It’s been a busy week for the new owners of Natureland Mike Rutledge and Meg Selby, who officially took over the business last Friday.
The duo hit the ground running after arriving in town from Auckland last week and got straight into their first day of zookeeping on Friday.
Mike, who has a marketing background and Meg, a zoologist, brought the facility back from the brink of extinction after taking over ownership from the Orana Wildlife Trust.
After arriving in Nelson from Auckland just last Sunday, Mike says they were keen to get the ball rolling and got straight into it. “We just got stuck into it. We’ve met all of the staff, they are a great team and we’re really, really lucky to have them.
Then it was just very much learning how everything runs and Meg was straight into keeping.”
Meg says a day in the life of owning Natureland will be “all hands on deck”.
“Whatever needs doing, we need to be able to do all parts of the job. It’s a great opportunity to get to work with a wide variety of animals which is really exciting. I’m particularly fond of the kea and the tuatara, the native species but there are a lot of really exciting animals here.”
Mike says seeing the reaction of visitors, they know they are onto a good thing.
“It’s brilliant when you see people being able to interact with these animals, just big smiles on faces, having a great time.”
