Alex Casey visits Willowbank and chats to co-director Mark Willis as the iconic wildlife reserve celebrates its 50th birthday.

One does not simply walk into Willowbank without encountering its infamous slithering pile of ravenous eels. Kids in dinosaur onesies and Warriors kit cackle from the feeding platform as the slippery subjects lurch out of the water, mouths agape, hankering for a grisly morsel of raw mince. “People see this and they leave with a new love and adoration for the eels,” co-director Mark Willis tells me from behind the crowd. “Either that, or they are scared shitless.”  

Feeding the scary eels is just one of the many rites of passage for Christchurch kids contained within the wildlife reserve, which celebrated its 50th birthday last month. Over half a century, hundreds and thousands of bums have graced the big rusted tractor for a photo, and about as many have had their hat stolen by a cheeky kea, been chased by a gumption-filled goose, or spat on by a llama. “We got that llama cheap because of the spitting,” laughs Willis. 

While these days visitors can explore a lush, spittle-free bush walk through the three different sections – farmyard, New Zealand and Exotics – Willowbank looked very different when Mark’s parents Michael and Kathy Willis first purchased the site in 1969. “It was 12 acres of broom and gorse,” Willis (junior) says. “My grandfather said it was the worst piece of land he had ever seen in his life.” Still, it had a river running through it, and it had a couple of nice willow trees. 

With a lifelong love of animals, it was Michael Willis’s vision to open a zoo – Christchurch’s first, and an “exotic and romantic idea” at the time. For five years he worked by day at a pet shop selling goldfish, travelling out to Willowbank in the evening and on the weekends to build enclosures with recycled materials – right down to bent secondhand nails. By 1974 they had run out of money and were forced to open the gates with “a couple of chickens, a pig and a goat.” 

“It wasn’t perfect timing, because they didn’t have enough money to build an entrance or even a ticket box,” explains Willis. “So they just put an ad in the Christchurch press – entry 50 cents for an adult and 20 cents for a child, and they sat in an old Land Rover at the gate with a shoe box.”

By the time Mark and his sister Kirsty were born, Willowbank was in full swing and the range of animals had expanded not just across the reserve, but into their childhood home. “There would be a monkey in the laundry, a camel in the front yard, it was pretty immersive,” says Willis. “One Christmas, mum and dad gave us a mountain lion cub under the Christmas tree, wrapped up in a big crate. I would have preferred a Luke Skywalker figurine or a bike, something like that.” 

In another instance, a litter of otter pups had been born at the zoo, but the mother wasn’t producing milk. The family had a Spaniel at home who had just had puppies of her own, and took it upon herself to feed and raise the otters too. “You’d be in the kitchen getting breakfast, and there would be a dog running around with four of her own puppies and then four otter pups chasing after them,” says Willis. “When you look back at it now, it was pretty incredible.”

While it would be easy to glamourise a life shared with exotic animals, Willis explains how one rescue chimp in the 1980s changed Willowbank’s ethos forever. Charlie the chimp had been captured by animal smugglers, sold to a circus, and was struggling at an under-equipped zoo in Dunedin when Willowbank decided to take him in. “We thought that we could do a better job of taking care of him, and we did our very best, but we couldn’t do him justice,” Willis says. 

“We saw the sadness and the humanness in his eyes every day, and that was what made us say ‘this isn’t for us’. Lions and tigers and big apes just wasn’t our direction anymore.” 

Charlie the chimp moved to a “fantastic facility” in Australia where he lived out his retirement, and Willowbank became firmly focussed on the preservation of uniquely New Zealand wildlife. This was something already close to Michael Willis’s heart – in the late 1970s, he had travelled around the North Island with Staglands’ owner John Simister to find the near-extinct kunekune pig. Their conservation efforts are now considered to have brought the population back from the brink.

In the 80s, another ambitious project saw the creation of a world-first kiwi enclosure. “Dad had this idea that a lot of New Zealand’s native wildlife was nocturnal, so we should display them at night,” Willis explains. “So we became the first wildlife park in the world to have a nighttime display.” While pioneering, the evening experience was thwarted by Christchurch weather conditions – by the time it was warm enough to be outside at night, it wasn’t truly dark until 10pm. 

The kea colony at Willowbank is home to yet more world firsts. Believed by a number of scientists to be the largest captive kea colony that still exhibits natural behaviour, much academic research has been carried out at Willowbank to better understand the endangered species. In 2021, a disabled kea at Willowbank, Bruce, who only has half a beak, made headlines as the first parrot ever recorded to use a tool for self-care (he preened himself with a pebble). 

Another kea study conducted at Willowbank used certain coloured rods to lead to food rewards, which lead to the discovery that the alpine parrot can judge statistical odds on par with human infants and great apes. In 2021, researchers from the University of Auckland taught the Willowbank kea how to use touchscreens with their tongues. After our interview we walked through the kea enclosure, and one attempted to steal my notebook and all the secrets within. 

While Willowbank has done a lot for wildlife, it has also been there for the people of Christchurch. The day after the February 2011 quake, Willowbank opened its doors for free for those in the community who needed respite, and stayed that way for weeks. “There were a lot of people who had been displaced, their homes were in tatters, their children were distraught,” says Willis. “To give people a couple of hours away from all of that was pretty cool.”

“A lot of people came through during that time and we got so many messages in terms of how thankful they were for that reprieve,” he continues. “It really made us realise how important that connection with the community is.” 

And after celebrating its 50th birthday, Willis hopes that connection with the community only continues to strengthen. As of December 1, Willowbank will take ownership over another Christchurch institution – the International Antarctic Centre – in an attempt to increase visitation from locals. Founders Michael and Kathy still sit on the Willowbank board and offer mentorship and advice to their children, now co-directors, whenever needed. 

“We’re always really conscious when we’re making decisions that it goes back to the goals and the values that this place was first developed for,” says Willis. “It’s not about being the best international zoo in New Zealand, but being the best New Zealand wildlife park in the world.” With hundreds of people sharing memories of their favourite animal encounters – spitting llamas included – from over the last 50 years, Willis says one thing still remains constant. 

“Things have changed a lot since 1974, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is this: people still really love animals.”