The Star: September 09, 2021

The Star Thursday September 9 2021
14
NEWS
Former pub
to open as
art studio
• By Susan Sandys
THE FORMER Hororata Hotel
will open to customers once
again.
Once iconic for its pies and
being a landmark pub, the
building is now home to pottery
tutor Frank Hakkaart and fiance
Sarah Handley.
They have named it The Artist’s
In, with the spelling of “In” intentional,
as they don’t want people
to think it is still a hotel.
Rather, it will be a potter’s
studio and art gallery, selling
the work of Hakkaart and fellow
Selwyn artists.
The old pub was damaged in the
September 4, 2010, earthquake
and has not operated as a hotel
since.
Hakkaart and Handley bought
the building about 10 months ago.
They are undertaking long-term
renovations, and expect to open
the gallery later this year.
Hakkaart said they were looking
forward to opening, although
ironically have had to turn some
people away.
“The number of times we have
had people turning up at the
door, they are wanting a beer
or wanting to use the TAB or
whatever. We are having to say:
‘It’s been 10 years mate’.”
• By Maddisyn Jeffares
STICKING TO a routine is
recommended in lockdown,
even for penguins.
Keepers at the International
Antarctic Centre have been playing
radio music for the centre’s
little blue penguins to keep them
attuned to what would normally
be noisy surrounds.
The birds, which are one of
the centre’s main attractions,
are used to the sound of large
crowds, especially during their
feeding time.
Before this latest lockdown,
the penguins saw hundreds of
visitors a day, but now see fewer
than four – their three keepers
and a maintenance worker _
so staff have resorted to music
to make up for the absence of
crowds.
Antarctic Centre general
manager Todd Schmidt said a
rotating roster of three keepers
continued to work on site to care
for the 17 birds, all of which are
rescue penguins with injuries or
disabilities that mean they could
not survive in the wild.
“They require hands-on care,”
he said, and keepers had a special
bond with them.
“The penguins are everything
to the penguin keepers.”
The centre’s attractions also
include huskies, which are
contracted in from Southern
Huskies NZ.
Southern Huskies owner Joe
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Little blue penguins beating lockdown blues
CARE: The International Antarctic Centre’s little blue penguins have the radio to listen to
in the absence of visitors. The huskies are exercised twice a day.
Murray said the three adult
huskies (and a pup in training)
have been locked down with
him off-site, and were “itching to
get out and see people”.
Murray has been using a dry
sled or rig to exercise the huskies
and keeps them fit with five to
10km runs morning and night.
He said the dry sledding also
helped to build and maintain
the huskies’ unity as a working
team. “The dogs love putting
their harness on knowing it’s
time to work.”
The centre had tweaked its attractions
last year in response to
the Covid-19 pandemic’s border
closures, re-orienting itself to
local visitors.
Schmidt said centre staff
had been “blown away” by the
following increase in visitor
numbers.
Before the latest lockdown,
the centre averaged about 100
visitors a day on weekdays, up to
300 on weekends, and in the last
school holidays had more than
500 visitors a day.
“This lockdown may be a bit of
a momentum killer, so we hope
that comes back,” he said.
It would likely take a while to
regenerate those numbers again,
“but right now we are staying
positive”.
The centre has received
$180,000 from the Department
of Conservation’s Wildlife
Institutions Relief Fund, a fund
set up to provide short-term
support for wildlife institutions
heavily impacted by the
Covid-19 response.
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