Nearly 40 years after the first tours to see royal albatross at Taiaroa Head began, the one millionth visitor is expected any day.
To celebrate the milestone, the Royal Albatross Centre had organised with the Department of Conservation (Doc) for the one millionth visitor to receive a free tour and a rare opportunity to go on to the colony with a guide and get a photograph with an albatross chick.
When colony tours began in 1972, the first head ranger and guide at the colony, Anna Stevens, could see they could become much bigger.
The tours operated at that time from an ex-signal man's house at the headland.
"It was quite a special place, very interesting."
In those days, they operated only three days a week, for half a day, and her biggest challenge was keeping the small observatory's windows clean for the tours, she said.
Guide Shirley Webb took over from Mrs Stevens, taking on the responsibility of looking after the albatross for the Wildlife Service and later Doc, as well as working for the Otago Peninsula Trust overseeing the guides, tours and the day-to-day running of the centre.
"I know that if it wasn't for the work of Doc to control the predators and look after the health and safety of the birds, they would not exist or not have prospered [on Taiaroa Head]."
The ethos taught to guides by Mrs Stevens, to treat visitors to the colony as if they were visitors to their own homes, still existed today, she said.
"I find it's a pleasure to go back. The same enthusiasm and love of the birds is present among the guides as it was then."
In the first year of operation, about 200 visitors took the tour, but by the time Mrs Webb left in the early 1990s a new visitor centre had opened (1989), and about 25,500 visitors had taken the tour. A highlight for her had been escorting Princess Anne around the facility.
Present Royal Albatross Centre manager Mark Jurisich said it took from 1972 to January 2000 to reach 500,000 visitors, but it had only taken another 11 years to almost reach one million.
"It reflects the greater interest in the natural wildlife environment."
The tours attracted visitors from about 25 countries and were popular with families, with often three generations of families taking part together. Up to 18 tours a day, with an average of 12 to 14 people on each, were held in summer and about 10 a day in winter.
