thanks to our incredible staff and volunteers.
As soon as it was safe (the next morning), our staff and volunteer fence repair team swung into action. By Tuesday, everything was patched, and by Friday, permanent repairs were completed..
#BrookWaimāramaSanctuary #TheSanctuary #NelsonNZ #TeTauIhu #ConservationNZ #PredatorFree #PestProofFence #Biodiversity #VolunteerNZ #StoatControl #NatureRecovery
Jan 6
