Zoo’s Kiwi Icon Day celebrating all things ‘kiwi’!

MEDIA RELEASE

30 January 2004

Zoo’s Kiwi Icon Day celebrating all things ‘kiwi’!

Auckland Zoo’s going wild for Waitangi Day on February 6 with non-stop live kiwi music gigs, encounters with native fauna species, cultural performances, and its first ever Homo sapien exhibit!

Kiwi Icon Day (10am – 4pm) – a celebration of New Zealand animals, people, cultural diversity, and many things intrinsically ‘kiwi’ will also feature displays from a range of conservation organisations. The Department of Conservation, Project Crimson, Forest & Bird Society, BNZ Kiwi Recovery, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Flora & Fauna (CITES) and Auckland Zoo will all showcase the work they do for conservation.

“It’s New Zealand’s national day and Auckland Zoo is going all out to celebrate,” says Jackie Sanders, Auckland Zoo Events Co-ordinator. “Kiwi Icon Day is all about entertaining you, firing your interest in this country’s amazing animals and plants, and in conservation issues. It’s also about celebrating cultural diversity, and most definitely about making you laugh – especially at aspects of the ‘kiwi’ character.”

Not to be missed, and an exhibit expected to be of huge anthropological interest to local and overseas visitors alike, is the Wattie’s Homo sapien exhibit (for Waitangi Day only!).

Here visitors can observe the Zoo’s most recent acquisitions as they barbecue snarlers, read the women’s mags, listen to the cricket, and indulge
in other daily rituals typical of a kiwi summer holiday. Impromptu encounters with these fascinating, but often puzzling creatures, will also take place.

Other additional encounters (extra to the Zoo’s standard encounter schedule) include a kea encounter (11am) and a little blue penguin encounter (3.30pm).

Live kiwi music begins at 11am at the Band Rotunda with Rikki Morris and the Believers, followed by Chill Factor. And visitors can look forward to some great cultural performances from Maori, Samoan, Nuian and Cook Island groups.

From 10am and on through the day, our host Matt from Squirt TV will keep kids entertained with games and great giveaways. There’ll also be a range of art and craft stalls, and for just $1 per child, Carmel’s face painters will transform your youngsters into their favourite native or exotic animal!

Great kiwi fare will be available from Darwin’s café, and from the barbecues set up around the edge of the Band Rotunda.

The entertainment continues into the evening with Auckland Zoo’s sixth and final ASB Bank ZooMusic concert, hosted by kiwi comedian Ewen Gilmour. Don McGlashan, ex-Muttonbirds member, and one of New Zealand’s most talented musicians, is the headline act, with support act, original Split Enz and ex Citizen Band member, Geoff Chunn.

Ends

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