Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House (Closed) Further Christchurch Earthquake

I talked to Chlidonias again yesterday...

He'll be without power and therefore the internet for a while...
 
Just updating the fates of the Christchurch wildlife attractions, a week after the earthquake.

Willowbank Wildlife Reserve:

All animals, staff and facilties at Willowbank are ok as well. They are remaining open and are not charging entry fees so that people can have some time out if they need it.
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Orana Park:

has no structural damage and all animals are fine
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has re-opened today. We are offering half price admission to all our visitors, up to and including Sunday 6 March. We will re-assess this on Monday 7 March.
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Southern Encounter Aquarium & Kiwi House:

Southern Encounter Aquarium & Kiwi House has closed indefinitely. Whilst all humans are safe, the building is deemed unsafe.

Many of the terrestrial animals such as kiwi, tuatara and geckos have been transferred to other wildlife centres. Many fish were released to the wild. Sadly, the decision was made on Monday to humanely euthanase the remaining fish that staff could not rescue.
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This is very sad news for the aquariums staff, and Christchurch in general. Hopefully the aquarium can be rebuilt, bigger and better, maybe on a different site.

We are still thinking of all the people of Christchurch, keep strong.
 
Sad news about Southern Encounter, but at least some of the fish were rescued and, most importantly the staff are safe.

Paula
 
For the city and its people the earthquake was a major disaster. I am glad that most folks came out unscathed including our good friend Chlidonias c.s. Best of luck for now is all I can say ...!
 
Here is an article on the Southen Encounter Aquarium & Kiwi House,

The Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House in Cathedral Square will be closed indefinitely after the Canterbury earthquake damaged their building beyond repair.

Orana Wildlife Trust, owner of the aquarium, reported that all staff and visitors were evacuated safety after the quake, but the building has been declared unsafe.

Chief executive Lynn Anderson said she was full of admiration for her team who had "poured their heart and soul" into the attraction.

"Over the past week they have worked incredibly hard, going beyond the call of duty and risking personal safety, to rescue and release many of the animals."

Although the building had been redstickered, staff were able to gain access to the site every eight hours to refuel generators keeping animals inside the aquarium alive.

Many of the land-based animals, such as kiwi, tuatara and geckos, have been transferred to other wildlife centres including Orana Park.

Many fish, including eels and over 100 nationally endangered Canterbury mudfish, were released into the wild.

Anderson said some fish died as a result of the earthquake and the remaining fish that could not be rescued were euthanised humanely on Monday. Some of those fish were too large for staff to rescue safely, while others would not have survived a transfer.

"Whilst it is very upsetting that Southern Encounter has not survived the event, we remain so grateful for the good fortune that all staff and visitors were safely evacuated," Lynn Anderson said.

The aquarium gave visitors a glimpse at some of New Zealand’s unique native animals and was a valuable educational facility, she said.

“We take this opportunity to thank the public for their support of Southern Encounter over the years.”

Anderson said Orana Park will be doing all they can to look after the facility's seven full time staff.

The $5.5 million aquarium was opened in 1997, originally focusing on freshwater sportsfish.

It grew to showcase more of the South Island's marine and native freshwater species, as well as native land-dwelling animals including kiwi, tuatara and geckos.

The facility hosted more than one million visitors over its 13-year life.
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Wildlife centre releases its beasts | Stuff.co.nz

Unfortunately, the article doesn't say that the aquarium will be rebuilt in some form in the future :(, but I hope it does. I guess indefinitely closed is better than permanently closed. I imagine everyting was insured, so maybe that money could be used towards a replacement?
 
And this is the press release from Orana Trust itself:

End of an Era for Southern Encounter Aquarium & Kiwi House

Staff members of Orana Wildlife Trust wish to express their heartfelt empathy to the people of Christchurch, especially those who have lost loved-ones and been displaced following the Christchurch earthquake.

Orana Wildlife Trust, owners of Southern Encounter Aquarium & Kiwi House (Cathedral Square, Christchurch), are saddened to report that the inner city attraction has closed indefinitely following last Tuesday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Thankfully though all staff and visitors were safely evacuated after the event but the building is deemed unsafe.

Whilst overwhelmed by the situation, Chief Executive, Lynn Anderson, is full of admiration for her team. "Our staff have each poured their heart and soul into Southern Encounter and made it a fantastic attraction for our city. Over the past week they have worked incredibly hard, going beyond the call of duty and risking personal safety, to rescue and release many of the animals. Whilst the building had been officially 'red stickered,' we gained access approval every eight hours to re-fuel the generators that powered the life support systems. Each time the generators were re-fueled staff gathered as many animals as possible to transfer or release them.

Many of the terrestrial animals such as kiwi, tuatara and geckos have been transferred to other wildlife centres such as our sister facility Orana Wildlife Park. Many fish, including the eels and over 100 Nationally Endangered Canterbury mudfish, were released to the wild. Unfortunately there was a limited time period that the life support could be maintained. Sadly, the decision was made on Monday to humanely euthanase the remaining fish that staff could not rescue owing to damage sustained to the building.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the authorities who granted access to ensure the welfare of our animals and to those who have helped us work through this time from outside our organisation.

This latest earthquake has had a monumental impact upon our city and its people. Whilst it is very upsetting that Southern Encounter has not survived the event, we remain so grateful for the good fortune that all staff and visitors were safely evacuated."

Southern Encounter played a key role in helping attract people to the city centre. The facility gave people a glimpse at the beautiful creatures found in our waterways and also enabled visitors to see some of New Zealand's most unique native animals. The attraction was also a valuable educational facility and hosted thousands of school children on curriculum linked education programmes.

"We take this opportunity to thank the public for their support of Southern Encounter over the years."
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Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House
 
hey guys, thanks for all the well-wishes from people. I just got power and water etc back on yesterday. My house is rather damaged and half my stuff destroyed, including all my aquariums sadly. I will be moving up to Wellington shortly to stay with my sister for a while, and then a bit later to Tasmania. There have been three major earthquakes in Christchurch in the last six months and several thousand aftershocks, many of significant size, and with new faultlines opening up they will probably be continuing for years. It seems like an opportune time to stretch my horizons and start afresh somewhere new (somewhere without earthquakes!).

As already noted by others the collections on the outskirts of the city (Orana Park, Willowbank and the Antarctic Centre) all came through the latest big earthquake unscathed. The central city looks like it's been bombed though and the Southern Encounter Aquarium is more or less kaput, so I have no job anymore. 50-odd fish died in the earthquake on the 22 February (largely through getting thrown out of tanks, tanks breaking, or tanks being hurled to the other end of the Aquarium as the tall cylinder tanks were), over 500 were rescued and released over the next few days, and about 170 or so had to be euthanised in their tanks via an overdose of anaesthetic as they were unable to be removed under the circumstances (most of these were small shoaling fish; about 10 or so were very large fish such as rays and gropers). The kiwi, tuatara and geckoes went back out to Orana Park; the red-eared turtles ended up in the North Island somewhere (I think at Napier). So a bit of a sad end to the Aquarium, although the majority of the fish were saved which is very good.

Here's a couple of videos of the Aquarium from youtube made by film students in happier days:
 
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Glad to hear from you Chlidonias. A very sad story you tell :(. I hope your family and Christchurch can both recover. I enjoyed the videos :D
 
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thanks. I will just say in case of confusion, I'm not featured in either of those videos :D
 
Glad to hear you are alright. Welcome back. Shame about that aquarium, but a bright and enthusiastic guy like yourself should have no problems.
 
Chli, some terrible news interspersed with the precious, fundamental blessing that you and yours have survived and can rebuild, wherever you choose to do so.

Is there something in Tasmania for you to go to? I could imagine you being a very popular candidate for work at any of the aquariums in Australia.
 
thanks guys. As for Tasmania, it was really just the first place that popped into my head when I thought about leaving. I've been there before and liked it a lot; its sort of like a little New Zealand but with more platypus. In fact my two favourite places in Australia are Tasmania and the Atherton Tablelands area. There aren't too many animal collections in Tasmania so I'll probably end up working at McDonalds or something -- but when you can just pop off and see echidnas and ground parrots on your weekend then that's not so bad :D

Seriously though, I'm sitting on plane tickets for an Indonesian trip that I was planning for August-to-October so I'll probably do that first (depending on if I have any money!), then see what awaits me in Tasmania or elsewhere later in the year. I could well end up instead at AQWA, Sydney or Mooloolaba; or maybe I just won't bother coming back from Asia; who knows.
 
Chlidonias, your spirit and way of thinking is a role model for us all! Welcome back!

By the way, there was a whole lot of action here while you were offline, I sometimes thought how great it would be to have you here with us while one particular thread was in heat; look up 'Opening up a place for tigers' to see what you missed! :D
 
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Welcome back Chlidonias! We definitely missed you here, and are happy to know that you're allrite and getting back on your feet.
 
About bloody time!! :rolleyes:
<taps foot impatiently>

It's been over two weeks - I need to speak to you about priorities! ;)

Seriously, it's good to have you back mate. And Baldur beat me to it - check out the 'Opening up a Place for Tigers' thread in the General Forums. And were you still online when we met FosssaDudes mom?

:p

Hix
 
I can only echo the 'welcome back' - you've been much missed. And I'm glad you'll be able to take at least some positives out of the whole affair.
 
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