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Four hectares of farmland on Peninsula Hill has been fenced off, cleared of predators and replanted in native plants to create a sanctuary for the region’s precious lizards.
The Whakatipu Lizard Sanctuary was completed in July last year as part of the luxury Peninsula Hill subdivision, next to Kelvin Heights, on Kawarau Falls Station.
The sanctuary is an initiative by the Mee family, which has owned the station since 1960.
In a statement, the family said it was providing a habitat for the McCann’s skink and the mountain beech gecko.
However, the sanctuary was designed to eventually hold up to five more species: the jewelled gecko, cryptic skink, Lakes skink, tussock/grass skink and orange-spotted gecko.
A predator-proof fence was erected to keep out rats, mice, mustelids, hedgehogs, possums, cats, rabbits and hares.
More than 90 tonnes of schist rock had been engineered to create habitat for the lizards across 24 sites within the sanctuary, replanted with nearly 2200 natives.
The fence, rock habitat and planting had converted what was degraded pasture into a ‘‘functioning, indigenous ecosystem’’, the statement said.
New Zealand’s native lizards were increasingly short of such habitat, with the majority classified as either threatened or at risk, it said.
Sanctuary manager Reuben Rorrison said pest eradication work began last October, and he was working with local contractors and conservation trusts to reach the sanctuary’s pest and weed eradication goals.
Mice numbers had been reduced to nearly zero, and there had been no sign of mustelids, possums, cats or hedgehogs so far.
A monitoring programme had begun to measure the lizard population, with baseline sampling carried out in 2024 and last year, and another survey scheduled for 2031.
‘‘Early modelling suggests lizard numbers inside the fence could at least double once predator pressure is removed, based on results seen in other Central Otago sanctuaries.’’
The Mee family has ensured the sanctuary will be protected in perpetuity by placing a covenant on the land title.
In 2021, the family placed a QEII National Trust covenant on 170ha of the station straddling Queenstown’s southern entrance, in order to protect it from development.
Owner Mike Mee said the family’s goal had always been to “make decisions that respect the landscape and leave it in good condition for the future”, whether in farming, tourism, conservation or development.
‘‘The sanctuary’s another part of that ongoing work.’’
