Weta Hotel

"In 2021 Rose Schmidt, with the help of her father, made 10 wētā hotels for a community service project for her school, Carncot. In August, under the guidance of her father and the Awahuri Forest Kitchener Park Education Project Manager she put them up around Awahuri Forest Kitchener Park. Each hotel was numbered and the location of each was recorded along with the tree species for most of them and the approx. height from the ground of each wētā hotel. The heights above the ground may well have changed after the recent flooding events. Once a month Rose checks the hotels and notes down their condition along with progress the hotels have made in terms of what has sheltered in them. So far, a couple of wētā have made themselves comfortable in the hotels, but she is sure there will be many more to come. There have been a number of other insects and spiders that have been noted in the hotels and this varies each month.

Sadly some of the hotels have been damaged over the months. She is hoping this is not intentional but more that people who have discovered them are checking them out. Please be very careful if you are looking in them.